OK, first the story that’s starting to make the rounds.  I saw this yesterday, and as a native Clevelander I tried to place some calls on it seeking some answers but haven’t gotten anywhere just yet.

Two gay men have filed a federal lawsuit against several officers from the Cleveland Police Department stemming from an arrest last April.

The men claim they were subjected to derogatory name-calling and then hauled off to jail in their underwear, despite repeated requests to change clothes.

In a civil lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court, nationally-recognized civil rights attorney David Malik alleges several officers from the Cleveland Police Department violated the couple’s constitutional rights.

“We were called faggots a lot by police, and I consider that a fighting word,” said Jonathan Simcox.

Simcox and his partner, Steven Ondo, claim they were subjected to, “excessive force and undisguised prejudice,” because of their sexual orientation.

“It was more humiliating than I can even explain to you,” said Steven Ondo.

In April 2011, Ondo and Simcox were walking home from a bar on the near west side when they started arguing. They say a neighbor, who happened to be an off-duty Cleveland police officer came outside and confronted them.

“He came out over shouting, saying, ‘Shut up, you`re disturbing the peace’,” said Simcox. “I pushed to get past him, as soon as I did that he knocked me on the ground, and just started beating me, hitting me, standing over top of me, and punching me repeatedly.”

A few minutes later, Cleveland police showed up at their house. Ondo and Simcox were arrested and hauled off to jail.

“At the time my hands were all cut up, I was covered in blood,” said Simcox.

The men said after they were released from jail, they were told no charges were being filed against them. About a week later, the men were upstairs sleeping inside their home when they heard a loud banging outside their front door.

According to the lawsuit, “6 or 7 members of the SWAT/and or Warrant Team” were on a sweep that day. Ondo and Simcox said officers then informed them they were wanted on a warrant that was issued for, “assaulting a peace officer.”

The men said each time they tried asking questions, the officers became increasingly violent.

“The officer in the glasses grabbed me by my shirt, and punched me twice in the face, after he punched me, he threw me up against the wall,” said Simcox.

Simcox says at the time of the arrest, he and his partner were wearing only underwear and t-shirts. When Simcox’s brother asked police if he could get them some pants and shoes, one of the officers allegedly responded by saying, “You can go get them shoes, but faggots don`t deserve to wear pants in jail.”

Coming from a police family, I can honestly tell you this: the majority of cops are great, dedicated public servants who believe in the job they’re doing.  As with any profession though, there are definitely some bad apples out there.

On this incident though I have some questions and comments.  Don’t take this to mean that I’m calling Ondo and Simcox liars – I’m not at all.  It’s just that some things dont’ add up.

• This incident happened in April last year and it’s just seeing the light of day now?  Why?  Were that me, I’d have made it my mission in life to shine publicity on this one so that cops who did allegedly do this saw disciplinary actions double quick.
• Nothing against Mr. Simcox, but pushing his way past a policeman (and doing it physically) was his mistake – and a big one.  Once a cop has identified themselves, on-duty or off, that’s it. The law applies from that moment forward.
• Also, had this happened to me, I’d have made sure I had tons of photographic evidence to prove the assault by police; first by the neighbor/off duty officer, then by the warrant team.
• Point against CPD: if they were told there’d be no charges filed, why the warrant team a week later?  And, given the circumstances, why a six member team instead of a patrol car?  At no time were Simcox or Ondo identified as known violent offenders.  This seems like massive overkill to me.
• I’ve been arrested many times, and all of them in Cleveland.  Every time I was put in lockup – in multiple precincts – I’d witness tons of police officers.  There wasn’t a single police officer during their incarceration that thought it was odd they had no pants and took no action to get them some?  Not one?

I really want to take this one at face value, but I have alot of questions before I completely point a finger at CPD’s wrong doing

Just gotta LOVE those “citizen journalists” who stay on top of the facts.  And by that I mean totally screw up.

Both Towleroad and JMG posted the same story today about the “Infinite Forest” being chosen as the AIDS memorial park design in NYC.  The problem is that not even an hour later the winning design was completely rejected (a fact both sites never bothered to follow up on or amend their rush-to-post stories on)

Rudin Management owns the triangular space at Seventh and Greenwich avenues, which has has been a source of controversy and speculation since the former occupier of the space, St. Vincent’s Hospital, closed last year. Rudin Management expressed a willingness to work with the grassroots AIDS Memorial Park Coalition and the local community board concerning the property. Out of 8,000 submissions, the Coalition chose “The Infinite Forest,” by Brooklyn design firm Studio a+1. The firm described their submission as a simple park of birch trees surrounded by three mirrored walls. 

