OHNOES: If I had your phone number before, I don't anymore. My phone died. Email me your number! <3
Wait, people pay for porn?
LOS ANGELES - California state lawmakers are considering an unusual idea to solve the state's huge budget shortfall: Tax pornography. Labels: economic news, government, money, porn
The idea was proposed by a state assemblyman, and would impose a 25 percent tax on the production and sales of pornographic videos -- the vast majority of which are made in southern California.
It is unknown, however, how seriously lawmakers will take the idea or how the porn business would deal with the new tax. It is likely, though, that porm-makers would simply pass the cost along to consumers by making pornographic materials more expensive.
However, many economists believe that pornography is an industry with inelastic demand -- meaning market conditions typically don't affect consumers' desire for the product. In other words, it is believed that most porn consumers would continue to buy regardless of how much it cost.
A potential economic downside to the tax proposal is that porn producers could leave California to manufacture and distribute videos in other states that don't impose the tax.
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McCain seeks summer gas-tax holiday.
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Republican Sen. John McCain on Tuesday called for a summer-long suspension of the federal gasoline tax and several tax cuts as the likely presidential nominee sought to stem the public's pain from a troubled economy. Labels: congress, economic news, government, republicans
Timed for the day millions of Americans filed their tax returns, McCain offered some immediate steps as well as long-term proposals in a broad economic speech. The nation's financial woes have replaced the Iraq war as the top concern for voters, and McCain, who has said economics is not his strongest suit, felt compelled to address the problems as he looks ahead to the November general election.
"In so many ways, we need to make a clean break from the worst excesses of both political parties," McCain told an audience at Carnegie Mellon University. "Somewhere along the way, too many Republicans in Congress became indistinguishable from the big-spending Democrats they used to oppose."
To help people weather the downturn immediately, McCain urged Congress to institute a "gas-tax holiday" by suspending the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. By some estimates, the government would lose about $10 billion in revenue. He also renewed his call for the United States to stop adding to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and thus lessen to some extent the worldwide demand for oil.
Combined, he said, the two proposals would reduce gas prices, which would have a trickle-down effect, and "help to spread relief across the American economy."
Aides said McCain's Senate staff was drafting a bill on the proposal. It's likely to face strong opposition not only from Congress but the states. The federal gasoline tax helps pay for highway projects in nearly every town through a dedicated trust fund. In the past, such proposals for gas tax holidays have not fared well as lawmakers and state and local officials prefer not to see changes in their revenue source.
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Really? Is this the right way to protest China? Really?
PARIS (AP) -- Police say the last section of the Olympic torch relay through Paris will not be run because of chaotic protests. Labels: China, controversial, France, government, international news, sports news, UK
Security officials snuffed out the torch and rushed it onto a bus at least five times because of the raucous protests against China's human rights record.
A police spokeswoman says a vehicle now will carry the torch for the entire last part of the route, to a sports stadium in the south of Paris. The French Olympic Committee says it hopes that runners still might be able to carry the torch at the very end.
A Paris police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media, says at least 28 people have been taken into custody at the protests.
Despite massive security, at least two activists got within almost an arm's length of the flame before they were grabbed by police. Officers tackled many protesters and carried off some of them. A protester threw water at the torch but failed to extinguish it and was also taken away.
At the start of the relay, a man identified as a Green Party activist was grabbed by security officers as he headed for 1997 400-meter world champion Stephane Diagana, the president of France's national athletics league, who was carrying the torch from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. The man was tackled before he got close to Diagana.
The procession continued but, soon after, a crowd of activists waving Tibetan flags interrupted it for the first time by confronting the torchbearer on a road along the Seine River. The demonstrators did not appear to get close to the torch, but its flame was put out by security officers and brought on board a bus to continue along the route.
Less than an hour later, the flame was being carried out of a Paris traffic tunnel by an athlete in a wheelchair when the procession was halted by activists who booed and chanted "Tibet." Once again, the torch was temporarily extinguished and put on a bus despite protesters' apparent failure to get close.
Some 3,000 officers were deployed on motorcycles, in jogging gear and using inline roller skates. Still, police barely stopped the second rush at the torch, and the attempt to extinguish it with water. Other demonstrators scaled the Eiffel Tower and hung a banner depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs.
The torch was extinguished for the third time when police interrupted the procession as a precaution because they spotted a crowd of demonstrators on a bridge they were approaching.
Police said they did not immediately have a count of the number of arrests. Mireille Ferri, a Green Party official, said she was held by police for two hours because she approached the Eiffel Tower area with a fire extinguisher. In various locations throughout the city, activists angry about China's human rights record and repression Tibet carried Tibetan flags and waved signs reading "the flame of shame."
