Salon: The Torture of a 17 Year Old Boy in Iran

Here is a story upon which we can all agree -- whether we are American Righties or Lefties -- detailing the the torture of a 17-year-old boy in Iran by the current "holy religious" Iranian regime. The question is: What can we do about it -- and, what should we be doing about it?


Salon: A teenager's story, with graphic photos, of abuse at the hands of Iran's religious paramilitaries, the Basij

Editor's note: Salon has obtained an e-mail, written in Farsi, circulating among Iranian American activists that tells the story of a 17-year-old boy who says he was tortured by government agents in Tehran. The e-mail, with attached photos of the victim, was sent by a friend of the boy's after his release. Though it's unclear exactly when the events in the story happened, the e-mail arrived in the U.S. late last week. The activist who forwarded it to Salon wanted it published to show what's happening as Iran is gripped by ongoing protests and a harsh government crackdown. The message was translated by a different Salon source, who raised some questions about a few specific details in the narrative -- the boy says he was moved around more than seems to make sense; at times he seems to confuse the police with the Basij paramilitaries; and, especially, his belief that non-Iranians were assisting in the abuse, a rampant but unsubstantiated rumor in Iran and among exiles. But the translator said some confusion is understandable for a scared teenager in his situation: "It is obvious that he was tortured."
To protect the people involved and their friends and family in Iran, Salon is not identifying those who sent or translated the message. The first paragraph below is the introduction circulating with the story, and the rest is from the boy.

By Mike Madden

June 24, 2009 | The pictures you are about to see are not from someone who supports anarchy, he is not even a part of the "DUST" that Ahmadinejad called his opponents. He is just a 17-year-old boy who was supposed to take the university entrance exam within a month before his fingers were broken and the finger webs were cut with a blade. He was arrested violently in the parking lot of a living complex without even taking part in any of the recent activities, and after more than 24 hours he returned home while his face was fully covered with blood and one could only see his eyes. These pictures are taken hours after his return home, his bruised face and broken nose cannot be shown due to his and his parents fear from the security guards. This is a summary of his story:

"It was around 12:30 a.m., and I was with my friend, his brother and his brother's wife. We were talking right in front of his place, which is about 2 to 3 blocks away from my place, while a group of people escaping entered the alley and took refuge in houses with open doors. My friends' place is in the middle of the alley so nobody took refuge there, and we went in and closed the doors. His brother and his wife went in building and asked me to join them as well, but since I was not feeling comfortable with his family, my friend and I stayed out in the parking."

"All of a sudden agents in black uniforms and helmets carrying batons broke the door and entered. We tried to hide behind the big trash bin at the end of the parking but one of them saw us, whistled and informed the rest of them who were just leaving the parking. It was just baton strikes all over my body after that, and we were transferred to the minus 4 level of Ministry of Intelligence building. There were a lot of riot police in black uniforms like those on the streets there. They were mostly non-Farsi speakers, and those who spoke Farsi kept telling us they could kill us right away and no one would ever know, they were also insulting us with very bad words."

"One of them asked me if Mr. Khatami would come save us, while they were breaking my fingers and cutting the finger webs. Although I swore a thousand times that I had not voted and had never participated in any demonstration, they didn't care and just kept beating me hard. I fainted once or twice but there were some of us who fainted every time their bones were broken, and as soon as they gained their consciousness, the riot police started beating them again. I was trying to contract my muscles to avoid further bone fracture."

"This continued till around 1 p.m., when they took us to another place, where security guards were in charge. We were then interrogated by the militia. Again, they kept beating me although I told them that I have never participated in any demonstration. In general, they were less harsh than the previous ones. In the evening, we were transferred to a police station where normal police with green uniform hung us by our hands (you can see the signs of the string around my wrists on the pictures), they hung some of us upside down and started beating us again."

"Around 2 AM, they took us to a police hospital where they just stitched the web of my fingers that were still bleeding and bandaged my head without any stitches. They released us in a highway, I think they knew we did nothing; otherwise they would not release us. I am surprised how I tolerated all the tortures and survived. I didn't see anyone dying there; a lot of people just lost their consciousness, but I guess the baton strikes were so harsh that brain injury or internal bleeding was inevitable. I can never forget the scenes I saw there."