Hours later, Rudin Management cited potential construction delays as the primary reason for rejecting Studio a+1′s design. Instead, Rudin Management CEO and Vice Chairman Bill Rudin announced plans to move ahead with the company’s own design by landscape architect Rick Parisi. 

“Our neighborhood park design…allows for a commemoration of both those affected by the AIDS epidemic and of St. Vincent’s Hospital for its 160 years of service to the community and its steadfast commitment to care for those suffering from HIV/AIDS,” Rudin said in a statement, DNAInfo reports.

Some days you’d swear that JMG and Towleroad are the same person.  You see a bit in one place, then it’s instantly on the other one.  No telling who poaches from whom the most.  In this instance, they both got it wrong.

Update: partial points go to Towleroad for posting the update, just after I published this:

http://www.towleroad.com/2012/01/developers-reject-winning-design-for-nyc-aids-memorial-park-decide-to-go-with-their-own.html

Here’s your lesson for the day: be careful what you tweet.  It just might get you put outta here:

Two U.K. tourists landing in L.A. were detained and deported because of tweets joking about “diggin’ up” Marilyn Monroe and “destroying” America.

According to DHS paperwork, Leigh Van Bryan was matched to a “One Day Lookout” list, placed under oath, and ultimately denied entry and put on a plane back to Europe.

“[He wrote] on his tweeter[sic] website account that he was coming to the United States to dig up the grave of Marilyn Monroe,” DHS officials wrote on his charge sheet. “Also on his tweeter[sic] account Mr. Bryan posted that he was coming to destroy America.”

Interviewed by highly-respected British newspapers such as The Sun and The Daily Mail, Leigh Van Bryan says that the tweet — “Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America” — referred merely to partying. Added a friend: “He would not hurt anyone. He is gay.”

Bryan has now made his Twitter account private, thereby ending the DHS’s ability to track his terror plans.

Gotta admit: I love the whole, “he would not hurt anyone. He he gay.” quote.

(thumb via the linked article)

I recently read an article by Annette Gross on Bilerico entitled “Parents of LGBT kids: it’s time to speak up“.  It’s a very short piece, the content of which inspired me to drop my comment on it.  Rather than continue to comment-jack the site, I’m going to continue my thoughts over here.  I mean, that’s what I’m tossing GoDaddy $14 bucks a month for, right.  Here we go:

When the Republicans say that same-sex marriage is the same as paganism; that homosexuality means the end of civilization; that LGBT people don’t deserve the same rights as other citizens; that LGBT people will go to hell; that homosexuality is the same as bestiality, pedophilia and prostitution – don’t they realize that they are talking about our children? How nasty! How insulting! All parents and families of LGBT kids should be angry, outraged, and speak up

As an out, gay man – and a parent – I just don’t have it in me to get outraged by the things that Santorum, Gingrich, Romney and Paul have said in the past (and will undoubtedly keep saying).  Here’s the comment I posted, and I’m going to keep going with that thought:

I’m sorry, but they’re not talking about my kid, nor are they talking about anyone I know so it’s hard for me to get angry. Giving attention to their odious, ridiculous claims is something they don’t deserve. They are no more relevant than a three year old who says dirty words out loud in order to get attention.

My son is gay, as am I. My kid is a straight A student, going to college early, got a great boyfriend of his own, doesn’t drink or smoke and probably the best example of an out gay man that I know. The hate-mongering ramble of soon-to-be insignificant POTUS wannabe’s does nothing to detract from my son’s reputation and character or mine.

The four stooges that currently want to move into the White House will soon scurry back under the kitchen sink from which they crawled, and me, my son, and every other LGBT person I know will still be standing. They will be consigned to obscurity and cocktail party jokes, and we’ll still be here. To me, we make their claims impotent not by yelling louder, but the examples we set of our own lives.

Just my.02 cents. I am sure I’ll get spanked for this one but I have to call it the way I see it.

Why is anything that these four horsemen of the apocalypse say about me (or any other LGBT person) relevant?  It’s not.  What’s worse is that every single time a gay blogger stands up on the righteous indignation podium to express outrage they are legitimizing everything that comes out of their mouth.

