Is the NSA Also Spying on Industry ?

While individual Americans may not have the power to force restrictions on the NSA's domestic spying on American citizens, perhaps the captains of industry will.  As the Virginian Pilot reports, in a new interview, Edward Snowden states that American industry is also being subjected to invasive and illegal spying.   Personally, I believe that Snowden is a great patriot for exposing the wrongs and illegal activities being done by the NSA.  Sometimes being a patriot means refusing to close one's eyes to wrongs being done purportedly in the name of Americans.  Here are story highlights:

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden claimed in a new interview that the U.S. agency is involved in industrial espionage.

In the interview aired Sunday night on German public television broadcaster ARD, Snowden said if German engineering company Siemens had information that would benefit the U.S., but had nothing to do with national security needs, the National Security Agency would still use it.

It wasn't clear what exactly Snowden accused the NSA of doing with such information — he only said he didn't want to reveal the details before journalists did.

Snowden also told ARD television that he was no longer in possession of any NSA documents, because he had passed them all on to a few selected journalists and that he had no further influence on the release of the files.

He also said U.S. government representatives wanted to kill him, according to a simultaneous German translation by the station. Snowden referred to an article he had read on Buzzfeed in which U.S. government representatives had told a reporter that they wanted to kill him.

Snowden, wearing a white shirt and black jacket, also chatted about his childhood and said he'd always been fascinated by computers and was one of those kids whose parents would tell him late at night to finally turn it off.

Snowden faces felony charges in the U.S. after revealing the NSA's mass surveillance program. He is living under temporary asylum in Russia, which has no extradition treaty with the U.S.

The revelations about U.S. surveillance programs have damaged Washington's relations with key allies, including Germany following reports that the NSA had monitored communications of European citizens — even listening in on Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone.

We should have learned from the Vietnam disaster that a mindset of "America, love it or leave it" or "America right or wrong" is a prescription for horrific results that damage America both domestically and internationally.  But sadly, too many seemingly have learned nothing.

Grammys to Feature On-Air Weddings of 34 Couples, Including Gays

At tonight's Grammy Awards, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis will preform their their Grammy-nominated song “Same Love,”which for moral and decent minded people has become an anthem of sorts for equality.  Needless to say, the Christofascists hate the song which highlights the hate and hypocrisy that are their stock in trade.  Adding to the statement made by the song there will be thirty four couples getting married while the song is performed: gays and straights, young and old, black and white, etc.  Indeed, it will be a Christofascists' nightmare.   Here are details from the New York Times:

At the Grammy Awards on Sunday night, pop’s megastars will compete for the music industry’s most prestigious trophy, and put on flashy performances that are sure to ricochet through social media.

But the producers behind the program, which is to be broadcast live by CBS at 8 p.m., are hoping that the biggest show-stopper of the night will be a much more solemn event: an on-air wedding of 34 couples — gay, straight, old, young, of many races and many colors. The ceremony will be part of the hip-hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s performance of their Grammy-nominated song “Same Love,” which became a marriage-equality anthem last year just as that issue was drawing intense national attention.

Mr. Lewis, the group’s producer, said that the weddings “will be in our minds the ultimate statement of equality, that all the couples are entitled to the same exact thing.”

The segment follows what the Grammy organizers said was the show’s long history of addressing timely social issues through music, like Elton John’s duet in 2001 with Eminem, who was then widely criticized as homophobic.

“We’re serious about this,” said Ken Ehrlich, the longtime producer of the Grammys.  Yet as part of a televised awards show that works hard for its ratings, showbiz will also play a part in this sacrament. Queen Latifah will officiate at the nuptials, and Madonna will join the number with Macklemore, Mr. Lewis and the song’s featured vocalist, Mary Lambert. (Queen Latifah was recently deputized by Los Angeles County to perform the weddings and will sign the marriage certificates for each couple.)

At a wedding rehearsal on Saturday afternoon here at the Staples Center, the couples marched up and down the aisles several times as producers tested lighting and music cues. As the song’s warm piano chords filled the arena and the couples held hands in place, hardened entertainment executives and crew members teared up.

