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Last Updated: 12/2/2009

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Gender: Male
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Age: 42
Sign: Aquarius

State: Wisconsin
Country: US
Signup Date: 9/11/2006

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Saturday, March 07, 2009 

March 5th, 2009


California high court reviews gay marriage ban

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Gay marriage advocates on Thursday prepared to ask the California Supreme Court to overturn a second voter-approved, same-sex marriage ban, in a cultural battle that has divided the United States.

Social conservatives and liberals both consider California a trendsetter that could shape the same-sex marriage agenda, even though an overwhelming majority of U.S. states have laws stopping gay couples from wedding. Groups representing both sides have turned the legal fight into a broad cultural question.

The court will hear three hours of arguments and have 90 days to issue an opinion. If it overturns the ban, gay couples would again be permitted to marry in California.

Before the hearing began, hundreds of people crowded the sidewalks outside the courthouse, carrying banners and shouting slogans at each other. Men in pink bunny suits preaching "love" faced off against schoolchildren backing "traditional marriage."

"This is a pivotal time," said chiropractor Don Grundmann, director of the American Warrior Ministry, who was holding a sign saying, "Gay = Pervert." "Homosexual marriage is a direct attack on our children," he added, saying if the court allows same-sex marriage, it will be taught in schools.

Holding a "Love is Love" sign, 19-year-old college student Ashley Matson said she had known she was gay since middle school. "I've already found someone and I want to get married. We were too young when it was legal," she said.

The same court last year overturned a voter-approved law banning gay marriage, which allowed gay couples in the most populous state to marry. Some 18,000 couples tied the knot.

But in November, California voters passed an amendment to the state constitution, Proposition 8, that limited marriage to a man and a woman. The vote sparked national protests and a new court fight.

Only a handful of countries, mostly European nations, allow gay marriage.

Gay marriage opponents said overturning the California ban would change the nature of state government by gutting the people's right to make law.

The court would create "a sweeping power, vested in the least-democratic branch, that overrides the precious right of the people to determine how they will be governed," same-sex marriage opponents said in papers filed with the court.

Gay marriage proponents, including former Governor and current California Attorney General Jerry Brown, argue that the right to marry is part of the "inalienable right" to liberty, so the state Supreme Court must strike down an amendment to the constitution limiting it.

"What hangs in the balance is equality and justice for all," National Center for Lesbian Rights Executive Director Kate Kendell told reporters before the arguments.
7:38 PM 
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Sunday, March 01, 2009 
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009 

Sea Shepherd News
February 8th, 2009

The Sea Shepherd ship the Steve Irwin and her crew have withdrawn from the Japanese whaling fleet to begin preparations to return with a faster and longer range ship.

"I have said always said that we would do everything we can short of hurting people to end illegal whaling in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary," said Captain Paul Watson. "We have done everything we could with the resources available to us this year. We have shut down their illegal operations for over a month in total. We have cost them money and we have saved the lives of a good many whales. And although we are willing to take the risks required, even to our own lives, I am not prepared to do to the Japanese whalers what they do to the whales and the escalating violence by the whalers will result in some serious injuries and possibly fatalities if this confrontation continues to escalate."

Captain Watson said that he has been operating at a disadvantage against three harpoon boats that are superior in speed and maneuverability to the Steve Irwin.

"We need to block those deadly harpoons and we need to outrun these hunter killer ships and to do that I need a ship that is as fast as they are and I intend to get one and I intend to return next year," he said. "We will never stop intervening against their illegal whaling operations and we will never stop harassing them, blockading them and costing them money. I intend to be their on-going nightmare every year until they stop their horrific and unlawful slaughter of the great whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary."

This year the crew of the Steve Irwin pursued the Japanese fleet from December 18th until January 7th for over 2,000 miles, shutting down their operations for a month. The crew returned and relocated the fleet on February 1st and pursued them for another 9 days during which time the whalers were only able to kill five whales. A pursuit of the Yushin Maru No.2 by the Steve Irwin on December 20th caused ice damage to the prop of the whaling ship and forced them out of operation for a month and a half. The harpoon vessel was denied repairs in Indonesia much to the embarrassment of Japan.

Confrontations between the Steve Irwin and the whaling fleet have resulted in numerous close calls and two collisions causing minor damage. The whaling fleet this year deployed Long Range Acoustical Devices (LRAD's) and high powered water cannons against the Sea Shepherd crew. No whalers were injured. Three members of the Steve Irwin's crew were injured with one man requiring five stitches above his left eye after being hit by a blast from the LRAD and knocked over.

Captain Paul Watson is dismissive of Japanese accusations that Sea Shepherd deliberately rammed their whaling ships.

