Saturday, December 02, 2006
The First Mention of AIDS in a Presidential Press Conference
Frpm BitchPHD's website
The following press conference is the first public mention of AIDS in the Reagan White House. At that time 200 Americans had died of a new infectious disease. Reagan himself did not mention AIDS for three more years.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
PRESS BRIEFING BY LARRY SPEAKES
October 15, 1982
The Briefing Room
12:45pm EDT
Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?
MR. SPEAKES: What's AIDS?
Q: Over a third of them have died. It's known as "gay plague." (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it's a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?
MR. SPEAKES: I don't have it. Do you? (Laughter.)
Q: No, I don't.
MR. SPEAKES: You didn't answer my question.
Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President
MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)
Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I don't know anything about it, Lester.
Q: Does the President, does anyone in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?
MR. SPEAKES: I don't think so. I don't think there's been any
Q: Nobody knows?
MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.
Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping
MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he's had no (laughter) no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.
Q: The President doesn't have gay plague, is that what you're saying or what?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I didn't say that.
Q: Didn't say that?
MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn't you stay there? (Laughter.)
Q: Because I love you Larry, that's why (Laughter.)
MR. SPEAKES: Oh I see. Just don't put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)
Q: Oh, I retract that.
MR. SPEAKES: I hope so.
Q: It's too late.
This transcript was quoted at the beginning of Jon Cohen's book, Shots in the Dark: The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine, 2001.
The following press conference is the first public mention of AIDS in the Reagan White House. At that time 200 Americans had died of a new infectious disease. Reagan himself did not mention AIDS for three more years.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
PRESS BRIEFING BY LARRY SPEAKES
October 15, 1982
The Briefing Room
12:45pm EDT
Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?
MR. SPEAKES: What's AIDS?
Q: Over a third of them have died. It's known as "gay plague." (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it's a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?
MR. SPEAKES: I don't have it. Do you? (Laughter.)
Q: No, I don't.
MR. SPEAKES: You didn't answer my question.
Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President
MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)
Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I don't know anything about it, Lester.
Q: Does the President, does anyone in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?
MR. SPEAKES: I don't think so. I don't think there's been any
Q: Nobody knows?
MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.
Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping
MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he's had no (laughter) no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.
Q: The President doesn't have gay plague, is that what you're saying or what?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I didn't say that.
Q: Didn't say that?
MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn't you stay there? (Laughter.)
Q: Because I love you Larry, that's why (Laughter.)
MR. SPEAKES: Oh I see. Just don't put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)
Q: Oh, I retract that.
MR. SPEAKES: I hope so.
Q: It's too late.
This transcript was quoted at the beginning of Jon Cohen's book, Shots in the Dark: The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine, 2001.
This is a wonderful essay on the realities of life for gay people in Cuba, the reality as opposed to the U.S.'s propaganda.
Woody Allen gave a wonderful definition of facism today in this biographical documentary I saw. He said that fascism is where you have a society where no one really talks exceptfor those select few at the top of the barrell. Their voices are like loudspeakers and are heard far above the masses, drowning out any progressive voices or voices of protest. Be aware of our lives and how we live.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Memories
I remember roaming my grandmother's bookshelves and then finding her old gradebooks, which I would play with. I never dreamed that I would have one of my own. That was too boring for me. I was Nancy Wilson and Nina Simone. I spoke French and jetsetted through the mediterreanean, wore chic dresses, sang loud, was coy, was sleek, and gave concerts to Parisian crowds.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Something I was thinking about today, in regards to thoughts of a draft and some other things. World War II was the last war in which anyone really was willing to die for the United States. It was the last time in which "To Do or Die" worked on a mass scale. People, and especially young men I think, became disillusioned after that(and/or comfortable) and did not hold such strong convictions. Korea really disillusioned, especially black soldiers, and especially those who were left over there for an extra year. Vietnam was a full-hault stop as to patriotism driving anyone onto a battlefield. Any current efforts to draft will be sheer brute force on the part of the power structure.
India Ranks Second in Fastest Growing Economies
Behind China, India has the second fastest growing economy. According to market analysts, India outshines them all in this quarter. We look to India and China as our future....
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Something to Think About
When I was in Chicago over the holiday, one of my Uncles pointed out to me that the Black man that was the Washington D.C. sniper a few years ago was a military veteran, who had seen conflict, trained to be a sniper in the U.S. Marines....
