On Gil's ever weakening, redundant and irrelevant blog, he's had an interesting assortment of topics in the past week. He's made over 45 different posted topics, with little variety and fewer comments. He got only 19 comments total. His biggest hit rate came on the topic of ME with 13 comments.
By far his biggest bugaboo this week was Torture. He had 11 different postings defending it, all filled with lies, half-truths and misrepresentations.
Cheney's calling for the declassification of two cherry picked memos claiming torture was a success. Yea, human rights violations!
This flies in the face of recent reports and conclusions that the most fruitful information came BEFORE the torture and that the information obtained through torture wasn't worth it.
Gil falls to "shock our conscience" with his attempts to defend and redefine torture. Gil tries to equate the "training" we give our soldiers with the experiences of a captured prisoner undergoing 183 waterboarding sessions in one month.
Gil defends the Bush lawyers that clearly violated the ethical standards of their profession in rubber stamping legally unsupported justifications for torture and violations of the Geneva Conventions and our own laws and Constitution. These ARE war crimes. We've prosecuted, convicted and executed for far less.
Gil even goes so far as to compare torture with abortion. If you aborted the same baby 183 times in one month, then Gil might have a point (besides the one on top of his head).
About having a reasonable definition of torture, "shock the conscious" is too vague, since Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, ... and Gil, haven't shown they have a shred of conscious.
First of all, some techniques have not only been designated as torture for centuries, but are frequently used as examples in the definition. Waterboarding is already defined as torture. Second, these actions violate our own Constitutional prohibitions against inflicting cruel or unusual punishments. Third, the United States has prosecuted or gone after foreign governments for using these techniques on US soldiers, or their own dissidents. Finally, is it acceptable to Gil if these techniques are applied to our captured soldiers without punishment to their captors? I would hope not (but Gil and the other armchair warriors were eager to sent them into harm's way without body armor and keep them there after their tour of duty).
The rest of Gil's postings covered his continuing denials of global warming and his misguided faith that nuclear power plants will solve everything (except if Iran has any). He got his panties in a bunch about the Tea Parties, but had me choking with laughter when he claimed: "Dems Scared of Tea Parties". Those weak-ass parties are the gift that keeps on giving by showing how the GOP idea machine threw a rod, just as it ran out of gas.
Gil's seems awfully defensive about Miss California and anyone else against gay marriage being portrayed as bigots. Gee, I wonder why. :-)
The rest was the usual rotation of anti-Obama, Clinton, Pelosi, Murtha and Sean Penn with a little anti-Sebelius and Napolitano thrown in for seasoning.
Most of Gil's posts are links to some far right-wing blog or opinion piece. No surprise there. Gil's intellectually lazy, seems incapable of genuine research, and treats opinion pieces as actual news.
It's no wonder Gil's site is such a deserted wasteland.
Showing posts with label Delco Times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Delco Times. Show all posts
Monday, April 27, 2009
Diano Battles the UNGODs
I've been having fun on the Delco Times site debating the merits of my letter to the editor as I skewered the "Unknown Names: Gil's Obnoxious Defenders" (aka the UNGODs).
The UNGODs attacked me for calling Gil a bigot (completely missing the point that Gil is merely indistinguishable from a bigot). I had one person actually make the ridiculous "argument" that he was against gay marriage for purely selfish reasons: the gay spousal Social Security benefits would raise his taxes. He didn't seem to recognize the hypocrisy that he was okay with gays paying for his getting spousal benefits.
Away, as of this writing (less than one week from my letter), the Delco Times comment thread is over 40 posts (including 1/3 of them mine in rebuttal). This is more comments than Gil's blog has gotten all month, with dozens of posted topics (and a big link on the Delco Times online page and his own weekly column).
The UNGODs attacked me for calling Gil a bigot (completely missing the point that Gil is merely indistinguishable from a bigot). I had one person actually make the ridiculous "argument" that he was against gay marriage for purely selfish reasons: the gay spousal Social Security benefits would raise his taxes. He didn't seem to recognize the hypocrisy that he was okay with gays paying for his getting spousal benefits.
Away, as of this writing (less than one week from my letter), the Delco Times comment thread is over 40 posts (including 1/3 of them mine in rebuttal). This is more comments than Gil's blog has gotten all month, with dozens of posted topics (and a big link on the Delco Times online page and his own weekly column).
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Gil Spencer Promotes Gay Discrimination over Tolerance
On Friday, April 10th, The Delco Times resident blowhard (Gil Spencer) published a piece of political and social tripe. His argument boils down to advocating that anti-gay bigotry taught in the home should not be undermined with tolerance taught in the schools.