Gay websites like Pam’s House Blend, JMG, Towleroad and worst of all Good as You have made vocations out of expressing outrage on anything that falls out of a republican’s mouth when it comes to LGBT people.  Jeremy Hooper has turned his obsession with NOM into a sideline career with “NOM exposed”.  Joe Jervis at JMG has taken his bitchfest with AFTAH to a one-on-one level and regularly shoots tweets directly at Matt Barber and Peter LaBarbara.  The act of paying them even one second of attention, gives them more ammunition to use against us.  They set the trap with their comments and ramblings and it’s fallen for every single time.

Does that mean that by paying attention to the four horsemen or any of these right wing(nut) groups, we prove their argument true?  Of course not; the vast majority of America hasn’t heard of the National Organization for Marriage.  I proved this point by having my son poll every one that would stop and talk to him in the Chicago Public library.  Out of 81 people, not a single one had heard of NOM, Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, or Bryan Fischer and the AFA.  The general consensus of comments when people were told about who they are (and shown some of their comments on LGBT’s)

“They sound nuts”

“Never heard of ‘em”

“Who’d even give crap like that any attention?”

The same comments were offered when shown some of the swell things that Santorum and Gingrich have said about homosexuality.  Their views make them sound far more nuts than accurate. To that end, I can’t find one single, documented instance of a rational organization looking at what the republican POTUS hopefuls have said about homosexuality and they responded, “you know what?  That ol’ Newt has a point about those gays.  We better make him president!”

So, I can’t stand behind Annette’s view that I should be outraged the things they say.  The gay media, and in particular gay bloggers and “citizen journalists” have completely overestimated their significance.  Santorum and Gingrich are just too nuts to keep going, Ron Paul is too obscure, and Romney has adopted a middle of the road (but slightly to the right) view on gays.  Come November guess who’s going to be the one left standing against Obama.  Go ahead.

Here’s a thought, which I know will never happen but just the same:  What about completely ignoring them and focusing on something else?

Since fundamentalists mount homophobically inspired boycotts at the drop of a hat, so the LGBT media should respond smartly. Let us see a boycott in lesbian and gay websites and magazines of all news stories emanating from the likes of the Christian Institute, Christian Concern for Our Nation, and Catholic Voices. We can do without what one gay Catholic theologian has termed “ecclesiastical pornography”. Let the LGBT media begin to publish some good news from within communities of faith: that the vast majority of believers support equal legal rights for LGBT people; that a Catholic archbishop can publicly recognise the value of civil partnerships in building up the common good; that churches, Anglican and Catholic, in and around Soho, welcome, without reserve, the presence and contribution of LGBT people, and engage in solidarity with other individuals and groups through the Soho LGBT community forum.

What does scare me is the amount of time wasted on propping up comments lunatics like Rick Santorum (who’s all-too-soon going to vanish into security) and not spending needed time on propping up a sitting democratic president trying for a second term.

It’s a given that there’s going to be some sort of republican challenger against Obama, so why not spend a bit of needed effort to make sure that he doesn’t get the boot come November?  If you listen to John Aravosis, who’s made a career out of banging his spoon on his high chair, Obama is the scourge of politics because he’s not evolved on gay marriage.  Guess what:  John Aravosis, despite all his claims to the contrary, doesn’t have a fucking clue, and he’s far to vain and self-centered to see the big picture.  Obama will not come out with this great epiphany on gay marriage during an election year; it’s just as simple as that.  To do so would polarize the voters and shock them into a too much, too fast mentality.  Those who don’t support gay marriage fully will balk at the suggestion, and take one step to the right to vote for the republican challenger.  Obama gets to pack his bag, and we in turn will get four years – if not eight years – of getting absolutely zip from the White House.  I’m talking zero, zilch, zip and bupkiss. Worse is that we’ll have done it to ourselves.

Obama isn’t a perfect president, and he’s not trying to portray himself as being so.  But, you can’t deny that he’s done more for LGBT people in four years than any other president.  Other than the HRC, no LGBT organization that I’m aware of has endorsed him officially, and certainly nobody in the gay media has stepped up.  The election is eleven months away, and we’re spending this much effort wagging our fingers at the republicans and their lunatic commentary?  They took back the House, the Senate is also up for grabs and someone like Romney has just enough appeal to get into office.  Between you and me, I could give a shit less about the jacket he wore in a failed YouTube video and it’s resemblance to Brokeback Mountain.  I’m not easily distracted by the shiny objects on the periphery.

At the end of the day however, it will never matter what craziness the republicans say when it comes to me, or my kid.  I know they’re wrong, and anyone with an IQ over 70 knows it too.  The people that know me in person pay them no mind whatsoever.

