Marriage News Watch; Matt Baume: May 16th

Merrick County reconsiders support of TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline

The Merrick County Board, which voted last month to write a letter supporting TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline (now under State Department review) will vote again on the issue May 24, Chairman Roger Wiegert has told The Grand Island Independent.

'Why are those two dudes kissing?' 'You'll learn about that in two years.' — Z92's Todd 'N Tyler discuss Stacey Campfield's 'Don't Say Gay' bill

"I learned from my uncle."

"Uncle No Pockets?"

"I was six.'"

 "Can we say 'buttsex?' "

"Can we still say 'Big Gay Al?' "

Even in red states, Tennessee's ridiculous bill, introduced simultaneously in that state's senate and house, respectively, by Stacey Campfield and Bill Dunn (both of Knoxville), is being relentlessly mocked.

Nebraska State Senator Chris Langemeier:the fox in the chicken coop

"We've been working on this for quite some time, so really the rally has no relevance."

Given Republican Sen. Langemeier's icy blond contempt (play audio above) for Nebraskans whose land will shortly be mangled and whose water will almost certainly be polluted by oil and who traveled hundreds of miles to lobby for protective legislation to preserve their way of life as well as Nebraska's greatest underground resource, you might question why he, of all people, was assigned the chairmanship of the Natural Resources Committee.

Maybe the Nebraska GOP, which controls the Unicameral, would be willing to explain this to you. Or maybe not.

Project Vote Smart indicates that Langemeier has never introduced (see table below) any piece of legislation even remotely relevant to the conservation of natural resources in Nebraska. UPDATE: the Unicameral record reveals that Langemeier has introduced several bills relating to natural resources addressing chemigation.

What Langemeier meant when he told NET Radio that "we've" been working on a bill (clarifying pipeline company obligations) is a mystery — unless you define "working on" as presiding over or even abetting the goal of making as toothless as possible the legislative effort of a different senator to protect farmers and ranchers from Big Oil.

Aksarbent thinks Jane Kleeb was right to call him a weak, out-of-touch leader who isn't serious about protecting Nebraska's land and water and agrees that "...Langemeier needs a lesson in civics and respect, or he needs to find a new job."

Langemeier, owner of Land Mark Management & Realty, Inc. in Schuyler, will be term-limited out of the Unicameral next year. We hope the door doesn't hit him on his way out.

Date	Bill Title	Type
01/21/2009	Requiring Ultrasounds before Abortion LB 675	Sponsor
01/10/2007	Repealing Motorcycle Helmet Law LB 253	Sponsor
01/21/2010	Prohibiting Abortions After 20 Weeks of Pregnancy LB 1103	Co-sponsor
01/12/2007	Tax Credits and Reductions LB 367	Co-sponsor
01/13/2006	Concealed Handgun Permit Act LB 454	Co-sponsor

Lincoln, Nebraska rally to stop the TransCanada Keystone XL tar sands pipeline; Hillary Clinton set to succeed where Al-Qaeda failed

On Thursday, Aksarbent pointed the pickup at the state capitol, then shot and edited some original video for this blog for a change.
     And why did we waste gas returning to stinkin' Lincoln?
     Well, it seems that Hillary Clinton at the State Department has now produced not one, but two whitewashed environmental reports rationalizing the construction of a 1,000-mile extension (Keystone XL) to TransCanada's leaky new tar sands pipeline (Keystone 1).
    This poisonous snake, which could be routed elsewhere, will go through the biggest, purest underground reservoir of fresh water in North America, directly to Texas, where its contents will be refined and shipped to destinations like China and Japan.