Everyone should take a look at this essay by Charlene Mitchell on the Communist Party and the Black Panther Party. It is very insightful.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
BUSH SIGNS THE MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT: CCR CALLS IT A BLOW TO DEMOCRACY AND THE CONSTITUTION
From The Center for Constitutional Rights Website
New Law Suspends Right of Habeas Corpus for Non-Citizens, Empowers President to Authorize Torture and Gives Him Wide Power to Indefinitely Imprison Anyone, Including Americans, He Labels an
Center for Constitutional Rights Derides Unprecedented Expansion of Presidential Power and Vows to Challenge the Law in U.S. Supreme Court
October 17, 2006, New York, NY - Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) denounced President Bush's signing into law of the Military Commissions Act (MCA). The final version of the bill emerged only four days before the Senate's 11th hour vote. Although President Bush declared that "time was of the essence" when he called for the legislation, he has waited nearly two weeks to sign it into law. Congress has once again been cowed into doing the President's bidding and abdicated their Constitutional powers in the process, say attorneys.
The new law strips the right of non-citizens to seek review of their detention by a court through the filing of a writ of habeas corpus, the venerated legal instrument that for centuries has protected people from arbitrary detention, disappearance and indefinite detention without charge. The Act is also meant to erase the hundreds of habeas corpus petitions that CCR and others have brought on behalf of many of the 450 men being held at Guantánamo Bay, a move already once denied by the Supreme Court.
Further, the MCA dramatically expands the President's powers in an array of profoundly troubling ways, including permitting him to determine what constitutes torture and who may be labeled an "unlawful enemy combatant" and therefore detained indefinitely. Such scope means that non-citizens, such as those unjustifiably rounded up in sweeps after 9/11 in the U.S., could be held without charge or trial. U.S. citizens deemed to have "materially supported" hostilities against the United States could be held as enemy combatants as well. Once in U.S. custody, the law allows detainees to be subjected to stress positions, temperature extremes, sleep deprivation, and possibly waterboarding. It also defines sexual violence crimes so narrowly that some of the outrages of Abu Ghraib, such as forced nudity, would not be punishable, and defines rape and sexual abuse in a manner that is inconsistent with international law, turning back the clock on the hard-fought victories of survivors of sexual violence. At the same time, the bill provides retroactive immunity for U.S military and intelligence officials for the torture and abuse of detainees, including the widely condemned horrors which occurred at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo.
Characterizing the new law as "an assault on the Constitution," CCR Executive Director Vincent Warren said, "By trading our liberty for a false sense of security, Congress has effectively granted the President the power of tyrants to undermine the foundations of Democracy." He added, "CCR intends to challenge this outrage at every turn, using every tool at our disposal, until we reverse this affront to the rule of law."
Further, Warren pointed out that under this administration's lawless programs, innocent people like CCR client rendition victim Maher Arar-who was recently cleared of any links to terrorism-can be jailed and tortured with no recourse.
CCR has already filed the first new cases to challenge the stripping of habeas corpus: Mohammed v. Rumsfeld, a habeas petition on behalf of 25 men detained at Bagram Air Force Base; and Khan v. Bush, a habeas petition on behalf of Majid Khan, a Baltimore man held in secret by the CIA for nearly three years until President Bush transferred him to Guantánamo in early September. Both cases are in the D.C. District Court.
The law will likely also be tested in two consolidated cases brought on behalf of Guantánamo detainees currently pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals, Al Odah v. United States of America and Boumediene v. Bush. These cases represent the first 13 habeas petitions filed on behalf of Guantánamo detainees and challenge the legality of the detention of 53 men. The initial appeal was argued on September 8, 2005, and the three-panel court has yet to issue its decision.
According to CCR legal director Bill Goodman, the provision of the MCA that strips the right of habeas corpus is a direct violation of the suspension clause of the U.S. Constitution because it denies non-citizens a meaningful opportunity to challenge the legality of their detention. The clause states that the writ of habeas corpus can only be suspended "in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion." Goodman said recent reports of innocent men being released from Guantánamo underscore the importance of moving quickly to defeat this law:
"From Afghanistan to Spain and Germany to Pakistan, innocent men have been returned home to their families. We know, as does the Bush Administration, that many more of the roughly 450 men still held at Guantánamo are also innocent. To deny them the right to make their case and to win their freedom, is not only immoral and illegal, but undermines the concepts of liberty and democracy that this country was built on."
A more detailed review of the legal issues raised by the stripping provision of the Act and the legal process that may ensue is attached.
New Law Suspends Right of Habeas Corpus for Non-Citizens, Empowers President to Authorize Torture and Gives Him Wide Power to Indefinitely Imprison Anyone, Including Americans, He Labels an
Center for Constitutional Rights Derides Unprecedented Expansion of Presidential Power and Vows to Challenge the Law in U.S. Supreme Court
October 17, 2006, New York, NY - Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) denounced President Bush's signing into law of the Military Commissions Act (MCA). The final version of the bill emerged only four days before the Senate's 11th hour vote. Although President Bush declared that "time was of the essence" when he called for the legislation, he has waited nearly two weeks to sign it into law. Congress has once again been cowed into doing the President's bidding and abdicated their Constitutional powers in the process, say attorneys.