What does matter, in my opinion, is that we’re wasting an extraordinary amount of time on this when we should be looking four steps ahead to solidify our chances at some success in the gay movement for another four years.

Starring the lovely and completely naked Joe Jervis – Chief Cook and Bottle Washer of JMG.  (Sorry, I clipped out the good bits.  Google Ads would suspend me for the x-pic and I like their loot).  Sadly, I called out Joe just yesterday for his completely wrong story on oral HIV testing being just as reliable as blood tests.

Here’s his bit, entitled “GOProud:  Santorum is better than Obama”  His title would lead you to believe that GP is specifically endorsing Santorum, but the fact of the matter is that Joe made it up.  King Cut and Paste put his own spin on their press release that he snipped:

“After last night’s Republican debate one thing is clear: any one of the four remaining GOP Presidential candidates would be a dramatic improvement over the failed Presidency of Barack Obama. All Americans, gay and straight, are living in the disastrous Obama economy. The truth is that most Americans, gay or straight, are not better off than they were in 2008. While we may not yet be united behind one candidate, we are united in one common purpose: to defeat Barack Obama. Make no mistake about it, when this primary process is over the conservative movement will unite behind the nominee. We look forward to being a part of the unified effort to make Barack Obama a one term President.” -GOProud, via press release.

That’s right, kids. GOProud says that the man who wants to make your literal existence illegal would be a better president than Barack Obama. The man who says you’re mentally ill, a hellbound pervert, a compulsive pedophile, HE is better than Barack Obama. If fact, according to GOProud,any of the GOP candidates, all of whom would destroy the marriage the Chris Barron currently enjoys thanks to the “gaystapo,” would be better than the most pro-gay president in history.

Get in line for your train, the kapos at GOProud need to earn their extra bowl of gruel.

The truth around this little artistic liberty of Joe’s is that they didn’t endorse Santorum at all.  Barron’s actually called Santorum an asswipe publicly, and not very long ago.

(Washington, D.C.) – After last night’s Republican Presidential debate in Florida, Christopher R. Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia, co-founders of GOProud – an organization of gay and straight Americans seeking to promote freedom by supporting free markets, limited government, and a respect for individual rights – released the following joint statement:

“After last night’s Republican debate one thing is clear: any one of the four remaining GOP Presidential candidates would be a dramatic improvement over the failed Presidency of Barack Obama. All Americans, gay and straight, are living in the disastrous Obama economy.

“In his State of the Union address this week, Obama had the chance to admit his failures and chart a new way forward for his administration. Sadly and predictably, instead of taking responsibility he chose to double down on his failed policies and fan the flames of class warfare.

“The truth is that most Americans, gay or straight, are not better off than they were in 2008.

“Each of the four remaining Republican Presidential candidates has put forward a vision for America that embraces, rather than demonizes, free enterprise. On the bread and butter issues that face gay and straight families – from healthcare to taxes to retirement security and personal freedom – all four of these candidates are head and shoulders above Barack Obama.

“Organizationally GOProud has not yet endorsed a candidate and each of the remaining candidates has supporters among our membership and leadership team.

“While we may not yet be united behind one candidate, we are united in one common purpose: to defeat Barack Obama.

“Make no mistake about it, when this primary process is over the conservative movement will unite behind the nominee. We look forward to being a part of the unified effort to make Barack Obama a one term President.”

Now, make no mistake:  I am not writing this in support of GoProud.  I don’t support them in the slightest; I find the concept of a conservative gay group too odd for me to wrap my head around.  Gay conservatives are, to me, like birds that swim or having a dog that quotes Shakespear:  too weird of a concept for me to grasp.  I am a dyed in the wool democrat, liberal, and whatever else you want to call me.  And, for the record, I support the death penalty.  Yes, that’s right.  And I still consider myself a liberal.  I grew up in a law enforcement family, and after years of reporting and visiting some of the worst crimes imaginable, I hold the belief that there are some people that are so genuinely evil on this planet that they should be put to death.  Make of that what you will.

What’s got my knickers in a twist (as usual) is spinning a statement into clickbait.  Joe’s ongoing lover’s spat with Chris Barron and GP is public knowledge and Joe’s site actually gets awards for blogging.  The King of Cut and Paste gets awards for this crap.  He’s being patted on the back for poaching article after article, and in this instance sinking to the level of ex-Queerty blogger Daniel Villareal, the King of Click Bait.

