Today in Crazy...

A 60 year old Squeaky Fromme was released from prison today.

Also from Crazy Town, a group called "The Pray in Jesus Name Project" has declared that the new health care bill "will pay for preferential hiring of homosexual hospital administrators, who distribute $50,000 grants to gender-confused activists for unneeded elective surgery to mutilate their own genitals, (and force Christian doctors to perform it.)"  I'm not making this up.

In actual news, there's been a huge breakthrough in cancer research.  "A drug that can selectively target and kill the stem cells that drive the growth of tumors has been identified for the first time."  More research is currently being done.

Also, it seems that the "Death Panel" rumors are false.  Really?  I had no idea!  What's truly fascinating is just where these rumors seem to be emanating from.  Facts?  Reasonable reading of the bill?  Grass roots?  Of course not.  The NY Times reports that these rumors came "from many of the same pundits and conservative media outlets that were central in defeating President Bill Clinton’s health care proposals 16 years ago, including the editorial board of The Washington Times, the American Spectator magazine and Betsy McCaughey, whose 1994 health care critique made her a star of the conservative movement (and ultimately, New York’s lieutenant governor)."  In the meantime, any references to end of life care have been taken out of the bill.  I can't be the only person in this country who thinks end of life care is important - that dying with dignity is important.  I'm pissed off that they caved and took that out.

In other news, former service member Joseph Rocha illuminated some of the horrors of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy when he told his story to Youth Radio.  He told how his "peers often harassed me, insisting the extra training I did with Marines was a search for sex partners. Once, I was hog tied to a chair, rolled across the base, and left in a dog kennel with feces. I was forced to simulate sex acts, on camera, to armed service members with trained attack dogs in the room. Men with hoses sprayed me down in full uniform."  His case was investigated and then unceremoniously and inexplicably dropped. 

We must put pressure on our President to keep the promise he made on the campaign trail to fully repeal this repugnant policy that destroys careers, puts our gay service members at risk and compromises our national security.  Join me in HRC's No Excuses campaign.  Meet with your representatives while they are at home on their August break and tell them that you think that D.A.D.T. must be repealed and that marriage equality is a right that all Americans should share.

Speaking of marriage equality, Californians Against Hate has discovered that NOM (National Organization for Marriage - go to their site only on an empty stomach) may be practicing the fine art of money laundering.  I guess anything goes in the battle against equality.

And finally, if there's anyone out there who still believes that tax breaks for the rich and trickle down economics keep all of us rolling around in dough, think again.  All these policies do is keep the wealthy wealthy and make the not wealthy not wealthier every day.  Don't believe me?  Take a look at this report issued today:  "Income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression, according to a recently updated paper by University of California, Berkeley Professor Emmanuel Saez. The paper, which covers data through 2007, points to a staggering, unprecedented disparity in American incomes." 

And on that note, I'm going to call it a day.