World Cup Fever/Iraq war metaphor

Al-Zarqawi is dead, Bush is just back from Iraq, and there is actually a glimer of hope that Iraq is not headed to hell in a handbasket.

I want nothing more that to BE WRONG about Bush's Iraq War follies... I've always been ready to eat some crow. And yet somehow--recent good news not withstanding--I can't shake the feeling that the mess in Iraq was a collosal foreign policy blunder.

Sexton campaign update/Challenge to Blog readers

(UPDATE!!!! THANKS TO BLOGREADERS AS OF TUESDAY JUNE 13TH, THE TOTAL IS UP TO $1,750!!)
Yesterday's fundraiser for Congressional candidate Rich Sexton went really well. The weather was picture perfect, the food was fantastic and the company was pretty darn good too. Oh, and by the way, we also raised some cash for the campaign. At last count, we were just shy of $1,5oo.

This year in my district, we're up against a well-financed incumbent who shamelessly accepts big-ticket donations from the likes of Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff. So the Sexton campaign relies on events like yesterday's BBQ as its life blood.

Yesterday had some real intangible effects, as well. By helping Dems stretch the field in districts with entrenched GOP incumbents, we're helping with DNC chairman Howard Dean's mission to take the fight to the GOP in every district of every state in the country.

Additionally, the BBQ gave me the chance to cross-pollinate with my progressive neighbors and activists. There's a lot of frustration at our President and his rubberstamp congress. The fact is, many of us feel ashamed and disgusted with Rich Sexton's election-day rival (and GOP lapdog) Jim Saxton. And by bringing all that frustration (and energy) together--on my back porch--the grassroots had a chance to brainstorm our next steps.

I have to be honest, I hoped to raise more. My goal beforehand was $2,ooo. Don't know why I picked that figure, it just sounded like a nice, round number. I still would love to achieve the original 2k goal so I am turning to you in the blogosphere to help me out. You can still contribute and no amound is too modest. In fact, on my blog, I raised $300 in three days for the cause, mostly in $5 and $10 donations which can quickly add up. As an added inducement, for every $10 that we raise here in the blog-o-sphere, I'll donate an hour to the Sexton campaign. So it's like your donation will be working double time! If you think that sounds like a good investment, then click here, and make a small pledge.

Can you tell that everything I learned about asking for money came from listening to NPR pledgedrives....(sigh)

I never organized a fundraiser. Trying something like this was a great opportunity to cut my teeth and to get a feel for it. Next time will be even better, no doubt.

But I am still a long way from entering the furdraising pantheon of my hero and muse, Pamela Harriman whose glamorous Georgetown parties kept the Democratic coffers full during the dark days of the Reagan administration.
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top pic: Me and Rich enjoy a lite moment.
second pic, Rich and Me and the O'Neills whose committment to activism is matched only by their genorosity. Joanne is the South Jersey PDA organizer and her husband Tim is always out fighting the good fight, as well.)

BBQ,party down

I have neglected the blog a bit lately while pulling a BBQ/political fundraiser together this weekend. Here in NJ's third congressional district, we have a terrific Democratic candidate for Congress, Rich Sexton who's running against the Republican incumbent Jim Saxton. Sexton, Saxton, tomato, to-mah-to, you ask?

Hardly. First of all, Sex is always better than sax. I'm just saying....

And secondly, Jim Saxton (who raised national attention lately with a panic attack that sent Capital Hill into lockdown-mode) is a lapdog for the Bush Administration and I am profoundly ashamed and disguested that he's my voice in Congress. Jim Saxton's gotta go. The idea of a Democratic-controlled congress is very appealing to me. I am doing what I can to turn the republican tides in my district. Besides, a win in NJ-3 is a win for Democrats and progressives nationwide.

The BBQ extravaganza is tomorrow. If you can't make it, would you still consider supporting me with a small contributionto the campaign?(No amount's too modest!) I set up a webpage to accept donations to Rich's campaign so it's really easy and totally secure.

I've gotten to know Democrat Rich Sexton pretty well throughout the campaign. Since he and I share many of the same progressive values, it's natural that I'm working hard to get him elected. Wanna know more about Rich Sexton check out the podcast-able interview I did with him a month ago.

What anti-gay marriage ammendment?

After several years, thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars, Al-Zarqawi is dead. Good riddance.

