Overreaction Attraction Action

Here's what opponents of DADT repeal say will happen as a result of today's vote.  Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association predicts the end of America:

Character-driven officers and chaplains will eventually be forced out of the military en masse, potential recruits will stay away in droves, and re-enlistments will eventually drop like a rock.

The draft will return with a vengeance and out of necessity. What young man wants to voluntarily join an outfit that will force him to shower naked with males who have a sexual interest in him and just might molest him while he sleeps in his bunk?

This isn’t a game, and the military should never be used, as is now being done, for massive social re-engineering. The new Marine motto: “The Few, the Proud, the Sexually Twisted.” Good luck selling that to strong young males who would otherwise love to defend their country. What virile young man wants to serve in a military like that?

If the president and the Democrats wanted to purposely weaken and eventually destroy the United States of America, they could not have picked a more efficient strategy to make it happen.

Rarely can you point to a moment in time when a nation consigned itself to the scrap heap of history. Today, when the Senate normalized sexual perversion in the military, was that moment for the United States. If historians want a fixed marker pointing to the instant the United States sealed its own demise, they just found it.

Quite interesting.  Well, by that "logic" anyone who doesn't immediately signal their intent to quit the military must be a closet case lurking with the intent to destroy America with gay sex.  I wonder how long it will take before the Right Wing declares war on the Pentagon?  Will they defund the Defense Department to stop men showing either other their rifles?  Will the Republicans introduce legislation to stop women hiding in the bush?  Will our now eternally tainted military become Pubic Enemy #1.

How long before Republicans sing the praises of conscientious objectors who are bravely refusing to serve in war because of gay cooties?  Surely if the draft is inevitable, these manly patriots will join the military in order to save the civilian population, right?

I mean it's not like these guys are a bunch of chickenhawks who are trying to score lame political points by demonizing our LGBT loved ones, yes?

Perish the thought.

Bull Market, Bear Market, Carbon Market

Once again California leads the way with the first statewide carbon emissions cap-and-trade market.

The rules adopted by the Air Resources Board, the state's climate change regulator, limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and let power plants, factories and eventually refiners and others to trade permits to pollute in a program generally known as cap-and-trade.

California will become the second-largest carbon market in the world, following a European system. Point Carbon, a Thomson Reuters company, forecasts the market will grow from $1.7 billion in 2012 to nearby $10 billion in 2016, with prices rising from $10 a metric ton in 2012 to $18 per ton in 2016.

Environmentally, California's move could rank with U.S. efforts decades ago to clean up air and water, said Gary Gero, President of the Climate Action Reserve. "We will say this was when the United States started seriously building a program for climate change," he said.

Calls to force companies to buy permits at auctions have largely been rebuffed due to the weak economy. Most permits will be given away, especially in the first three-year period.

Factories and power producers will be able to bear some of the burden for cutting emissions with credits for projects that soak up carbon, known as offsets. There is already a market in such offsets, and prices have jumped in the last several weeks to about $8 a ton, traders said.

So as the carbon market generates billions in needed income and reduces emissions, how long will it take before the other 6/7ths of America follows suit?  This should go a long way towards getting both sides of the aisle in gear, and the EPA should take a long hard look at California's requirements here.

A Bank With "Principles"

Just so you know how scared of the WikiLeaks threat the financial sector is right now, Bank of America will no longer process donations for Julian Assange's group of agitators.

Bank of America Corp. has joined several other financial institutions in refusing to handle payments for WikiLeaks.

With its announcement, the Charlotte-based bank joins a fray that has ratcheted financial pressure on the website that released thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables, but has also prompted cyber attacks on businesses that cut ties with the activist site. The move comes as WikiLeaks says it's preparing a release of information on banks, which could include documents it says it has on Bank of America.

The Charlotte-based bank released a statement Saturday saying it will no longer process any transactions that it believes are intended for the site.

"This decision is based upon our reasonable belief that WikiLeaks may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments," the bank said.

Translation:  "We control the money, Julian.  And we're shutting you down.  Try getting help when we lock out your accounts and refuse to process your payments.  Leaking information takes money, and we're going to starve you to death."

This war is well and truly joined.  No matter how you feel about WikiLeaks, the fact that major world banks are uniting to wipe it off the planet should terrify any citizen with a bank account or credit card.

They see WikiLeaks as such as existential threat they are scrambling to cut it off all income and donations and starve it out.  That speaks volumes...the same banks that continue engaging in possibly trillions in mortgage fraud have declared war on WikiLeaks.

Be afraid.

[UPDATE] WikiLeaks is fighting back.