Riot police squirted tear gas to break up a sit-in protest by about 300 pro-Tibet demonstrators who blocked the torch route.
France's former sports minister, Jean-Francois Lamour, said that though the torch had been put out, the Olympic flame itself still burned in the lantern where it is kept overnight and on airplane flights.
"The torch has been extinguished but the flame is still there," he told France Info radio.
Police had hoped to prevent the chaos that marred the relay in London a day earlier. There, police had repeatedly scuffled with activists angry about China's human rights record leading up to the Beijing Olympics Aug. 8-24. One protester tried to grab the torch; another tried to snuff out the flame with what appeared to be a fire extinguisher. Thirty-seven people were arrested.
In Paris, police had drawn up an elaborate plan to try to keep the torch in a safe "bubble." Torchbearers were encircled by several hundred officers, some in riot police vehicles and on motorcycles, others on skates or on foot. Boats patrolled the Seine River that slices through the French capital, and a helicopter flew overhead.
About 80 athletes had been slated to carry the torch over the 17.4-mile route that started at the Eiffel Tower, heading down the Champs-Elysees avenue toward City Hall, then crosses over the Seine before ending at the Charlety track and field stadium.
Across town, City Hall draped its building with a banner reading, "Paris defends human rights around the world."
One torch bearer, two-time French judo gold medalist David Douillet, told RTL radio that he regretted the choice of China, "because it isn't up to snuff on freedom of expression, on total liberty, and of course, on Olympic values."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has left open the possibility of boycotting the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing depending on how the situation evolves in Tibet. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday that was still the case.
Activists have been protesting along the torch route since the flame embarked on its 85,000-mile journey from Ancient Olympia in Greece to Beijing.
The torch's round-the-world trip is the longest in Olympic history, and it is meant to shine a spotlight on China's economic and political power. Activists have seized upon it as a backdrop for their causes, angering Beijing.
Beijing organizers criticized London's protesters, saying their actions were a "disgusting" form of sabotage by Tibetan separatists.
"The act of defiance from this small group of people is not popular," said Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee. "It will definitely be criticized by people who love peace and adore the Olympic spirit. Their attempt is doomed to failure."
The torch relay also is expected to face demonstrations in San Francisco, New Delhi and possibly elsewhere on its 21-stop, six-continent tour before arriving in mainland China May 4.
(Ed note: I'm all for people having an opinion on Tibet and Human Rights in China. They should protest and protest loudly. But to continue to dog the Olympic Torch as it tours through the world is a pathetic display in and of itself. The fact that it turns violent is counter-productive at best and downright shameful and hypocritical at worst. The Olympics is about World Unity. There are much better ways for governments and their people to show disdain for China, like via trade policy. The most peculiar part of all this is, do they really think the Dahli Lama would approve of such actions. Of course not.)
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Five years after launching the invasion of Iraq, President Bush strongly signaled Wednesday that he won't order troop withdrawals beyond those already planned because he refuses to "jeopardize the hard-fought gains" of the past year. Labels: bush administration, democrats, government, iraq war, republicans
As anti-war activists demonstrated around downtown Washington, the president spoke at the Pentagon to mark the anniversary of a war that has cost nearly 4,000 U.S. lives and roughly $500 billion. The president's address was part of a series of events the White House planned around the anniversary and next month's report from the top U.S. figures in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. That report will be the basis for Bush's first troop-level decision in seven months.
"The battle in Iraq has been longer and harder and more costly than we anticipated," Bush said.
But, he added, before an audience of Pentagon brass, soldiers and diplomats: "The battle in Iraq is noble, it is necessary, and it is just. And with your courage, the battle in Iraq will end in victory."
Democrats took issue with Bush's stay-the-course suggestion.
"With the war in Iraq entering its sixth year, Americans are rightly concerned about how much longer our nation must continue to sacrifice our security for the sake of an Iraqi government that is unwilling or unable to secure its own future," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "Democrats will continue to push for an end to the war in Iraq and increased oversight of that war."
Bush repeatedly and directly linked the Iraq fight to the global battle against the al Qaida terror network. And he made some of his most expansive claims of success. He said the increase of 30,000 troops that he ordered to Iraq last year has turned "the situation in Iraq around." He also said that "Iraq has become the place where Arabs joined with Americans to drive al Qaida out."
"The surge ... has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror," the president said. "We are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his terror network. And the significance of this development cannot be overstated."