Sean Hannity Lies?

Sean Hannity falsely claimed that Bill Clinton wrote an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times criticizing President Bush, shortly before Bush's inauguration in January 2000.

However, one should never accuse Sean Hannity of lying. That would put Sean out of business. If Hannity didn't lie, he'd have nothing much to say.

Republican Racism

Why Are All the Racist Comments and Jokes Always Coming from Republicans?

Conservative Racist Jokes

The latest Republican piece of genius has been a couple of racist jokes -- one saying that an escaped gorilla was the ancestor of First Lady Michelle Obama, and the other having a Republican State Election Committee print photographs of all 44 U. S. presidents, with President Obama's photograph shown as a black rectangle with white eyes showing.

However, it's totally cruel and unfair to ask the GOP to stop being racist. If Republicans ceased making racist comments, they would have very little else left to talk about. Besides, it's enlightening for the rest of the country to watch this country club of Rich Old White men displaying their true colors. Onward and Upward, Dear Old GOP-KKK.

Conservative Birth Certificate Masturbators

My dear Conservative friend, I'm glad you started off your comment by referring to "liberal-weenies". Conservatives have been holding their weenies for months now, masturbating over Obama's birth certificate ever since Barack got elected.

There is plenty of proof that Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, including an official birth certificate in the Honolulu Department of Health, announcements in the local Hawaii newspapers at the time of his birth, and decisions by every court approached on this matter that challenges to Obama's place of birth have no validity in fact or law.

Even so, my Conservative brother, you are "convinced that he was born in Kenya." Well, my friend, that's why Republican "flat-Earth", anti-science, anti-fact conspiracy theorists are now out of office and will remain so for years to come.

The Republicans have turned into one huge, but shrinking, Idiot Box --idiots talking to idiots, listening to other idiots on the radio to find out where the next "tea party" is. The American people have seen what a mess the non-fact based Republican Party made of the economy and of our foreign policy over the past eight years. I doubt if they will let Conservatives get anywhere near the levers of political power again.

Meanwhile, you Right-Wingers can just continue holding your weenies and enjoy masturbating over Obama's birth certificate.

The Lack of Civil Discussion

As long as the leading Right-Wing spokespersons are Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly and their ilk, let them expect to be responded to in kind. Thanks to these right-wing Mediarites, there is no longer such a thing as civil discussion. The Right-Wing has changed the level of discussion to Civil War. It's about time that liberals and the left-wing had a few Ann Coulters and Rush Limbaughs of their own to respond in the only language that the Right-Wing seems to understand. It's the language Right-Wingers use all the time and are very fluent in.

Michael Rowe on "Death At The Holocaust Museum" and Right-Wing Hate Media

Here is an article from today's Huffington Post that I'd like to nominate for this year's Pulitzer Prize in Journalism:

By Michael Rowe Award-Winning journalist

Posted: June 11, 2009 01:53 AM

Death at the Holocaust Museum and the Degradation of the American Dialogue

Ann Coulter, the self-described "conservative Christian" right-wing talking head, is much on my mind as I contemplate the horrifying images that came out of Washington from the Holocaust Museum, where white supremacist James von Brunn opened fire in an attempted mass-murder of Jews. His killing spree was cut short by security guard Stephen Tyrone Jones who put himself in the line of fire and died so others might live.

I am remembering an October 2007 segment of the Donny Deutsch Show where Coulter asserted that America would be better off if everyone was Christian and that "the Jews" merely needed to be "perfected" through conversion.

Coulter has made her fortune by generating, fanning, and nurturing hatred and contempt for a variety of people, including liberals, Democrats, gays, foreign nationals, 9/11 widows, feminists, single mothers, Muslims, and any other group she could throw to her disenfranchised readership as shark bait.

To Coulter, referring to Jews as "imperfect" on a talk show hosted by an observant Jewish host must have seemed like just another day at the office. Coulter shook her blond hair and tittered, as though waiting to be found witty, charming, and adorably irascible. Oh Ann, you minx! You're just pushing everyone's buttons, aren't you? Shame on you, you dead-sexy fascist pin-up. Stop teasing. You don't really mean that. I mean, not really, right? Right?

