Saturday, October 02, 2010

Tomorrow In NYC's Washington Square: Glowstick Vigil For LGBT Youth

Sunday at 9pm thousands will gather in Manhattan's Washington Square Park for a You-Are-Loved vigil for LGBT youth. (No candles, open flames are strictly forbidden.) Facebook event page:
The vigil will start promptly at 9:00pm in Washington Square Park underneath the arch. Please bring your own glowstick if you have one as there will be a limited amount available. We will have at least 1,000 glowsticks to provide. The event will culminate in a chalking session in honor of the 2nd annual "You-Are-Loved Chalk Messaging Project." This project is meant to provide uplifting messages as well as shed light on the amount of bullying, harassment, self-injury, and suicidal thoughts that disproportionately affect queer youth.
Confirmed guests include the Trevor Project, Ali Forney Center, GLAAD, and Heritage of Pride. I will attend and document the event for JMG. Now where does one buy a glowstick in NYC?

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DJ Neil Lewis - Final Performance

Digging through an old box, last week I came across a forgotten CD recorded in Chicago by my late pal DJ Neil Lewis during what would be his final gig on February 28th, 2004. Neil passed away at his San Francisco home the next day. I know lots of my fellow "Neilies" (as we called ourselves) have tons of his Pleasuredome sets, but I put this mix up on SoundCloud today for the Neilies that want more, as well as dance fans that never got to enjoy the music of Neil Lewis in person.

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NOM Fires Back At HRC

In response to the Human Rights Campaign's NOM Exposed website, NOM has created Exposing NOM Exposed. NOM's Brian Brown cackles:
Sometimes you just have to have a good belly laugh. Don't get me wrong—the work we are doing is serious and important. But when the largest same-sex marriage group in the nation, with its annual budget of $40 million, decides to launch a new website to "expose" NOM and the work we are doing together, I have to wonder what they were thinking. Seriously. Go visit the site for yourself: NOMExposed.org.

When I first went to the site, I half-expected Vincent Price's voice to start streaming from the site at any moment because it looked like a fan-site for the "Thriller" video. It is seriously the most over-the-top, ghoulishly designed, hilariously campy website I have ever seen. Ever. While the site itself is a joke, the reasons behind it are not: Intimidation, bullying & religious bigotry. But we will not be silenced. Will you stand with us to protect marriage and religious liberty?

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Evangelicals Defy The IRS

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HomoQuotable - Dan Savage

"The religious right points to the suicide rate among gay teenagers — which the religious right works so hard to drive up as evidence that the gay lifestyle is destructive. It's like intentionally running someone down with your car and then claiming that it isn't safe to walk the streets.

"Which is why I argued that every gay teen suicide is a victory for the religious right. Because, you see, your side does use those suicides to 'perpetuate [your] agenda.' Tony Perkins and all those other oddly effete defenders of 'Christian values' and 'traditional marriage' will point to this recent spate of gay teen suicides to argue against gay marriage, anti-bullying programs, against allowing gay people to serve in the military—basically, they'll gleefully use these tragedies to justify what they like to call the 'Christian, pro-family agenda.'" - Dan Savage, responding to a woman who wrote to say that her feelings were hurt by his claim that Christians are responsible for gay teen suicides.

Read Savage's complete response. It begins: "I'm sorry your feelings were hurt by my comments. No, wait. I'm not. Gay kids are dying. So let's try to keep things in perspective: fuck your feelings."

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A.J. McClean - It Gets Better

Backstreet Boys member A.J. McClean weighs in.

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Quote Of The Day - Tony Perkins

"As business owners, it's completely within the Stocktons' right not to be forced by a customer to make a product that violates their moral and/or religious convictions. If the customers don't like it, they can take their dollars elsewhere. Just because David and Lily own a store doesn't mean they're slaves to the agenda of anyone who visits. The Stocktons are well within their legal bounds to decline an order that would make them a public part of a very perverse celebration.

"One of the few locals who spoke out against the family said that taking this kind of stand is not "smart business." On the contrary, business has never been better! According to our friends at the Indiana Family Institute, local support has been so overwhelming that the Stocktons sold out of cookies!

"At least two conservative legal groups have already offered to defend the freedom of Just Cookies in court. That should teach liberals to pursue these half-baked ideas about 'tolerance.' Now it's up to the Mayor to quit wilting under pressure and call off the investigation. Contact Mayor Greg Ballard's office (317-327-3601) and ask him to stop bullying businesses with conviction. If he can't stand the heat, tell him to get out of the Stocktons' kitchen!" - Family Research Council head Tony Perkins, joining in the national Christianist "outrage" about that Indianapolis cookie shop.

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Christine O'Donnell: I'd Be A Hare Krishna But I Like Meat Too Much

From 1999 on the Bill Maher show.

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Focus On The Family: Homosexuals Are The Real Bullies In The Schools

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Friday, October 01, 2010

CNN Anchor Rick Sanchez Fired Over "Jews Run The Networks" Radio Comments

CNN fired its popular daytime anchor Rick Sanchez late today after he complained to a national satellite radio audience that Jews run the nation's media outlets.
It started relatively innocently, with Sanchez expressing irritation at being lumped in with other Hispanic TV journalists by a CNN boss. Racist attitudes aren't rooted on the political right, he added, but also extend to "elite, Northeast establishment liberals." "Deep down, when they look at a guy like me, they see a guy automatically who belongs in the second tier, and not the top tier," Sanchez continued. Then he said: "I think to some extent Jon Stewart and [Comedy Central comic Stephen] Colbert are the same way. I think Jon Stewart's a bigot." How's that? asked the puzzled Dominick. "I think he looks at the world through his mom, who was a school teacher, and his dad, who was a physicist or something like that," replied Sanchez, speaking of Stewart. "Great, I'm so happy that he grew up in a suburban middle class New Jersey home with everything you could ever imagine."
Sanchez: "I'm telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish, are an oppressed minority? Yeah."