Bush appeared to be referring to recent cooperation by local Iraqis with the U.S. military against the group known as al-Qaida in Iraq, a mostly homegrown, though foreign-led, Sunni-based insurgency. Experts question how closely—or even whether—the group is connected to the international al-Qaida network. As for bin Laden, he is rarely heard from and is believed to be hiding in Pakistan.
The U.S. has about 158,000 troops in Iraq. That number is expected to drop to 140,000 by summer in drawdowns meant to erase all but about 8,000 troops from last year's increase.
Bush, who has successfully defied efforts by the Democratic-led Congress to force larger and faster withdrawals, said they could unravel recent progress. "Having come so far and achieved so much, we are not going to let this happen," he said.
He criticized those who "still call for retreat" in the face of what he called undeniable successes.
"The challenge in the period ahead is to consolidate the gains we have made and seal the extremists' defeat," he said. "We have learned through hard experience what happens when we pull our forces back too fast—the terrorists and extremists step in, fill the vacuum, establish safe havens and use them to spread chaos and carnage."
This sort of cautionary rhetoric is consistent with all the president's recent statements about Iraq.
It has been widely believed for weeks that Bush will endorse an expected recommendation from Petraeus next month for no additional troop reductions, beyond those already scheduled, until at least September. This so-called pause in drawdowns would be designed to assess the impact of this round before allowing more.
The surge was meant to tamp down sectarian violence in Iraq so that the country's leaders would have time to advance legislation considered key to reconciliation between rival Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities. But the gains on the battlefield have not been matched by dramatic political progress, and violence again may be increasing.
With just 10 months before he hands off the war to a new president, Bush is concerned about his legacy on Iraq.
Both Democratic candidates have said they would begin withdrawing forces quickly if elected. Only expected GOP nominee John McCain has indicated he planned to continue Bush's strategy of bringing troops home only as conditions warrant.
Vice President Dick Cheney, who just completed a two-day visit to Iraq, said the administration won't "be blown off course" by continued strong opposition to the war in the United States.
Cheney compared the administration's task now to Abraham Lincoln's during the Civil War. "He never would have succeeded if he hadn't had a clear objective, a vision for where he wanted to go, and he was willing to withstand the slings and arrows of the political wars in order to get there," Cheney said of Lincoln in an interview broadcast Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
As of Tuesday, at least 3,990 members of the U.S. military have died in the war, which has cost the U.S. roughly $500 billion. Nobel Prize- winning economist Joseph E. Stiglizt and Harvard University public finance expert Linda Bilmes have estimated the eventual cost at $3 trillion when all the expenses, including long-term care for veterans, are calculated.
Without specifics, Bush decried those who have "exaggerated estimates of the costs of this war."
"War critics can no longer credibly argue that we are losing in Iraq, so now they argue the war costs too much," he said.
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OK state rep gets an email smackdown after her gays are worse than terrorist speech hits YouTube.
An Oklahoma state representative has received thousands of hostile e-mail messages after she said that homosexuality is a bigger threat to national security than terrorism. Labels: crime drama, gay news, government, you tube
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is investigating more than 17,000 mostly hostile e-mails that were sent to State Rep. Sally Kern after parts of a speech she gave to a Republican organization earlier this year were posted on YouTube, said bureau spokeswoman Jessica Brown.
During the speech, Kern said that "the homosexual agenda is just destroying this nation" and that homosexuality poses a bigger threat to the United States than terrorism. "According to God's word, that is not the right kind of lifestyle," she said.
"Studies show no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than a few decades," Kern, a former teacher who sits on the education committee, added.
Her speech, first posted online earlier this week by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, has generated national attention. The recording has been viewed more than 500,000 times on YouTube. Since then, Kern's office has been bombarded by angry phone calls and e-mails. Several gay rights organizations have called for her to resign and local newspapers have criticized her.
"Her comments are so inappropriate and beyond the pale that she's demonstrated that she's not fit for service in public office," said Patrick Sammon, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, a national association of gay and lesbian Republicans. "For someone to compare gay people to terrorists is really difficult to comprehend. She should be ashamed."
Brown, the spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said the agency was reviewing the growing number of e-mails sent to Kern to determine if any of them could be considered legally threatening.
"If I say I'm going to kill you, that's a threat. If I say I hope you die, that's not," she said.
She said the agency may contact some of the people who sent the e-mails.
Kern did not respond to e-mails and messages left at her office and home in Oklahoma City. Her husband, a Baptist minister, also did not return a message. A spokesman for the state House of Representatives, speaking on Kern's behalf, said Kern would not be available for an interview.