In classic form, WikiLeaks has sent out a message on Twitter related to Bank of America.

Does your business do business with Bank of America? Our advise is to place your funds somewhere safer.

Touche', gentlemen.

Half A Loaf Is Better Than None

Republicans killed the DREAM Act 45-55...

A procedural vote in the Senate for the DREAM Act has failed. 55 Senators voted for the measure, with 41 voting against, falling short of the necessary votes to overcome a filibuster.

...but for once a handful of them decided that with three-quarters of the coutry wanting it repealed, DADT will get a final up or down vote.

In a landmark vote for gay rights, the Senate on Saturday voted to advance legislation that would overturn the military ban on openly gay troops known as "don't ask, don't tell."


The 63-33 test vote all but guarantees the legislation will pass the Senate, possibly by day's end, and reach the president's desk before the new year.

The House had passed an identical version of the bill, 250-174, earlier this week.

Repeal would mean that, for the first time in American history, gays would be openly accepted by the military and could acknowledge their sexual orientation without fear of being kicked out.

We'll see.  This is a huge victory here, but not for everyone.  Republicans still showed they care more about demonizing Latinos than they do giving people a path to earn their citizenship by serving our country in the military.  And no, the DREAM Act was far from perfect.  It wouldn't have helped a lot of people get citizenship, only a small section would have been eligible for it:  High school graduates heading to college who were brought here as children, or graduates heading to the military for two years.  The number of possible candidates for that numbered in the thousands, not millions.  It wasn't "back-door amnesty".

But that was of course too much for the Republicans.  Even one immigrant who could have become a US citizen due to this and possibly been grateful to a Democratic administration was too much to countenance.

But the vote to allow DADT repeal to go forward is a good, good thing.  Straight ally, and all that...and just in the name of basic civil rights, this is something I'm glad to see happened.

One out of two isn't bad, but it's a harsh reminder that the largest blockade to getting things done in the last two years has been the filibuster.

Oh, and according to my calculations, the only Republican who voted yes on both DREAM and DADT repeal?

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski.  Thanks, Joe Miller and Sarah Palin!  The final DADT repeal vote will be this afternoon, and it should pass easily.

Should.  Here's hoping.

[UPDATE]  The Senate indeed repealed DADT 65-31.  Several Republicans decided they didn't want to be on the "wrong side of history" here only at the last moment.

No Juice In The Moose

Three out of five Americans say "thanks but no thanks" to Sarah Palin as President.

The 2012 presidential election is still a long way away, and Sarah Palin hasn't even decided if she will make a run for the White House, but a second straight poll brings troubling results for the former Alaska governor if she does launch a bid.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll indicates that nearly six in ten Americans say they wouldn't even consider voting for Palin if she runs. Eight percent of the people questioned in the survey, which was released Friday, say they would definitely back Palin in 2012 if she runs and 31 percent say they would consider supporting her.

The 59 percent who flatly rule out Palin is 16 points higher than the 43 percent in the survey who say they wouldn't consider voting to re-elect President Barack Obama in 2012. It's also 17 points higher than the 42 percent of the public who said they wouldn't vote for then Sen. Hillary Clinton in the last presidential election.

The poll also indicates that 27 percent of people voted for the John McCain-Palin ticket in the 2008 election, as well as nearly three in ten Republicans and four in ten conservatives, and four in ten evangelical white Protestants say they wouldn't consider Palin for president.

And that's pretty much the kiss of death right there for a Palin 2012 campaign.  Thirty percent of Republicans and 40% of Conservatives/white evangelicals wouldn't even consider Palin in the White House?

Sorry folks, she's got no chance in 2012.  None.  This is a pretty solid measure of the people who would outright never vote for her.

I of course want her to run even more now and split and damage the Republicans in 2012.  I think her own narcissism will demand it.  The 25% or so of Republicans that are hard core Palin fans certainly will demand it.  And the more the "lamestream media" tries to warn her off, the more chance of her running.  She has to at this point, because if she doesn't, the most rabid Republicans will sit out in 2012 in protest.

Of course, there's a very good chance that those same Republicans will sit out in protest when she loses the nomination.

She's the gift that keeps on giving...to Barack Obama.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• The Senate has passed a three-day temporary continuing resolution to keep the government running until Tuesday.
• Hustler Magazine publisher Larry Flynt is giving $50,000 to WikiLeaks.
• The Obama administration has finally released guidelines designed to take politics out of scientific research.
• Bad weather may delay South Korea's artillery drills this weekend as the US seeks talks between both Koreas.
• Google's Ngram Viewer shows people how and when words are used and how they evolve over the years.