Here is his article: Gil Gets a Failing Grade on Tolerance
This was a follow-up to his equally outrageous blog article that actually declared teaching tolerance to be liberal tyranny.
The Delco Times finally decided to print my letter to the editor: Is Gil Spencer a Bigot?
Editor-
I was quite surprised to see Gil Spencer's spirited defense of gay discrimination appearing in the print edition of the paper. Gil uses classic straw man arguments to divert from the real issues.
First, he pretends that gay rights are some left-wing social agenda, rather than a Constitutional equal protection issue.
Second, he falsely claims that the left is accusing everyone opposed to gay marriage of being a bigot and a homophobe. This is completely untrue. Gil's goal here is to mask the fact that large numbers of bigots and homophobes ARE opposed to all sorts of gay rights, including marriage. Bigotry has its heart in ignorance. Judge for yourself in which camp Gil can be found.
Third, when Gil was in school, gays were considered to be sexual deviates and pedophiles preying on children, and they were barred from jobs like teaching. Our military still classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder. Maybe Gil would prefer to live in Iran, where they claim there are no gays and homosexuality is the result of our Western culture. Or maybe Gil agrees with his blogger friends that you can "pray away the gay".
Fourth, Gil actually equates the question of a gay baby-sitter with a baby-sitter with HIV. This is Gil's not so subtle way to push the idea in people's minds that being gay is somehow the same as a disease.
Our children should be receiving a solid education based upon real medical science and facts, and not illusions, perceptions, out-dated myths, ideology and propaganda.
Finally, Gil PRAISES a private Catholic prep school teacher for believing there was nothing he could do to admonish a student that verbally expressed hatred for gays. What if the kid had said he hated Jesus instead?
Gil may go around proclaiming that people can't prove he is an anti-gay bigot, but actions speak louder than words. Gil is giving the bigots aid, comfort and material support with his columns. Therefore, even if Gil is not a card-carrying bigot, it's a distinction without a difference.
Feel free to contact editor@delcotimes.com and ask him why the Delco Times has someone like Gil Spencer in such a prominent opinion role.
Here is his article: Gil Gets a Failing Grade on Tolerance
This was a follow-up to his equally outrageous blog article that actually declared teaching tolerance to be liberal tyranny.
The Delco Times finally decided to print my letter to the editor: Is Gil Spencer a Bigot?
Editor-
I was quite surprised to see Gil Spencer's spirited defense of gay discrimination appearing in the print edition of the paper. Gil uses classic straw man arguments to divert from the real issues.
First, he pretends that gay rights are some left-wing social agenda, rather than a Constitutional equal protection issue.
Second, he falsely claims that the left is accusing everyone opposed to gay marriage of being a bigot and a homophobe. This is completely untrue. Gil's goal here is to mask the fact that large numbers of bigots and homophobes ARE opposed to all sorts of gay rights, including marriage. Bigotry has its heart in ignorance. Judge for yourself in which camp Gil can be found.
Third, when Gil was in school, gays were considered to be sexual deviates and pedophiles preying on children, and they were barred from jobs like teaching. Our military still classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder. Maybe Gil would prefer to live in Iran, where they claim there are no gays and homosexuality is the result of our Western culture. Or maybe Gil agrees with his blogger friends that you can "pray away the gay".
Fourth, Gil actually equates the question of a gay baby-sitter with a baby-sitter with HIV. This is Gil's not so subtle way to push the idea in people's minds that being gay is somehow the same as a disease.
Our children should be receiving a solid education based upon real medical science and facts, and not illusions, perceptions, out-dated myths, ideology and propaganda.
Finally, Gil PRAISES a private Catholic prep school teacher for believing there was nothing he could do to admonish a student that verbally expressed hatred for gays. What if the kid had said he hated Jesus instead?
Gil may go around proclaiming that people can't prove he is an anti-gay bigot, but actions speak louder than words. Gil is giving the bigots aid, comfort and material support with his columns. Therefore, even if Gil is not a card-carrying bigot, it's a distinction without a difference.
Feel free to contact editor@delcotimes.com and ask him why the Delco Times has someone like Gil Spencer in such a prominent opinion role.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Who Shot Shilled the Sheriff? Did They Also Shill His Deputies?
In this weekend's Delco Times, David Landau put more pressure on his "Case Against the Courthouse", this time going after the Sheriff's Department, headed by Sheriff Joseph McGinn.
Landau "cited employment statistics showing 68 of 70 employees in the Sheriff’s Department are registered Republican, and 41 percent of those have contributed financially to the GOP.".