Rich Sanchez' career has been no stranger to controversy. While a local anchor in South Florida, he struck and paralyzed a pedestrian while driving out of a Miami Dolphins game. Sanchez then fled the scene, only returning two hours later for a breathalyzer test which still showed him over the legal limit. He later plead no contest to DUI, but was never charged with running over the man. That case was daily news for many months when I lived in Florida.

Here's the clip that got Sanchez fired.

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California Decriminalizes Marijuana

The Governator just signed a bill decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana down to the level of a parking ticket.
Those caught with less than an ounce of marijuana will still receive a maximum penalty of $100. However, Senate Bill 1449 reduces the legal categorization of marijuana possession from a misdemeanor to a civil infraction. This means that those caught will not have to appear in court, pay court fees or receive a criminal record. Schwarzenegger opposes Proposition 19, a pending referendum that will provide a legal framework for the sale, cultivation and taxation of marijuana. However, despite this opposition, Schwarzenegger signed the bill into law.
Schwarzenegger says the state simply cannot afford the expense of prosecuting those found with less than an ounce of weed.

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FLORIDA: Gov. Charlie "Closet Case" Crist Backtracks On Support For Gay Adoption

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Los Angeles LGBT Center Wins $13M Federal Grant To Help Gay Foster Kids

We needed this kind of great news today, we really did. Via press release:
Today the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center was awarded a landmark $13.3 million, five-year grant from the Federal Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Administration on Children, Youth and Families to create a model program that will provide life-saving support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in the foster care system. Following a highly competitive review process, six grants were awarded—the Center’s grant is the only one specifically to support LGBTQ youth and the only grant that did not go to a government agency or academic institution. It’s also the largest federal grant ever awarded to an LGBT organization.

The need for services for LGBT youth in foster care is dire. According to a 2001 (Feinstein) study, 78% of LGBTQ foster youth were forced to leave their foster placements due to hostility related to their sexual orientation or gender identity. In a 2001 study from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, 70% reported physical violence and 100% reported harassment in their group home. Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services (GLASS), the only group home for LGBTQ foster youth in Los Angeles, closed its doors in 2008 (with its displaced residents turning to the Center for much-needed support).
Stand by for the wingnut screaming. Which will be delicious.

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ACLU Staffers - It Gets Better

Just in from the ACLU:
We made our own videos to contribute to the It Gets Better Project, featuring several LGBT staffers from the national ACLU's New York and Washington, D.C. offices. Staff from many different departments — including fundraising, database, and human resources — stepped up to contribute. The ACLU's executive director, Anthony D. Romero, joined in the effort as well. Learn more about the ACLU LGBT Project's work on behalf of students and youth at www.aclu.org/safeschools.
Watch both of these.

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Bright Eyes - Coyote Song

Stereogum reports: "Coyote Song is the first official track from Sound Strike Songs, a benefit collection supporting legal defense for immigrants caught in Arizona’s immigration laws."

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Maggie Gallagher On Tyler Clementi

"The suicide of that teen was not only a tragedy it was a crime. The young people who violated laws out of mindless desire to bully or embarrass or whatever the heck kids do this stuff will be prosecuted and probably jailed, I hope. Nothing in the press accounts suggest the kids who did this were motivated by homophobia, and the cruelty of cyberbullying is causing teen suicides among those who are not gay, as well. I do not think the absence of gay marriage is the cause of these tragedies or its presence will resolve them. We can make this a symbol of all our other fights, or we can try to save all our kids, gay and straight, from this kind of ugly and mindless cruelty. My heart goes out to the family of the young man. God bless him and them." - Maggie Gallagher, commenting on NOM's blog.

Jeremy Hooper responds at Good As You: "It doesn't matter what Maggie personally thinks about what will or will not resolve tragedies like the ones we've seen this week. It doesn't matter how heartfelt her personal condolences may be. What matters is the body of her professional work with NOM and elsewhere, and the fallout that we gay folk all-too-well know can stem from these "culture war" activities! Because it is this bias cultivation that changes the molecules in the air. It's this anti-civil rights work that puts heterosexism into everyone's psyches. It's this fear-fostering that foments a world where LGBT people are viewed as different, wrong, or in some extreme cases -- unworthy of life."

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Rahm Emanuel Says Good-Bye

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Tweet Of The Day - Andrew Shirvell

NOTE: In case it's not clear, this is a spoof account. And totally hilarious.

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FLORIDA: Teabagger Medicare Fraudster Rick Scott Leads Democrat Alex Sink

Tea Party candidate Rick Scott, whose hospital group paid the largest federal fine in history for defrauding Medicare, has a small but growing lead over Democrat Alex Sink. The averages still call it a toss-up, but the two most recent poll show Scott pulling ahead. Scott is also the founder of the astroturf group, Conservatives For Patient Rights, which pretends to be a citizens group advocating for less government oversight of the health care industry.

