A faint within a faint within a faint until it disappears?

This morning I read about the Obama administration’s DOJ submitting a brief against a law suit that challenged the Defense of Marriage Act. As I was reading the numerous items posted from the main stream media, to political blogs (http://www.americablog.com/2009/06/late-night-roundup-on-obama-and-anti.html), to LGBT blogs, I was reminded of a quote by the head of the Human Rights Campaign: After attending a meeting at the White House , HRC’s Joe Solmonese told the New York Times while the gay rights agenda might not be “unfolding exactly as we thought,” he was pleased. “They have a vision,” Mr. Solmonese said. “They have a plan.”
Given the DOJ’s brief on DOMA, which the administration notes is the law of the land and the DOJ job is to defend laws passed by Congress (AmericaBlog, a political blog with a gay presence notes differently:” In fact, George W. Bush (ACLU et al., v. Norman Y. Mineta – ‘The U.S. Department of Justice has notified Congress that it will not defend a law prohibiting the display of marijuana policy reform ads in public transit systems.’), Bill Clinton (Dickerson v. United States – ‘Because the Miranda decision is of constitutional dimension, Congress may not legislate a contrary rule unless this Court were to overrule Miranda.... Section 3501 cannot constitutionally authorize the admission of a statement that would be excluded under this Court's Miranda cases.’), George HW Bush (Metro Broadcasting v. Federal Communications Commission), and Ronald Reagan (INS v./ Chadha – ‘Chadha then filed a petition for review of the deportation order in the Court of Appeals, and the INS joined him in arguing that § 244(c)(2) is unconstitutional.’) all joined in lawsuits opposing federal laws that they didn't like, laws that they felt were unconstitutional.”), gay groups are angered that once promised a lot by the Obama candidate, they are seeing little delivered and a lot of same old same old.
Now this might be just a naïve reaction to a typical political situation, candidates and office holders rarely seem to be the same person. However, given that Obama’s main appeal was for change, the same-old-same-old indicates a failure by the president.
http://origin.dailykostv.com/w/001841/
And,getting back to Solmonese’s statement about them having a plan? I thought of the scifi novel DUNE, in which the characters were always on the look out for (and planning their responses to) “a feint within a feint within a feint.”
Some note that the DOJ went beyond just saying DOMA is law, they chose to use judicial decisions on cases about incest, that DOMA saved the government money, that DOMA doesn’t discriminate and that civil rights for gays are not akin to civil rights of blacks and other minorities.
So while Mr. Solmonese might feel there is a plan within their plan shown by this action (as well as their continuation of the discharges through DADT), beyond the anger over this issue, I notice in my reading and discussions that the LGBT community’s support for Obama is growing fainter and fainter. But there seems to be little concern among the administration.
Is this change or a continuation of a typical Democratic reaction? While, as the DOJ paper seems to say, our rights are not be equal to other minority rights, the Democrats seem to put us in the same place as other minorities (but put in much less effort to woo us except for election-time) – we are the only party that offers you any hope. The party knows (and has repeatedly used) the knowledge that LGBT citizens have no other party to give voice to promises to them. Promises of things that, if and when elected, they do not deliver.
An article in the “Village Voice” on this topic starts off, “Obama Defends DOMA, Pisses Off Gay People: Boy, this is turning out to be a shitty Pride Month” and goes on to list all the setbacks happening during (and some enacted by) the Obama administration The piece ends with “Oh well, enjoy the parade!” And that reminds me of times when gays took to the streets for reasons which the now social parades were started.
But they have “free speech” zones for those kinds of actions now. And, since the DOJ in the month it released this opinion also had an in-house employee event celebrating “Pride,” maybe they allow us to decorate ours (I almost said they would decorate it for us, but, according to this DOJ paper, discriminating against equal rights for gays saves the government money – except when DADT kicks out highly skilled members of the military that we have paid to train) with rainbow flags and other gay-related images, after all, we do have such a flair for the fabulous.