     The aforementioned reservoir would be the Ogallala Aquifer, the biggest and richest part of which is in Nebraska, but which extends through several states to Texas. Landowners throughout the Midwest are livid.
     When (not if) this pipeline starts leaking carcinogenic toxins like benzene into the aquifer, Hillary Clinton will have succeeded where Al-Qaeda failed. Let's hope it can be stopped.
     FYI: Tar sand is liquid sandpaper and has to be heated up to 150 degrees and pressurized up to 1600 PSI just to flow through bigger-than-normal but not thicker-than-normal pipes.
     Naturally it wrecks pipes and valves quicker than other forms of petroleum, which may be why TransCanada's Keystone 1, has already leaked 12 times (according to AP) or 9 times (if you believe TransCanada) in less than a year.
     The most recent screwup was just last weekend in North Dakota, where 20,000 gallons shot up 60 feet in the air above the cottonwoods before TransCanada contained it. Fortunately, this occurred at a pumping station with a containment berm for spills. Next time, North Dakota may not be as lucky.



You can listen to a three-part stream of Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska debating Jeff Raugh, a paid TransCanada apologist, on Lincoln's right-wing radio station KLIN by clicking on the below links.

Part 1        Part 2        Part 3

On the day of the above rally, the Lincoln Journal-Star aired its doubts about the pipeline in a top-of-the-page editorial.

Marriage News Watch: May 14th

Matt Baume posts a special report from New York on efforts to pass a marriage equality bill, interviewing Cathy Marino-Thomas, Board President of Marriage Equality USA, on the recently-introduced Assembly bill and the down-to-the-wire progress on winning over Senators' votes.

Mike Huckabee pulls out of GOP presidential race, boosting chances of Rick Santorum, who helped cover up sordid affair of fellow GOP senator

Australian Christers trash gay protest against homophobia in Adelaide

Why do the Christians rage? To get on TV, apparently. Via JoeMyGod (see bloglist.)

Canadian Kochtopus:The Brothers Koch Astroturf Brokeback Mountain

(Note: All geeks and policy wonks may skip directly to the link in the last paragraph in this post.)

All the go-getters (John Wayne, Steven Segal, Charles Manson, Navy Seal Team 6, etc.) agree: To make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs. So, if:

A)  your omelet is a tar sands witch's brew of high-pressure, corrosive, abrasive bituminous gunk cooking at 150+ degrees at 1400-1600 PSI in a brand new pipeline that has already leaked 10 times in the last year (and we're not counting the 800,000-gallon tar sands crude makeover of the Kalamazoo River last July which nobody saw because they were too busy watching pelicans die in the Gulf) and you

B)  want to make another omelet/pipeline, only this time by ripping apart the vegetation holding down porous Nebraska Sand Hills above the biggest underground aquifer (the Ogallala) in the USA, well, then,

C)  you'll need a lot of eggs.

Which means you'll have to strip mine a LOT of Alberta, Canada's boreal forest.

And, unnaturally, you'll have to create a few toxic holding ponds — say 65 square miles' worth, which, unfortunately, tend to kill migrating birds, pollute watersheds, and make cancer rates spike scarily among the natives.

(These little side effects are probably why, among other reasons, the New York Times last month urged Hillary Clinton's State Department not to approve that new pipeline, AKA the TransCanada Keystone XL.)

Alberta, of course, is where Brokeback Mountain and dozens of other movies with spectacular scenery of the Canadian Rockies were filmed. Obviously, tar sand moonscapes, — sorry, we mean "fields" — aren't nearly as photogenic as the scenery in back of Jack and Ennis was.

Trucks carry loads of oil-laden sand in Alberta, Canada.
Photograph: Jeff Mcintosh/AP

Regrettably, that dramatic visual difference can create a perception problem and a speed bump for pollution perps like the Koch Brothers, who already handle 25% of unusually filthy tar sands imports into the US through their Minnesota subsidiary, Flint Hills Resources and who could make a lot more money if they could just get their free-market, pollution cost-shifting mitts on more.

Not to worry. The Koch Brothers are already the King, Queen and Royal Family of USA astroturfing, so why not parlay that Three-card Monte experience into a Canadian franchise?

Oh, look, they already did and here are the deets, kids...