The Delco Times reported that (county rolls put total employees at 65), but did not dispute the extremely high percentage of Republican employees or of financial contribution to the GOP.
While the GOP holds a slipping registration advantage, they certainly do NOT represent over 90% of the electorate (actually only 55%). So, why do Republicans hold more than 90% of the jobs in key County Departments (particularly in those that are supposed to be non-partisan)?
County Executive Director Marianne Grace defended the partisan GOP hiring practices by pretending that Landau was making personal attacks on law enforcement personnel. Is she claiming that the Sheriff's department is over 95% Republican by sheer chance? How stupid does she think the voters of Delco are?
In honor of our new local casino, I'll put this in gambling terms: If you had a pile of playing cards that were labeled 55% GOP and 45% non-GOP, what would you think if 68 out of 70 cards came up GOP? How about if next 31 cards for the "Election Bureau, Voting Machines and Voter Registration offices" ALL came up 31 GOP cards in a row?
At this point, any reasonable player would be calling for the Gaming Commission to examine the deck and arrest the dealers and casino owners.
The only way to stop the GOP machine from "stacking the deck" and "dealing from the bottom" is to elect David Landau, Ann O'Keefe and John Innelli to "inspect the cards" and deal with the voters fairly. It's long past time the voters stopped the GOP machine from gambling away our future.
Landau "cited employment statistics showing 68 of 70 employees in the Sheriff’s Department are registered Republican, and 41 percent of those have contributed financially to the GOP.".
The Delco Times reported that (county rolls put total employees at 65), but did not dispute the extremely high percentage of Republican employees or of financial contribution to the GOP.
Delco Times: Landau has so far gone after the county Solicitor’s Office, the Election Bureau, Voting Machines and Voter Registration offices, as well as the county Executive Director and Chief Clerk offices for having high levels of employees registered to vote Republican or donating to Republican campaigns and committees.
While the GOP holds a slipping registration advantage, they certainly do NOT represent over 90% of the electorate (actually only 55%). So, why do Republicans hold more than 90% of the jobs in key County Departments (particularly in those that are supposed to be non-partisan)?
County Executive Director Marianne Grace defended the partisan GOP hiring practices by pretending that Landau was making personal attacks on law enforcement personnel. Is she claiming that the Sheriff's department is over 95% Republican by sheer chance? How stupid does she think the voters of Delco are?
In honor of our new local casino, I'll put this in gambling terms: If you had a pile of playing cards that were labeled 55% GOP and 45% non-GOP, what would you think if 68 out of 70 cards came up GOP? How about if next 31 cards for the "Election Bureau, Voting Machines and Voter Registration offices" ALL came up 31 GOP cards in a row?
At this point, any reasonable player would be calling for the Gaming Commission to examine the deck and arrest the dealers and casino owners.
The only way to stop the GOP machine from "stacking the deck" and "dealing from the bottom" is to elect David Landau, Ann O'Keefe and John Innelli to "inspect the cards" and deal with the voters fairly. It's long past time the voters stopped the GOP machine from gambling away our future.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Spencer coming to the table empty-headed.
Gil Spencer was so desperate to do one of his infamous hatchet pieces on David Landau, that he didn't even give the candidate a change to respond. Landau was celebrating the Jewish holidays and unavailable for a quote. Spencer wouldn't even give the staff at Landau headquarters the opportunity to challenge any Gil's typical false assertions.
I can only hope that the Delco Times will give Landau an equal opportunity to respond.
In the meantime... I'll take a swing or two at Gil (with my blogger-bat).
Landau has correctly pointed out how Delco, presided over by 30 years of GOP Council monopoly, is similar to "Bush-style" government.
Gil, starts off with confusing Bush in Texas-style government (with VERY weak governor powers) to Bush as President and subsequent power grabs. Later, Gil fails to make his point by saying that "millions" of Democrats hold Federal jobs, but then he ignores the fact that Bush cronies hold the key Federal positions and that Bush had solid GOP majority in Congress and the Courts for six years. Then, Gil just gets silly by asking if Delco has invaded another county.
What a wit! (Note to self: replace "w" with "sh")
Gil was so wrapped up in his own imaginary cleverness, that he didn't realize he was making Landau's point. Look at how much the Bush administration has biased the government with partisan politics and personnel in only 6 years. The Delco GOP has controlled council without ANY Democrat for 30 years (they even changed the Charter to deny a guarantee of minority party representation).