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The Cher Within

Prints are now onsale on Etsy.com:
My painting “The Cher Within” depicts the magical moment when a drag performer prepares to cross the line between ambiguous guy in his underwear to full-on diva extraordinaire, in this case fashioned after his ultimate heroine, Cher. The painting also represents the diva in everyone, those who have actually taken their sequinned acts to the stage and those who may have offered more intimate performances behind bathroom doors, with towels for wigs and hairbrush microphones. I highly advocate vogueing before any and all reflective surfaces, because with enough imagination (and some extra-long false eyelashes for good measure), you never know who will be looking back at you from the reflection.
(Tipped by JMG reader Ed)

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MICHIGAN: Andrew Shirvell Isn't Suspended, He's On A Leave Of Absence

The Detroit News has issued a correction to yesterday's story.
An assistant attorney general who has attracted national attention for a controversial blog that ridicules and denounces a University of Michigan student leader for his gay advocacy, religious beliefs and character has taken a personal leave following intense public scrutiny, a spokesman for Attorney General Mike Cox said today. Cox spokesman John Sellek said, however, Andrew Shirvell will be the subject of a disciplinary hearing after he returns to work at an undetermined future date. Shirvell's decision to go on leave came a day after Cox told CNN he didn't intend to fire Shirvell, citing civil service rules that protect government employees from being "fired willy-nilly" for exercising their rights of free speech.

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Senate Approves Ad Volume Bill

On Wednesday the Senate approved a bill requiring TV stations and cable networks to keep the audio volume of commercials at the same level of the shows they interrupt. The House has passed a similar bill already.
Correcting sound levels is more complicated than using the remote control. The television shows and ads come from a variety of sources, from local businesses to syndicators. Managing the transition between programs and ads without spoiling the artistic intent of the producers poses technical challenges and may require TV broadcasters to purchase new equipment. To address the issue, an industry organization recently produced guidelines on how to process, measure and transmit audio in a uniform way. The legislation, sponsored by Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., requires the FCC to adopt those recommendations as regulations within a year and begin enforcing them a year later. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., is the driving force behind the bill in the House.
The bill goes into reconciliation between the two chambers when Congress returns for their lame duck session.

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The Gays Are Taking Over TV!

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PhoboQuotable - Theodore Beale

"The body count of the gay rights movement grows by one. Despite literal decades of preaching about the morality of homosexuality, despite the pansexual propaganda of the public and private schools, the knowledge that what he was doing was shameful and wrong still managed to penetrate Mr. [Tyler] Clementi's mind. A normal man being forced to confront his immorality in such a public way might have reacted with anger, irritation, embarrassment, or amusement, but only one who is both psychologically disturbed and appalled by his own actions will destroy himself over it. [Snip]

"So it was not a juvenile prank that killed the unfortunate Mr. Clementi even though it served as the proximate trigger for his lethal actions. If anyone other than Mr. Clementi should be blamed for his suicide, it is those who repeatedly encouraged him to behave in a way that would fill him with such guilt, remorse, and shame." - World Net Daily columnist Theodore Beale, writing on his personal blog. Beale writes for both sites under the pseudonym Vox Day.

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Cebu Pacific Flight Safety Demo

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Ben Brantley On The Future Of Drag

"How much longer can they continue without a fresh batch of bona fide female stars to draw inspiration from? Since the 1960s, such role models have been scarce. Sure, there have been beautiful-freak performers like Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli, with their surreally emotive song stylings (descended from the patron saint of musical drag queens, Minnelli’s mother, Judy Garland).

"But with the feminist movement and the let-it-all-hang out ethos of the hippies that took hold in the post-Kennedy years, heroines in movies started to look more like natural women (to borrow a title from Carole King). In the 1970s and ’80s, Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda and Jill Clayburgh emerged as strong personalities, but they were not obvious fodder for drag shows. In the so-called postfeminist era, women may have stepped back into high heels and makeup as thick and precise as a geisha’s. But now they wear these identities with quotation marks, as female impersonators had before them." - New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley, in an interesting piece on the future of drag. Read the entire thing.

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Project Runway Spoiler

If you've seen last night's very moving episode of Project Runway, jump in and discuss. Otherwise, stay out of the comments. I'd never watched the show, but my pal Ray in Chicago emailed me to insist. Luckily, my cat-sitter Dr. Jeff has it programmed into my DVR.

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Naomi - It Gets Better

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INDIANA: American Family Association Reponds To "Cupcakegate"

The American Family Association says that the sexual orientation anti-discrimination laws passed five years ago by Indianapolis were a terrible thing. Because that means being forced to sell rainbow cupcakes.
Controversy arose this week after the owners of the bakery cited moral objections to a special-order request for rainbow-decorated cookies for next week's "National Coming Out Day" observance at a nearby university campus. Stockton told the caller he did not feel comfortable in supporting homosexual values, especially because it would not set a good example for his two daughters. Micah Clark of the American Family Association of Indiana says there are reports the city might evict Stockton, citing a local "anti-discrimination" statute. "Indianapolis passed a sexual-orientation city ordinance five years ago," Clark explains. "...We warned [at that time] that this type of thing would happen if they passed an ordinance elevating a sexual behavior to the same moral equivalent of race or skin color."
The AFA is asking its members to rush to the shop and buy its products.

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Christwire's JMG Pulp Novel

Christwire's Stephenson Billings has created a fleet of amusing pulp novel covers taking jabs at various bloggers, websites, and personalities.
I am opening the door to their obsessions and predilections, their narcissism and their lust, the very things that they are too afraid to admit to themselves. If today’s so-called artists and thinkers had the energy and wherewithal to actually write something in long form worthy of paper as opposed to their nagging Twitter updates or their blog tirades, this is what they’d write.
Loves it.