Gay USA: May 03, 2011

Our guest this week is Larry Kramer, one of the pre-eminent gay and AIDS activists in the world, co-founder of both GMHC and ACT UP. An Oscar-nominated writer for "Women in Love" and the author of numerous books, his searing 1985 play "The Normal Heart" about the early days of the AIDS crisis, is having its Broadway debut and just garnered five Tony nominations for Best Revival of a Play, Best Direction of a Play (Joel Grey and George C. Wolfe), Best Actor in a Play (Joe Mantello as Ned Weeks), Best Supporting Actor in a Play (John Benjamin Hickey as Felix Turner), and Best Supporting Actress in a Play (Ellen Barkin as Dr. Emma Brookner). The production also features Patrick Breen, Mark Harelik, Luke Macfarlane, Lee Pace, Jim Parsons, Richard Topol, and Wayne Alan Wilcox. It is a must-see play in a limited 12-week run that ends July 12. Larry tells us about how this Broadway production came together more than 25 years after it was a hit at the Public Theatre. We'll talk about the continuing worldwide plague of AIDS, the state of the LGBT movement, and the progress on Larry's epic novel. We are honored to have Larry Kramer on "Gay USA." He joins us for the last quarter of our show.

TransCanada Keystone Pipeline popped 10th leak in less than a year last weekend in Dakotas; a 60-foot spout; 20,000 gallons spilled

TransCanada's Keystone tar sands oil pipeline leaked for the 10th time last weekend, spilling more than 500 barrels. This line has been in operation less than one year and was advertised as a safe, modern pipeline that would only have 1.4 spills per decade. Luckily, the leak was at a pumping station.

The Aberdeen News reported:

The oil shot about 60 feet into the air when the valve failed, according to landowner Bob Banderet, who lives about half a mile from the station.
     "It was higher than the cottonwood trees," he said.
     The company's risk analysis on file with the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission states that a leak of 50 barrels or more on the Keystone system would be expected once every seven years. The pipeline began moving oil last June. Cunha said the estimate does not apply to pump stations, which were not included in the risk analysis. Saturday's spill was the 10th release of oil on the Keystone line, all of them at pump stations, he said.
     Sargent County Commissioner Bill Anderson praised the company's response to the spill. However, he said, "I have to confess: I did not anticipate that we would have a problem this soon."

TransCanada, which is now steamrolling farmers in order to build a similar tar sands pipeline across Nebraska's vulnerable Sandhills on porous soil above North America's largest underground aquifer, has recently has sent uncooperative Nebraska landowners eminent domain / land condemnation letters even before having federal permits in hand, prompting concern from Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns, who is hardly a tree hugger.

The American Petroleum Institute is currently running radio ads in Nebraska markets claiming that 342,000 American jobs could be created in the wake of a Keystone XL pipeline. The US State Department has put the number at just a few hundred, and many of those would be temporary.

Last month the New York Times opined that "Moving ahead would be a huge error. From all of the evidence, Keystone XL is not only environmentally risky, it is unnecessary. "

Below: Paul Blackburn of Plains Justice and Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska explain the consequences of the proposed TransCanada oil pipelines.

 

Alarming new report on TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline: legal threats to farmers, planned manipulation of midwest gas prices, safety skimping and absurdly inflated estimates of pipeline jobs

Friends of the Earth has issued a scary new report about TransCanada and its Keystone XL pipeline. You can find it here. Included is TransCanada's modus operandi of landowner intimidation.

Meet David Daniel, a carpenter from the small East Texas town of Winsboro. Daniel first learned that his home was in the path of the pipeline when he discovered stakes that had been hammered into his land by a TransCanada survey team. No one from the company had asked his permission—or even notified him after the fact. When he denied the company further access to his land, their Houston law firm threatened to take his property through eminent domain.
     Daniel later learned that TransCanada did not even have all the permits it needed to build the pipeline. When he eventually agreed to let them on his property if they gave him advance notice, company officials repeatedly violated that agreement.
     And when TransCanada decided to negotiate for an easement that would allow it to build through Daniel’s land, the company tried to lowball him and avoid paying for the trees that they would cut down on his land. They have also refused to provide him with any information about the risks of the tar sands oil that would be carried across his land, or to explain how they would respond in the event of a spill.