This is how we’re going to spend 2012, an election year with a sitting democratic President who’s gearing up for round two?  By wasting our time on shit like this?  Let GoProud say whatever the hell they want to; this is the land of people’s entitlement to their opinions.  We spend all our free time writing about what crap the ring wing(nuts) are spewing, making up crap like this and NOT making any momentum toward getting behind Obama?  Seriously?  Guess what, kids?  We keep on this path, then I tell you we’re going to see a President Gingrich or Romney.  And we’ll have done it to ourselves.

Worse: until we start holding bloggers and “citizen journalists” to a higher standard, we’re all in trouble when it comes to LGBT media and those who have superglued themselves to the driver’s seat.  We let them stay there, and worse: we reward them without calling them out when they roll in the mud.

I’ve never been shy about preaching that:

a.  ”citizen journalists” are only half right: they’re citizens.

b.  bloggers who want the fame and fortune that goes with running a popular site need to step up to a set of responsibility and ethics that’s sorely lacking from pretty much every site out there.  Not all the big box sites, mind you.  Just most of them.

c.  the amount of HIV/AIDS reporting done by those in the gay community running popular sites is embarrassingly low.  And yesterday it’s also wrong.

JoeMyGod, who never met a copy/paste function he didn’t love (because he’s never written a long form article at all that I’m aware of) ran the below article on how the oral HIV test is just as effective as other methods, than proceeds to copy/paste a quote from the same article to support that:

A mouth swab for HIV has been foundjust as effective as a traditional blood screening.

Researchers from McGill University in Montreal said that their saliva HIV test OraQuick HIV 1/2 was 99 percent accurate for HIV in high-risk populations and about 97 percent in low-risk populations. The oral test works by detecting whether HIV antibodies are present in a person’s oral fluid and gives a result within 20 minutes. “Testing is the cornerstone of prevention, treatment and care strategies,” study leader Dr. Nitika Pant Pai said. “Although previous studies have shown that the oral fluid-based OraQuick HIV 1/2 test has great promise, ours is the first to evaluate its potential at a global level.”

One researcher noted: “A confidential testing option such as self-testing could bring an end to the stigmatization associated with HIV testing.” Some mental health experts have long advised against home HIV testing because of the danger of self-harm upon a positive result. That possibility, however, must be weighed against the greater good of widely expanded status knowledge

Going one better, Instinct Magazine, who’s never met an article they didn’t poach from other sites (generally JMG and Towleroad) ran the same piece, with a couple of tweaks:

Canadian researchers have found that a saliva test yields HIV results as accurately as blood screening. Details follow.

Reports Fox News:

Researchers from McGill University in Montreal said that their saliva HIV test OraQuick HIV 1/2 was 99 percent accurate for HIV in high-risk populations and about 97 percent in low-risk populations.

The oral test works by detecting whether HIV antibodies are present in a person’s oral fluid and gives a result within 20 minutes.

“Testing is the cornerstone of prevention, treatment and care strategies,” Dr. Nitika Pant Pai, lead researcher on the study, said. “Although previous studies have shown that the oral fluid-based OraQuick HIV 1/2 test has great promise, ours is the first to evaluate its potential at a global level.”

“Getting people to show up for HIV testing at public clinics has been difficult because of visibility, stigma, lack of privacy and discrimination,” Pai added. “A confidential testing option such as self-testing could bring an end to the stigmatization associated with HIV testing.”

The implications of the study are powerful as a mouth swab could lay the foundation for home HIV testing kits down the line. Considering the thorough emotional support today’s modern clinics have on hand for upset visitors, how do you feel about the possibility that self-HIV-testing could become a reality?

The problem with both these pieces is that neither one bothered to investigate all the facts to find out they’re actually wrong.  Considering that their “reporting” of information could be playing with someone’s life who believed this on it’s face, they’re both dead wrong.

From AIDSMap, published the very same day: (bolding mine)

The performance of OraQuick, a widely used rapid point-of-care test for HIV diagnosis, is slightly poorer when testing oral fluid samples than when testing blood samples, according to a meta-analysis, published in the online edition of Lancet Infectious Diseases this week.The authors also found that if the test is used in low prevalence settings with oral fluid samples, over one in ten reactive results may turn out to be false-positives.

Rapid diagnostic tests, which can be operated at the point-of-care by doctors or nurses, have a number of attractive features in comparison with conventional laboratory tests. Such devices are essential in resource-limited settings where laboratories are inaccessible or unavailable. As patients do not need to come back for their results on another day, far more people receive their results.