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Ellen DeGeneres On Gay Teen Suicides

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Anderson Cooper On Tyler Clementi

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MICHIGAN: Andrew Shirvell Suspended

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has reversed his position and suspended Assistant AG Andrew Shirvell (left) after a national media outcry about Shivrell's cyber-harassment of openly gay University of Michigan student body president Chris Armstrong.
The suspension came a day after Cox told CNN he didn't intend to fire Shirvell, citing civil service rules that protect government employees from being "fired willy-nilly" for exercising their rights of free speech. Cox said he hadn't earlier read all of Shirvell's blog, "Chris Armstrong Watch," that dogs Armstrong, the 21-year-old, openly gay president of U-M's student government and accuses him of "anti-Christian behavior," "mocking God," promoting homosexuality and trying "to recruit your sons and daughters" into the gay lifestyle. "I'm at fault here," Cox said. "I've been saying for weeks that (Shirvell's) been acting like a bully, that his behavior is immature, but it's after-hours and protected by the First Amendment." But Cox also took a shot at Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who posted a Twitter item Thursday saying she would have fired Shirvell. "I don't know why she's so freaking irresponsible. ... she went to Harvard Law School," Cox said. "The civil service rules are a huge shield for free speech and she knows that."
The ACLU is backing Cox's opinion on Shirvell's First Amendment rights, saying they believe "the answer to hate speech is more speech."

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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm Tweets...

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Olbermann On Chambliss Call

Hey, somebody finally got my name right!

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Sen. Saxby Chambliss Just Called Me To Offer His "Sincerest Apologies"

I just got off the phone with Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who said he was calling to personally apologize for the "All faggots must die" comment left here on JMG last Tuesday. I'll paraphrase what Chambliss said to me, but reporters, please don't excerpt any of this as his exact words.

CHAMBLISS: "Joe, I don't know if you're Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, but none of that should matter. Because what was said on your blog by someone from my office is just not acceptable, no matter who is saying it and who it's being said to. I just want to offer my sincerest apologies. There has been some talk about how long it's taking to find the person behind this, but we just wanted to be very careful and handed this off to the Senate Sergeant at Arms, because this is going to seriously impact somebody's life and we wanted to make sure we got this right. So again, I just wanted to call you and personally apologize."

JMG: "Thank you, Senator. I do appreciate the call and I do accept your apology on the condition that your office issues a public statement repeating what you've just said to me. I'd also like the disposition of your staffer's job status to be made public."

CHAMBLISS: (Speaking to someone in his office: "Has that gone out yet?) "Joe, I believe our statement is ready and will be going out this afternoon."

I'll post the official statement from Sen. Chambliss' office as soon as I get it.

UPDATE: Here it is.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss issued the following statement this afternoon:

"The office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms has concluded its investigation, and I responded to that report immediately with the removal of a member of my staff. I commend the Sergeant at Arms, Terrance Gainer, and his staff for their very thorough and professional work.

"I have called Mr. Jervis, the blog’s author, and apologized to him personally, and I am sorry for the hurt this incident has caused. Regardless of one’s position on issues and policies, such comments are simply unacceptable, are not befitting those who work in the U.S. Senate, and I will not tolerate them from my staff."
Obviously we are still waiting to learn the identity of the staffer and what his position was with the Chambliss office.

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Anti-Immigrant Group Calls For Arrest Of Meg Whitman And Her Housekeeper

The Americans For Legal Immigration (ALIPAC) have issued a press release calling for the arrests of Meg Whitman and her former housekeeper for violating employment and immigration laws.
"We need equal justice for both the illegal alien and the employer," said William Gheen, President of ALIPAC. "Nicky Diaz should be charged and deported and Meg Whitman should face the existing penalties under current US law as well. No Amnesty for Whitman or Diaz, the Rule of Law must be restored in America." Nicki Diaz gave a tearful interview to reporters today, accompanied by Gloria Allred, a longtime Democratic supporter. Diaz claims that Whitman, a Republican candidate for Governor of California, knew she was an illegal alien and was abusive to her and failed to pay her all her wages. Diaz cried through most of the interview in what was an obviously contrived display of political theater. "Best illegal alien actor award of 2010 should go to Nicki Diaz for her role as the tearful victimized invader," said William Gheen. "Meg Whitman's financial gain from the movie rights should be seized by the courts to compensate the American taxpayers who have paid the price for her illegal laborer over the years."
ALIPAC is pissed at Whitman over her support for comprehensive immigration reform.
The American public has indicated in numerous scientific polls that well over 80% of Americans want employers like Meg Whitman heavily fined. Over 50% want the employers of illegals, like Whitman, jailed. Americans have also shown overwhelming support for the arrest, detention, and deportation of illegal immigrants like Nicki Diaz. Both the US Constitution and the existing laws of Congress mandate that both Whitman and Diaz should be charged and treated equally under those laws. "We stand with the majority of American citizens who want our existing border and immigration laws enforced!" said William Gheen. "Therefore we call on all appropriate authorities to arrest and charge both Meg Whitman and Nicki Diaz."

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Today In Teabagger Music Videos

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Tweet Of The Day - 50 Cent

Multiple felon and rapper 50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson) also recently tweeted a photo of what he said was a machine-gun attack on a gay wedding. Despite his frequent calls for violence against gay people, he is considered a rising star as an actor and has recently been a guest on popular talk shows like The View.
His performing career aside, Jackson is worth hundreds of millions thanks to his stake in VitaminWater, which was sold to Coca-Cola for $4B. He also has his own fragrance line, a five-year sneaker deal with Reebok, and his own imprint at Time-Warner Books. Pressure need to be brought on these companies about working with vile creatures like Curtis Jackson.