A detailed explanation of why what TransCanada is building on top of America's greatest underground aquifer is much more dangerous than any normal pipeline:

1,000,000-gallon tar sands oil spill:
Kalamazoo River, Marshall, Michigan

TransCanada has consistently claimed that Keystone XL is the “safest pipeline ever built,” yet the company has dodged the questions of landowners along the pipeline’s proposed route and sought a safety waiver for the pipeline. It has done all of this despite recent research that has shown tar sands oil pipelines are far more likely to break than conventional crude pipelines.

On July 6, 2010, a tar sands oil pipeline in Marshall, Michigan spilled about a million gallons of tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River. Nearly a year later, the river is still closed to the public. Photo credit: AP Photo/Paul Sancya.

That Michigan Law School Commencement pro-gay walkout...

...didn't go unnoticed by Elie Mystal of the blog Above The Law

You might have recognized the name Andrew Selbst. He was one of the people featured in the video, and he’s been blogging about the situation at Michigan. Selbst is the brother of Vanessa Selbst, the openly gay champion poker player whom we’ve written about before. (By way of full disclosure, I’ve been out drinking with Andrew and I think he’s a good guy.)
     Andrew Selbst is straight, and some Michigan students have emailed us to complain that a straight person took a leading role in this protest (and to question Selbst’s claim of over 100 walkout participants). I don’t see the problem with a straight guy in a leadership role. I’m reminded of when some in the black community became annoyed with Jews playing a prominent role in the civil rights movement, and how that ended up being a really dumb thing to have a problem with...
     As I’ve said from the very begining, Michigan should start by finding somebody who does not represent Ohio. I mean, let’s keep the prejudices in order, folks. A true Michigan man would rather see two Michigan dudes married ten times over than break bread with a Buckeye.

Hate crime attack outside Old Plantation gay nightclub engenders criticism of El Paso Police Department

Monique Griego, of El Paso's NBC affiliate Channel 9: "So far, police say they have no evidence to call the attack a hate crime. Martinez calls that ridiculous..."

Commenters to KTSM's story about this incident (a 6-on-1 baseball bat attack that left the victim unconscious and in critical condition) have showed the El Paso Police Department very little love, apparently because a) this sort of thing has happened before, b) because El Paso police haven't distinguished themselves with their aggressiveness in pursuing the perps, and c) because there is a cop shop literally one block away. To whit:

That was horrible, I had witnessed it, It is the same group of gang members that pick on people of the gay community, countless stabbings and beatings, but now El Paso PD wants to do something after all the incidents.There is literally a precint and a Jail right next to this place, if they would have had someone patrol the area once in a while this could have been prevented.

Google Maps shows proximity of police station
to site of repeated unsolved gay bashings in El Paso

This happened to my son a week ago at the same location, fortunately he wasn't hurt as bad as Mr. Martinez. The police took over 30 minutes to arrive. They told him the same thing, not a hate crime. My son is gay.

this happened to my younger sister.. 6 cholos jumped her n hit her with beer bottles. cops said not a hate crime. tried pressing charges and still after a yr NOTHING HAS HAPPEND. EPPD needs to get it together and defend el pasoans !!

Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch, May 2, 2011

An unknown source is funneling millions to fund antigay "Ignite" campaign of Family Research Councils in 15 states.

Bill Maher: new rules for Republicans

'In 2008, the candidates were asked, if they knew for sure that Bin Laden was in Pakistan, 'Would you send our guys in without permission to get him?' McCain said no, because Pakistan is a sovereign nation. Obama said yes, he'd just do it. And McCain called him naive. Who's being naive, [McCain']?'

