Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

current events

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Also via Jillmatrix: A new Pennsylvania law on adoption that carried amendments that would have eliminated domestic partner benefits for state employees was stripped of the amendments shortly before the bill was passed on to the Senate by the PA House of Representatives earlier today.

The amendments, sponsored by State Rep Jerry Birmelin (Wayne), were introduced under the guise of shoring up the state’s defense against the nation’s current rash of gay civil unions. Brief background article here. This article does a good job of explaining what the intent of the actual bill is regarding adoption.

Philadelphia City Council voted unanimously to oppose Birmelin’s amendments. This article is the most comprehensive one i have found so far. I know many people in Philadelphia who are currently covered by domestic partner benefits, though this bill will only effect state employees. It also prevents unmarried hetereosexual couples from applying for the same benefits, and states “A spousal-equivalent relationship shall not be recognized in this commonwelath.”

From the first article: Addressing the House following afternoon caucus meetings, Birmelin let his colleagues know that the topics of same-sex marriage and health benefits “will be coming back in another day, perhaps in another form.” I will endeavor to follow Representative Birmelin’s actions; if he presents similar amendments in the future it is up to voters to let their opinions be known to their local representatives so that they can oppose the bill with confidence.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2004/03/107963719088926085/

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It’s queer news roundup!

Have you heard about the North Carolina parents who want to transfer their daughter to a different school because her school library carried a child’s book called King & King featuring a gay prince looking for his mister right? The MetaFilter Thread on the subject links to the CNN article, which seems to be carrying the same text as all the other ones i’ve seen so far. It’s one thing to ask that your daughter not be exposed to the book, but the family has now taken it upon themselves to withhold the book from the library so that other people cannot check it out. Lovely.


But, wait, there’s more… new Bush appointee Scott Bloch slashes rights for government employed homosexuals. Apparently, sexual preference isn’t a “protected class” under the law. To be fair, the current act covers conduct “which does not adversely affect” performance; that doesn’t specifically nod to sexual preference, but its quite a stretch to suggest that it has a negative effect on a work environment (though the stretch will be made if it’s isn’t prohibited by law). Someone in the Metafilter thread amusingly points out that this means bosses are free to fire hetero workers who constantly talk about their sex lives or who have annoying pictures of them kissing their spouses displayed prominently. Heh.

Decisions on these and other queer-rights issues effect friends and family members that i love very dearly, and rulings on these and other civil rights effect everyone — not just the people who feel their immediate ramifications. Please support civil rights for all with your vote in the remaining primaries and the November election. And, remember, you can get all of your queer news fresh off the griddle from QueerDay, founded by one of my favorite people ever, JillMatrix (who is apparently blogging again!).

Addendum: Many, many congratulations are in order for JillMatrix, who is in possession of one of relatively few same-sex civil unions in the country! See her re-inaugural post on her trip to San Francisco, and some pictures of the proceedings.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2004/03/107963499730702597/

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Yes, i know all politicians are crooked, and you’ll be pointing out these same things to me next time a Democrat comes up for re-election. I just plan to do everything i can to make sure that happens exactly four years from now.


Administration sources tell TIME that employees at the Department of Homeland Security have been asked to keep their eyes open for opportunities to pose the President in settings that might highlight the Administration’s efforts to make the nation safer. The goal, they are being told, is to provide Bush with one homeland-security photo-op a month.

This from a Time article via Metafilter via Pandagon, a person i actually know (sorta) through Rabi. I don’t think that this move is downright evil, as Bush is certainly a big part of why we have a Department of Homeland Security today, but when it comes down to it no-one should be telling the Department to look into photo-ops — i don’t care what party they’re from.

Here’s an alternative to partisan voting: If we reward the people who lie less on a consistent basis, maybe everyone will lie less. Along those lines, a conservative classmate of mine put together Anybody But Bush 2004 as his senior project. Go Geoff!

Also, if you missed the big campaign story from last week, the article does an excellent job of rehashing it simply: Tipped off by Democrats on Capitol Hill that the appointment was in the works, Kerry’s staff had quickly done a LexisNexis search on the proposed nominee, Anthony Raimondo, and discovered that the Nebraska manufacturing executive laid off 75 U.S. workers in 2002 while building a $3 million factory in Beijing. That might make it awkward for him to champion keeping jobs at home. Two hours before the Commerce Department was scheduled to announce Raimondo’s nomination last week, the Kerry campaign did it for them. A day later, Raimondo had withdrawn his name from consideration … White House officials insist that the nomination collapsed because a Senator in Raimondo’s home state did not approve of him.

Anyway, BushBashing aside, the article is a good read. I’d obviously love to put a Democrat in office, but what i’d love more is for every person who has ever read this site to go out and vote in November. That would be much cooler.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2004/03/107939524276123597/

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If you didn’t already know that election time was drawing near, you would have been tipped off by President Bush attempting to surf his way into office on a coffin of a 9/11 victim (probably not for the last time) in one of his campaign’s first national adds. Story here. I don’t know that you can deny the man the ability to refer to 9/11 in the list of his political accomplishments, but let’s not forget that he said he’d avoid it. From the article: Added Rita Lasar, who lost a brother on 9/11, “President Bush promised in a speech he gave in 2002 that he would not use the site for political reasons. We believed him; we trusted him. He has broken his promise to us.”

This is the same guy who said of gay marriage “The state can do what they want to do” while on the 2000 campaign trail, so if you had any illusions about him not being a liar feel free to dispel them.

I personally support gay marriage because it is in keeping with the way i interpret the Constitution, the way i feel about State rights, and my religious beliefs. I feel very strongly that the federal government should not impose a standard for or against gay marriage on the entire nation. This doesn’t mean we should have a national amendment stating “Queers can get hitched!,” but it also means i find a national marriage amendment or initiative to be an alarming overreach of Federal power.

I realize that at a time like this it is everyone’s responsibility to voice their opinions in a logical way that can be appreciated by both sympathizers and opponents. Also, i think all of my friends deserve to marry the people that they love as much as i do. Expect to be hit on the head by my big liberal hammer repeatedly in the coming months.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2004/03/107853080587457072/

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I’m not even going to touch this whole hilariously disgusting Margaret Cho thing because it’s on, like, every blog on the planet. The comments mailed to Ms. Cho churned my stomach, which seems to be a fairly standard reaction, but Mykeru made me feel a little better about it. I especially like the bit about the “witless ditto monkeys;” i often feel like there are no stark raving crazy liberal politico bloggers out there because i spent so much time last year in shock and awe of all the pro-war-hawks and their Uruk-Hai like ditto-monkey followers. That’s what so many people are these days. I could take a whole year just to talk about politics and the media and how mislead we are on a daily basis, but that’s not why i’m here. I just wish people understood the choices they were making, and could diversify a little bit as to not just follow the same thing all of the time.

Anyhow, just as soon as you print out a State of the Union scorecard you can consider me mum on the matter. I don’t even find the meta making fun of the people who make fun of the people who make fun of G.W. thing at all hilarious. Not even a touch.

::snicker::

https://crushingkrisis.com/2004/01/107440499290189188/