RELATED: One of my favorite Twitter accounts is English50Cent, which translates his rap-speak tweets into grammatically correct English. 50 Cent: "you fine ass freak bitch where you at. you on line hoe this pimpin over here. You fucking wit me or what?" English50Cent: "You are sexually attractive but absent. Use a horticultural tool on this. Are you toying with my affections?"

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Sharron Angle: I Want To Repeal Mandated Insurance Coverage For All Diseases

Sharron Angle thinks insurance companies should be able to refuse coverage for those super-pesky diseases that cost insurers so much money!

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Obama Chief Of Staff Rahm Emanuel Quits White House To Run For Mayor Of Chicago

The rumors were true. Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will resign tomorrow to run for mayor of Chicago. Earlier this month six-term Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced that he would not seek another term.
The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, at his daily briefing on Thursday afternoon said that the president will give two personnel announcements on Friday morning from the East Room of the White House. Mr. Gibbs, admitting that he was being purposely “oblique,” would not confirm whether the announcements would concern Mr. Emanuel. The two officials, who declined to be named in advance of the official announcement, confirmed that Mr. Obama plans to name Pete Rouse, a senior adviser, to replace Mr. Emanuel. Mr. Rouse has been at the president’s side since Mr. Obama arrived in Washington nearly six years ago as a senator, serving as his chief of staff.

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PhoboQuotable - Eugene Delgaudio

"Last night, I had a dream. It was 2011 and Republicans were celebrating a sweep of the House and near takeover of the Senate. But that dream became a nightmare. A wounded soldier sat in a veteran’s hospital after returning from Afghanistan. Noticeably shaken, his doctor walked in and choked out the worst news of this young soldier’s life: He’d been infected with HIV. You see, the doctor informed him that his wounds came in contact with those of a practicing homosexual, now allowed to serve in our military. 'How could this happen?' the soldier expressed shock and disappointment right before I awoke.

"Today I was reminded of several disturbing news stories. Left and right I see conservatives -- even some good conservatives -- who no longer seem to care. And that’s when it hit me. In my nightmare, conservative Americans had been too busy focusing on jobs and the economy before the November elections. Distracted, they failed to maintain a committed resistance to the Homosexual Agenda." - Public Advocate head Eugene Delguadio, from a fundraising plea titled "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Stalled In Senate By Public Advocate.

Send him money! He single-handedly stopped the repeal of DADT!

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Michael Urie - It Gets Better

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Rachel Maddow Rips Carl Paladino

Maddow says teabagger loon Carl Paladino's whackadoodle act is bordering on Joaquin Phoenix-level performance art.

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Assistant Michigan AG Andrew Shirvell's Anti-Gay Harassment Goes Way Back

A reader writes to note that Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell has been on an anti-gay campaign for years. From a 2005 news story:
Members of a local student-oriented Catholic parish received an e-mail last week urging them to boycott the New York Pizza Depot on East William Street because of a gay pride rainbow sicker on its front door. The sticker has upset some people, including Andrew Shirvell, an NYPD customer and member of St. Mary’s Student Parish, located down the street from NYPD. Shirvell, a University alumnus and former president of Students for Life, said the sticker is offensive because it endorses homosexuality instead of simply tolerating it. “I find the rainbow flag offensive because it is a symbol of the homosexual movement that, in my opinion, indicates a validation of the homosexual lifestyle, as opposed to a sign that indicates ‘openness’ to customers who are of the homosexual orientation,” he said.
Shirvell said the pizzeria "had to put up the rainbow flag decal in order to appease the homosexuals who frequented NYPD on Friday nights." No homosexual pizza! No homosexual cupcakes!

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MICHIGAN: Assistant Attorney General To Keep Job Despite Anti-Gay Harassment

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Teabagger Carl Paladino To New York Post Reporter: I'll Take You OUT Buddy!

Teabagger loon Carl Paladino got into a heated shouting match with a New York Post reporter yesterday after the reporter demanded to see evidence that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been cheating on his wife, as Paladino has begun to claim. Paladino, as we know, has a ten year-old daughter from his own adulterous affair with an employee.
After Dicker asked Paladino what evidence he had to make accusations to Maghabe at Politico that Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Andrew Cuomo had cheated on his ex -wife, Blain reports, Paladino turned the tables, assailing Dicker over the Post's coverage of the daughter he fathered a decade ago with a woman other than his wife. "I want to know why you sent your goons after my daughter, Fred," Paladino demanded. "You send another goon to my daughter's house and I'll take you out, buddy!" Paladino also raised the issue of Cuomo's former marriage in a Newsday report this morning, saying he wanted the media to "go after Cuomo and his paramours" but, again, offering no evidence of what he was talking about. Paladino's campaign manager, Michael Caputo, separated the two men and sent his candidate into the men's room to calm down. Then, Caputo accused Dicker of working for Cuomo and doing his dirty work, so to speak. At one point, Blain says, Paladino cursed Dicker, saying, "F--- him!"
Here's a clip of the altercation. New York, baby.

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"Jumping Off The GW Bridge. Sorry."

The New York Times reports more details about the suicide of 18 year-old Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi, who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate streamed live video of Clementi having sex with a man. Clementi's final Facebook update: "Jumping off the gw bridge. sorry."
It started with a Twitter message on Sept. 19: “Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.” That night, the authorities say, the Rutgers University student who sent the message used a camera in his dormitory room to stream the roommate’s intimate encounter live on the Internet. [snip] The Middlesex County prosecutor’s office said Mr. Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, 18, of Plainsboro, N.J., and another classmate, Molly Wei, 18, of Princeton Junction, N.J., had each been charged with two counts of invasion of privacy for using “the camera to view and transmit a live image” of Mr. Clementi.

