New Wave of Gay Activism: Queer Rising

New Wave of Gay Activism: Queer Rising

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'Birthers' Will March on Washington May 29 at President's Park | NowPublic News Coverage

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Louisiana Senate Judiciary Committee rejects ga...

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Mignini's Satanic theory rejected in Perugia

Giuliano Mignini ,  the head prosecutor in the murder trial of American University of Washington student Amanda Knox,  has had his satanic theory rejected by an Italian judge

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In the 1970s and 80s in Florence,  Italy,  a series of couples killed while in lover's lanes prompted the "Monster of Florence"  story that a serial killer was on the loose.    The identity of this killer has yet to be discovered.  

In October 1985, a physician  -   Dr. Francesco Narducci -  was found dead near a lake outside of Perugia, Italy. In an apparent suicide, it was ruled the doctor died of an overdose of Demerol.   But in  2001, Perugia prosecutor Giulano Mignini decided that Narducci's death was integrally connected to the Monster of Florence case,  and claimed Narducci was a member of a satanic sect that killed women for body parts to be used in black masses, and the wealthy Perugia doctor was the keeper of those body parts. Mignini claimed Narducci was murdered to keep him silent about the masses.  

A Satanic theory brings 20 criminal indictments 

Mignini theorized a fantastic and  elaborate conspiracy of 20 people, including government officials and law enforcement officers, who made up a secret society behind the Monster killings.

 20 people were indicted and charged with the concealment of Narducci's murder, and laid out a hard-to-follow plot that included body doubles and featured Narducci's body being swapped two times. 

 Tuesday, in a preliminary hearing, cases against all 20 were thrown out in a ruling by Perugia Judge Paolo Micheli ,  who found there was no solid evidence to back up Mignini's claim that Narducci was murdered, let alone the victim of a satanic sect.

"Mignini's malicious and completely unwarranted accusations ruined many lives and impoverished the defendants and their families," Douglas Preston, the author of "The Monster of Florence," told Crimesider. Added Mario Spezi, Preston's co-author in Italy, "The great question is: How was it possible that Mignini was able to pursue a case that everyone knew was crazy?"

Source: cbsnews.com

Bringing the theory into the Amanda Knox case 

That Giuliano Mignini was also the head prosecutor in the Amanda Knox case is telling.  In addition to his criminal convictions for prosecutorial misconduct,  Mignini had theorized that Amanda Knox,  her Italian boyfriend Rafaele Sollecito, and drifter Rudy Guede,  has taken part in a drug-fueled sex game,  and had chosen Halloween night for its ritual significance.    This game ended in the murder of British student and flat mate of Knox,  Meredith Kercher.  

The judge in the Kercher case threw out Mignini's theory as well,  yet it was still fodder for Italian papers, which jurors had been exposed to.  

Author Douglas Preston,  who wrote,  "The Monster of Florence" , had once been interrogated by Mignini himself, and found the experience harrowing and daunting.  

His friend has said :

"Why are people afraid to stop him?" wonders Mario Spezi. "Why was he allowed to work on the Amanda Knox case and present his crazy ideas?"

Source: cbsnews.com

Gay Town Hall in Washington, DC Today, 2-4 pm

Image via Wikipedia

Gay Town Hall in Washington, DC Today, 2-4 pm

Gay activist and author Michelangelo Signorilewill host his LGBT Town Hall in Washignton, DCtoday between 2-4 pm.  

The event, called "an emergency summit" and entitled "The Path Forward", will be livestreamed and broadcast from Sirius XM Radio’s OutQ Channel.  Joe Sudbay from AmericaBlog Gay will be livetweeting from the forum in D.C.  AmericaBlog Gay will also be reporting via Twitter. 

Link to Michelangelo Signorile's radio show "The Gist" to hear Town Hall
Town Hall Agenda

• Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Clinton Policy for Gays in the US Military
• ENDA:  Employment Nondiscrimination Act re the LGBT Community
• DOMA:  Repealing the Defense of Marriage Act
• Gay Marriage 

Gay advocacy groups have been simmering over President Obama and the Democrats in general, due to failure to make good on pledges made during the 2008 presidential campaign.

 Also a point in question is Obama's seemingly ambiguous feeling toward the gay community.  Earlier this week,  Obama was interrupted by angry gay protesters during a fundraising speech the president was giving for Barbara Boxer.  

In addition,  already,  members of the "Trans,  Bi, and Fluid"  community are livid that they have not been invited to represent.

Gay activist groups around the nation are calling today's Town Hall a "not to be missed" event.

Signorile and The Advocate  
Signorile rose to prominence in the 1990s as a gay activist when his work Queer in America was published and when he spearheaded the national ACT UP movement.

The Advocate, the nation's leading newspaper on gay issues,  conducted an interview withSignorile this morning:

Signorile spoke with The Advocate about the special event Tuesday, hours before the latest acts of civil disobedience organized by GetEQUAL seemingly shifted the landscape once again.  

There’s been a lot of frustration with how LGBT leaders interact with the White House and engage with Congress. This event is about trying to get some answers, have a discussion, and get information about what is going to happen. It’s important to get everyone all in the same room with people who can ask questions. 

Source: advocate.com

LGBT Town Hall Attendees

•  Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign;
•  Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality; 
• Rea Carey of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force;
• blogger and activist Pam Spaulding of PamsHouseBlend.com;
• Aubrey Sarvis of Service Members Legal Defense Network; and
• Richard Socarides, former advisor to Bill Clinton on gay rights.