Deutsch, clearly appalled, pointed out that the comment was not only patently absurd, but also hateful. Coulter giggled. A gold crucifix gleamed against her bony clavicle. "No," she said, "it's not hateful at all."

This week, nearly two years later, James von Brunn, driven by his own twisted version of Coulter's publicly-proclaimed perspectives regarding the "imperfection" of Jews, entered the Holocaust Museum in Washington and put them into action, with tragic and deadly consequences.

Much the same thing happened on May 31st when Scott Roeder entered the Reformation Lutheran Church during Sunday services and slaughtered abortion provider provider Dr. George Tiller. Media analysts continue to explore a possible continuum between Tiller's murder and FOX host Bill O'Reilly's well-documented on-air tirades against the doctor, whom he repeatedly called "Tiller the Baby Killer." O'Reilly broadcast his vendetta to millions and millions of FOX viewers already infected with evangelical superstitions and a horror of science, especially science as it applies to a woman's right to choose.

If O'Reilly had been a serious journalist or broadcaster instead of a sclerotic, chronically-aggravated right-wing rage pimp, he might have had the professional self-awareness or ethical sense to realize that he was putting George Tiller's life in danger over the more than 28 broadcasts in which he used Tiller's name. But O'Reilly, like, for Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and indeed Coulter herself (to name only the gratin of that particular food chain) is neither of those things.

As a group, they are the pop culture equivalent of necrotic carrion beetles, crawling with insectile determination from one infected open wound in the American psyche to another. The wounds include fear of race, fear of foreigners, fear of sexuality, fear of difference, hysterical religious fundamentalism, violent nationalism, and paranoia. They lay their eggs in the infected abrasion, then scuttle away. When the eggs hatch, disgorging rage and discontent, they start counting money.

When challenged on the inherently destructive nature of their enterprise, they invariably claim that their First Amendment right to free speech is being abrogated. Or, like Ann Coulter defensively does in those instances, they cite their place on the New York Times bestseller list. Or the ratings. In other words, since people buy it, watch it, or listen to it in huge numbers, it must have merit, and it must be right.

The difference between John McCain and Sarah Palin became clearest to me in the middle of the campaign last summer.

At a town hall meeting, McCain was confronted by an elderly woman who told McCain that she was a supporter of his because Obama was "an Arab." McCain was clearly uncomfortable, and it was patently obvious why. It had nothing to do with McCain's feelings about Arabs. It had to do with an old-school Republican accidentally moving the rock, and coming face to face with what actually lived beneath it. He recognized that the woman was making an unambiguously racist statement about his opponent, and he was mortified to be asked to answer it. Even though McCain famously and horribly bungled his answer ("No ma'am, he isn't. He's a decent family man.") I knew when he meant. He was addressing the intended racial slur and disavowing it, however badly.

In that moment, I felt deeply for my Republican friends who, on some level, must also be experiencing the embarrassment and discontent of recognizing that their party had been hijacked by racists and religious fanatics who derided education and achievement as "elitist."

Sarah "Screw the Political Correctness" Palin, on the other hand, seemed right at home. She marched into those same crowds grinning and winking, and "Yoo betcha-ing" like she was onstage at the Miss Alaska pageant. While her supporters waved watermelon slices and stuffed monkeys, Palin talked about who the "real Americans" were, and who was "palling around with terrorists." She refused to address the blatant racism of her fans, or address the obvious exploitation of Obama's middle name, Hussein, and the implication she herself was making with her "terrorist" comments.

She was, after all, playing to the accurately-named Republican "base," the same crowd to whom George Bush had sold his second presidential term by pandering to their darkest and most cowardly aspect. This time out it was fear of gay marriage and adoption, carefully tended fear of another 9/11, fear of more fallout from a war they still didn't believe he'd lied about.

One can almost appreciate the horrible honesty of the racists among the McCain-Palin supporters who were able to admit what the others obfuscated: that they didn't want a black man in the White House. Certain videos from their rallies are deeply disturbing. They showcase the seething racism of her most ardent followers.