Her son, Jessie, said he stood by his mother. "I'm grateful that she has the passion to stand up for what she believes in," he said.
Kern has declined to apologize, telling local newspapers that her speech was edited when it was posted online and that her comments were taken out of context. She said she was referring only to activists who support gay candidates and what she called the "homosexual agenda." She said she had no problem with gay individuals.
She told the Tulsa World newspaper that she received a standing ovation during a private meeting of Republican lawmakers on Monday. A spokeswoman for House Speaker Chris Benge said there were no plans to censure Kern for her comments.
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Fuck that shit.
South Pasadena, Calif. — What the $%#? This community on the edge of Los Angeles has become a cuss-free zone. Labels: bizzare news, government
So if you're headed to South Pasadena this week, be sure to turn down the volume on that Snoop Dogg CD, and, if the little old lady from Pasadena cuts you off in traffic, don't even think about flipping her the bird.
Not that police will slap cuffs on you and haul your sorry, er, butt off to jail. But you could be shamed into better behavior by the unsettling glares of residents who take their reputation for civility seriously.
"That's one of the purposes of this," Mayor Michael Cacciotti said of the proclamation designating the first week of March as No Cussing Week, passed by the City Council. "It provides us a reminder to be more civil, to elevate the level of discourse."
The proclamation will be in effect for the first week of every March.
South Pasadena isn't the first to try to rein in potty mouths. What's different about the latest push to stop saying in public the words that Jane Fonda and Diane Keaton recently discovered we still can't say on television is that it was proposed by a 14-year-old boy.
"My mom and dad always taught me good morals, good values, and not cussing was one of them," said McKay Hatch, who founded South Pasadena High School's No Cussing Club in June.
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Three bits of space news.
Apparently on Wednesday night there is a total lunar eclipse that will be seen people in the Rocky Mountains in North America, as well as in all of Central and South America, West Africa and Western Europe. Labels: bush administration, earth news, government, outer fucking space news
It will be in partial eclipse visible west of the Rockies and from the eastern Pacific, and across the rest of Africa and Europe and much of South and West Asia.
Times vary in your area. Check here for details.
Oh yeah, and the space shuttle is coming back home on Wednesday as well. This is probably a very good idea considering the US Navy is planning on shooting missiles in the air trying to down a spy satellite on Thursday.
Because the 5,000-pound satellite malfunctioned immediately after launch in December 2006, it has a full tank of fuel. It would likely survive re-entry and disperse potentially deadly fumes over an area the size of two football fields, officials have said.
Apparently not satisfied in wasting money in Iraq and also running out of things he can get away with blowing up, Bush is going to spend 50 million in the destruction of the satellite.
NASA Administrator, a very well educated man and yet surprisingly naive, Michael Griffin said there's nothing the military can do to make the outcome worse.
Yeah, right.
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Nevermind it's 2008, but an ass isnt a sexual organ? ORLY?
WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a $1.4 million fine against 52 ABC Television Network stations over a 2003 broadcast of cop drama NYPD Blue. Labels: controversial, government, nakedness, television
The fine is for a scene where a boy surprises a woman as she prepares to take a shower. The scene depicted "multiple, close-up views" of the woman's "nude buttocks" according to an agency order issued late Friday.
ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Co. The fines were issued against 52 stations either owned by or affiliated with the network.
FCC's definition of indecent content requires that the broadcast "depicts or describes sexual or excretory activities" in a "patently offensive way" and is aired between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
The agency said the show was indecent because "it depicts sexual organs and excretory organs — specifically an adult woman's buttocks."
The agency rejected the network's argument that "the buttocks are not a sexual organ."
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Georgia's Republican voters defy National numbers.
Huckabee leads and Thompson's support is virtually cut in half in the Feb. 5 state of Georgia, a new Strategic Vision poll to be released tomorrow will show. Labels: democrats, government, local news, republicans
Huckabee grabs the top spot with 23%, up from just 5% from the same poll conducted in October. Thompson polls at 20%, down from 39%. Giuliani receives 17%, down from 20%. Like Huckabee, both McCain and Romney have risen in the polls, but not nearly as much as the former Arkansas governor. McCain is now polling at 11%, up slightly from 9%, and Romney receives 10%, up from 6%.
This poll was conducted December 7-9; 515 Republican voters were interviewed, and the margin of error for this poll is 5%.
On the Democratic side, Clinton has lost six points but still leads, with 34%. Obama's polling remains unchanged at 27%. Edwards received 12%. 468 Democratic voters were interviewed and also has a margin of error of 5.5%.
