New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg: “To implicate all of Islam for the actions of a few who twisted a great religion is unfair and un-American.”

…Also, check out Tom Tomorrow’s latest toon on Park51.

Hey, Prop 8 was ruled unconstitutional in a ruling by Vaughn Walker that will likely go down as a seminal statement of human rights in American law. I haven’t read it all yet, but the parts I have are truly powerful.

A little while back I posted a video of Sam Seder explaining why comparisons between the US and Greece economically was BS. Seder’s regular video postings are worth a watch.

The United Nations could be a great force for human rights in the world. But I find it hard to believe it will reach any meaningful goal if it continues to avoid actually appointing people who have miserable records on human rights to the UN’s high commission on human rights. Ban Ki-Moon has appointed Croatian justice minister Ivan Simonovic to the top human rights post at the UN headquarters in New York (the position is the UN Assistant Secretary-General for human rights, who will liaise with the UN High Commissioner for Human rights, Navi Pillay, in Geneva). Simonovic has served in the Croatian government for over fifteen years, including during the Balkan wars where the Croatians conducted ethnic cleansing of Serbs. Simonovic has been criticized for not adequately pursuing accountability and justice, both at home and at The Hague, for Croatian war crimes.

There were many qualified candidates for this job, but one can’t help but wonder the extent to which Ban made the hire to avoid pissing off known human rights violators like the Chinese government.

Oklahoma style.

I’ve never been taken by the right’s attacks on “big government.” Most of it has always struck me as a handy catch-all for programs and policies that they just don’t like, while very few have actually any impact on the way these people will lead their lives. The EPA regulating pollution-causing industrial process is not big government, it’s merely a policy that some corporations don’t like. And corporations aren’t people, so people who treat them as such aren’t that serious in my book.

On the other hand, when the state legislature in Oklahoma says that a woman cannot sue her doctor if she’s given birth to a child with birth defects and the doctor lied about it being a healthy fetus while she was pregnant, that, my friends, is Big Government. It is legislating a doctor’s beliefs onto his patients. Or more specifically, it is legislating a halo of legal immunity around a doctor who lies to patients and in so doing rips constitutionally protected rights out of their hands.  If nothing else, every member of the Oklahoma state legislature who voted to override the Governor’s veto to make these anti-choice laws a reality should be banned from ever complaining about the size and role of government ever again.

The New York Times editorial board has a truly righteous condemnation of Uganda and the American Christian Evangelical preachers who are leading the charge to pass a bill outlawing homosexuality in Uganda. There is plenty that is being written already about Uganda’s odious bill, which if passed would punish homosexuality with death. But what is equally important is that these Evangelical leaders must bear responsibility for being architects of this agenda of hate. The NYT editorializes:

Now the three Americans are saying they had no intention of provoking the anger that, just one month later, led to the introductionof the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009. You can’t preach hate and not accept responsibility for the way that hate is manifested.

I think it goes beyond that. If Americans are going abroad to help push a legislative agenda that, when realized, leads to the execution of one Ugandan for their sexuality, these Evangelicals should be prosecuted here. There must surely be a way for the US to claim universal jurisdiction for prosecution of the architects of this hateful, murderous law. That some of the architects happen to be American should make the case that much easier to mount.

The Times editorial board thinks that if the anti-gay bill becomes law in Uganda, the US should cut off aid to that country. Surely that would be a nice gesture, but we’re not talking about a move that might affect one or two poor Ugandan gays. We’re talking about a bill that is the functional structure for genocide; it should be treated as such. If it becomes law, the people who made it reality should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.

Walter Lara is a 23 year-old honor student facing deportation on July 6, 2009. Walters family immigrated from Argentina when he was three years old. He has only known life as an American, and proudly declares that the United States is my home.

U.S. Senator Bill Nelson wrote the Department of Homeland Security on Walter’s behalf, requesting that they defer action on Walter’s deportation because “he has earned the chance to live and work here and call America home.”

Sign onto Sen. Nelson’s letter and on Thursday, July 2, 2009, we will deliver Sen. Nelson’s letter with your co-signature to the Department of Homeland Security.

Co-sign a letter by Senator Bill Nelson to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to stop Walter’s deportation.

You can also call Secretary Napolitano’s office by using SEIU’s Click to Call Tool: http://call.seiu.org/9/walterlara.