But considering that Al-Zarqawi's cult of personality was ostensibly created by George Bush in the first place, I have a hard time seeing how Al-Zarqawi's death is worth all this fuss.

Everything I know about the death penalty I learned from Pope John Paul II

I am against capital punishment and I feel it should be abolished. But that hasn't always been the case. Until a few years ago, I believed the state reserved the right to impose the death penalty on offenders who commit the most henious types of crimes. It wasn't until about three years ago when I heard a speech made by the late Pontiff John Paul II, that I began to re-evaluate my own position on this compicated matter. At the time the Pope weighed in, I was skeptical that there would be much common ground between a liberal queer activist like me and the leader of the Catholic Church. I should note that I was raised Catholic and I always took a dim view of their rigid dogma, particularly concerning issues of sexuality. But when I heard Pope John Paul II discuss the death penalty in the context of forgiveness and vengance, I was moved to revisit the issue (and my own ideas of forgiveness.)

The Pope mentioned that support for the death penalty is generally rooted in desire for revenge. He acknowlegded the legitimate urge for justice, but suggested that justice can never be achieved through vengance. He admonished those who cite Biblical scripture to justify a pro-death penalty stance. According the the Pope, the oft-repeated proverb "an eye for an eye...." (Lev. 24:20) was not a recipe for vengance, rather to meant to serve as a cautionary tale against the escalation of violence in general. The Pope also pointed out that Jesus' position on the death penalty was clear: rather that reltaliation, we should "turn the other cheek" and extend our hand in healing, blessing, and forgiveness. (Matthew 5:38-55)

Rather that relying on a second-hand account of stuff I heard John Paul II say three years ago, I wanted to find some actual quotes from the Pope which support the values I've just described. It wasn't difficult. A Google search on the words "Pope John Paul + death penalty" turns up 641,ooo hits. The Vatican has its own website complete with an archive of transcripts from many Papal speeches and masses. (Who knew?) From paragraph 56 of Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life) Pope John Paul II states:

It's clear that for punishment to be achieved, the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought to not go to the extreme of executing the offender except when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, such cases are practically non-existent.

The Pope advanced the argument that when a prisoner (who poses no threat to society) is executed, it sends the message that life is worthless, thus we can view the death penalty as an injustice to the sanctity of life. I share the Pope's belief that execution does not end with the death of the criminal, but affects each and every one of us living in a society which justifies capital punishment.

I admit it's instinctively pleasing to jugde those who commit henoius crimes as worthless or "less-than" but we should resist this temptation. If we convince ourselves that some among us deserve death, then we forget that all of us deserve forgiveness and the grace to ammend our lives. Fighting violence with violence for the sake of vengance does not serve a useful role in this country. Nor does it allow society to cultivate less vengeful methods of dealing with violent crime.

A 1994 piece entitled Confronting a Culture of Corruption: A Catholic Framework for Action the American Conference of Catholic Bishops states:

Increasingly, our society looks to violent measures to deal with some of our most difficult social problems...including increased reliance on the death penalty to deal with crime. Violence is not the solution; is it the most clear sign of our failures. We can not teach that killing is wrong by killing.

As I mentioned, I spent a long time believing that capital punishment is justified in some cases. My change of heart occured when I heard the Pope issue a pretty bold and compelling statement condeming the death penalty. He basically suggested that those who take a pro-death penalty stance are generally folks who suffer from issues related to forgiveness. The fact is, at the time I was an angry young man with no ability to forgive others (or myself) for anything. Not that there were all these things to forgive, but I tended to err on the side of vengance whenever I felt threatened or slighted. In my case, the Pope was right: when I addressed my inablitiy to forgive, my feelings regarding the death penalty simply changed. I believe there is a strong correlation there.

Thinking back, I'm surprised I didn't respond defensively to the Pope's assertion, instead somehow managed to take his words to heart. I said earlier that my relationship with the Catholic Church is hardly a cozy one. That might have made it easy to dismiss the Pope out of hand. Instead, I had a "teachable moment" which has led me to a greater understanding of my own values.

something to ponder on primary election day

I am busy voting and watching women's French Open tennis all day. Thanks to ESPN2, I'll be enjoying 8 hours of coverage from Paris.

By the way, I wonder if the call the French Open by a different name down south. The Freedom Open perhaps?