"The whalers and their hired PR flunkies can say whatever they want now but we have over 1,000 hours of video footage documenting every moment of the campaign. Our story will be told on a weekly series on Animal Planet with the show Whale Wars. People can watch and judge for themselves. The camera is the most powerful weapon in the world and we intend to demonstrate that power."

On January 31st, the Japanese government dispatched a security vessel called the Taiyo Maru #38 from Fiji to intercept the Steve Irwin. The ship is believed to be carrying a special boarding unit and has orders to seize the ship and all video evidence, according to a source in Fiji. The ship is expected to arrive in the Ross Sea within days.

"We cannot allow this documentation to be captured by Japan," said Captain Watson.

The Steve Irwin will be returning to Australia and is expected to arrive within the next two weeks. The ship had only another four days of fuel reserves to remain with the fleet before being forced to return anyway.

"Another four days is simply not worth getting someone killed," said Captain Watson. "We are down here because we respect the sanctity of life. The whalers are down here to illegally destroy life. People can choose to side with life or with death, between the whalers and the whale defenders, and we have chosen to defend life, and for those who condemn us for what we are doing, all I can say is that we are not down here for them. We're down here for the whales."

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Saturday, February 07, 2009 
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Saturday, February 07, 2009 





SYDNEY, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Anti-whaling activists involved in a collision with a Japanese whaling ship near Antarctica accused whalers of using water cannon and acoustic weapons against them and vowed on Saturday to further obstruct the hunt.

The U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which Tokyo sharply rebuked after Friday's collision, also said whalers had thrown golf balls and chunks of metal at its ship the Steve Irwin.

"The Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin continues to stand guard behind the Japanese floating abattoir called the Nisshin Maru, despite repeated assaults by frustrated and increasingly violent Japanese whalers," Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said.

"The three Japanese harpoon boats are not in the area but the Sea Shepherd crew is prepared to obstruct them should they return," he said in a statement.

On Friday Tokyo blamed the group for the collision with the harpoon ship Yushin Maru 2, accusing it of violence. The protest ship collided with the vessel in an attempt to block the transfer of a dead whale up the slipway of the factory ship Nisshin Maru.

Watson said Japan's claims the group used "acid" against its fleet, in fact referred to rotten butter.

"They are accusing the Sea Shepherd crew of throwing rotten butter (which the Japanese refer to as 'acid') at them yet the whalers are throwing golf balls and chunks of metal at the Steve Irwin crew.

"In addition, the Japanese are blasting the Sea Shepherd crew with water cannons and long range acoustical weapons -- a sonic gun that causes disorientation, nausea and deafness."

Japan's whaling fleet is in Antarctic waters for an annual hunt aimed at catching about 900 whales. Although Japan officially stopped whaling under a 1986 global moratorium, it continues to take hundreds of whales under a loophole allowing whaling for research purposes.

Much of the meat ends up on supermarket shelves and dinner tables.
1:42 AM 
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Saturday, January 31, 2009 

By Leo W. Gerard
International President - United Steelworkers
Posted January 29, 2009
usw.org


For a brief moment, when Congress authorized that $700 billion bailout for the Wall Street wise guys whose recklessness caused the financial crisis that we’re all suffering, federal officials actually considered giving part of the money to foreign banks.

Really.

They quickly backed away from using American tax dollars to prop up overseas financial institutions.

But now, the same issue is at stake with the $825 billion economic recovery package. Fifteen groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable want to give American tax dollars to foreign manufacturers to create jobs overseas.

That’s right. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants to spend the tax dollars of unemployed Americans to create jobs in China and Indonesia, Korea and India.

The 15 business groups sent a letter to Congress opposing provisions added to the recovery package that would strengthen existing laws requiring government agencies buy American steel and other products when building public works projects with tax dollars.

The recovery package would use American tax dollars to pull the United States out of a deep recessionary hole caused by a blind belief that business knows best and shouldn’t be regulated – from banks to pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The package is, essentially, Americans agreeing to increase their national debt to revive an economy sucker punched by greedy Wall Street gamblers. So when business interests want to spend those tax dollars overseas, to create jobs there at the expense of unemployed Americans, while at the same time increasing the U.S. trade deficit, frankly, it looks a bit like treason.

To survive this economic catastrophe, Americans must assert themselves as economic patriots. They must stand up to the likes of the Chamber and the Roundtable and call them out for being economic traitors to the United States of America.

The measures proposed in Congress to strengthen the existing laws requiring that American products be purchased are simple, inexpensive and would not delay construction projects. For example, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown wants requests for waivers to the federal “Buy America” requirements to be publicly posted on the Internet in a place where people with knowledge of the situation can comment on them. That way, a government agency will likely quickly find out about attempts to use the waiver process to circumvent the rules.