59 and still naïve

Today is my birthday and, after a subway to work reading of a review in the 'New York Review of Books,' I realize how innocent I still can be.
The book, “American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Woman Who Shaped Early America” by Edmund S. Morgan (Norton, 278 pp. $27.95) sounds like an interesting read and I hope to acquire it soon.
What struck me in the review was the author’s take on 300 years of American history that argues that a small elite group at Philadelphia created a fictional organism known as “We the people,” and that all successful government must be based on fiction.
As for representational government, Morgan’s analysis is that “Popular government in both England and America has been representative government, and representation is the principal fiction by which the larger fiction of popular sovereignty has been itself sustained.”
He adds, “All government, of course, rests on fictions, whether we call them that or self-evident truths.”
The reviewer goes on to note Morgan’s further comments: “Like all fiction, political fictions require a willing suspension of disbelief by those who live under them.”
And finally, Morgan states: “The sovereignty of the people was an instrument by which representatives raised themselves to the maximum distance above the particular set of people who chose them. In the name of the people they became all-powerful in government, shedding as much as possible the local subject character that made them representatives.”
Those of you who know my obsession with politics might wonder at calling myself naïve. I daily rant about things I feel are politically unjust or just plain stupid (to say nothing of the distractions that distract and cushion so many people from realizing just what is going on). As I read the review, in which Morgan makes his case and, while recognizing that all government requires consent of the governed and that people accept “plausible opinions to support consent” even though they are “at variance with observable fact,” Morgan considers the idea to work; straining credulity, but not breaking it.
So, my naivetes is in thinking that there is a way to make politics and government actually work.
So, while I know reading Mr. Morgan’s book will cause me to become angry and disillusioned (but I still will read it, it sounds intriguing as he reminds us that his heroes are those “who went their own way against the grain, regardless of custom, convenience, or habits of deference to authority. . . the Americans who sassed their betters and got into trouble, the people for whom the Bill of Right was written.”) I fall back on historian Howard Zinn: “No form of government, once in power, can be trusted to limit its own ambition, to extend freedom and to wither away. This means that it is up to the citizenry, those outside of power, to engage in permanent combat with the state, short of violent, escalatory revolution, but beyond the gentility of the ballot-box, to insure justice, freedom and well being,” as I continue my Quixotic mission.

Holy Wars

The Associated Press reports that Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed at his church.
At an afternoon news conference, Wichita Police confirmed that a suspect, a 51-year-old man, had been arrested for the murder of Dr. George Tiller, reports KSN-3 News: The suspect is currently facing one count of murder and two counts of aggravated assault for threatening onlookers who tried to intervene.
The AP adds that according to a Wichita city official says a suspect is in custody in the shooting death of late-term abortion provider George Tiller.
The city official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. The official did not provide additional details.
An attorney for Tiller, Dan Monnat, says the doctor was shot Sunday as he served as an usher during morning services at Reformation Lutheran Church. Monnat said Tiller's wife, Jeanne, was in the choir at the time of the shooting.
Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas doctor whose clinic received national attention for performing late-term abortions, was shot to death as he entered his Wichita church on Sunday.
"Members of the congregation who were inside the sanctuary at the time of the shooting were being kept inside the church by police," the Wichita Eagle reported, "and those arriving were being ushered into the parking lot." Media reports said the suspected killer fled the scene in a blue Taurus. Police described him as a white male in his 50s or 60s.
Tiller has been among the few U.S. physicians performing late-term abortion, making him a favored target of anti-abortion protesters. He testified that he and his family have suffered years of harassment and threats. His clinic was the site of the 1991 "Summer of Mercy" protests marked by mass demonstrations and arrests. His clinic was bombed in 1985, and an abortion opponent shot him in both arms in 1993.
Huffington Post also reported the killing and added documentation on cases since 1993 of abortion-related violence:
_ May 31, 2009: Prominent late-term abortion provider George Tiller is shot and killed in a Wichita church where he was serving as an usher. The gunman fled but a city official said a suspect is in custody.
_ April 2007: Authorities say Paul Ross Evans placed a homemade bomb in the parking lot of the Austin Women's Health Center in Texas. A bomb squad disposes of the device, which contained two pounds of nails. There are no injuries.
_ Oct. 23, 1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian is fatally shot in his home in a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y. Militant abortion opponent James Kopp is convicted of the murder in 2003 and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
_ Jan. 29, 1998: A bomb explodes just outside a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic, killing a police officer and wounding several others. Eric Rudolph later pleads guilty to that incident and the deadly bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He justifies the Alabama bombing in an essay from prison, writing that Jesus would condone "militant action in defense of the innocent."
_ Jan. 16, 1997: Two bomb blasts an hour apart rock an Atlanta building containing an abortion clinic. Seven people are injured. Rudolph is charged by federal authorities in October 1998.
_ Dec. 30, 1994: John Salvi opens fire with a rifle inside two Boston-area abortion clinics, killing two receptionists and wounding five others. Sentenced to life without parole, he kills himself in prison in 1996.
_ Nov. 8, 1994: Dr. Garson Romalis, who performs abortions in Vancouver, Canada, is shot in the leg while eating breakfast at home.
_ July 29, 1994: Dr. John Bayard Britton and his volunteer escort, James H. Barrett, are slain outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic. Barrett's wife, June, is wounded in the attack. Paul J. Hill, 40, a former minister and anti-abortion activist, is later convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
_ Aug. 19, 1993: Dr. George Tiller is shot in the arms as he drives out of parking lot at his Wichita, Kan., clinic. Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon is later convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
_ March 10, 1993: Dr. David Gunn is shot to death outside Pensacola, Fla., clinic, becoming the first U.S. doctor killed during an anti-abortion demonstration. Michael Griffin is convicted and serving a life sentence.
Using their religious beliefs to declare a holy war on doctors who perform abortions. Can they say jihad? What is the difference, except the root religion?