"How many muslims does a black guy have to kill in one weekend before crackers climb down off his ass?"

"Bush had seven years to get Osama. He didn't. He got Wesley Snipes."

"In under a year, Bush went from 'Who gives a shit?' to 'Wanted dead or alive' and back to 'Who gives a shit?'

'Why focus on the terrorists, who reduced Wall St. to rubble, when you can help Wall St. reduce the entire country to rubble?'

Nebraska Rancher Speaks Out Against Toxic TransCanada/Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline

We are so sold. In fact, he had us at Gotschall.

Thanks, National Wildlife Federation. Thank you, thank you, thank you.



OK, enough with our perv fit. How dangerous is this thing? Very. (Watch below.) Back? Go call homophobic Republican Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman at 402-471-2244 and ask why he isn't doing anything to stop this, or at least reroute it away from the indispensable and irreplaceable Ogallala Aquifer, why he thinks Nebraskans should pay for utility lines for a private, wealthy, for-profit corporation, why he thinks said foreign corporation should be threatening Nebraskans with eminent domain letters and condemnation, why he thinks TransCanada should be allowed to shift liability to its unwilling Nebraska hosts, why the state should let TransCanada proceed without an emergency response plan and why his campaign took illegal money from TransCanada, a foreign company prohibited from contributing to U.S. elections.

You might ask equally homophobic Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning (who also took illegal money from TransCanada, but hey, maybe he was ignorant of the law) the same questions at 402-471-2682. You might remind him that suing to stop a toxic pipeline from being built over a vulnerable Sandhills underground reservoir is more important to many Nebraskans than using their taxes to sue the feds to stop Obama's healthcare initiatives or suing to prop up California's (!) Prop 8.

Finally you could ask U.S. Senator Mike Johanns the same questions at 202-224-4224 to see what, if anything he is doing to head off this threat to Nebraska's water. Unlike the guv and attorney general, Johanns hasn't yet been caught with any of TransCanada's money, so you can skip that question.

And of course you could call your state senator here.

American Petroleum Institute wildly inflating Keystone XL pipeline job estimates in Nebraska radio ads; TransCanada threatens to condemn Nebraskan's property

You've probably been hearing American Petroleum Institute propaganda on local radio lately exaggerating the benefits of the TransCanada pipeline which will threaten Nebraska's Ogallala aquifer. Wanna have some fun? Right click on the API ad link above, then let it play in a separate tab while you read TJ Scolnick debunk what you're hearing here.

Then watch this:



Nebraska landowner Randy Thompson: (time counter 2:30) "Back in August of last year we received a letter from TransCanada stating that if we didn't accept their offer for an easement that they were going to condemn our property through eminent domain."

Aksarbent notes that none of the organizations fighting this has been as media-savvy and effective as the National Wildlife Federation. Kudos to it.

Red State Update: 'I don't know how to deal with this...America's greatest threat took out Osama Bin Laden'

"Okeefe did a good thing here, because he got NPR to admit that they think Republicans are anti-intellectuals.

THOSE FUCKIN' EGGHEADS! THOSE GODDAM TWEED-DICKED, ELBOW-PATCHED, GLASSES PUSHIN'-UP FUCKIN' POINDEXTERS! Listen, NPR, if I wanted the news from fuckin' Urkle, I would turn on CNN's Urkle Spitzer Hour...

Rachel Maddow: Condolezza Rice 'jawdropping' and'astonishing, evasive'

There's one thing that I understand better than I've ever understood before, which is that the Bush administration folks, like Condolezza Rice really think there are no lessons to be learned from then — sending us to war on the basis of a threat that did not exist.  She told you: "You don't get up in the morning and say 'The intellilgence could be wrong.' "
     She's asserting that now — as if there's no reason to ever take a critical eye toward intelligence that's being provided to you when she served in an administration that stove-piped politically convenient intelligence around the mainstream intelligence apparatus in order to get exactly what they wanted in terms of answers.
     She still believes that you can blame anything on intelligence... Those folks still believe they did Iraq right.