The most serious charges carry a maximum sentence of five years. Mr. Ravi was charged with two additional counts of invasion of privacy for trying a similar live feed on the Internet on Sept. 21, the day before the suicide. A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, James O’Neill, said the investigation was continuing, but he declined to “speculate on additional charges.” Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, said Wednesday that he considered the death a hate crime. “We are sickened that anyone in our society, such as the students allegedly responsible for making the surreptitious video, might consider destroying others’ lives as a sport,” he said in a statement.
Ravi is claiming that the first broadcast of Clementi was an accident, but police say he attempted a second live-stream two days later. Last night police recovered the body of a red-headed young man from the banks of the Hudson River. The family will make the identification today.

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FTC Rules Pom Wonderful As Deceptive

Continuing their campaign against food items falsely claiming to bring good health, the Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint against the makers of Pom Wonderful for "making false and unsubstantiated claims that their products will prevent or treat heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction."
The FTC complaint alleges that POM Wonderful’s heart disease claims are false and unsubstantiated because many of the scientific studies conducted by POM Wonderful did not show heart disease benefit from use of its products. It alleges that the prostate cancer claims are false and unsubstantiated because, among other reasons, the study POM Wonderful relied on was neither “blinded” nor controlled. Finally, it alleges that the erectile dysfunction claims are false and unsubstantiated because the study on which the company relied did not show that POM Juice was any more effective than a placebo.
VitaminWater got the same treatment earlier this month.

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WISCONSIN: Man Attacks 14 Year-Old Girl Carrying Gay Pride Flag

La Crosse, Wisconsin police are investigating an incident in which a man shoved a 14 year-old girl in an attempt to wrestle away a version of the gay pride flag the teen was going to carry in the city's Maple Leaf Parade.
The teen was rollerblading and carrying a flag pole with two rainbow flags — one a hybrid of the American flag and the gay pride flag — as members of 7 Rivers LGBT Resource Center’s float prepared for the parade about 9:45 a.m. Saturday on Rose Street, said Roseanne St. Sauver, the center’s executive director. Commodore Mark Schneider, who was on a float nearby, approached the girl and put his hands on the flagpole, St. Sauver said. St. Sauver walked over, placed her hands on the pole and told him, “Please stop, she’s a 14-year-old child." “He said, ‘I do not care. Look what you are teaching them,’” St. Sauver said. That’s when, St. Sauver said, Schneider shoved the girl with his body. St. Sauver said Schneider told the girl: “Go to a country where they will hang people like you.“ The incident left the teen crying, and others upset, St. Sauver said. This is the first year the center has participated in the parade. “I had tears in my eyes,” she said. “He specifically targeted us and made statements about our sexual orientation.”
Schneider says he was upset about the alteration of the American flag and not anybody's sexuality. Yeah, right. Yesterday he issued an apology to the girl and his family, presumably in return for assault charges being dropped. Here's the asshat in a news story about his being named "commodore" of Riverfest 2010.

(Tipped by JMG reader Jimbo)

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Tony Curtis Dies At Age 85

Legendary actor Tony Curtis has died at the age of 85.
"My father leaves behind a legacy of great performances in movies and in his paintings and assemblages," actress Jamie Lee Curtis said in a statement. "He leaves behind children and their families who loved him and respected him and a wife and in-laws who were devoted to him. He also leaves behind fans all over the world. He will be greatly missed." Curtis starred in more than 140 major motion pictures and was nominated as for an Oscar for his performance in 1958's "The Defiant Ones" with Sidney Poitier, according to his official website. Curtis also is known for his roles in the 1959 movie "Some Like it Hot" with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon and "Spartacus" in 1960 with Kirk Douglas. He also played the lead role in "The Boston Strangler," released in 1968.

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Rosie Perez For Fight Back NY

I adore Rosie Perez and want to gay-marry her accent.

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Carl Paladino Vs. Joy Behar

"Joy Behar should be absolutely ashamed of herself for referring to Carl's daughter as illegimate. She's a child and does not deserve that kind of treatment from a woman who should know better. That's catty, it's pissy and strikes of something that someone would say when suffering from a sudden hot flash. The only person here who's illegimate is Joy Behar's hairstylist. Joy is off Carl Paladino's christmas card list." - The Paladino campaign responding to Behar's mention of his ten year-old love child on The View.

Paladino supports "traditional marriage" - the kind in which you adulterously fuck your employee, have a baby with her, then not tell your wife about it for ten years.

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Guys Against You Serving

Sarah Silverman, Weird Al Yankovic, John Cho, and JMG reader Dave Holmes speak out in fake support of DADT.

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Quote Of The Day - Brian Brown

"I looked at the website. Gee, they've discovered that NOM is a coalition of people of diverse religious views who believe gay marriage will hurt marriage as a social institution. They didn't need a whole website to ‘expose’ that; I could have told them. We're flattered. HRC is a $40 million organization whose heavy-handed attacks on NOM only prove that we are the key national organization fighting for marriage as one man and one woman. We've grown from a $500,000 to a $10 million organization in just three years because so many Americans recognize that we are a key player in the fight for marriage." - NOM head Brian Brown, responding to the NOM Exposed website.

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A Tribute To The NOH8 Campaign

From voiceover artist DC Douglas.

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Another Accuser Of Bishop Eddie "Down Low" Long Speaks To The Press

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Open Thread Thursday

When Dan Savage emailed me a couple of weeks ago to float the concept of his "It Gets Better" project, I almost fell out of my chair at the idea's brilliance and, perhaps as importantly, its simplicity. What an easy to execute, yet incredibly powerful way to reach LGBT youth at risk! But a moment later, I also felt a strange pang of guilt because I had nothing to personally contribute. I was never bullied or taunted for being gay that I can recall.