Memorial Day

Last night I got a phone call about the televised national Memorial Day celebration. The caller was upset that the focus was on the Civil War, which led her to believe there was a definite attempt to draw a parallel between Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama. This led to my thinking about the similarities between the two men, one of which is Lincoln suspended habaes corpus and Obama recently urged Congress to amend the law to allow the indefinite detention of people who are believed to be terrorists. A lot of skilled writers have commented on the Obama comments, and legal minds are working on the issue from a number of persepectives (reminding me that lawyers are not necessarily concerned with justice -- remember, it was lawyers who wrote memos that led to charges of torture)
Sometimes, of late, I wonder if I bought into the myth of American values: rule of law, democracy, freedom, protection of minorities? Perhaps I am just being naive -- considering the history of the country.
Today, last night's conversation came back, as I received a phone call that my 84-year-old father was taken to the hospital very early this morning.
My father and I achieved a friendly relationship over politics, although we approached issues from totally opposing sides. However, one thing he taught me and showed me in our discussions, was his respect for my opinions, different as they were from his (and interestingly enough, what he referred to as more parallel with his own father's politics). Maybe I have to credit dad with instilling those values in me.
So, it's Memorial Day, and my dad, who was in the Army Air Corps in WWII is in the emergency room. I wait by the phone, and think about the personal and the political.
The personal is fact: concern for my dad. The political is a question: an expatriot is someone who chooses to leave their country What is it when you feel your country has left you?

“The healthy man does not torture others - generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers”

The title quote is from Jung.

Bill Maher recently had a segment on his show about torture, questioning if we should investigate for fear of giving the Bush/Cheney supporters a cause for coalescence:


Bill Maher May 8, 2009 Panel Two - Click here for the funniest movie of the week

For quite some time, in a morning email I create (Madame Therese Defarge’s Knitting News) I have included torture items from the news and blogs I read as well as my reaction to the topic [a recent headliner until swine flue (or H1N1, if you prefer) bumped it off page 1].

I avoided putting it into the blog because it is a rather complex issue if you get into the “making us safer” v “abandoning our principles argument. However, this morning as I was doing said daily screed, I read a comment by Seymour Hersh about boys in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq being sodomized by their guards/interrogators with the evidence on video tape that has yet to be released. Mr. Hersh has a very good record of investigative reporting that breaks news which later is confirmed by other reports.

Sodomy between consenting adults is one of the many variations of sexual activity and a choice.

Sodomy as a means of punishment/questioning is an abuse of a person’s body and a crime. To put it simply, it is a form of rape and torture.

Arguing that the investigation of torture would lead to a solidification of the rightwing and a resurgence in their popularity (for being willing to do anything to keep us safe) is a poor excuse for ignoring illegal activity, particularly in a country that claims to be a nation of law.

Under international law the Spanish courts have started an investigation into U.S. abuses in Iraq and elsewhere as we fight the “war on terror.” We have sacrificed much of the world’s view of the U.S. -- our conduct during the invasion of Iraq and the photos and reports of prisoner treatment, rendition, enhanced interrogation, etc. Wouldn’t it be better if we confronted our own actions, instead of ignoring the issue and having the world call us to task.

While polls show that a slim majority of Americans do not want such an investigation, if a law has been broken, is it not a matter of concern if we ignore that lawlessness? In the Maher video, it is pointed out that we often do just that, with references to another issue with legal/illegal questions: the financial crisis and in rebuttal, I particularly love the turning of the concept of being for ‘Law and Order,’ often a cry of rightwing idealists, into a reason for investigating.

When the issue is one that we have accused others of being culpable (the Nuremberg trials, the trials and convictions of Japanese soldiers charged with torture in WWII), and investigaged our own troops in past conflicts ( the investigation – called a white-wash by some – into abuses inflicted by U.S. soldiers during the American-Philippine War 1899-1913, the investigation into My Lai during the Vietnam War), can we now choose to ignore the evidence that we have all seen, and hope that the problem will go away?