(Ed note: Huckabee's statements about isolating AIDS victims and saying "I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk" back in 1994 are eyebrow raising to be sure. The fact that Evangelicals are starting to back him worries me to no end. Suffice to say, it's almost about time for the political news to start hitting pixiesticks.org more often.
Also, cocks.
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Burning money in Iraq sure isn't helping.
WASHINGTON - Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It's expanding by about $1.4 billion a day — or nearly $1 million a minute. Labels: bush administration, China, democrats, economic news, epic, government, iraq war, money, republicans
What's that mean to you?
It means almost $30,000 in debt for each man, woman, child and infant in the United States.
Even if you've escaped the recent housing and credit crunches and are coping with rising fuel prices, you may still be headed for economic misery, along with the rest of the country. That's because the government is fast straining resources needed to meet interest payments on the national debt, which stands at a mind-numbing $9.13 trillion.
And like homeowners who took out adjustable-rate mortgages, the government faces the prospect of seeing this debt — now at relatively low interest rates — rolling over to higher rates, multiplying the financial pain.
So long as somebody is willing to keep loaning the U.S. government money, the debt is largely out of sight, out of mind.
But the interest payments keep compounding, and could in time squeeze out most other government spending — leading to sharply higher taxes or a cut in basic services like Social Security and other government benefit programs. Or all of the above.
A major economic slowdown, as some economists suggest may be looming, could hasten the day of reckoning.
The national debt — the total accumulation of annual budget deficits — is up from $5.7 trillion when President Bush took office in January 2001 and it will top $10 trillion sometime right before or right after he leaves in January 2009.
That's $10,000,000,000,000.00, or one digit more than an odometer-style "national debt clock" near New York's Times Square can handle. When the privately owned automated clock was activated in 1989, the national debt was $2.7 trillion.
It only gets worse.
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1 in 50 estimated to have HIV in Washington D.C
The District of Columbia has the highest rate of AIDS infection of any city in the country and the disease is being transmitted to infants, older adults, women and heterosexual men at an epidemic pace, according to a report released Monday by city health officials. Labels: government, health news
The report said more than 12,400 people in the city — about 1 in 50 — are living with AIDS or H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.
“H.I.V./AIDS in the district has become a modern epidemic with complexities and challenges that continue to threaten the lives and well-being of far too many residents,” said the report, which includes the first-ever study of statistics on H.I.V. in the city, along with updated data on AIDS cases. The H.I.V. data offers a vital snapshot of the most recent infections so health officials can study any changes in transmission patterns, the officials said.
The city’s AIDS prevention office has been faulted in the past as not keeping proper data to track and fight the disease, and the director of the office is the 13th in just over two decades, a turnover rate that has hampered its focus, advocates for AIDS patients said.
The report said that from 2001 to 2006, 56 children, ages 13 or younger, were found to have either H.I.V. or AIDS, and almost all of them were infected at birth.
These cases, which account for 6 percent of all mother-to-child H.I.V. infections in the nation in the last five years, were especially alarming, city officials said, because they could have been avoided with routine H.I.V. testing during pregnancy, quick-results oral swabs during labor and “fast tracking” of the anti-retroviral drugs that can prevent transmission during delivery.
Although black residents account for 57 percent of the city’s population of 500,000 or so, they account for 81 percent of new reports of H.I.V. cases and about 86 percent of people with AIDS.
The report also found that the disease spread through heterosexual contact in more than 37 percent of the cases detected from 2001 to last year, in contrast with the 25 percent of cases attributable to men having sex with men. Starting in 2004, the number of new H.I.V. cases among men and women ages 40 to 49 outpaced every other age group in the city.
While the report found 8,368 reported cases of people living with AIDS in the district at the end of last year, a 43 percent increase from 2001, it also found that the number of new H.I.V. cases began declining in 2003. City health officials say the drop in H.I.V. numbers was most likely a result of under-reporting or delayed reporting.
Dr. Shannon Hader, who became head of the city’s H.I.V./AIDS Administration in October, said the city had begun confronting the problem. In the last year, Dr. Hader said, the city began providing voluntary screening to all incoming prison inmates, tripled the number of locations for free screening and initiated a free condom distribution program.
“We are also trying to raise awareness that there are programs in the city where people who are infected can get antiretroviral treatment, even if they do not have insurance and or cannot afford to pay for the treatment,” she said.
City health officials said unprotected sex was the most common way H.I.V. is spread, followed by intravenous drug use. Since 2000, about 13 percent of all new H.I.V. cases in the city involved intravenous drug use, most likely the sharing of needles.
Washington is still the only city in the country barred by federal law from using local tax money to finance needle exchange programs. Congress controls the city’s system of government, and for nearly a decade members of the House, citing concerns about worsening drug abuse, have inserted language into the bill approving the city’s budget to prohibit financing such programs.
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Transgendered candidate sued alledging she misled voters.
Riverdale, GA -- Two unsuccessful Riverdale City Council candidates have asked a judge to halt an upcoming runoff election, alleging fraud by a candidate who ran as a woman and tampering with voting machines by the city clerk. Labels: government, local news, trap
Georgia Fuller and Stanley Harris, who lost bids for council seats in Ward 2 and 4, filed petitions in Clayton County Superior Court last week contesting the Nov. 6 election. The suit names City Manager Iris Jessie, City Clerk Stephanie Thomas, incumbent Ward 2 Council member Michelle Bruce, Ward 4 incumbent Council member Kenny Ruffin and Ward 2 candidate Wayne Hall.
A runoff between Bruce and Hall, along with two mayoral candidates, is scheduled for Dec. 4. The petition asks a Superior Court judge to rule the Nov. 6 elections results invalid and order another general election.
The Secretary of State's Office inspector general is also reviewing a complaint from Fuller and Harris to determine if an investigation is warranted, said spokesman Matt Carrothers.
The lawsuit alleges that Bruce, who identifies herself as transgendered and goes by Michelle Mickey Bruce, misled voters by identifying herself as a woman. The suit identifies her as "Michael Bruce."
Bruce's voter registration, notice of candidacy and driver's license identify her as Michelle Bruce, a white female. Bruce's birth certificate was not available Monday.
Bruce said she was "born transgendered" and declined to say if she had surgery to change her gender.
"That's private," Bruce said in a telephone interview Monday. "The people don't care about it."
The suit also alleges that city clerk Thomas, who serves as the city's elections superintendent, tampered with the voting machines and counted 115 paper ballots before the Nov. 6 election. The suit says the voting machines were not certified by the secretary of state's office.
According to Carrothers, every electronic touch-screen voting machine in Georgia is approved at the federal Voting System Testing Lab and then tested by the Kennesaw State University Center for Elections Systems to ensure compliance with Georgia law, rules and code. The individual counties also test the voting equipment.
Fuller, Harris nor their attorney returned phone calls seeking comment Friday or Monday.
Riverdale City Attorney Deana Johnson said she is in the process of preparing a response.
"They have asked for a stay of the runoff. Unless we receive something valid from the court, the runoff is going forward," Johnson said. "There were no problems with the election."
Riverdale has not received any notice of election problems from the Clayton County Board of Elections nor the secretary of state, Johnson said.
The suit also alleges Ruffin unlawfully distributed campaign material at Riverdale Fall Fest in late October at the city's baseball fields.
Ruffin, who called the suit ridiculous, said he did not distribute any material and does not know who did.
"It's unfortunate that voting in an election is taken out of the ballot box and the will of the people, and put it in a courtroom," he said.
Hall, a political newcomer, said he was listed a defendant, but the lawsuit does not pertain to him.
Jessie referred comment to the city attorney. Thomas could not be reached for comment.
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Patraeus and Congress push around numbers of troops in future Iraq.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Gen. David Petraeus told Congress on Monday he envisions the withdrawal of roughly 30,000 U.S. troops by next summer, beginning with a Marine contingent later this month. Labels: bush administration, democrats, government, iraq war, republicans
In long-awaited testimony, the commanding general of the war said last winter's buildup in U.S. troops had met its military objectives "in large measure."
As a result, he told a congressional hearing and a nationwide television audience, "I believe that we will be able to reduce our forces to the pre-surge level ... by next summer without jeopardizing the security gains we have fought so hard to achieve."
Testifying in a military uniform bearing four general's stars and a chestful of medals, Petraeus said he had already provided his views to the military chain of command.
Rebutting charges that he was merely doing the White House's bidding, he said firmly, "I wrote this testimony myself. It has not been cleared by nor shared with anyone in the Pentagon, the White House or the Congress."
His testimony came at a politically pivotal moment in the war, with the Democratic-controlled Congress pressing for a troop withdrawal deadline and the Bush administration hoping to prevent wholesale Republican defections on the issue.
Petraeus said that a unit of about 2,000 Marines will depart Iraq later this month, beginning a drawdown that would be followed in mid- December with the departure of an Army brigade numbering 3,500 to 4,000 soldiers.
