Politics: May 2006 Archives

What the hell is Howard Dean doing on the 700 Club?

And what the buggery bullocks is this wankery he's uttering?

With the Senate expected to vote on the federal marriage amendment in three weeks, supporters and opponents of marriage equality have been turning up the volume. Last week, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean also spoke out, and infuriated gays in the process.

Dean appeared on The 700 Club – Pat Robertson's television show – Wednesday, May 10, in an effort to court Christian evangelicals who constitute the political base of the Republican Party. While on the show, Dean claimed that the Democratic Party platform said "marriage is between a man and a woman."

But that is not in fact what the platform says. Rather, it states, "We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families." The platform, which was adopted at the 2004 convention in Boston, also supports the tradition of states defining their own marriage laws and opposes amending the U.S. Constitution to change that.

I'm really, really... I don't think disappointed begins to describe it.

What can he possibly hope to gain from this pandering?

From USA Today (What is the opposite of a paper becoming the shadow of its former self? USA Today keeps surprising me with actual substance!)

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.