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Esquire: Letters of Tim McVeigh were Cheerful, Articulate | NowPublic News Coverage

Esquire: Letters of Tim McVeigh were Cheerful, Articulate | NowPublic News Coverage

Esquire Magazine journalist Phil Bacharach revisits his time interviewing Oklahoma Federal building bomber Timothy McVeigh, and the packet of letters he received from the terrorist in 1996.

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McVeigh, in person, and in his letters,  appears intelligent, charming, cheerful,  articulate,  and without any sense of remorse:  

26 NOV 96

Phil,

After reading your most recent article, I am tempted to use it as a springboard to start correcting some of those "myths" that you mention. In the interest of brevity (and fearing the wrath of my attorneys), however, I will stick to a single issue.

I commend you for your excellent recall and your absolute fairness. (Now I know why you can't get a job at The Washington Post.) Your notes on one point, though, are slightly inaccurate. You quote me as saying that the FBI are "wizards at PR." What I actually said is that they are wizards of propaganda--which Webster's defenes as "information or ideas methodically spread to promote or injure a cause." This is where I drew the parallel between the FBI's efforts in my case, and those at Waco.

Source: esquire.com

Bacharach tells of his surprise at the way McVeigh greeted him with a warm smile and a boyish laugh, a polite handshake, and joked about Oklahoma media and New York winters.   He looked forward to watching Seinfeld episodes,  joked about being moved to a better section of the prison, which had lots of cable TV stations ("so many movies, so little time") ,  and fussed over what negative things the media might say about him, that would mar his image.  

  When Terry Nichols was brought into the prison, he cheerfully informs the journalist, like a businessman talking about one of his associates ("Oh,  Terry Nichols arrived today.").  In short,  anyone who imagined a dark, brooding, half-insane character,  can let go of that illusion altogether.  

Indeed, this is a young man who went to his death,  by all reports,  happily.  He had the personality of a soldier, with the congenial aloofness and business-like attitude to "what had to be done".  He clucked over the media making so much of "The Turner Diaries", and to all intents and purposes,  it is difficult to find anything -  other than his crime  -  which is in any way "off"  about him.  

On the Delaware Criminal Justice Council Terrorism Research page,  it is stated clearly that "terrorism is not an irrational act....it is a political act, with political targets, and the terrorist is not acting from personal desires or ambitions".  This ought to be clear to anyone who really probes terrorism.  It is an act of war.  

However, it differs greatly from traditional warfare,  because those who are killed do not matter, in the sense of being enemies.  Their must be casualties in order to make known the power and the determination of the terrorist.  

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Kitsap Sun covers memorial service of April 17 for missing Shantina Smiley

Memorial Service held for Shantina Smiley and her son Azriel Carver in Brinnon, WA,  Saturday,  April 17.  Coverage by Kitsap Sun.


'Love Like a Cloud' Surrounded Missing Silverdale Woman � Kitsap Sun

Anti-Immigration reform rally in downtown LA sparks clashes, arrests

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White Supremacist Group rallying against illegal immigration clashes with counter-protesters in downtown Los Angeles

In downtown Los Angeles Saturday  hundreds of counter-protesters gathered to shout  down a white supremacist group which was rallying against illegal immigration,  and resulted in a chaos which led to police in riot gear making several arrests.  It was reported that rocks were also thrown in the clashes.  

On the south lawn of Los Angeles' City Hall, where some 50 members of the National Socialist Movement waved American flags and swastika banners for about an hour,  police had to stand between the group and the counter-group which shouted protests.

The white supremacists, many of them wearing flack helmets and black military fatigue uniforms, shouted "Sieg Heil" before each of their speakers took the podium to taunt counter-protesters with racial, anti-Semitic and misogynistic epithets.

"We will meet you head on," one of the white supremacists, whose name could not be made out over the fuzzy public address system, warned the crowd from behind several phalanxes of police in riot gear.

Source: google.com

Fearing Obama and Amnesty 

This sort of incident may be viewed by some as in keeping with the reports -  by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Department of Homeland Security  -  of the rise of right wing extremist groups and protests which may spark acts of domestic terrorism.   Indeed, the FBI has been on heightened alert for such incidents or catalysts for them in recent months. 

Some right wing groups have a considerable fear of Obama's alleged plans for immigration reform. 

The Supremacist group is reported to be  Detroit-based,  and picked downtown LA  for their rally because of its notorious and expansive immigrant population. Accusations of jobs theft and illegal activities were aimed at the immigrants.   The National Socialist movement also said they are alarmed at the call for amnesty for illegal immigrants,  which they see as increasing under the Obama administration.  

Regional director Jeffrey Russell Hall announced that the group plans to back only those political candidates who agree with their anti-immigrant ideology.  

But much of the white supremacists' words were drowned out by such chants as "Hey hey, ho ho, Nazi scum have got to go" from the larger crowd of about 500 counter-protesters who held signs that read "Nazis: Get Out of Los Angeles" and "Racists Are Ignorant."

Source: google.com

National Lawyers Guild executive director James Lafferty attended both as a legal observer and counter-protester, and reported to the Associated Press that  he witnessed members of the throng begin to fight a man when they saw his Nazi tattoos.  Some NSP members attempted to jump-start a stalled vehicle, and had to shield themselves as counter-demonstrators hurled rocks and debris toward them. One shirtless man was reported to be bleeding as he was led away. 

Police say it items were hurled at the NSP members by the counter-protesters.