My father was certainly disappointed with my uninterest in sports and that often-expressed regret seemed to come with an implied assessment of my masculinity. But overall my parents were largely indifferent to my high school social life, which as far as they could tell primarily focused on geeking out over Saturday night Risk tournaments with the rest of the chess club. (Little did they know those evenings often ended with a trip to the Parliament House!)

As for religious damnation, our family's already sporadic attendance (Easter, Christmas, etc) at Orlando's Good Shepherd finally petered out when I entered middle school, so I never personally heard any promises of burning in an eternal lake of fire for being a dirty little queer. The concept of homosexuality as an "abomination" was merely an odd notion, one I remembered from the more severe St. Egbert back in North Carolina. I knew some people felt that way, but the thought scarcely crossed my mind.

Tell us about your own high school experiences. Did you keep your head down and blend in, as I did? Were you out and proud, as I wish I had been? I never had to deny my gayness because nobody ever really "accused" me. But I also never had a high school sweetheart, never went on a real date with a boy. I was probably as happy (and morose) as the average teenager, but I sure missed out on a lot. Tonight I'm thinking about what I sacrificed. But that thought also makes me even more proud of today's brave queer kids and what they face in today's ugly environment of cyber-bullying and anti-gay religious crusades. Let's talk about that.

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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

JMG Reader Meet-Up: 8PM Friday, October 8th At The Castro's Edge Bar

We decided on the Edge because it's not too loud and shouldn't be too crowded with others at that hour. Plus, I heart dive bars. This is your chance to meet the JMG reader behind that sexy avatar. Hope to meet lots of you there!

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WEST VIRGINIA: Teabaggers Use Stephen Colbert Against Gov. Joe Manchin

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Trouble With The Help For Meg Whitman

California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman is having some trouble with the help. Namely, her former housekeeper of nine years who today revealed herself as an undocumented worker amid claims that Whitman was an abusive employer.
Flanked by attorney Gloria Allred, former Whitman employee Nicandra Diaz made the accusations at a tearful Los Angeles press conference Wednesday. Diaz said she asked Whitman for help with her immigration status in 2009 and Whitman refused. "I felt like she was throwing me away like a piece of garbage," Diaz said. Whitman responded to the charges in a statement Wednesday. "After nine years of faithful service, Nicky came to us in June 2009 and confessed that she was an illegal worker," the statement reads. "Nicky had falsified the hiring documents and personal information she provided to the employment agency that brought her to us in 2000. Nicky told me that she was admitting her deception now because she was aware that her lie might come out during the campaign. Nicky said she was concerned about hurting my family and me." Whitman continued: "As required by law, once we learned she was an illegal worker, I immediately terminated Nicky’s employment. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I considered Nicky a friend and a part of our extended family."
Gloria Allred says her client was "exploited, disrespected, humiliated and emotionally and financially abused." I don't think there's much to see here, actually. Whitman supposedly terminated the woman immediately upon learning about her status, which clears her from charges of hypocrisy about her immigration positions. As for the abuse claims, remember this is prime opportunist Gloria Allred. I wish there could be some actual meat to this story, but I doubt it. It'll depend on how the housekeeper plays in the Spanish press, I'd guess.

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Christine O'Donnell Tells Christian TV:
God Wants Me In The U.S. Senate

The audio is out of sync on this clip, which kinda only makes it better.

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Tweet Of The Day - NOM

Here's what NOM is very upset about.
An Indianapolis bakery is under fire from the gay and lesbian community over a choice not to serve a diversity group. A campus organization said it was denied service in what's become a flashpoint in the fight for equal rights. This is what they were after: a mulitcolored cupcake to celebrate "National Coming Out Day" next month; a rainbow confection to honor the diversity on the campus of IUPUI. But the student who had the order placed at Just Cookies was told no. "We're right on the cusp of being equal with anyone else, I don't know why they would do that," said student Shan Parker. "I explained we're a family-run business, we have two young, impressionable daughters and we thought maybe it was best not to do that," said co-owner David Stockton.
"Christian family business forced to bake perverted cupcakes!" Only that never happened, the students took their business elsewhere. Watch for this lie to be repeated by anti-gay groups for the next ten years, just like that wedding photographer in New Mexico. (Who actually was fined by the local human rights commission.)

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Some JMG Stuff

As our JMG comment threads frequently now reach far beyond 100 responses, the comments service provider has helped me increase the one-page comment limit to 500. (It used to be 20!) If you'd prefer shorter comment thread pages, let me know.

And as I mentioned last week, I've just about reached Facebook's (arbitrary) friends limit, so I've been forced to create a JMG fan page. I'm still reposting JMG items to both my personal Facebook page and the fan page, but eventually I'll be primarily using the fan page to post breaking items, updates, and other news-ish bits that don't make it to the blog. I encourage to you post your own items there as well, even just to share with others on the fan page.

Also there's the JMG Twitter feed, which automatically pings all new blog posts and to which readers send me many news tips. As readership on this here website thingy continues to mushroom, my blogging process is becoming, probably necessarily, even more collaborative with you folks. I don't say it enough, but I very much appreciate all the emails, the tweets, the Facebook tips...everything...even if I often can't get back to all of you personally.

Finally, yet another reminder about commenting decorum. Please be aware that the enemies of our people often harvest your comments here for publication elsewhere. (And as the staffer of a certain GOP Senator recently learned, there is NO such thing as internet anonymity.) As I've said here often, one of the reasons that JMG has the most, ahem, robust commenting community of the LGBT blogosphere is that your words are unmoderated and uncensored.