Ban Gay Marriage? How About Banning Gay Uniforms

(Kvatch reports)--
While George Bush whips up the Republican base with the old gay marriage warhorse, a far more pernicious scourge lurks within our borders. Our military, the very defenders of our nation, are afflicted by the disease of gay uniforms.

Just look at these pictures and tell me you don't agree. These uniforms that could grace the cover of International Male for Pete's sake!

When President Bush speaks to the nation tonite, he shouldn't push for a ban on gay marriage, he should push for a ban on gay uniforms! Or at the very least a "don't ask, don't tell policy" on the fruity duds our troops are wearing this season.

Inconvenient Truthiness

When Al Gore say's he's not running for the Whitehouse in 2oo8 do you believe him? I don't. But that's okay, I hope he does run. He' s a smart man and I hope he'll be my president one day. (Hopefully sooner than later.)

Anyway, I saw the former VP's hot new flick today, An Inconvenient Truth.

LOVED IT! Definitely worth the $8.

So back to my original question. Who do you think will be the democratic candidate in '08? And who would you like to see the candidate be? (i guess that's two quesions, if you'll allow....)

Is it gonna be Hillary? Al? How about Joe Biden or Wes Clark? Who are you liking?

Until my friends start dying of bird-flu...

The reason I write about AIDS (and my 13 years living HIV+) is because I want every one who reads this blog to know someone with HIV. The more I can personalize the disease , the more folks seem to become emotionally engaged in the fight against AIDS.

With the 25th anniversary of the first AIDS diagnosis being commerated this weekend, there is a lot of reflection going on. The whole how far we've come/how far we have to go kinda thing.

I just heard something on NPR which moved me to tears about one of the doctors who figured prominently in the early days of the AIDS crisis. As a young doc out of med school, he went to work for the Centers for Disease Control and went on to become a pioneer of AIDS research. Listening to him describe how his faith enables him to continute to fight the good fight was very moving indeed. Like I said it got me a little misty.

Sentimentality quickly gives way to rage when I contemplate just how short-sighted President Bush's AIDS policy has been. His whole abstinence-till-marriage routing is so seeped in judgemental religious ideology that it is doomed to fail as a policy, which means of course that more people will die of AIDS in the meantime. The fact that the Bush is exporting these "values" abroad makes it all the more contemptable.

Bush is also staunchly against needle exchange suggesting that providing clean needles "sends the wrong message." I dubunk that myth here. Anyway, the message Bush is really sending is that he doesn't care about faggots and niggers and junkies. Sorry for the harsh language, but this is what the President's behavior says to me personally. And since gays, black and drug users are the ones getting the disease in highest numbers, AIDS (unlike the bird flu) will lag far beyone Bush's real priorities.

Anyway, if you're reading this, then you know at least one person with HIV. I don't wanna die of AIDS. I 'm tired of my friends dying of AIDS. So many are dead that I am an elderstatesman (of 34) and archivist of the fight, which is a miracle in itself. You can imagine when first diagnosed, the last thing I was thinking was I'd ever be the long-term archivist of anything. For this much I remain grateful. Which is a perfect note to end on.

Batwoman is a lipstick Lesbian!

I always suspected that Gotham City was a good place to be gay.

NEW YORK (AP) --

Years after she first emerged from the Batcave, Batwoman is coming out of the closet. DC Comics is resurrecting the classic comic book character as a lesbian, unveiling the new Batwoman in July as part of an ongoing weekly series that began this year. The 5-foot-10 superhero comes with flowing red hair, knee-high red boots with spiked heels, and a form-fitting black outfit.

Said Dan DiDio, vice president and executive editor at DC, "we decided to give her a different point of view. We wanted to make her a more unique personality than others in the Bat-family. That's one of the reasons we went in this direction."

"She's a socialite from Gotham high society," DiDio continuted. "She has some past connection with Bruce Wayne. And she's also had a past love affair with one of our lead characters, Renee Montoya."

AP:

Montoya, in the "52" comic book series, is a former police detective. Wayne, of course, is Batman's true identity -- but he has disappeared, along with Superman and Wonder Woman, leaving Gotham a more dangerous place. The "52" series is a collaboration of four acclaimed writers, with one episode per week for one year. The comics will introduce other diverse characters as the story plays out.

No word yet whether Gotham City's Mayor will be performing gay marriages anytime soon.