The county courthouse is filled with GOP patrons, lackeys and cronies who are then expected to contribute to the party and/or buy tickets to events when "asked" (translation: told). Stories of abuse are common, but so is fear of reprisal and the unlikelihood of GOP prosecutors or judges taking action.
Gil makes the following accusation: As head of the Democratic Party in Nether Providence, Landau helped engineer his wife's nomination and election to a plum district judge position. Gil, how did Landau "help engineer" an election?
Speaking of wives and hypocrisy, can anyone tell me what's ironic in this context about a certain Republican Communications Coordinator?
Gil then goes after the Democrats' plan for a County Health Department. He parrots the GOP talking points about costs, and then dismisses the benefits as not worth it for improving county health. From yesterday's Delco Times: Delaware County has one [state health center], though it only has four employees there, responsible for all 550,000 county residents.
Sound's like Gil's health care is taken care of, so screw everybody else. The Democrats ARE looking out for everybody else.
Gil also claims a health department would create "dozens of new patronage hires", but seems to have forgotten John Innelli's statement (from the previous day's Delco Times): "consolidation of many of the other county offices (into the department) may in fact result in savings, cost savings" to county government. Sounds like Gil is more worried that the GOP may lose a few patronage jobs in the deal.
Open Space: Andy Reilly is on his way out. So, still a good Democratic issue.
Jobs: Trimming the fat and lowering the budget will allow for tax cuts. Infrastructure improvements and revitalization projects will also bring in new business. Better education and job training programs will help Delco residents qualify for better paying jobs. Switching no-bid work from out-of-county businesses to local businesses will not only help those businesses but keep more money from draining out of the region.
If Reilly does manage to open the dog park, I suggest that someone put a leash on Gil and take him for a walk. Maybe he can find somewhere else to urinate besides the editorial pages of the Delco Times.
I can only hope that the Delco Times will give Landau an equal opportunity to respond.
In the meantime... I'll take a swing or two at Gil (with my blogger-bat).
Landau has correctly pointed out how Delco, presided over by 30 years of GOP Council monopoly, is similar to "Bush-style" government.
Gil, starts off with confusing Bush in Texas-style government (with VERY weak governor powers) to Bush as President and subsequent power grabs. Later, Gil fails to make his point by saying that "millions" of Democrats hold Federal jobs, but then he ignores the fact that Bush cronies hold the key Federal positions and that Bush had solid GOP majority in Congress and the Courts for six years. Then, Gil just gets silly by asking if Delco has invaded another county.
What a wit! (Note to self: replace "w" with "sh")
Gil was so wrapped up in his own imaginary cleverness, that he didn't realize he was making Landau's point. Look at how much the Bush administration has biased the government with partisan politics and personnel in only 6 years. The Delco GOP has controlled council without ANY Democrat for 30 years (they even changed the Charter to deny a guarantee of minority party representation).
The county courthouse is filled with GOP patrons, lackeys and cronies who are then expected to contribute to the party and/or buy tickets to events when "asked" (translation: told). Stories of abuse are common, but so is fear of reprisal and the unlikelihood of GOP prosecutors or judges taking action.
Gil makes the following accusation: As head of the Democratic Party in Nether Providence, Landau helped engineer his wife's nomination and election to a plum district judge position. Gil, how did Landau "help engineer" an election?
Speaking of wives and hypocrisy, can anyone tell me what's ironic in this context about a certain Republican Communications Coordinator?
Gil then goes after the Democrats' plan for a County Health Department. He parrots the GOP talking points about costs, and then dismisses the benefits as not worth it for improving county health. From yesterday's Delco Times: Delaware County has one [state health center], though it only has four employees there, responsible for all 550,000 county residents.
Sound's like Gil's health care is taken care of, so screw everybody else. The Democrats ARE looking out for everybody else.
Gil also claims a health department would create "dozens of new patronage hires", but seems to have forgotten John Innelli's statement (from the previous day's Delco Times): "consolidation of many of the other county offices (into the department) may in fact result in savings, cost savings" to county government. Sounds like Gil is more worried that the GOP may lose a few patronage jobs in the deal.
Open Space: Andy Reilly is on his way out. So, still a good Democratic issue.
Jobs: Trimming the fat and lowering the budget will allow for tax cuts. Infrastructure improvements and revitalization projects will also bring in new business. Better education and job training programs will help Delco residents qualify for better paying jobs. Switching no-bid work from out-of-county businesses to local businesses will not only help those businesses but keep more money from draining out of the region.
If Reilly does manage to open the dog park, I suggest that someone put a leash on Gil and take him for a walk. Maybe he can find somewhere else to urinate besides the editorial pages of the Delco Times.
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