So feel free to run your filthy fucking mouths, shout down the asshats, and say whatever needs to be said. But you may absolutely not make threats of physical harm, however idle. Please email me at JoeMyGod@gmail.com if you see such comments and I will dispatch them. Bear hugs and tall frosty beers to you all.

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Quote Of The Day - Wayne Besen

"We blame the anti-gay industry for fighting measures to end bullying in schools, and school officials who turn a blind eye to brutality. We are fed up with what amounts to anti-gay schoolyard muggings that are foolishly dismissed as ‘boys being boys’. In reality, it is ‘boys beating boys’, and these bullies receive tacit approval for their violent, homophobic behavior by teachers and certain vocal segments of society.

"The goal of Exodus International and Focus on the Family is to purge LGBT people from society, although they disingenuously frame the issue as eliminating homosexuality, which is not possible. When you target homosexuality, the result is persecution and punishment of LGBT people, and in many cases it leads to gay bashing or suicides. The anti-gay industry should dismantle these despicable programs and work towards creating solutions instead of suicides." - Truth Wins Out executive director Wayne Besen, responding the rash of suicides among the nation's LGBT youth.

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Pag - The Lady Is Dead

This clip has been on YouTube for a few weeks, but it's too hypnotically strange and beautiful not to pass along. Very Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle. The music sounds exactly like Antony & The Johnsons to me, but it's the Irrepressibles. Possibly NSFW.

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UK Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband Comes Out As Atheist: I Don't Believe In God

Britain's Labour Party head Ed Miliband has come out as an atheist, making him the second such political leader in the UK to do so.
The Labour leader's atheism puts him in stark contrast to his predecessors Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, for whom religion was a central part of their lives. In an interview on Radio 5 Live, Mr Miliband was asked by presenter Nicky Campbell: "Do you believe in God?" The Labour leader replied: "I don't believe in God personally, but I have great respect for those people who do. Different people have different religious views in this country. The great thing is that, whether we have faith or not, we are by and large very tolerant of people whatever their view."
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, the head of the Liberal Democrats, recently confirmed that he too is an atheist. Conservative Party leader David Cameron, who is Prime Minister of Britain's coalition government, claims to be religious but does not attend church regularly.

So two of the leaders of Britain's three largest political parties are atheists and the third isn't all that devout. Can you imagine if RNC head Michael Steele or DNC head Tim Kaine were to say the same?

(Tipped by JMG reader Glenn)

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MINNESOTA: New From Tarryl Clark

The Democrats are really playing rough.

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NEW JERSEY: Rutgers Students Charged Over Suicide Of Gay Man After Secretly Live-Streaming Dorm Sex

Two Rutgers University students have been charged with invasion of privacy after secretly live-streaming video of a gay student having sex with a man in his dorm room. Reportedly the gay student then committed suicide.
Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, both 18, were charged with two counts of invasion of privacy after allegedly putting a camera in a fellow student’s room and transmitting a sexual encounter over the internet. Prosecutors said Ravi of Plainsboro tried to do the same thing to yet another classmate just days after the first incident. Wei, of Princeton, turned herself in Monday. Ravi was picked up Tuesday and released on $25,000 bail. Rutgers would not comment, but issued a statement saying: “The University takes this matter seriously and has policies in place to deal with this type of student behavior.”

CBS 2′s John Metaxas spoke with students on the Rutgers campus who used terms like “disgusting” and “extremely inappropriate” to describe the alleged spying. “I mean we all live in such close conditions with each other, it’s like breach of privacy…I think it’s gross,” Kate Perkowski said. “Extremely rude and it’s really obscene. I just can’t imagine someone would do that,” Preston Chang said. Under New Jersey’s privacy law it is a crime to transmit or even view images that depict nudity or sexual contact with an individual without that person’s consent. Possible penalties include a prison term of up to five years. Students on campus were upset and said the incident was a tremendous violation of privacy. “Let them know that you shouldn’t play around with that. That’s serious. That’s someones privacy right there,” Jovanny Hernandez said.
The name of the dead student has not been revealed. Last week his car was found near the George Washington Bridge, but a body has not been recovered.

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SHOCKER: Richest GOP Member Of Congress Wants To Cut Taxes For Rich

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INDONESIA: Islamic Extremists Protest Jakarta's Gay Film Festival

Waving stills from the movies, hundreds of Islamic extremists protested yesterday in Jakarta, Indonesia demanding the closure of a gay film festival. Via the Jakarta Post:
Clad in white Muslim attire, the members of the hard-line group removed posters of the movies to be screened during the Q Film Festival, being held from Sept. 21 to Sept. 30 in a number of theaters and cultural centers. Salim Alatas, chairman of the Jakarta branch of the FPI, said organizers of the festival had 24 hours to stop the festival. “We want the festival to be stopped as it screens movies that promote homosexual relationships,” Salim was quoted as saying by tempointeraktif.com. Dozens of police flanked the FPI members to avoid any acts of violence. Earlier, the FPI members staged a rally at the Goethe Institute German cultural center, and the French Cultural Center, and planned to march to the Japan Foundation center in Central Jakarta to convey their objection to the festival. “We do not want this place to be set on fire because of moral decadence,” Salim said during the rally at the Goethe Institute on Jl. Sam Ratulangi in Menteng, as quoted by kompas.com.
Festival organizers say they expected the protest and that the event will proceed as planned. According to the Guardian UK, the Islamic Defenders Front has previously "smashed bars, attacked transvestites and targeted other groups it considers blasphemous."

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