The new law strips the right of non-citizens to seek review of their detention by a court through the filing of a writ of habeas corpus, the venerated legal instrument that for centuries has protected people from arbitrary detention, disappearance and indefinite detention without charge. The Act is also meant to erase the hundreds of habeas corpus petitions that CCR and others have brought on behalf of many of the 450 men being held at Guantánamo Bay, a move already once denied by the Supreme Court.
Further, the MCA dramatically expands the President's powers in an array of profoundly troubling ways, including permitting him to determine what constitutes torture and who may be labeled an "unlawful enemy combatant" and therefore detained indefinitely. Such scope means that non-citizens, such as those unjustifiably rounded up in sweeps after 9/11 in the U.S., could be held without charge or trial. U.S. citizens deemed to have "materially supported" hostilities against the United States could be held as enemy combatants as well. Once in U.S. custody, the law allows detainees to be subjected to stress positions, temperature extremes, sleep deprivation, and possibly waterboarding. It also defines sexual violence crimes so narrowly that some of the outrages of Abu Ghraib, such as forced nudity, would not be punishable, and defines rape and sexual abuse in a manner that is inconsistent with international law, turning back the clock on the hard-fought victories of survivors of sexual violence. At the same time, the bill provides retroactive immunity for U.S military and intelligence officials for the torture and abuse of detainees, including the widely condemned horrors which occurred at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo.
Characterizing the new law as "an assault on the Constitution," CCR Executive Director Vincent Warren said, "By trading our liberty for a false sense of security, Congress has effectively granted the President the power of tyrants to undermine the foundations of Democracy." He added, "CCR intends to challenge this outrage at every turn, using every tool at our disposal, until we reverse this affront to the rule of law."
Further, Warren pointed out that under this administration's lawless programs, innocent people like CCR client rendition victim Maher Arar-who was recently cleared of any links to terrorism-can be jailed and tortured with no recourse.
CCR has already filed the first new cases to challenge the stripping of habeas corpus: Mohammed v. Rumsfeld, a habeas petition on behalf of 25 men detained at Bagram Air Force Base; and Khan v. Bush, a habeas petition on behalf of Majid Khan, a Baltimore man held in secret by the CIA for nearly three years until President Bush transferred him to Guantánamo in early September. Both cases are in the D.C. District Court.
The law will likely also be tested in two consolidated cases brought on behalf of Guantánamo detainees currently pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals, Al Odah v. United States of America and Boumediene v. Bush. These cases represent the first 13 habeas petitions filed on behalf of Guantánamo detainees and challenge the legality of the detention of 53 men. The initial appeal was argued on September 8, 2005, and the three-panel court has yet to issue its decision.
According to CCR legal director Bill Goodman, the provision of the MCA that strips the right of habeas corpus is a direct violation of the suspension clause of the U.S. Constitution because it denies non-citizens a meaningful opportunity to challenge the legality of their detention. The clause states that the writ of habeas corpus can only be suspended "in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion." Goodman said recent reports of innocent men being released from Guantánamo underscore the importance of moving quickly to defeat this law:
"From Afghanistan to Spain and Germany to Pakistan, innocent men have been returned home to their families. We know, as does the Bush Administration, that many more of the roughly 450 men still held at Guantánamo are also innocent. To deny them the right to make their case and to win their freedom, is not only immoral and illegal, but undermines the concepts of liberty and democracy that this country was built on."
A more detailed review of the legal issues raised by the stripping provision of the Act and the legal process that may ensue is attached.
Call for a Special Prosecutor to Investigate U.S. Torture
From the Center for Constitutional Rights Website
The Center for Constitutional Rights is calling for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to conduct a full, independent and public inquiry into the role of high-ranking U.S. officials in the abuse and torture of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo and elsewhere around the world.
With each week, more appalling government memos and documents come to light from a Freedom of Information Act request CCR filed with the American Civil Liberties Union, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense, and Veterans for Peace: the Bush Administration has systematically encouraged torture techniques prohibited under the Geneva Conventions and the Covenant against Torture.
Our clients who have been released from Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib describe a deliberate program of abuse. Other CCR clients have been shipped off by our government to countries like Syria and Egypt to be interrogated under torture, a practice called “extraordinary rendition” chronicled in an early-February New Yorker article and a Bob Herbert’s column in The Times.
The Bush Administration has brought us down to a moral level unimaginable since the end of World War II, despite the fact that experts in interrogation know that torture produces bad intelligence and false confessions only fans the flames of hatred the world over and puts our own troops in danger.
People like Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales must be held accountable for the dangerous policies they have put in place, but they will never investigate themselves.
Please tell Congress and the president this must end. Join CCR and other groups like Human Rights Watch to call for a Special Prosecutor today!