History has already recorded their obsession with Obama's origins, his religious background, and his citizenship, which remains an obsession among them today.

Obama's citizenship was reportedly also something of an obsession for von Brunn, and likely very much on his mind when he walked into the museum and opened fire to make a statement about what "his" America ought to look like. I have no trouble imagining which radio stations he listened to, or which pundits best represented his baseline political ideology. And why. Even FOX's Shep Smith has said he's disturbed by the escalating virulence and menace of the anti-Obama emails the station is receiving.

There was a time when decency, even honor, was an essential part of the American dialogue in its most ideal form, and part of its very identity. There was a time when our culture would have recoiled in horror at the vituperation flowing unchecked from radios, televisions, and the Internet, instead of applauding it as "common sense," "free speech," or "mavericky," or "a spin-free zone."

There was a time when intellectual honesty was not considered unpatriotic; when compassion for, and understanding of, your fellow man was a sign of strength, not weakness. There was a time when the phrase Have you no shame? meant something, and the First Amendment was not used as toilet paper to wipe up the excremental verbal degradation of vulnerable segments of the American population. A time when it was expected that citizens would understand the difference between free speech and irresponsible speech. Somewhere along the line, a cancerous segment of American popular culture and media cunningly exploited the long-standing, honorable American "cowboy" motif and mentality. They grafted cruelty, divisiveness, and ignorance to it, making the two appear indistinguishable, and natural allies. And they are neither, or at least ought not to be.

There is no Environmental Protection Agency to measure hate pollution in national dialogue, and no mechanism in place to warn us when the poisonous rage spewed into the national consciousness by shock-jocks, poisonous television pundits, megachurch leaders, and oh-so-subtle politicians, has reached dangerously toxic levels.

No, there is only the result: widows, orphans, collective grief, and an absolute refusal on the part of our loudest, coarsest voices to take any responsibility for their part in the carnage.

Joan Walsh of Salon Says It's Time to Release the DHS Report on Right-Wing Extremist Terrorism

Joan Walsh wrote today in Salon that It's High Time to Release the Department of Homeland Security's Report on the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism (although she points out that it's about two weeks too late for Dr. George Tiller and Security Guard Stephen Tyrone Johns -- and their families). She writes:

"What should happen now? Ironically, a great example of the right-wing echo chamber's bullying came when they managed to smack down the release of a Department of Homeland Security report about the rise of right-wing extremism. Judging from the right's rhetoric, you'd have thought Janet Napolitano was suggesting rounding up Rush and his dittoheads and putting them in an old Japanese-American internment camp or something. But in fact, as Susan Page explained today on "Hardball," the calm nine-page report merely looked at warning signs for extremism, based on history: They include a prolonged economic downturn, the demonization of immigrants, the election of the first black president, fears about losing the right to own guns, a banking crisis inciting age-old paranoia about "Jewish cabals" and the return of many veterans to the States suffering from PTSD and other conditions while getting insufficient care.

Presciently, the report said the top perceived threat was a "lone wolf": "White supremacist lone wolves pose the most significant domestic terrorist threat because of their low profile and autonomy — separate from any formalized group — which hampers warning efforts." DHS, meet James von Brunn, whose wife divorced him because of his hatred, racism, paranoia and violence.

But the right-wing echo chamber went nuts about the report. Rush called it "crap," thundering, "There is not one instance they can cite as evidence where any of these right-wing groups have done anything." Rep. Michele Bachmann crowed: "To me, it looks like the extremists are those running the DHS." John Boehner called it "offensive" and said, "Unfortunately, Secretary Napolitano still has a lot of explaining to do." Newt Gingrich harrumphed that "the person who drafted the outrageous homeland security memo smearing veterans and conservatives should be fired." And Rep. Peter Burgess said Napolitano herself should "step down, and let's move on."

Will any of them apologize to Napolitano now? Dream on.