Kudos to the show's producers.  Meanwhile, if there are any interracial couples, that will be the icing on the cake for driving the Christofascists crazy. Yes, I am hard on religious based bigotry because, over all across the march of history, I believe that religion has caused much more harm than good.

"Coming Out" as Gay Meant That I Could Finally be Myself

In my surfing the Internet to find thinks to talk about, I came across a column from last October on The Journal, a news outlet based in Ireland, that hit a nerve with me since the author, like me had come out in mid-life.  The title to this post is a shortened version of his column and to me, it underscored what coming out meant for me.  Just finally being able to be myself and to stop playing a role on a stage dictated to me by others/society.  Like the author (pictured at right), over time playing this imposed role just became harder and harder and led to my decision to either come out and face who I was and come to terms with it or end my life.  From the e-mails I receive, I know many others are going through this struggle which is anything but easy.  Yet, despite the difficulty of the journey, I remain convinced that the journey is worth it.  To not undertake the journey ultimately is tantamount to giving up one's soul.  Yes, there are times along the way where it seemed that a decision to remain in the closet would have been easier.  But in the long run, if I had remained in the closet I would have slowly suffocated and likely have cause unhappiness to those I loved in any event.  Note: (i) how the author could not come out even to himself for many years - that certainly was my situation as well, and (ii) how getting in LGBT organizations helped in the transition.  Here are highlights from the column:

SINCE COMING OUT, I have left my anti-depressants behind, travelled the world, made lots of friends and, now – at the age of 68 – I would have to say I am relatively happy. But it has been a long road and it hasn’t been easy.

I was born in Mayo back in 1945, when Ireland was a very different place. I went to a small school in the countryside, then on to boarding school, before joining a monastery when I was 18, where I stayed for four years. I was very religious then, but decided to leave the monastery to study English in UCD, after which I became a secondary school teacher, and got married. At that stage, I was in denial about my sexuality and couldn’t come out even to myself.

The marriage started off well and I loved my wife a lot – and still do in many ways – but the fact that I was gay became something that, increasingly, I could no longer ignore. I struggled a lot with that and it caused me severe depression.

When I was 40, I went on a trip to Amsterdam, where I visited a number of gay venues and felt totally at home. Only then did I actually come out to myself and admit that I was gay. A few years later, I told my wife – but I said I was bisexual to soften the blow, as a lot of gay people do when they are coming out to their partner. We stayed together for 10 years after that, but my depression became so severe that I had to give up teaching, which meant I was at home doing nothing, and so it became even worse.

Eventually, I became suicidal and was admitted to hospital in 1999, aged 54. At that stage, I was experiencing total self-hatred but, while I was in hospital, I got very angry and, to be honest, it was actually the anger that saved me in the end. I realised that I had to be true not only to me but to the world, and I decided that I deserved to be able to live my life truthfully. I couldn’t take it anymore and my marriage was annulled.

After that point, I was in a gay relationship for a few years, but it didn’t work out. I also started to work part-time in Outhouse LGBT Community Resource Centre on Capel Street in Dublin and, during the 10 years I worked there, I met a huge amount people of all different ages and backgrounds who had come out under various circumstances and in their own unique ways. I drew enormous strength from being around these people who understood what I had been through and I learned a lot.

Looking back, there were three main factors holding me back from coming out. They were: the danger of losing my family, including my parents; the social situation of living in Ireland at a time when it was not even legal to be gay; and religion. In that order.

Happily, I can say that, since coming out, my family – including my two children from my marriage and my extended family in Mayo – have been very supportive. As for religion, these days I would say I am a 100 per cent non-religious and a 100 per cent believer, so faith is important to me, but I’m not a practicing Catholic.

it’s important to realise that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ to ‘coming out’. Everyone is different. If you were to ask me to give advice to people who may be thinking of coming out, I would say ‘Get loads of advice and proceed with caution’.  For me, however, I finally feel like me.

