Vote for me

A straight ahead message for equality this election day.

On On this day in 1986, a "New York Times" editorial argues that society should not panic about AIDS because at this point "it's still overwhelmingly restricted to drug addicts, homosexuals, and Africans."

diebold voting machine

Are you voting on a diebold voting machine today? Princton University shows a test that might make you ask if your vote will count today.


Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine

Hacking Democracy

We have for years been hearing of vote box fraud in the United States. We all recall the votes not counted in Florida, about votes not counted for Al Gore, about people who have demostrated that Diebold voting boxes could be broke into in less than 10 seconds.

Below you will see the history of one woman's efforts to expose this fraud, and amazingly enough, nothing has changed. Americans who vote today will likely have their vote counted by software installed in voting machines that the local elections people are not allowed to review, that State elections people are not allowed to review.

In the end it means that Americans have cast their future to the hands of a large corporation, who refuse to disclose how it counts your vote. The company CEO even promised to deliver OHIO to President Bush in 2004, did they? Many people have taken to having their vote cast as absentee. At least then the vote is on paper. Thats a hard one for software to change.

The video's below are broken into about 9 minute pieces, 6 in all.

HACKING DEMOCRACY-(HBO) Part 1


HACKING DEMOCRACY-(HBO) Part 2


HACKING DEMOCRACY-(HBO) Part 3


HACKING DEMOCRACY-(HBO) Part 4


HACKING DEMOCRACY-(HBO) Part 5


HACKING DEMOCRACY-(HBO) Part 6

Official trailer for Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing

Official trailer for Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing

The documentary on the Dixie Chicks, the most successful female band ever until one of them speaks 12 words. NBC has refused to play an ad promoting the documentary opening in New York and Los Angelas.

Willie Nelson said in Time Magazine, August 7, 2006 Canadian edition, that he was surprised while overseas last year he didn't get into trouble when he was asked about our wild Texas Cowboy President ...

"He's not from Texas, and he ain't a cowboy, so lets stop trashin' Texans and cowboys."

It got a little chuckle but I didn't get run out of the country...

The Dixie Chicks had the number one song in the country when one of them spoke out. In a wave of unfettered war fever, the Dixie Chicks were pulled from the airwaves as big radio networks jumped on the Republican war wagon. The Dixie Chicks became another victim of the ongoing war to control the minds of Americans.

This year the Dixie Chicks had to cancel a tour through the USA south and mid west due to lagging sales. They took those dates to Canada. It may not surprise people to know they are playing to sold out venues in this country.

In the land of the free, where free speech is available if you agree with President Bush, all the Dixie Chicks need do to be among the top again is Shut Up and Sing, right?

Not quite Marriage, just the same ...

“a history or tradition of discrimination — no matter how entrenched — does not make the discrimination constitutional.” - New York Court of Appeals Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye

The New Jersey Supreme Court today ruled against same-sex marriage and in favour of civil unions affording all or most of the benefits of marriage without the name.

“Despite the rich diversity of this state, the tolerance and goodness of its people, and the many recent advances made by gays and lesbians toward achieving social acceptance and equality under the law, the Court cannot find that the right to same-sex marriage is a fundamental right under our constitution,” the court decision said.

The decsion went on to add ...

"But the court also said that denying same sex couples “the financial and social benefits and privileges given to their married heterosexual counterparts bears no substantial relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose.”

A victory for sure but far short of the needs of same-sex couples. The court gave the New Jersey State Legislature six months to write a new law permitting same-sex unions and affording them the rights referred to above.

Read the decision here via the New York Times.

God's biker says bring it on...

People appointed to deliver services for government must deliver those services to any Canadian legally entitled to those services. Seems to me to be reasonable expectation yet some people are trying to use religion to refuse that service to people their faith disapproves of.

Challenging some Canadiands rights to access of government services is Manitoba resident Kevin Kisilowsky, a 36-year-old former marriage commissioner. Kisilowky refused to perform same-sex marriages as required by the Province of Manitoba (Setember 16, 2004 commissioners were informed that they were expected to perform same-sex marriages.) in his role as a marriage commissioner. Such commissioners are appointed by the province to perform civil marriage ceremonies. Kisilowsky refused to resign.

Kevin Kisilowsky says his freedom of religion rights have been trampled on as a result. He took his case to the Manitoba Human Rights Tribunal and lost, now he has taken his case to court.

Kisilowsky told the Legislative Committee on Bill C-38 on June 9, 2005,

"On September 15, 2004, I was a qualified marriage commissioner. On September 16 they were telling me to resign when, because of my religious rights and freedoms, I said I cannot accommodate homosexual couples. So my rights are already being stripped away, and this bill hasn't even been passed."

His case is that the government protects the rights of churches and clergyman but not an individuals religious freedom.