The Chamber and the other business groups whine in their letter to Congress that strengthening “Buy America” rules may violate international agreements.

That’s bogus and the groups know it. America can honor its international obligations while using U.S. tax dollars to employ American workers. For example, states that receive federal grants for highway and mass transit projects may specify that products for that construction be purchased from U.S.-based producers without violating international agreements.

The Chamber and the other business groups also contended they were worried that strengthening the “Buy America” rules would prompt retaliation from foreign countries, so that U.S. companies would be prohibited from providing materials for construction funded by foreign stimulus programs.

When other nations nurture their industries and employ their own countrymen with their tax dollars, it won’t be retaliation. It will be reasonable. It will make good economic sense.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced in December that he would do whatever it took to save his country’s auto industry. No big protest broke out from anyone contending France should buy the auto parts from some low-priced American competitor. No, it seemed logical that France’s president would “buy French” and strive to rescue the industry that employs 10 percent of his population.

India already employs many protectionist measures to shield its industries. China subsidizes its manufacturers and manipulates its currency. But, somehow, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce thinks it’s wrong if U.S. tax dollars are spent in America to employ Americans.

These are the guys who were behind George W. Bush’s tax breaks for the rich these past eight years. These are the very ones whose wrongheaded policies brought America to its economic knees. And they are the business hotshots who don’t see that they’ve done anything wrong that should change.

Those Wall Street business wizards felt so entitled to Americans’ $700 billion in tax dollars given to bail them out that they spent it on $18 billion in year-end bonuses, a $16,000 commode and a $50 million Dassault Falcon 7X manufactured-in-France corporate jet. (Well, the Obama administration did tell Citigroup it had to cancel that jet.)

Here’s the thing to remember about these business groups so worried about preserving “free” trade. A dozen of them put America or U.S. in their names, like the United States Council for International Business. But it’s not the U.S. they care about. Their focus is themselves.

Many of them long ago shipped manufacturing overseas, to benefit from tax breaks provided by the Bush administration, slave wages paid to third world workers and zero enforcement of safety and environmental regulations. That’s why they oppose “Buy America” regulations. They want to use American tax dollars to pay subsistence wages at their factories in foreign countries, then ship the steel or aluminum or rubber back to the U.S. at untold cost to the environment and the trade deficit.

You can trust ‘em same as you can Bernie Madoff.

What you can trust is that empty feeling in your stomach and your pocket, a pang that’s spreading quickly while the U.S. Chamber busies itself trying to thwart “Buy America.” More than 2.55 million Americans have been thrown out of work since Bush’s recession began. On Monday alone, companies announced they would cut 75,000 more jobs. Unemployment stands at 7.2 percent, and it is expected to rise to 10 percent before year’s end if drastic action isn’t taken.

Drastic action isn’t sending American tax dollars overseas to create jobs there.

Last year, the Government Accountability Office reported that “Buy America” policies are effective by “protecting domestic employment through national infrastructure improvements that can stimulate economic activity and create jobs; protecting against unfair competition from foreign firms as a result of foreign government subsidies; and maintaining national security interests through the continued use and development of certain industries within the U.S. economy, like the iron and steel industries.”

That sounds like a policy worth investing in. A policy good for America.
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Saturday, January 24, 2009 

Rod Nordland | NEWSWEEK
Jan 24, 2009


Israel has never been more isolated. Its best friend, the United States, had vetoed 41 Security Council resolutions condemning Israel in the past three decades, but was about to vote for the Jan. 8 resolution denouncing the attack on Gaza when President Bush intervened, at the behest of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Still, in the face of unprecedented global criticism, the U.S. didn't dare veto, but merely abstained. Europe, never Israel's close ally, erupted in near unanimous outrage over Gaza, with fits of anti-Semitic violence in France, Sweden and Belgium.

Israel is accustomed to attacks from the left and the U.N. This time, though, Amnesty International has accused Israel of war crimes (using white phosphorus against civilians), and the secretary-general was unusually outspoken. After Israel bombed five U.N. compounds, Ban Ki-moon called the attack "heartbreaking … outrageous and unacceptable." His condemnation of Hamas rocket attacks came later, in milder terms.

Israel's last major military excursion, into Lebanon in 2006, aroused less anger. Its closest European ally is Britain, where Tony Blair initially refused to call for a ceasefire in Lebanon. By day two in Gaza, his Labour successors were pushing for a ceasefire; one M.P. called Israel's leaders "mass murderers." The global outcry in 2006 was tempered by disgust at Hizbullah's rocket campaign, which killed 43 in heavily populated northern Israel. This time, Hamas rockets hit a patch of sparsely populated southern Israel, killing three, while the Israeli response has been far more deadly. Some 1,300 Palestinians have been killed—compared with 500 Shiites in Lebanon.