Some time ago I posted these lines from a Susan Boyle song, but they do describe the point that I have finally achieved after much struggle and plenty of turmoil:

And though I may not
Know the answers
I can finally say I am free
And if the questions
Led me here, then
I am who, I was born to be

We all deserve to be who we were born to be and no one has the right to take that from us.  No one.

Sunday Morning Male Beauty

Is Federal Judge Ready to Rule in Virginia Marriage Equality Case?

As noted on this blog earlier in the week, in the wake of Mark Herring's decision that the Virginia Attorney General's office would not defend Virginia's gay marriage ban, U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen (pictured at left) issued an order in Bostic v. Rainey indicating (i) that she was taking all pending Motions for Summary Judgment, including that of the four plaintiffs, under advisement, (ii) asking the various counsel to indicate whether or not oral arguments scheduled for January 30, 2014 at 9:00AM were still necessary, and (iii) directing the defendant Circuit Court clerks to file a reply to the Attorney General's filing not later than tomorrow. Some are speculating that Judge Wright Allen has decided how she will rule and will be working on her opinion.  Here's part of the take on the situation via Gay City News:

Responding to the January 23 announcement that the Commonwealth of Virginia will no longer defend that state’s constitutional and statutory ban on marriage equality, the federal district court judge presiding over one of two pending challenges there has indicated she is prepared to rule based on written briefs that have been submitted in the case.

Following Attorney General Mark Herring’s announcement that his office has concluded the state’s policy on gay marriage violates the 14th Amendment rights of same-sex couples, District Judge Arenda Allen, citing “the compelling Notice from the Office of the Attorney General,” notified parties that she now longer sees a need for oral arguments scheduled for January 30.

She directed all parties to respond as to whether they believe oral arguments are necessary or “whether the Court should instead rule promptly on the briefs without a hearing.” The clear suggestion is that argument would be appropriate only to articulate points not already made in the written briefs.

Responses to Allen’s notice are due on January 27, suggesting a ruling could come quickly.

While it is possible that Judge Wright Allen may rule quickly, it is also possible that she will take her time to draft a detailed and well reasoned opinion knowing that no matter how she rules, the ruling will likely be appealed.  A mixed option is that she states her ruling and the opinion follows later.    Should Judge Wright Allen decide to strike down the Marshall-Newman Amendment and its statutory parallel's Mark Herring's memorandum of law as well as the opinions issued by the U.S. District Courts in Utah and Oklahoma have provided her with an excellent blueprint.  In addition, the plaintiffs in Bostic v. Rainey have done a superb job documenting that anti-gay animus - something condemned by the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Windsor - is the only real motivation behind Virginia's gay marriage bans.

Oklahoma GOP Lawmakers Consider Preventing ALL Marriage In Oklahoma

The extremism of today's GOP knows few limits when it comes to animosity toward LGBT individuals and keeping us inferior under the law.  How else to explain a bill in the Oklahoma legislature that would prevent all marriages - both gay and straight - from being recognized under Oklahoma law.  Anything rather than allow the state's civil laws to recognize gay relationships.  One can only hope the extremism of this proposal will make even half way sane people open their eyes to the level of the sickness that afflicts to GOP and its hate-filled Christofascist base.  News9.com has details.  Here are excerpts:

OKLAHOMA CITY -State lawmakers are considering throwing out marriage in Oklahoma. 

The idea stems from a bill filed by Rep. Mike Turner (R-Edmond). Turner says it's an attempt to keep same-sex marriage illegal in Oklahoma while satisfying the U.S. Constitution. Critics are calling it a political stunt while supporters say it's what Oklahomans want.

"[My constituents are] willing to have that discussion about whether marriage needs to be regulated by the state at all," Turner said.  Other conservative lawmakers feel the same way, according to Turner.

Such a discussion will be made possible by a current shell bill -- something that can be changed at almost any time to react to upcoming rulings on Oklahoma's same-sex marriage ban.

