There's a phrase one hears bandied about these days...

"Jumping the shark."

According to an article in the Washington Post, Gov. Timothy Kaine (D) of my new home state of Virginia issued an executive order banning discrimination against gays and lesbians in state employment. Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R) has issued an opinion that the order violates the state constitution since the state supreme court has never given gay people protected status and the state legislature has voted against non-discrimination legislation that applies to gay people. Kaine's order, according to McDonnell, oversteps his constitutional boundaries and usurps the power of the legislature. For now, Kaine's order holds as McDonnell's opinion holds no legal weight. However, this is probably only the beginning of challenges to the order.

This is also the type of incident which proves that the Republicans aren't just "protecting marriage," but rather promoting the wholesale oppression of LGBT people. The major gay rights organizations, from the early 90's onward, have failed to do anything substantial to stem the tide of anti-gay legislation or to assist in the passage of vital pro-gay laws.

The "born-again" concept is generally applied to Christians who experience a conversion to strict fundamentalist Christianity in their adulthood.  My very unscientific take, based on several born-again Christians I've known, is that many of them discover Christ after leading fairly dissolute lives: drinking, lots of sexual partners, maybe drugs, maybe theft, maybe violence.

But who says that this phenomenon must be limited to Christians simply because it began there and takes its name from biblical text?

The blog Outrageous Moderates has obtained redacted copies of notes taken by DoD staffer Stephen Cambone during meetings with Rumseld on 9-11-01.

The blog has copies available, in several formats, and the notes have been the subject of a story in the UK's Guardian newspaper.

What do you call cutting the budget of the government's primary renewable energy research lab, causing 32 layoffs, right after making energy research a top priority in the State of the Union speech, then magically finding enough money to hire them all back just before the president makes a photo-op visit to the lab?  According to the NY Times, the president calls it sending "mixed signals."

The monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics release on mass layoffs just came out:

In January 2006, employers took 1,113 mass layoff actions, seasonally adjusted,....the number of workers involved totaled 108,378,
on a seasonally adjusted basis

Unless you've been living in an Afghan cave, you're aware of the worldwide protests and riots sparked (in part) by a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons deemed offensive to Islam.  You've probably also heard the constant smug, self-righteous declarations of "You don't see Christians resorting to violence every time someone insults Christianity!"  No, of course not!  

We in the West are so innately superior to Muslims that we would never resort to such barbaric means to express our religious frustrations.  You see, we're civilized, unlike those backward Arab types wandering the desert.  When Christianity is insulted, Christians just pray for the poor lost souls who have never known Jesus.  If the Muslims knew Jesus, they'd be peace-loving, tolerant, free-speech promoting, democracy-spreading saints like "us."*  Right?  I've got to call this one as I see it.  Bullshit!

Figures, of course. Now, why else would our beloved brat say he's gonna veto anything against his deal....?

In the midst of a story on Iran's unsurprising rejection of $75 million that President Bush has asked congress to allocate for encouraging democracy there, the Financial Times reports today that "Iran's reformists - regrouping after election defeats - are loath to accept US money and argue US pressure strengthens militarism in Iran."

The Washington Post is delving into the controversy over the use of anonymous sources in the press, a controversy which has left that paper's reputation besmirched to say the least.

The most famous anonymous source in the history of journalism, Woodward and Bernstein's "Deep Throat," proved the necessity and the value of occasionally agreeing to conceal the identity of the person providing a reporter with vital information. There are some things too dangerous to say on the record. There are some people whose identities must be protected, as revealing them would put them and perhaps our nation in grave danger. There is information so vital to our freedoms that it must be printed even if you have to bend over backwards, go to jail, whatever to protect the source of that information.

So, there's all sorts of people who not only should but must be identified by pseudonyms or vague qualifiers like "unnamed senior official." Intelligence agents, undercover police officers, whistleblowers, crime victims, political refugees and dissidents, minors, etc. deserve the protection of honest journalists serving both the truth and the people's right to know. Recent events however have shown that anonymous sourcing has gone too far, becoming simply a means to protect a reporter's access to the powerful or as a public relations ploy on the part of the administration. We have been spun.

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