Here is the interview to which Maddow referred.

Israel-Cannot-Be-Criticized bullies overplay their hand at CUNY; Fellow Jews defend playwright Tony Kushner against Jeffrey Wiesenfeld's jihaad

Jeffrey "Palestinians aren't human" Wiesenfeld
Board of Trustees member, CUNY

At the urging of trustee Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld, the board of the CUNY, the City University of New York, has blocked an honorary degree to Pulitzer Prize-winning gay playwright Tony Kushner, author of Angels In America. Wiesenfeld essentially told the New York Times' Jim Dwyer this week that Palestinians weren't human, and in an op-ed fantasy, Wiesenfeld called Kushner an "extremist" given to "spew libel" against Israel.
     Kushner responded to the board of trustees here. Several columnists at The Nation have weighed in on the side of Kushner. Ellen Schrecker, a Yeshiva University history professor who received an honorary degree from CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2008, said she planned to return it in solidarity with Mr. Kushner.
     The faculty union of CUNY isn't taking this lying down. Officially known as the Professional Staff Congress, representing more than 20,000 CUNY faculty and staff, it had this to say about the Wiesenfeld-initiated insult:

Statement from PSC President Dr. Barbara Bowen on CUNY Trustees’ Decision To Table Motion on Granting an Honorary Degree to Tony Kushner

Date: May 5, 2011

Francis Clark, Office: 212-354-1252 Ext. 282, Cell: 914-364-8925, fclark@pscmail.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 4, 2011

The Board of Trustees’ decision to block John Jay College from awarding Tony Kushner an honorary degree at this year’s commencement is a serious mistake and should be reversed by the Board’s Executive Committee as soon as possible.
      Kushner is known not only as one of our greatest playwrights, but particularly for the way his work grapples with the complexity, both personal and political, of the conflicts of our age. The faculty and president of John Jay College chose Kushner on the unanimous recommendation of the college’s honorary degree committee. To allow a one-sided attack that distorts Kushner’s views beyond recognition to stand in the way of the College’s decision is an insult to the academic judgment of the faculty.
      The vote on the proposed honor for Kushner is especially perverse in light of Kushner’s long history of public defense of CUNY and his courage as a speaker of truth to power. More than once, as CUNY funding has come under attack, Tony Kushner has been among the first and most eloquent public figures to spring to the defense of its students and its democratic mission. A more courageous writer would be hard to find.
      The attack on Kushner represents an attempt to close off and narrow public debate. In bowing to that attack, the Trustees’ craven decision is an offense against open intellectual discussion and freedom of thought. It dishonors our University, and the values for which we ought to stand.
      Kushner faced similar distortions of his views when Brandeis University decided to grant him an honorary degree in 2006. That university remained true to the example set by Justice Brandeis, famous as a defender of free speech, and did not back down. CUNY, as a university built on the principle of openness, must rise to the same standard.”

Writing in The Nation, Peter Rothberg accused Wiesenfeld of slandering Kushner and invited readers to join the facebook page supporting Kushner, "Good Enough for a Pulitzer, but Not for City University New York?"

Special Needs Supreme Court justice to deliver commencement speech at University of Nebraska College of Law; New Mexico gets Elena Kagan

US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, apparently a die-hard Cornhusker football fan, will deliver the 2011 commencement address at the University of Nebraska College of Law.

We at Aksarbent would never accuse Clarence Thomas of being an idiot and an unworthy successor to Thurgood Marshall just because of Thomas' blind hostility to gay rights in his opinions. Nor would we conclude that he's flat out dumb, simply because the New York Times recently reported that Thomas hasn't said a single word in the Court's public arguments in more than five years -- a record of reticence that has no match in the annals of Supreme Court history.

No, that would be leading the witness.