"I think that, especially with issues like this, [these lawmakers are] out of touch with most Oklahomans," said Ryan Kiesel, ACLU Oklahoma executive detector.  Kiesel says prohibiting all marriage is new territory. In fact, the ACLU was unable to find an example of where a state has ever tried to ban all marriage. Kiesel believes the entire idea just boils down to politics.

Turner admits his idea makes a lot of people uncomfortable. He also says, "I accept that." Turner plans to wait until the federal appeals process plays out. The fight over Oklahoma's ban on same-sex marriage will now head to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

The cynical side of me has to wonder how soon it will be before we hear that Turner has been picked up for soliciting gay sex at a highway rest area or public restroom somewhere.

Lawsuit Alleges Sexual Abuse at Mormon Youth Camp

Molested Mormon Children Seek Justice as Adults Under New Law;Utah Boys Allegedly Victimized at Maui Land and Pineapple Camp in the 1980s

The Roman Catholic Church has deservedly received a great deal of negative media coverage concerning the worldwide sex abuse scandal.  The Church, however, doesn't have a monopoly of clergy and staff molesting children and youths.  The Southern Baptist Convention ("SBC") has a huge problem yet disclaims responsibility since it has a lest centralized, feudal hierarchy.   Bob Felton at Civil Commotion frequently provides coverage of the rot within the SBC.  Now, a lawsuit filed in Hawaii suggests that the Mormon Church has problems of its own, suggesting again that the more sexually repressive a religious tradition is, the more sexual abuse there seems to be.  Here are excerpts from Hawaii News Now:

WAILUKU, MAUI – Honolulu attorneys Charles McKay and Randall Rosenberg of Rosenberg & McKay filed a complaint in Second Circuit Court on Maui yesterday afternoon against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (ML&P), Youth Development Enterprises, Inc. (YDE) and Brian R. Pickett, who currently resides in Idaho Falls, Idaho.  The Plaintiffs are two Utah men, Kyle Spray (42) and Jake Huggard (41), who now live in the Salt Lake City, Utah area.  Also consulting on the case are Idaho and Seattle Attorneys Craig Vernon and Leander James of James, Vernon and Weeks, P.A., and Mark Leemon of Leemon + Royer.

The lawsuit alleges the LDS (Mormon) Church and ML&P recruited boys in the 1970s and 80s from Mormon communities in Utah and Southeastern Idaho to pick pineapples at camps in Maui, where the Plaintiffs were sexually molested.  The camps closed in the early 1990s.

"There were hundreds of boys over more than a decade cycled through these camps," explained attorney Randall Rosenberg, Esq., of Rosenberg & McKay.  "Hundreds were exposed to the alleged sexual predator in our case.  We do not know how many others may have been molested, but our experience is that child sexual predators with access to kids have multiple victims."

According to the suit, Defendant Brian R. Pickett, a Camp Coordinator, molested the Plaintiffs as boys while overseeing up to 200 boys at one camp from 1986 to 1988.  ML&P promoted Picket in 1988 to Vice President of Operations over both camps, exposing him to more than 400 boys employed at the camps. The alleged sexual abuse took place at the ML&P barracks while Picket was Camp Coordinator. Abuse of one boy allegedly continued at Pickett’s Maui upcountry home.  In addition to being the boys’ boss, Pickett was their spiritual leader.   Pickett was the Branch President, similar to a Mormon Bishop, who presided over the boys' religious training.  According to the suit, Pickett baptized one 15-year-old victim who had been recruited as a non-Mormon, then sexually molested the boy.

“We believe Brian R. Pickett used his position over our clients as their supervisor and religious leader to gain access to the boys and manipulate them," said attorney Craig Vernon, Esq., of James, Vernon and Weeks.  "The [Mormon] Church marketed this as a safe, wholesome and exciting adventure; fly to Hawai'i and pick pineapples.  That was extremely attractive to Mormon boys in Utah and Idaho in the 70s and 80s."