"If I were to marry homosexuals I would be making a public statement that I am willing to sacrifice communion with God in order to bow down to ungodly and worldly demands...The Manitoba Provincial Government picked this fight. The biker in me will shove back hard, but I did look to God's word when searching out what he would have me do. I found it in the book of 1 Samuel where we see the story of David and Goliath. It was there that God spoke and said "Kevin, when a giant picks a fight with you….throw a rock at his head". Bring it on!" - Kevin Kisilowsky in opening statement in ManitobaCourt of Queens Bench

The Kisilowsky case if successful would have huge ramifications on delivery of government services. Government employees could refuse to receive and or handle custody disputes or same sex adoptions, perhaps refuse to perform transactions paying for health services like HIV medications or counselling, social workers could refuse to provide benefits to same-sex couples and or unmarried spouses or their families.

No the Kisilowsky case should not succeed in court. Religious groups are free to refuse to marry same-sex couples, free to bar them from membership. Governments are not free from doing so and must uphold the rights of all Canadians including same-sex couples rights to marry.

South of the border blogger Marry in Massachusetts suggested ... Kisilowsky might exercise his Christianity by thumbling through the New Testament. He might even get to Matthew 22:21 or Mark 12:17 or Luke 20:25, all of which include, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's."

Canada, Manitoba, same sex marriage, Kisilowsky, marriage commissioner

That damn marijuana

How did I miss this...

Canadian troops in Afghanistan have come up against almost impenetrable forests of 10-feet-high marijuana plants when chasing down the Taliban. Canada's Armed Forces are being stalled in their efforts to rid the countryside of those Taliban forces who have planted forests of marijuana.

I can see the horror on the faces of the front line troops when they come upon these dangerous plantations of weed. Just say no doesn't work here. Now kidding aside, I can see the potential danger to our guys over there. The plants won't burn, they are the ultimate weed. The Taliban are hiding in there and taking pot shots at Canadian soldiers.

I don't envy the difficulties. Just imagine how terrifying it would be if the Taliban had done some home work and opened up Beer Store franchises.

There is no truth to the rumour the Department of National Defense (DND) is bar coding each plant to ensure our boys and girls aren't trying to clear the field the old fashion way. The DND is however looking at the potential business opportunities given the costs of the Harper Government's military expansion.

I suggest that our ground folks over there harvest what they can and help supplement their salaries which are abysmal by any standards.

Thanks to Morons.org for pointing me to this story. You can find their headlines in the side bar.

Just so you don't get me wrong I support our forces. I don't want anything bad to happen to them, I wish all of them to be safe from the dangers of war and to return home alive and in one piece. I don't support the type of mission we are on. I wear red on Friday.

Give me Liberty, but not Sunday

It is Liberty Sunday in Boston and across the United States of America live sat feeds and some were likely pay per view are being beamed out. Liberty to be free to practice your religion, liberty to live in an America that harkens pleadingly back to the good ole days when queers were in the closet and women used coat hangers and kids were to be seen and not heard.

This is a day when the Religious Right takes time out from feeding the poor, counseling the families of loved ones killed in Iraq, haranguing Islamic folks (cause nothing like hating queers brings fundamentalists of any strip together) for their religion, to focus on us queers entirely. I wish I could say I was touched by their concern for me and others like me.

They do a good job, they even put some fabulous sugar icing on the day, talking about protecting the family, now who wouldn't want to protect families. To prove their genuine concern for families they held a big summit earlier this fall.

The Family Research Council headed by Tony Perkins, hosted the 2006 Values Voter Summit. The summit provided background on the issues facing families and churches in the 2006 election. I may not need to spell it out but for some of you, at the top of the agenda was gay marriage and gay rights and just why these items are ripping families and America apart.

Given all this, any moral American ought to see the writing on the wall if not in the heavens above. The reverend Dwight McKissic who keeps of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, on the straight and narrow spelled it out even more clearly at the summit, just in case some Americans missed it. Speaking on gay rights he said,

"I believe it's from the pit of hell itself, that this movement is inspired, that it has a satanic anointing. The civil rights movement was inspired and given by the Holy Spirit, birthed in the church and bathed in prayer. But the gay rights movement, I believe, was birthed and inspired by the Antichrist."

McKissic didn't mince his words, gays are inspired by the Antichrist. Its no wonder these folks are so hell (sorry) bent on stopping those hoMOEsexxxuawll's and that party of the donkey. They prefer to get lovin from the Gays Out Party.

Today's event even had a bit of irony attached to it. The gay fearin' fest was held at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church yet all the posters promoting the event had a picture of the Old North Church also in Boston. The Old North Church is a national historic site, a picture of what America should be, how Americans should see themselves, a symbol for freedom.

However unlike the leaders of today's event, the Old North Church actually welcomes and affirms gay rights. The Old North Church is leading in a way the Religious Right cannot hope too.

Just as one Robert Newman, climbed the steeple, and hung the two lanterns which set into motion, the War for Independence, the church's affirming position of gays is a beacon of resistance, of the fight to come, one of thousands of similar lights across America the Religious Right is trying to put out, just as the English tried to do 230 some years ago...