The Center for Constitutional Rights is calling for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to conduct a full, independent and public inquiry into the role of high-ranking U.S. officials in the abuse and torture of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo and elsewhere around the world.
With each week, more appalling government memos and documents come to light from a Freedom of Information Act request CCR filed with the American Civil Liberties Union, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense, and Veterans for Peace: the Bush Administration has systematically encouraged torture techniques prohibited under the Geneva Conventions and the Covenant against Torture.
Our clients who have been released from Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib describe a deliberate program of abuse. Other CCR clients have been shipped off by our government to countries like Syria and Egypt to be interrogated under torture, a practice called “extraordinary rendition” chronicled in an early-February New Yorker article and a Bob Herbert’s column in The Times.
The Bush Administration has brought us down to a moral level unimaginable since the end of World War II, despite the fact that experts in interrogation know that torture produces bad intelligence and false confessions only fans the flames of hatred the world over and puts our own troops in danger.
People like Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales must be held accountable for the dangerous policies they have put in place, but they will never investigate themselves.
Please tell Congress and the president this must end. Join CCR and other groups like Human Rights Watch to call for a Special Prosecutor today!
Slowly Knocking Down the Power Structure
Today, a federal judge just stripped away key elements of George Bush's post 9/11 powers, declaring his newly bestowed authorty to declare groups as terrorist threats unconstitutional.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Bridges
By Diane Reeves
I have crossed a thousand bridges
In my search for something real
There were great suspension bridges
Made like spider webs of steel
There were tiny wooden trestles
And there were bridges made of stone
I have always been a stranger and
I’ve always been alone
There’s a bridge to tomorrow
There’s a bridge to the past
There’s a bridge made of sorrow
That I pray will not last
There’s a bridge made of color
I have crossed a thousand bridges
In my search for something real
There were great suspension bridges
Made like spider webs of steel
There were tiny wooden trestles
And there were bridges made of stone
I have always been a stranger and
I’ve always been alone
There’s a bridge to tomorrow
There’s a bridge to the past
There’s a bridge made of sorrow
That I pray will not last
There’s a bridge made of color
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Interesting Geneological Stuff for Keeps
My Wife's Lines:
1. RAWLINSON LINE: From England to Kent Co. Md (was there in early 1700s, to S.C., then to Alabama in ealry 1800s.
2. GAITHER LINE: To Maryland, then to S.C., then to Alabama in early 1800s.
3. DERAMUS LINE: From Switzerland (Joseph DeRamus who came to South Carolina from Switzerland was French, from French Hugenout parents who had fled France to Switzerland), to S.C., then to Alabama in early 1800s
1. RAWLINSON LINE: From England to Kent Co. Md (was there in early 1700s, to S.C., then to Alabama in ealry 1800s.
2. GAITHER LINE: To Maryland, then to S.C., then to Alabama in early 1800s.
3. DERAMUS LINE: From Switzerland (Joseph DeRamus who came to South Carolina from Switzerland was French, from French Hugenout parents who had fled France to Switzerland), to S.C., then to Alabama in early 1800s
Chicago was great and beautiful. Kelly and Kathy have a beautiful new house. God Bless Uncle Donald, Aunt Joyce, and all of my relatives. While I was in chicago, I patronized quite a few establishments with which I was quite pleased.
Quinn took me to The Grille, a mom and pop on Halsted where I had a wonderful strawberry malt and she had a great looking hamburger.We then went to The Chicago Diner, also on the Northside, full of cute gay waiters, where I had the best organic german chocolate cake. Also while in Chicago, I revisited Ada's downtown, this time with Candace(who was in Chicago) where I absolutely raved over the sweet and sour cabbage soup. The atmosphere was also great. Aunt Joyce took me there once before a long time ago. Later, Candace and I also frequented The Red Head Piano Bar where we had much fun. Other restaurants I have enjoyed in Chicago are Gladys' and Mello Yello in Hyde Park(I love the idea of having drinks with breakfast and I love the orange juice, coconut milk, and rum blend!
Quinn took me to The Grille, a mom and pop on Halsted where I had a wonderful strawberry malt and she had a great looking hamburger.We then went to The Chicago Diner, also on the Northside, full of cute gay waiters, where I had the best organic german chocolate cake. Also while in Chicago, I revisited Ada's downtown, this time with Candace(who was in Chicago) where I absolutely raved over the sweet and sour cabbage soup. The atmosphere was also great. Aunt Joyce took me there once before a long time ago. Later, Candace and I also frequented The Red Head Piano Bar where we had much fun. Other restaurants I have enjoyed in Chicago are Gladys' and Mello Yello in Hyde Park(I love the idea of having drinks with breakfast and I love the orange juice, coconut milk, and rum blend!
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