"We ask the LDS Church to take concrete steps to prevent future abuse and for the healing of victims."  The relief sought demands the Church:

• Change its corporate policies regarding reporting of suspected child sexual abuse. According to the suit, current policies instruct members and leaders to contact the Church instead of police or child protective services when they suspect child sexual abuse.
• Reject current policies that state Church leaders should avoid testifying in civil or criminal cases involving abuse (Handbook 1, State Presidents and Bishops 2010, Section 17.3.2.) 
• Institute regulations that:
  • All alleged sex abusers will be immediately removed from exposure to children.
  • Members and leaders must report suspected abuse to the police and child protective services.
  • Leaders and members shall cooperate with civil and criminal authorities in cases involving sexual abuse, including testifying.
• Publicly list abusers names on the LDS homepage of all its web sites to alert people of danger, including on the list Brian R. Pickett as a credibly accused pedophile with his last known address.
• Identify all leaders and members who have been credibly accused of sexual molestation of a child in Hawaii.
• Never support any laws that would shield child sexual abusers.
• Establish age appropriate sex abuse training and educations for children ages 3 – 18 years old. This will include a “safe haven” for children to report abuse to any of three people in each Ward (a collection of individual churches).
• Adopt a whistleblower policy so those reporting abuse will not have any retaliatory action taken against them.
• Publish through its President an annual written statement that there exists no undisclosed knowledge that any leader has sexually abused any person in Hawaii.
• Send a letter of apology to Plaintiffs.

The Insidious Lie Campaign of the Koch Brothers and GOP

Hate and bigotry are now staples of the Republican Party agenda.  But just as central to today's GOP is a campaign of deliberate insidious lies, often disseminated by secretive organizations which keep the sources of their funding secret.  No one better exemplifies this insidious cancer over taking politics more than the Koch brothers - who embody the sin of greed more than nearly anyone else - and their foul front group Americans for Prosperity.  Of course the prosperity sought is for the few and far between while most Americans would find themselves living more like Russian serfs prior to 1861.  The Kochs, of course, want the role of the ruling aristocrats for themselves.  Sadly, the cretins of the GOP base are too stupid to realize that they are being cynically played for fools (which they are).  The New York Times looks at this toxic agenda.  Here are highlights:

Only a few weeks into this midterm election year, the right-wing political zeppelin is fully inflated with secret cash and is firing malicious falsehoods at supporters of health care reform.

As Carl Hulse of The Times reported recently, Democrats have been staggered by a $20 million advertising blitz produced by Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group organized and financed by the Koch brothers, billionaire industrialists. The ads take aim at House and Senate candidates for re-election who have supported the health law, and blame them for the hyped-up problems with the law’s rollout that now seem to be the sole plank in this year’s Republican platform.

In one typical example, the group’s ad against Representative Gary Peters of Michigan, a Democrat who is running for an open Senate seat, is full of distortions and lies. It accuses Mr. Peters of lying when he said the law bars cancellations of insurance policies. Mr. Peters happened to be right, as millions of people who once faced losing all insurance after they got sick now appreciate. The 225,000 Michigan residents who the ad said received “cancellation notices” were actually told that they could change to a better policy; they were not told they could no longer have insurance, as the ad implies. And though the ad said health care costs are “skyrocketing,” national spending on health care is now growing at the slowest pace ever recorded, in part because of the reform law.

Naturally, Democrats are using the campaign to increase their own fund-raising, begging donors to give unlimited amounts to left-leaning super PACs and advocacy groups. But it is unlikely that they will be able to match the resources or the cunning of the Kochs, who are using vast pools of money earned through corporate revenues to build a network unrivaled in complexity and secrecy. This weekend, they are bringing together some of the biggest Republican bank accounts at a resort in Palm Springs, Calif., to collect money and plan this year’s strategy.

In 2012, as The Washington Post reported, the Koch network raised $407 million, which was secreted among 17 groups with cryptic names and purposes that were designed to make it impossible to figure out the names of donors the Kochs worked with.

The clandestine influence of the Kochs and their Palm Springs friends would be much reduced if they were forced to play in the sunshine. 