And who will apologize to the family of Stephen Tyrone Johns, the brave security man at the Holocaust Museum shot by von Brunn. How von Brunn, a felon who'd used a gun in his earlier crime, still had the right to carry a gun, I'll never understand. He killed a black man who'd spent six years protecting a monument to the triumph of love and brotherhood over hate and division. My condolences and prayers go out to Johns' family."

Conservatives and Fascism

A somewhat over-enthusiastic Right-Winger has sent me a note stating he believes that the new Obama administration is Fascist. Personally, I doubt that any American administration has ever been Fascist. However, if we are going to sling that word around, we would probably find that many more elements of Fascism existed during the eight years of Bush and Cheney than under President Obama.

To begin with, in 2000, Bush and Cheney were not elected. They were appointed to the White House by the five Conservative Supreme Court justices when the Court, 5 to 4, stopped the vote-counting in Florida. Had the Florida votes been fully counted, Al Gore would have carried the state and been elected president, as shown by subsequent research by major Florida newspapers. Having "Five Wise Solons" appoint the president, rather than electing him, is a hallmark of Fascism. Did not King Victor Emmanuel III appoint Mussolini as Prime Minister of Italy on October 30, 1922, at a time when Mussolini's Fascists were only a minority party in the Italian Parliament?

Another characteristic of Fascism is the arrogance and pig-headedness of the Supreme Leader. Adolf Hitler didn't follow the advice of his top military leaders -- he refused to supply his troops with Winter clothing when they invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 -- leading to Germany's military disaster at Stalingrad. Likewise, George W. Bush did not heed urgent FBI warnings that Bin Laden was "determined to strike inside the U. S.", and he hardly ever met directly with his top National Security Advisor, Richard Clarke (who had held the same position under Dubya's father, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton). As a result of Bush's negligence, all the warning signs of 9-11 were disregarded, the World Trade Center was destroyed, and 3,000 Americans were killed in one day.

Fascism also stubbornly pursues ideology and pre-determined goals, ignoring real facts. The Bush regime's reaction to 9-11 was in the style of Fascism, as it mobilized American public opinion to retaliate against the wrong target, Iraq, although Iraq had no connection to the WTC attack. It was as though, in retaliation for the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, we had struck back against Switzerland. From the moment George Bush entered the White House, he was determined to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein. In the style of Fascism, Bush and his regime deliberately twisted the events of 9-11 to justify a strike against Iraq. They also removed most of our troops from Afghanistan and its border with Pakistan, where our real enemy, Al Quaida, was operating, thus exposing Americans to a much greater danger.

In the manner of Fascism, the Bush regime used lies and deceit to try to create a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Quaida. They introduced water-boarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" in misguided efforts to force prisoners to reveal a non-existent connection between Saddam and Al Quaida. "Enhanced interrogation techniques" produce bad intelligence, according to experienced CIA interrogators -- and Senator John McCain. Moreover, these are the methods traditionally used by Fascist regimes, not by the United States, which won two World Wars without employing such tactics.

Running an internment camp like Guantanamo, where harsh interrogation methods were employed; and rendition of internees to foreign countries for "enhanced questioning", are also hallmarks of Fascism. Reversing these programs means reversing Fascism. By prohibiting harsh interrogation techniques, and by closing Guantanamo, President Obama is moving us away from Fascism, not towards it.

Fascism also means concentrating wealth and power in the hands of a country's giant businesses and corporations while crushing the standard of living, and the economic rights, of workers. Once again, the Bush administration, by slanting the income and estate tax laws heavily in favor of America's wealthiest and against the middle class, by pursuing its own anti-union policies, and by favoring CEO's over workers, is far more comparable to Fascism than Obama is.

Another hallmark of Fascism is the creation of a House Media that fills the airwaves with lies, hate, ridicule, deliberate misstatements, distortions and blind ideology, as in todays' ever-present, all-pervasive Right-Wing Talk Radio. Where else can we hear Far Right "pundits" pontificating about Obama's recent "Apology Tour" of the Middle East; labeling Obama's administration as simultaneously "Socialist" and "Fascist"; claiming that Judge Sonia Sotomayor is "Racist"; targeting Doctor George Tiller after labeling him "Killer Tiller" on national television; weakening DC's gun control laws just in time for Jimmy von Brunn to walk in and shoot up the U. S. Holocaust Museum, killing a veteran security guard; and blasting Janet Napolitano for warning about the dangers of Right-Wing domestic terrorism only days before Scott Philip Roeder and James Von Brunn both emerged from the shadows to prove her warning correct? Fascism in America now has its own home-grown Propaganda Networks, where the Truth is never a welcome guest.