However, if you are a graduating UNL law student expecting a brilliant 2011 commencement speaker, you probably should fasten your seatbelt before reading this account by Dana Milbank, of the Washington Post, of a Thomas speech to the Federalist Society in 2007:

On the most important thing to get out of law school: "A degree." On his days in law school: "We'd go get beer on Thursday, a dollar a pitcher -- you could have a lot of good thoughts with that."
     But there were signs that Thomas is not a regular on the speaking circuit. "You know, it's really hard to talk up here when this guy in front of me keeps moving," Thomas announced early in his speech. He was referring to a television screen on the floor in front of him that was showing his own image -- but because nobody but Thomas could see the TV, nobody knew what he was talking about.
     "It's me! I see myself moving around!" Thomas explained, then let out a resonant laugh: "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" He continued: "This guy keeps moving around in front of me. Jeez! At any rate, stop looking at this guy in front of me! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You look at it and think, it's too much of a good thing!"

Phoenix cop slams 15-year-old girl's head against wall; Illinois tries to imprison two people for 15 years each for taping cops in public

Gawker reports that after a colleague of the officer, Patrick Larrison, saw the video, superiors were informed at the Phoenix Police Department, which has since put Larrison on paid leave pending an investigation.

Be careful with audio recordings of cops in public places. Illinois is trying to put two people away for 15 years each for taping their encounters with the police, even though cops are free to tape the public in public. Eleven states have laws similar to Illinois (California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington). The ACLU is trying to do something about this.

Broadway legend Arthur Laurents, of "Gypsy" and "West Side Story" fame, dead at 93

CBS' Sunday Morning aired an interview with Laurents to coincide with the premiere of a stage revival of West Side Story performed partly in Spanish.

Steve King endorsed by Wall St. group which lobbies to kill farm subsidies

The Des Moines Register's William Petroski reported today that The Club for Growth has endorsed U.S. Rep. Steve King's reelection bid to represent the state's newly-drawn 4th Congressional District.

"The country needs more conservative leaders like Congressman Steve King,” said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola. “Congressman King has an exemplary record of service, and has a proven committment to pro-growth policies that create jobs... Club members are looking forward to providing Congressman King the resources he needs in order to win in 2012.”

     While The Club for Growth claims that extremist firebrand King's record is "exemplary," the Des Moines Register has called him an embarrassment to the state of Iowa.
     In 2007, the Federal Elections Commission fined The Club for Growth PAC $350,000 for failing to register as a political committee. Former Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has referred to the group as "The Club for Greed."
     Typically, The Club for Growth spends millions in attack ads savaging the opponents of candidates it endorses.
      The Club for Growth has posted more than 20 articles on its web site condemning farm subsidies, which it claims "distort the agricultural economy" and are "nothing more than an income redistribution program." The group says that "the notion that we need farm subsidies to protect the country are absurd."

     It also claims that "farm subsidies impede our ability to expand international trade."

Republican primary battle looms to choose Gronstal's opponent

The Des Moines Register reports that potential candidates are already jockeying to run against Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs, targeted by gay marriage opponents for his refusal to allow anti-gay marriage initiatives to be voted on in the Iowa Senate.

Republicans will hold a candidate forum in June to feature Council Bluffs residents who would like to run against Gronstal, the Iowa Senate majority leader who has become a target for not allowing a vote on restricting abortions or on starting the process of a statewide referendum on banning same-sex marriage.
     Jeff Jorgensen, chairman of the Pottawattamie County Republicans said today he has “a very qualified candidate who has agreed to run,” without naming the person. But at Tuesday night’s party meeting, Jorgensen said, he learned other candidates are now looking to enter the race.
     “This is a good indication that Gronstal is weak in this election cycle and people know it,” Jorgensen said. “I don’t ever recall having to hold a Republican primary to get a candidate to run against Gronstal.”