The one region where Israel is arguably not more isolated is the Middle East. Israel's push for Arab recognition suffered a setback when Mauritania and Qatar severed relations, but four Arab summits have reached no consensus on how to respond to Gaza. Major states, led by Jordan and Egypt, want to lend no comfort to their Persian rival, Iran, the backer of Hamas. Moreover, Hamas has not emerged as a plucky hero to the Arab world, the way Hizbullah did in 2006. When the fighting quieted last week, Hamas held a "victory" parade in Gaza City, and it fizzled.

Israel has just one key friend. Could Obama, who promised the Muslim world "a new way forward" in his Inaugural Address, loosen the bond? A recent Pew poll shows 55 percent of U.S. Republicans, but only 45 percent of Democrats, approve of Israel's actions in Gaza. Given that Democrats now rule, Israel may need to worry more about the mood on Main Street than on the Arab Street.

With Christopher Dickey in Doha and Sophie Grove in London


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Saturday, January 24, 2009 

"Angels on the Moon" Live (Acoustic)





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Friday, January 23, 2009 

Sea Shepherd News
Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Steve Irwin has departed Hobart, Tasmania to return to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. The Steve Irwin left the dock in Hobart at 1600 Hours on Wednesday, January 21st, local time.

"It's back into the Whale Wars for us," said 1st Officer Peter Hammarstedt of Sweden.

Hobart welcomed the Steve Irwin very warmly. Tasmanians brought down all the food needed to replenish the pantries of the ship. The dollars and cheques handed over the rail to the crew more than paid for the berth, the pilotage, and port costs.

"There is no doubt that Australians love whales," said Captain Paul Watson. "And we love Australia. It's hard to believe but back in 1978 we were fighting to stop Australian whaling at Cheynes Beach near Albany in Western Australia. And today we now have a former whaling nation as the most passionate defenders of the great whales on the planet. It gives me great hope that eventually Japan will become as passionate about protecting whales as their government now is dedicated to slaughtering them."

During the five days that the Steve Irwin was in Hobart, the ship took on 220 tons of diesel, 20 barrels of lube oil, 12 barrels of helicopter fuel and 5 barrels of petrel. A few volunteer crew departed and some new volunteers joined from the U.S., Spain, Dubai, and Australia Some engine and helicopters parts were taken on in addition to 60 tons of water and more than enough provisions to last another two months.

The crew are energized and eager to return to the Southern Ocean.

"We've got whales to save and whaling ships to chase," said Emily Hunter from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

It's a long haul back to where the Japanese whaling fleet is presently engaged in their illegal plundering of the whale sanctuary. The weather reports look bleak, the swells look intimidating and the winds are increasing.

"This is not some fair weather voyage," said Pedro Monteiro from Florida. "This is a sea trip at its most extreme, in the most remote and hostile waters on the planet. We have no illusions about how much danger is involved. But knowing that we are saving hundreds of whales makes it all worthwhile."

Captain Paul Watson has informed the Australian government that Sea Shepherd would be willing to back off from confronting the whaling fleet for a year if either Australia or New Zealand mount a challenge to Japan to defend their actions before an international court.

"Our critics say that the risks we take our unacceptable," said Captain Watson. "I disagree, the saving of a species is more important than risking your life for oil or territory. However we should not be taking these risks. Governments should be upholding international conservation law. We take these risks because governments are not acting responsibly to protect the resources of this planet. If the government of Australia decides to take action, we can step back and allow them to do their job. Calling us eco-vigilantes or pirates does not bother us. What would bother us is to be doing nothing at all when laws are being broken, endangered species are dying and the criminal killers are being ignored."

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Steve Irwin should arrive on the whale killing grounds around January 29th and will pursue the Japanese whaling fleet into the month of March.




12:27 AM 
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Saturday, January 17, 2009 

Sea Shepherd News

Thursday, January 15, 2009


It is a humiliating defeat for the Japanese whaling fleet. The Japanese harpoon ship Yushin Maru #2 has been ordered to leave the Port of Surabaya, East Java in Indonesia without repairs. The Indonesian Forestry Authorities, the CITES Authorities and local government officials in East Java demanded the expulsion of the Yushin Maru #2 from Surabaya harbour and from Indonesian waters.