The Obama administration is the opposite of Fascism. It is a democratic voters' revolution which has thrown out those elements of Fascism that had crept into the previous regime. Obama is not nationalizing industries, in the manner of Socialism or Fascism. He is using taxpayer dollars to try and save Capitalism from a probable new Republican Depression that was on the brink of occurring when Obama took office. It may take time for Obama and his people to work this country out of the economic hole Bush's policies created. However, already, major banks are re-paying $68 billion of stimulus dollars to the taxpayers. So, all this ranting about creating huge debt that our grandchildren will be saddled with seems like just another big blast of Conservative fog and hot air.

Just this week, Obama won a major election victory in Lebanon as pro-Western candidates soundly trounced Hezbollah and other Muslim extremists backed by Iran and Syria. Clearly, America's Right-Wing PunDunces complaining about Obama's "Apology Tour" are infecting this country with wrong information yet again.

Rather than labeling the Obama administration as Fascist, my Conservative friend, please recognize where the real elements of Fascism lie. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. And, yes, Virginia, there is Fascism. But don't look for it in the Obama administration. It won't be found there. To the extent that we have had a touch of Fascism in the USA, Obama is getting rid of it. Democracy defeated Fascism during World War II and, now, thanks to President Obama, American Democracy is driving any remaining vestiges of Fascism clear out of the USA.

Words of Wisdom from President Obama's Speech Today at Cairo University

I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America's story. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, "The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims."

And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have fought in our wars, served in government, stood for civil rights, started businesses, taught at our Universities, excelled in our sports arenas, won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building, and lit the Olympic Torch. And when the first Muslim-American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers – Thomas Jefferson – kept in his personal library.

Much has been made of the fact that an African-American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected President. But my personal story is not so unique. The dream of opportunity for all people has not come true for everyone in America, but its promise exists for all who come to our shores – that includes nearly seven million American Muslims in our country today who enjoy incomes and education that are higher than average.

Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That is why the U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.

So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America.

Was President Obama Really Born in Kenya?

If the best we can do -- by insisting that our presidents be born on United States soil -- is two terms of Bush and Cheney, then the time is past due for a new Constitutional Amendment allowing our presidents to have been born overseas.

We could call it the Schwarzenegger Amendment.

A Quota Queen for the Court

Pat Buchanan, in his above-named article, has labeled Judge Sonia Sotomayor a "Quota Queen". That sounds like a high compliment, coming from one "Quota Queen" to another.

Isn't Pat Buchanan a bit of a "Quota Queen" -- always manning the ramparts on behalf of rich old Conservative white men?

Conservatives Are America's Real Terrorists

With a Special Salute to the Bill O'Reilly-Scott Philip Roeder Factor!

Who's Out Looking for You?

The New Republican Party

The New GOP: the Party of Randall Terry, Alan Keyes, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity -- and Scott Philip Roeder.

Now, who wouldn't want to belong to an Exclusive Club like that?

Republican Racists

So many racists are Republicans that they drown out the remaining Republicans who are not racist. Take Rush Limbaugh, for example. Limbaugh has called Sonia Sotomayor a "Reverse Racist". Rush prefers the old-fashioned, straight forward, in your face, Non-Reverse Racists like himself.

Republicans and Minorities

Why do Republicans treat minorities with so much contempt today?

Look at how they are treating the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

The GOP is rapidly becoming known as the "No Way, Jose" party.

Gay Marriage Is the "Interracial Marriage" of Today

Here are a couple of useful precedents from the late lamented Miscegenation Era, which our current Strict Constructionists can use today in their continuing efforts to prevent Gay Marriage:

A Georgia court, in ruling against the appeal of an interracial couple attempting to marry, stated that such marriages are “Not only unnatural but always productive of deplorable results", such as increased effeminate behavior in the population. “They are productive of evil, and evil only, without any corresponding good in accordance with the God of nature.”

