Why does the Government really want 2 change the name of the Swine Flu? & Other stories surrounding the outbreak of unkosher politics and canned Spam!

So why did the United States Government change the designation of the swine flu to H1N1? Because the Pork Industry was loosing business. Nope! It was because they are afraid of when We The People realized that indeed pigs did in fact fly and what we allowed our Government to get away with in our name.

With new scandals breaking almost every 60 hours if not shorter on both sides of the Congressional isle, and out of the White House, and even in local politics, one would begin to wonder if there is in fact an actual reset button somewhere in the Constitution or one of the other founding documents.

Fortunately there is but it involves the very sensitive topics of congressional apportionment which I covered on a previous post (14th ip, look for the Ford Truck and continue reading) as well as secession on this other post I wrote on the Libertarian Party of Allen County blog. As for now, just watch out for flying barrels of spam (deep fried pork product) coming from both sides of Congress and the White House, and then consider voting for third party (Libertarian or Green, especially) candidates in 2010 when Congress (every House seat and a third of the Senate) comes up for reelection.

ONE HUNDRED DAYS AMERICA!

How do you measure a man? Elton John and Clay Aiken (videos) sing about it in the form of conditional (eg: if this then that) questions or statements that more references the spirituality of the masses rather than providing an answer. But based on the criteria in their songs, how does it make sense to measure a President by his first 100 days in office? The format only started seventy plus years ago under Franklin D. Roosevelt whom managed to get Congress to pass 15 pieces of "New Deal" legislation in the 14 week time frame, and since then the press has usurped that mile stone and just over analyzed it for all other Presidents after him. So aside from trying to assign a grade point average of 81% percent or 60% depending on which poll numbers you read, or more accurately, hear on cable television news we need to take an honest look at what the Administration has and hasn't done.

From a GLBT perspective, especially with recent activity on the White House's website under Civil Rights/Liberties policy statements regarding Don't Ask Don't Tell (Links: Joe My God: Post 1, Post 2, Post 3, Post 4, in order from oldest to newest) amongst other issues, proves that the Administration is performing less then satisfactorily when it comes to keeping promises to Gay and Lesbian Americans and its continuing willingness to minimize the struggle of GLBT Americans in their public policy statements and decisions. Fortunately the offense was modified in the end to both return the original language but also blend it in with the revisions.

This is the seventh time that I can count where the Administration has blatantly put its foot in its mouth regarding GLBT issues and tried to stop choking on it only to leave a trail of drool and dismay from the cover up. There will probably be another press release to brush over the trail of tears and explain it away to the public this week.

Talking about putting ones foot in ones mouth, then leads us to Congress whom also had an eventful week during the 100 Days festivities. The Senate was forced by the outbreak of the Swine Flu to finally confirm Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to head the Department of Health and Human Services, regardless of previous Republican objections due to her record on abortion issues. Meanwhile the House of Representatives, decided to take on the *Hate Crimes Bill, which passed 249-175. This resulted in another outcry against bigotry from and calls for the resignation of North Carolina Representative Virginia Foxx who took to the floor of the House and called the consideration of a 10 year old murder of 19 year old Matthew Shepard as a hate crime, "a hoax", with Matthew's mother Judy present in the lobby area above.



Besides being misinformed and insensitive no amount of apology will do Ms. Foxx until you acknowledge that what happened to Matthew was, and what happens to thousands of GLBT persons annually is, a hate crime; and that gays and lesbians deserve equality under the Constitution and Declaration; and personally apologize to both Judy Shepard and publicly to the Queer Community, from the floor of the House under oath with the penalty of perjury applicable, then we can begin to forgive you for your absolute misrepresentation of the facts of record and the insensitive nature by which they were put forth from the floor of OUR Congress.

This also leads me to one other question of ethics and concern. You Ms. Foxx are not allowed to excuse your actions based solely on bad information, We The People elect our Representatives to serve as our voice not just their own bias that ignores the proven facts of history and official record. To insist that your bad information was a result of an incomplete Google Search, is to say that you failed in due diligence of your job duties to find all the information, and instead followed talking pointes which were neither collaborated or researched with any depth. Ms. Foxx it is time to be a woman of character that you claim to be and either apologize from the floor of the House under oath or resign from office based on your incompetence to perform the full duties of the office to which you were elected.



The above video is from O Virginia written by folk artist Lee Waters (links below), which is available in full performance quality download via 7Digital for one dollar, with all money going to the Matthew Shepard Foundation in the name of Virginia Foxx, as part of the growing online petition to censure or oust Ms. Foxx regarding these homophobic and insensitive comments.

I would love to see the look on Ms. Foxx's face when she hears the song for the first time. I also wonder, How much politics in Washington would change if members of Congress had to swear under oath before they spoke from the floor under penalty of perjury? What are your thoughts of how to improve our government?

Top Photo: Dominique Garny in Wedding Trough (1974, Belgium) [IMDB]
3rd Photo: Bad Behaviour Publishing Company [Website]
4th Photo: Virginia Foxx c/o Stephen Rader, Chicago
LEE WATERS: [Website][YouTube]
Matthew Shepard Foundation [Website]
Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill aka Local Law Enforcement Protection Act H.R. 1913