Rapid tests also have the advantage of not requiring a blood sample taken with a needle. Most require a tiny sample of whole blood, taken by pricking a fingertip with the sharp point of a lancet. Some tests can be used with oral fluid, obtained by swabbing an absorbent pad around the outer gums, adjacent to the teeth.

The OraQuick Advance Rapid HIV-1/2 is, by far, the most widely used test which can test oral fluid samples. It is also one of the rapid tests which has been most extensively evaluated by independent researchers. Whilst accuracy has generally been reported to be very good, a few reports have identified problems including false positive results and limited sensitivity in people with recent infection. Such problems seem to have been associated in part with the use of oral fluid samples.

Had either JMG or Instinct bothered to hit Google for corroboration of the Fox news piece (a network that Joe has slammed on many occasions, and rightly so), they’d have found out they were regurgitating bad information.

Nice job.  And by that I mean, not.

Say what you will about Gates and Microsoft, but you have to respect his philanthropic ventures since he stepped away from the helm.

“These are tough economic times, but that is no excuse for cutting aid to the world’s poorest,” he said in Davos at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced two days ago that its executive director, Michel Kazatchkine, was stepping down early following criticism over misuse of funds and cuts in funding.

The public-private organization, based in Geneva, accounts for around a quarter of international financing to fight HIV and AIDS, as well as the majority of funds to fight TB and malaria.

But it has been forced to cut back and said last year it would make no new grants or funding until 2014.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $750 million through a promissory note — a fresh injection in addition to the $650 million that the Gates charity has contributed since the fund was launched 10 years ago.

From POZ (link at bottom)

After being found guilty of 12 counts of felony sexual assault in 2011, former pro wrestler Andre Davis has been sentenced to 32 years in prison, Cincinnati.com reports. Davis, whose stage names included Gangsta of Love and Sweet Sexy Sensation, allegedly had unprotected sex with women without informing them he was HIV positive. At the sentencing, Davis read a letter to the judge describing ridicule from the public he faced because of ignorance about HIV; it also stated that he never intended to hurt anyone and that he blamed the victims and the media for his actions. To date, Amy Tranter, the assistant prosecutor on the case, said none of his victims have tested positive for HIV, but some are in the time period where they could later. The maximum sentence Davis faced was 112 years. He faces similar charges in Butler and Warren counties of Ohio.

To read the Cincinnati.com article, click here.

http://www.poz.com/rssredir/articles/Wrestler_HIV_Prison_1_21819.shtml

Posted from WordPress for Android

Wow, talk about the deal of the century.  And by that I mean “what in the flying fuck were they thinking handing out this deal?”

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, 31, entered his plea at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base north of San Diego as part of a deal with military prosecutors in which more serious charges of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault were dismissed.

As part of his guilty plea, Wuterich accepted responsibility for providing negligent verbal instructions to the Marines under his command when he told them to “shoot first and ask questions later,” resulting in the death of innocent civilians.

He faces a maximum sentence of three months of confinement, forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay for three months and a reduction in rank when he is sentenced on Tuesday, a Camp Pendleton spokesman said.

“By pleading guilty to this charge, Staff Sergeant Wuterich has accepted responsibility for his actions,” base spokesman Lieutentant Colonel Joseph Kloppel said.

Any discharge process Wuterich may face will be separate from the plea and sentencing, Kloppel added.

Wuterich, 31, was accused of being the ringleader in a series of November 19, 2005, shooting and grenade attacks that left two dozen civilians dead in Haditha, a city west of Baghdad that was a hotbed of insurgent activity.

(thumb via the linked article)

OK, let’s just file this under “spectacularly fucking stupid decisions” shall we?

In one of the most spectacularly mis-prioritized state budgets in recent memory, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear (D), is suggesting over $50 million in cuts to education – while preserving $43 million in tax breaks for the Ark Encounter, a creationist amusement park centered around a life-sized Noah’s Ark. The park is sponsored by Answers In Genesis, a non-profit organization that promotes a “literalist” interpretation of the Book of Genesis while promoting an anti-evolution (and other sciences) agenda.

There are a number of reasons why this is a bad idea. First of all, it makes no sense to cut education at this point without reforms that go along with it to ensure that education services don’t suffer as a result. This budget doesn’t do that. Education dollars are an investment in the future – both culturally and economically. Moreover, a tax subsidy in support violates – in spirit if not in letter – the sacred American principle of the separation of Church and State.