The state of California once declared that a law preventing blacks and whites from marrying is necessary to prevent “traditional marriage from being contaminated by the recognition of relationships that are physically and mentally inferior and entered into only by the dregs of society.”

When this Georgia court ruled that interracial marriage would produce "increased effeminate behavior in the population", it must have known (one hundred years ago) that decisions prohibiting interracial marriage would one day be used as precedents in Gay Marriage cases.

The USA's Separation of Church and State

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, at its very outset, states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Sixteen little words that say it all: the Establishment clause, and the Free Exercise clause.

Thomas Jefferson gave an interpretation of the First Amendment, in his January 1st, 1802 letter to the Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, calling it a “Wall of Separation between Church and State.”

James Madison also wrote that “Strongly guarded… is the separation between religion and government in the Constitution of the United States.”

What more need be said?

Obama Has Never "Apologized" for America

President Obama, whom some Right-Wing bird-brains call a "little girl", has whipped the asses of all his Democratic rivals, including Hillary Clinton; and of the entire Republican Party -- including Klan leader Limbaugh and Killer-Inciter O'Reilly. Republicans love to talk out of both sides of their mouths. When the Righties are talking out of their other mouths, they call Obama a Chicago gangster. Which is it, fellas? A "little girl" or a gangster? Obama has never "apologized" for America -- despite the fact that so many Right-Wing Dumbos are a national embarrassment every time they say anything. Someone should be apologizing for the existence of these Righties.

Obama is a People Person

President Obama is a political genius. Personally, he is a deeply faithful and committed Christian. However, when he is reaching out to a Jewish audience, he emphasizes his ties and connections to the Jewish community. When reaching out to Muslim countries, he stresses his Muslim connections. Obama is very much a citizen of the world, and he feels very much at home wherever he travels. He relates to people, whoever or wherever they are -- and people relate to him. It's not Obama's fault that many of the stupidest folks on Earth live right here in America (e. g., Right-Wingers) -- and he must adjust some of his statements to their mentally challenged level.

Two Great Comments Posted in the Justice Sotomayor Debate

1. "Never argue with an idiot. They will only pull you down to their level, then beat you with experience."

2. The Republicans can now be known as the "Party of No Way, Jose!"

Bill O'Reilly and Free Speech

The Supreme Court has said that Freedom of Speech Does Not Protect a Person who Yells "Fire" in a crowded theater.

What about a radio broadcaster who repeatedly gives out a person's name and address, and constantly, with numerous words of incitement and encouragement, in effect tells his listening audience: "Ready, Aim, Fire!"

Bill O'Reiily Should Be In Jail For Inciting a Murder

While many Americans may never have heard of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller, who was killed Sunday, his name -- and nickname, "Tiller the Baby-Killer" -- should be familiar to viewers of Fox News' "O'Reilly Factor." Salon's Gabriel Winant reports that Bill O'Reilly has mentioned Tiller on 29 episodes since 2005, most recently in April of this year.

"There's no other person who bears as much responsibility for the characterization of Tiller as a savage on the loose, killing babies willy-nilly thanks to the collusion of would-be sophisticated cultural elites, a bought-and-paid-for governor and scofflaw secular journalists" than O'Reilly, Winant writes.

Some of the things O'Reilly has said of Tiller, according to Salon:

He "destroys fetuses for just about any reason right up until the birth date for $5,000."
He's guilty of "Nazi stuff,"
a moral equivalent to NAMBLA and al-Qaida
"This is the kind of stuff that happened in Mao's China, Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union"
"operating a death mill"
"has blood on his hands"
"executing babies about to be born"

Bill O'Reilly Should Be in Jail, Not On the Air

Bill O'Reilly should be arrested and tried for incitement to murder. It was just a matter of time before O'Reilly's insane rants inspired some nut-job to take the law into his own hands and commit a vigilante assassination. O'Reilly should be tried in criminal court, and also sued by Dr. George Tiller's family in civil court for every penny he is worth.