After that, another four brigades would be withdrawn by July 2008, he said. That would leave the United States with about 130,000 troops in Iraq, roughly the number stationed there last winter when President Bush decided to dispatch additional forces.
He said he believes withdrawals could continue even after the 30,000 extra troops go home, but added that it would be premature to make any further recommendations.
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"I do not recall."
WASHINGTON (AP) - Alberto Gonzales, the nation's first Hispanic attorney general, announced his resignation Monday, driven from office after a wrenching standoff with congressional critics over his honesty and competence. Labels: bush administration, congress, democrats, government, republicans
Republicans and Democrats alike had demanded his departure over the botched handling of FBI terror investigations and the firings of U.S. attorneys, but President Bush had defiantly stood by his Texas friend for months until accepting his resignation last Friday.
"After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position and I accept his decision," Bush said from Texas, where he is vacationing.
Solicitor General Paul Clement will be acting attorney general until a replacement is found and confirmed by the Senate, Bush said.
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I see London, I see France, but in Atlanta don't show your underpants.
A city that counts strip clubs with naked woman as one of its tourism draws is trying to tell citizens not to show their underwear in public. Labels: controversial, court drama, government, local news
Across Atlanta that proposed amendment – sponsored by Atlanta Councilman C.T. Martin — got mixed reaction Thursday from people with and without exposed boxer shorts, skivvies, thongs, and bra straps, all of which would be banned under the new ordinance mainly aimed at people in saggy pants with wobbly walks.
The ordinance claims saggy pants are an "epidemic" and have become a "major concern" in Atlanta and other cities around the country. Martin says he wants children subjected to a higher standard of dress.
"I don't want young people thinking that half-dressing is the way to go," said Martin. "I want them to think about their future."
Some asked for their opinion on the proposed law are amused at the notion of a city telling people how to wear their pants; and others decried it as just another form of racially profiling blacks.
"That's [crazy]," said Atlanta hip-hop artist Yung Joc, by phone Thursday from Philadelphia.
"That's attacking people's freedom of expression. When Woodstock was around did they tell people not to wear their hair long, or hemp clothing? Are they telling the skateboarders they can't wear the jeans so tight? Or those little shirts? This is targeting a certain group: Young black males. And this will only give them more of a reason to pull them over; more of a reason to detain them."
Joc said when he returns to his hometown Sunday for the Screamfest tour, he'll be dressed for civil disobedience — "sagging, for sure!" — in droopy pants.
Falcons running back Warrick Dunn said baggy pants to him are more about style and comfort than politics. "It's an expression of choice," he said. "Do I like it? No. There's a time and place for it. I don't wear my pants all the way up. They sag a little bit but not all the way down to my knees."
But the running back — whose profession calls for pants that don't impede movement — said he, like Yung Joc, disagrees with a law that forbids baggy britches. "I don't think you can tell people how they should dress unless you're in certain environments and I think people should respect the environments they are in," said Dunn.
"If they're in an environment to where they need to upgrade a little bit — pull the pants up and be presentable."
Across the city Thursday there was plenty of evidence why Martin and others think Atlantans are seeing too much of other people's underwear as well as resentment among the sagging pants wearers that city would would seek to ban low-riding britches.
On Boulevard near Atlanta Medical Center, Antonio Simmons, 23, had taken great care to coordinate his red boxers, punctuated with black and white plaid, to his oversized black Coogi jeans. The jeans rode precariously across the ridge of his derriere and were gripped by a black leather belt and the grasp of his left hand.
Simmons said he had heard about the proposed ordinance from a family friend, and said he didn't believe anyone had a right to tell him what to wear and how to wear it.
"I don't believe they could do that," he said. "It's freedom of speech. They can't tell nobody how to dress. If you ask me, some of these people wear their pants too tight." He said he grew up wearing baggy pants as a "'hood tradition, a ghetto tradition," and, if the law is passed it will "give police more reason to harass and pull over young black men."
Others said the ordinance would make outlaws of women. "I think that's absurd," said Julia Lane, 31, of Atlanta. " Who's going to enforce this? The police? My car was stolen two weeks ago and you're going to fine me if my bra strap is showing?"
On the street Anthony Johnson concealed his extra-large jeans with an equally large basketball jersey. "It's a society thing," he said of his style. "I feel comfortable when I dress like this. When I go into a professional place, I know how to tuck my shirt in and look professional."
Banning baggy pants, he said, seems a bit much.
"I don't agree with it," he said. "It's a free country, or so they say."
(Ed note: The bill pretty much isn't going to happen. And even if it does the court system will tear it alive. Still, it's so pathetic of an idea, so lulz worthy, I've been laughing to tears.)