Richard Cohen, a well-known Washington Post editorialist defends former Vice President Dick Cheney, in speaking out for enhanced interrogation techniques as why we have remained safe, saying his willingness to speak remind Cohen of memories of late-night college discussion about the "‘free man’ -- not politically free, mind you, but free of bourgeois cultural restraints. (The once-important writer Jean Genet, a former petty criminal and prostitute, was often cited).” College free-wheeling discussions have their place as do analyses of “Crime and Punishment” or “American Psycho,” but the topic discussed in a dorm room, a class room or a book discussion group is very different from a civilized country’s actual interrogation techniques.

The argument that terrorists do it, so we are justified is answered by a childhood memory of a mother’s “if your friends jumped in front of a speeding bus, . . .” as well as the more logical approach of they are called terrorists, we are not.

And ;the issue goes on and on, as the arguments become more and more nuanced and less directly related to the actions taken in the name of our country. After some time, the idea of looking forward as opposed to taking responsibility for past actions will seem even more appealing. As Lillian Hellman said, “We are a people who do not want to keep much of the past in our heads. It’s considered unhealthy in America to remember mistakes, neurotic to think about them, psychotic to dwell upon them.”

So, to avoid charges of political retribution being met with retaliation, are we to ignore atrocious, criminal acts; to look forward not back?

We also have to remember what George Santayana said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

And if we repeat and condone enhanced interrogation and torture enough times, of course all in the name of national security, how long before it becomes a part of our national character.

Sharing a recipe

Life has been hectic, what with yard work here, yard work there
and working 9 hour days

Today, I turn to sharing a recipe I love

The Eastern European Way:
Schav
This flavorful cold Russian soup was a favorite of the Jews of Eastern Europe.
Ingredients:
2 quarts water
1 lb. fresh sorrel, washed thoroughly, stemmed, ribs removed, coarsely chopped. Ribs and stems tied securely in a bundle.
Kitchen string
3 eggs
1 egg yolk, cooked
1 tsp. lemon juice to taste
½ cup sour cream
Bring water with sorrel leaves and bundle of ribs and stems to a boil in a nonreactive saucepan. Reduce heat to low and simmer 20-30 minutes, until leaves are soft and starting to lose texture. Discard bundle of ribs and stems. Lightly beat eggs and egg yolk with a fork in a large bowl. Slowly beat in the hot soup. When four cups soup have been added, trickle egg mixture back into the saucepan, beating constantly. Pour soup back and forth between the pot and bowl to cool it more quickly. Let cool and refrigerate until cold. Stir in lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste just before serving. Serve with sour cream.

My way:
Go to grocery, ethnic/kosher aisle
buy manischewitz schav
dice scallions, slice a peeled cucumber
place scallions and cukes into a bowl, pour in schav
add dollops of sour cream
some people add a hard boiled egg halved or quartered
eat this delicious cold soup

I am so excited, I got this to make some lunches at work this week, easy and I have loved it ever since I was introduced back in NYC by my co-worker Janice

1 pitch, 3 Topics, 5 Photos

Before I start to write, I just wanted to put in a plug for University of Wisconsin Press's My Diva, 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them


My partner, Bill Fogle is one of the essayists, the book launch is this weekend and it is available on Barnes and Noble and Amazon.








Bluebells:
Yesterday, during a lull in the rain, I did some chores outside and discovered that the bluebells I planted a few years ago have finally decided to bloom. I had to show them to Bill and we talked about the scene in Howard's End when Leonard Blast (played by Samuel West) walks all night and is shown in a field of the flowers. A pretty flower and a really good movie.





















Torture:
I decided not to go into the torture issue, before the flu (call it swine or call it H1N1)it has been covered extensively in the press, on blogs, on the radio and tv (from the many sides of the argument). However, I did want to talk about my sister and Ann Coulter's comment about enhanced interrogation: Coulter said the techniques used by the CIA and are similar to older siblings harassing their younger brothers and sisters. Sis, thanks for not doing the water board thing. Was it because you knew you'd get in trouble for swamping the bathroom floor?














The Virgin:
There is a Calexico restaurant where a woman at the griddle noticed a likeness of the Virgin Mary. The griddle at Las Palmas Mexican restaurant has been taken off the stove and is now displayed in a room that is quickly filling up with rosaries, flowers, votive candles and other offerings.
When I read about this I thought of Romper Room and Miss (fill in whatever name of the hostess was in your area) ending the show with, "Romper, bomper, stomper boo. Tell me, tell me, tell me, do. Magic mirror, tell me today. Have all my friends had fun at play?" She would then lead into, "I can see Scotty and Kimberly and Julie and Jimmy and Kelly . . ." just add "and the Virgin Mary, mother of our Lord."
I quickly moved to communion additions: After serving the host, the priest or minister could ask, "you want home fries with that?"
Then I saw the photo and, well, um...



...it sort of looks like a butt-plug to me.