LB226, the "sneeze in the direction of a cop and go to prison" bill for people who have tested HIV+, advanced in the Nebraska Legislature yesterday

LB226, (see previous post here) advanced from Select File (2nd reading) and is awaiting final reading. It has been amended twice. One revision makes it somewhat less draconian than the original bill, drafted by homophobic Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning and introduced by Grand Island Senator Mike Gloor.

It now applies to, as well as public safety officers, "an employee of the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center-Geneva or the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center-Kearney"

The following language in Section 2:

5 Sec. 2. (1) Any person who knowingly and intentionally
6 strikes any public safety officer with any bodily fluid or who
7 throws, propels, expels, or emits any bodily fluid in the direction
8 of any public safety officer, is guilty of assault with a bodily
9 fluid against a public safety officer.

has been changed to:

7 Sec. 2. (1) Any person who knowingly and intentionally
8 strikes any public safety officer with any bodily fluid is guilty
9 of assault with a bodily fluid against a public safety officer.

Neither a roll call or record vote was taken on second reading, so Aksarbent can't tell you who voted for this bill and who didn't. There were 35 ayes, 5 nays, 6 present and not voting, and 3 excused and not voting.

Pesticides: Reduce your exposure 80% by buying only organic versions of certain fruits and vegetables

Some vegetables, like celery, have up to 67 pesticides. Others, like onions, have little to no pesticides. Obviously, it's better to buy organic when choosing some fruits and vegetables. Buying organic versions of 12 common vegetables can reduce your exposure to pesticides by up to 80 percent, Amy Rosenthal, of the Environmental Working Group, told CNN.
     You can find the Environmental Working Group's complete Shopper's Guide to Pesticides here.

Johnson: Jon Bruning's defense of fired Berkshire-Hathaway exec David Sokol 'completely inappropriate'

Nebraska Watchdog has an interesting post about the Nelson campaign's reaction to Attorney General Jon Bruning's kneejerk defense of his Senate campaign benefactor David Sokol against a backdrop of a continuing SEC investigation and the recent distance that Berkshire-Hathaway has put between itself and Sokol.
     Nelson's campaign chief Paul Johnson deplored Bruning's "pay to play" attitude toward public service.
     Of course, Aksarbent readers have their own reasons to harbor disdain toward an opportunistic homophobe like Bruning.


Meanwhile, Jane Kleeb at Bold Nebraska is quite suspicious of the recent letter of support of the Transcanada pipeline written by the Merrick County Supervisors. Her advice?

Email or Call the Merrick County Board of Supervisors, 308-946-2881, izatat@cablene.com and rweller@gpcom.net (see *note)

Ask the board to show the meeting minutes of all TransCanada discussions and to disclose the money/contracts the staff, board members and their relatives have taken from TransCanada, including funds for "community" projects.  Also ask the board to NOT sign the letter of support for the pipeline. *note: the only two emails of the Board of Supervisors listed on the Merrick County website are the two above.  Those are for DL (Shorty) Hahn and Rex Weller.

Write a Letter to the Editor of the local papers in Merrick County which include the Republican Nonpareil, Grand Island Independent, Nance County Journal and Columbus Telegram.

Julian Assange: Facebook is the most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented

In an interview with RT, the founder of Wikileaks talked about how creepy he thinks Facebook is.

JA: Facebook in particular is the most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented. Here we have the world’s most comprehensive database about people, their relationships, their names, their addresses, their locations and the communications with each other, their relatives, all sitting within the United States, all accessible to US intelligence. Facebook, Google, Yahoo – all these major US organizations have built-in interfaces for US intelligence. It’s not a matter of serving a subpoena. They have an interface that they have developed for US intelligence to use.
     Now, is it the case that Facebook is actually run by US intelligence? No, it’s not like that. It’s simply that US intelligence is able to bring to bear legal and political pressure on them. And it’s costly for them to hand out records one by one, so they have automated the process. Everyone should understand that when they add their friends to Facebook, they are doing free work for United States intelligence agencies in building this database for them.