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I'm sure they'll still sleep together.
Karl Rove, the political adviser who masterminded President George W. Bush’s two winning presidential campaigns and secured his own place in history as a political strategist with extraordinary influence within the White House, announced on Monday that he would resign at the end of the month. Labels: bush administration, controversial, government, republicans
In an unusually emotional appearance with President Bush on the South Lawn of the White House, Mr. Rove cited a desire to “start thinking about the next chapter in our family’s life.” His decision was also forced when the White House chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten, recently told senior aides that if they stayed past Labor Day he would expect them to stay through the remaining 17 months of Mr. Bush’s term.
Mr. Rove and Mr. Bush, who said they had known “each other as youngsters” interested in politics, first discussed his departure last summer, Mr. Rove said, his voice breaking at times. Instead he stayed on, through the midterm elections last fall, which put Democrats in control of Congress and tempered Mr. Rove’s reputation as a political genius who had ushered in an enduring Republican majority.
“It always seemed there was a better time to leave out there in the future,” Mr. Rove said, “but now is the time.”
His standing had already diminished considerably. Since the midterm elections, Mr. Bush’s political problems have mounted in Iraq, his pursuit of a new immigration policy failed in Congress and the White House has had to defend its actions in the dismissals of United States attorneys, among other issues. Mr. Rove, 56, survived an investigation into the leak of the identity of a Central Intelligence Agency operative only to face a flurry of subpoenas from Democratic-controlled committees on Capitol Hill that he has so far rebuffed, citing executive privilege.
To his critics, and there are many, Mr. Rove embodied the Bush administration’s mode of politics: aggressive, combative, secretive. Senator Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, said that the Congressional investigations swirling around Mr. Rove and others in the White House would continue, regardless of his resignation.
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Bush Advisor wants YOU for the unwanted war effort.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush's new war adviser said Friday. Labels: bush administration, controversial, government, iraq war
"I think it makes sense to certainly consider it," Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."
"And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security by one means or another," Lute added in his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.
President Nixon abolished the draft in 1973. Restoring it, Lute said, would be a "major policy shift" and Bush has made it clear that he doesn't think it's necessary.
The repeated deployments affect not only the troops but their families, who can influence whether a service member decides to stay in the military, Lute said.
"There's both a personal dimension of this, where this kind of stress plays out across dinner tables and in living room conversations within these families," he said. "And ultimately, the health of the all- volunteer force is going to rest on those sorts of personal family decisions."
The military conducted a draft during the Civil War and both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. The Selective Service System, re- established in 1980, maintains a registry of 18-year-old men.
Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has called for reinstating the draft as a way to end the Iraq war.
Bush picked Lute in mid-May as a deputy national security adviser with responsibility for ensuring efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan are coordinated with policymakers in Washington. Lute, an active-duty general, was chosen after several retired generals turned down the job.
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Obama supports gay Civil Unions
LOS ANGELES - Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday he wanted to tap into the "core decency" of Americans to fight discrimination against gays and lesbians, and argued that civil unions for same-sex couples wouldn't be a "lesser thing" than marriage.
At a televised forum focusing on gay rights, the Illinois senator was asked to explain how civil unions for same-sex couples could be the equivalent of marriage. He said, "As I've proposed it, it wouldn't be a lesser thing, from my perspective.
"Semantics may be important to some. From my perspective, what I'm interested (in) is making sure that those legal rights are available to people," he said.
"If we have a situation in which civil unions are fully enforced, are widely recognized, people have civil rights under the law, then my sense is that's enormous progress," the Illinois Democrat said.
Obama belongs to the United Church of Christ, which supports gay marriage, but Obama has yet to go that far.
The senator was the first of six Democratic candidates scheduled to answer questions at an event described as a milestone by organizers. It marked the first time that major presidential candidates appeared on TV specifically to address gay issues, they said.
Obama called the event "a historic moment ... for America."
The two-hour forum, held in a Hollywood studio with an invited audience of 200, was co-sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group active in Democratic politics, and Logo, a gay-oriented cable TV channel that aired the forum live.
"We already won because the candidates are here," Logo president Brian Graden said.
Of the eight Democratic candidates, two did not attend, Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware and Chris Dodd on Connecticut.
The candidates, appearing one at a time and seated in an upholstered chair, took questions from a panel that included Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese, singer Melissa Etheridge and Washington Post editorial writer Jonathan Capehart.
All of the Democratic candidates support a federal ban on anti-gay job discrimination, want to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy barring gays from serving openly in the military and support civil unions that would extend marriage-like rights t