The Internal Revenue Service and several lawmakers are beginning to step up their interest in preventing “social welfare” organizations and other tax-sheltered groups from being used as political conduits, but they have encountered the usual resistance from Republican lawmakers. Considering how effectively the Koch brothers are doing their job, it’s easy to see why.

NOH8 Campaign Photo Shoot

Last October the boyfriend and I posed for Adam Bouska and the NOH8 team when they came to Old Dominion University for a photo shoot.  We just received our photo.  What do you readers think?

The Courts Are Saving Virginia from Itself on Ethics and Gay Rights

If  a majority of Virginia Republicans could have their way, Virginia would remain a corrupt state full of political bribes and graft where gays would forever be third or fourth class citizens.  On the latter issue, one only need look to Republican moves in the Virginia General Assembly to kill employment protections for gay state employees and to deep six a bill that would have allowed second parent adoptions in same sex headed families.  We hear lots of blather about protecting children and families, but that only applies to heterosexual headed families.  Children of gay couples simply get kicked to the gutter.  Thankfully, as a column in the Richmond Times Dispatch, lawsuits and a federal criminal prosecution may yet force Virginia into the 21st century despite GOP efforts.  Here are column excerpts:

Former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, are of modest physical stature. But in the cavernous courtroom of U.S. District Judge James Spencer, Virginia’s former first couple — he in a gray suit, white shirt and blue tie; she in a dress and dark-colored jacket — looked positively small.

The scene Friday morning — at the McDonnells’ arraignment at which they pleaded not guilty to corruption charges announced 11 days after he left an office once occupied by Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and James Monroe — speaks to the humbling effect of the law.

Such power was on display Thursday, as well, three blocks south of the gleaming courthouse, in a shabby state office building on Main Street.

There, the new attorney general, Mark Herring, announced that he would not defend in federal court Virginia’s 2006, voter-approved prohibition on same-sex marriage. He said he had concluded it is unconstitutional, wrongly denying gay couples a right that straight people take for granted. Herring had supported the ban as a Loudoun County senator. As his ambition swelled, his attitude shifted, making him acceptable to a Democratic base for which gay rights is a non-negotiable demand.

The courts — the federal courts — are taking Virginia where Virginia — through its elective government — has refused to go. This North-facing Southern state, at times paralyzed by divided government, is lurching forward at the point of a bayonet: federal judicial edict, actual and perceived. It is forcing those who govern to catch up with the governed.

It happened in the 1950s with the collapse of Virginia’s defiance to court-ordered school desegregation. It happened in the 1960s with the death of the state statute banning interracial marriage.

It happened in the early 2000s when a previous attorney general — Republican Jerry Kilgore — said, as Herring is on the gay marriage ban, that he would not argue in federal court on behalf of a comparatively mundane constitutional restriction: a limit on how churches manage their business affairs. Kilgore decided the measure was unconstitutional

For too long the law rested on a flawed assumption: That because Virginia politicians are presumed to be ladies and gentleman, they do not need to be reminded how to behave.

Tidying up Virginia may require more than straightening out ethics laws. Higher legislative salaries — they have been frozen at about $18,000 a year since 1989 — might discourage solons from walking around with their hands out. It could attract a broader range of candidates and professionalize a General Assembly that looks less like Virginia because, for example, it has more and more retirees.

Further, redistricting thwarts shifts in public opinion, freeing a Republican-dominated legislature to ignore the sentiments of Virginians, as a whole.

Nearly eight years ago, 56 percent of the electorate backed the constitutional amendment under which the state refuses to recognize same-sex marriage. A recent public-opinion poll shows that a similar percentage now favors same-sex marriage.

Virginia had a glorious group of leaders in the early days of this nation.  Leaders who were progressive for their time and had a vision of how government should be.  Sadly, for most of the last two centuries, Virginia's leadership has preferred to be backward thinking, supporting bigotry and prejudice rather than accepting the Founders statements that all men are created equal and that all of us are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  And most of the time it has been "religious conservatives" who have championed backwardness and bigotry.  It's a very, very ugly legacy.  What the GOP controlled General Assembly refuses to do voluntarily, hopefully the federal courts will make it do.