Thanks to a combined effort on the part of Jakarta Animal Aid, Earth Island Institute, The Green Party of Australia and Senator Bob Brown, Peter Tagliaferri, the Mayor of Fremantle, Western Australia, former Australian Environment Minister Ian Campbell, the Indonesian Forestry Department and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the whaling industry has been struck a very costly blow.

This drama began on December 20th, 2008 when the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin pursued the Yushin Maru #2 into dense ice packs off the coast of Antarctica. As a storm moved in, the Steve Irwin broke off the pursuit and headed South as the harpoon vessel kept running North into heavier ice conditions.

"I could see the danger coming as the ice began to push the floes tighter together," said Captain Paul Watson of the Steve Irwin. "The harpoon vessel seemed more afraid of us at the time than of the ice, and we last saw them on a course directly into the thick of it."

The result was ice damage to the propeller that reduced the speed of the harpoon vessel from 21 knots to only 7.5 knots. It took the whaling ship 16 days to travel 3,000 miles North to Surabaya to seek repairs. Although both New Zealand and Australia were much closer, the ports of the two countries are closed to Japanese whaling vessels.

Once in Surabaya, Jakarta Animal Aid organized demonstrations and meetings with officials. Captain Paul Watson called Femke Den Haas of Jakarta Animal Aid from the Steve Irwin to encourage and support their efforts. Femke said the officials in Indonesia simply needed to see evidence of Japan's illegal whaling activities and evidence that Australia will not allow Japanese vessels to enter Australian ports for fuel or repairs. Three of the most passionate whale defending politicians in Australia responded immediately.

Former Australian Environment Minister and Sea Shepherd spokesperson Ian Campbell immediately wrote to the officials in Indonesia stating:

This communication is to provide you and the relevant authorities in the clearest possible terms that Australian law prohibits the entry to any Australian Port of Japanese Whaling vessels. This prohibition has been Australian law since the introduction of the moratorium on Whaling under the International Convention on Whaling. Japan has systematically breached this international agreement over the passed two decades, and successive Australian governments have banned these ships from our ports through special legislation and regulation.


I am happy for this advice to be forwarded to the Authorities. It can be confirmed with reference to an Australian Embassy.


Yours faithfully,



Ian Campbell
The Honourable Ian G. Campbell
Australian Government Minister for the Environment (2004-2007)



Senator Bob Brown, the leader of the Australian Green Party sent the following:

The harpoon vessel (Yushin Maru #2) is seeking repair in Surabaya, Indonesia.


Clearly it would have been expedient for this ship to have entered an Australian port. However the risk of public hostility, and complete inability to have repairs carried out means an effective blockade on the Japanese whaling ship entering Australian or New Zealand ports.


The Indonesian authorities should ensure the ship is refused servicing in that country too.


Yours Sincerely,


Senator Bob Brown



Mayor Peter Tagliaferri of Fremantle, Australia sent the following letter to the Port officials and to Mayor Banbang Dwi Hartono of Surabaya:

I write to you as Mayor of the City of Fremantle, Western Australia.


The City of Fremantle does not support the illegal slaughter of whales and has constantly conveyed this through diplomatic processes to the Japanese government.


I believe the Yushin Maru #2 is seeking propeller repairs in your port as a result of ice damage.


The City of Fremantle would not support this vessel to enter our fishing boat harbour to seek repairs to continue an illegal activity.


I, as Mayor of the City of Fremantle, urge you to also not allow this vessel to be repaired in your port and as a result the Yushin Maru #2 will not be able to rejoin the illegal whaling.


Best Regards,


Peter Tagliaferri
Mayor of City of Fremantle



What Does This Mean?

The Yushin Maru # 2 has not killed any whales since at least December 20th and because of this decision in Surabaya, they will not be returning to the Southern Ocean very soon. This effectively reduces the killing power of the Japanese whaling fleet by a third leaving the Yushin Maru # 1 and Yushin Maru #3 as the two remaining harpoon boats.

"The decision to expel the Yushin Maru #2 from Surabaya saved a great many whales," said Captain Paul Watson.

This loss of a harpoon vessel coupled with Sea Shepherd's successful disruption of the whaling between December 20th and January 7th will have a significant impact on the kill figures. And when the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin returns to disrupt the fleet for another month and a half, the impact will be even greater.

Sea Shepherd's goal is to save as many whales as possible and to cost the whaling industry as much in profit losses as possible. So far the campaign has exceeded expectations. It is also very humiliating for Japan to have one of their ships literally kicked out of an Indonesian port after being barred from entering Australian and New Zealand ports for years.

It is not known where the Yushin Maru #2 is limping off to now as they seek repairs but we will be following them and we will be doing everything we can to delay their return to Antarctic waters.


9:32 PM 
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