Arlington Public Schools is being sued by Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays for refusing to distribute their fliers to high school students.

McLEAN, Va. -- An organization that provides support for people who renounce their homosexuality is suing a northern Virginia school system for refusing to distribute its fliers to students.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria by Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), accuses Arlington Public Schools of infringing on its First Amendment rights by arbitrarily refusing to allow distribution of PFOX materials.

He REALLY does. {If you're not in the know, he is a state delegate in Virginia from Prince William County, formerly an exurb locale fast becoming part of metropolitan Washington DC}

Not only was he one of the sponsors from the illegal, anti-marriage amendment from hell, but now he is attempting to draw Virginia backwards by making abortion illegal again.

A bill by Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William) causes abortion-rights supporters the greatest concern. The bill proposes that Virginia revert to pre-1973 abortion laws if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Under those laws, abortion would be illegal except if the life of the woman or fetus is endangered.
"The right-to-life folks have not seen their concern addressed in years, so this gives them hope there is still some interest in this issue," Marshall said. He added that abortion opponents are engaged in a long-term struggle to take "a couple of steps" each year to reduce abortions.

I am absolutely appalled. I am even more appalled that some of my friends in dc support this!

President Bush said yesterday that he will review a bill to give District residents full voting rights in the House, marking the first time he has spoken about a measure that local lawmakers are trying to win approval for over the next few weeks.

The bill, introduced six months ago, also would add a congressional seat for Utah. Proponents of D.C. voting rights have waged a major push to get the bill passed this year.

There have been articles in the Blade (and elsewhere) about gay couples leaving VA in droves, saying that they cannot stand the idea of living here under conservative rule and anti-gay amendments any longer.

I will not  be one of those.

We are ditching "Carefirst Blue Choice" for CIgna.

Now, I have had positive experiences with Carefirst, and even way back when I was young and poor and had Kaiser Permanente.... I never had massive waits on the phone on hold etc... most of my things were coveredm and covered well.

It's hard to digest, and I have to question their voter models.... Kaine was down in most of the polls right up to the day of the election, wasn't he? And despite all this, he won.

It makes me ashamed that I am not out there doing more outreach. It means a SERIOUS GOTV campaign for Northern VA, and I need to be a part of that - both for Webb and for the defeat of the anti-marriage forces.

sigh

My advisor assigned me to write about how researchers are explaining the existence of the black-white achievement gap and pointed me in the direction of "Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb," by John Ogbu, saying that it was a great place to start, but giving me no direction beyond that, and no opinion of the book. What follows is the fascinating journey I have taken through research for the last two weeks....

I have to wonder if she can see herself realistically at all. An article/analysis of her I read some time ago said that isolating yourself from reality and from people who tell you negative things about yourself is a survival mechanism inside the white house (it seems to be the Bush M.O.), and that explains why she still does that. The problem is, that she is not getting the feedback that she needs to have in order to grow as a leader - as long as she isolates herself from feedback, she possibly still sees herself as the darling of the liberals that she was in 1993. Unfortunately, she is no longer that.

It makes good sense if you think about it - REAL Christians are going to love God's creation and care for it, not be bamboozled into letting Bush-ites buy it, sell it, exploit it, and pollute it.

Kojo's show is probably the best thing on public radio in the world. This episode is fantastic, because you can hear the evangelicals speaking more openly and honestly about what seem to me to be real Christian principles - not spouting republican talking points in exchange for political power.

Of late, in some posts, he has been having very interesting discussions in the comments. I guess some folks out there are attempting to engage him and prove to him that he is wrong. Being Wes, he just reads and tries to respond rationally. Wes is never convinced that his is the only point of view, and is open to consider things and sift through for the truth.

But I have decided to step in and defend Wes.

Alas - not so. Much of America was still under the Bush hypnotic spell.

And so the question must be asked - how will the dems handle it this year?

When you see when the top execs get in packages, bonuses, retirements, and stock options, it makes your head spin.

This morning on CNN (while on the stairmaster, as usual), there was a discussion of CEOs getting 4 million per year pension plans while employee pension plans get slashed, (they were talking specifically about IBM, and being an IBM brat, I grew up believing in corporate benevolence and the notion of a safe, lifelong, company-funded retirement). This should leave us aghast. What kind of world is it where the leader of the organization gets all this extra bonus while the rest of us throw our money into the stock market lottery 401k mutual fund wishing well, hoping that things turn out great, and if they don't, then we may end up with social security and eat cat food in our 70s

However, I was appalled that the Cheney Criminals earned $8.8 million in 2005, and were taxed $2.5 million on it. The appalling part is that they will get a refund of $1.94 million!

Now I will grant that the Cheney Criminals donated almost $6.8 million to charity, (or so the article says). If that is true, then I can live with them paying about 500k in taxes on what was not donated.

Anyway, I got this in an e-mail from him today:

He never replied to my letter to him months ago, and he now has failed me deeply. He could veto the bills and force the Legislature to override him, taking a meaningful stand that will put him on the right side of history. Alas, he is swayed by his future political ambitions... he intends to be Senator at some point, or maybe governor again after this term.

Two major highlights of the evening on the political side:

1. Hearing Chuck Robb speak and watching the C-Span video of him speaking against DOMA way back in the 90s. He spoke so well, and reminded of what real political leaders are supposed to be. What a shame he didn't go for a re-match with George Allen this year. I know he was tired and wanted to retire in 2000, and only ran for re-election because there was no serious dem challenger to Allen, but what a total shame that he won't come back. We need voices of sanity, reason, fairness, and justice like his.

This article on common dreams points out what a real energy policy would look like. It considers the future, it looks at what damage fossil fuels are doing to our environment, and looks ahead to better days.

We look at plans to drill more or oil, or cry that we are addicted to oil during a major speech, then do nothing.

Well, he didn't actually promise me anything. But I did meet him at a fundraiser for Equality Virginia last year and he spoke about repealing HB 751, Virginia's hateful nasty law that prohibits "contracts that purport to confer the benefits of marriage" between same-sex people.

Now I read that he intends to sign the bill for a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage!