Ran across an interesting article in Yahoo news this morning. Here’s a quote:

Gov’t Search Engines Link to Kerry Critics

Wed Jul 14, 9:05 AM ET

By ELIZABETH WOLFE, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Searching for “Kerry” on the Department of Homeland Security’s Web site Tuesday afternoon turned up an unexpected top hit: a Republican attack on the Democratic presidential candidate.

A similar search on the Web site of the Department of Health and Human Services brought up the same link at the top — a news release from conservative Rep. C.L. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, that said a John Kerry administration “would embolden environmental extremists to press an aggressive agenda of restricting access and responsible use of public lands.”

Hmmm… one needs to be an “environmental extremist” to suggest that restricted access and responsible use of public lands might be a good idea? Guess I’m an extremist, then.

Actually, this is about what I’d expect from an Idaho Senator. And before I get flamed for that remark, I grew up in Idaho and lived there until I was 20. I’m familiar with Idaho politics. Granted, there have been some great Idaho statesman — Cecil Andrus and Frank Church come to mind — but that was in the long-ago days. The latter elected officials seem to be more of type with the guy my mama used to call “big, dumb Dane.”

Of course, the sites where this item was searchable now blame the government search portal on Firstgov.gov. And they, in turn, put the blame on a “technical glitch.” Yeah. Sure.

This morning the news release was still available on gop.gov, but as of this writing it appears to have been removed.

In other news, the Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriages has been killed in the Senate. And I for one am glad, simply because I don’t believe it’s something that belongs in the US Constitution. It’s legislation that belongs in the states, if at all.

Other than that reason, I have a hard time getting my dog in that fight. I’m certainly not a gay activist, but neither am I a homophobe. In my mind, ones sexual preferences are just not relevant in most day-to-day interactions. It becomes relevant only when one side or the other forces it to become relevant. The far right with its gay bashing and its confusion of pedophilia with homosexuality is as guilty of this as the gay-rights activists with their “you must like me no matter what simply because I’m gay and I’m going to rub your nose in that fact over and over” attitude. I like a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy — sort of like the old movies that used to fade to black. You knew what that actor and actress were going to be doing during the fade. It wasn’t necessary to watch it.

And I’m still trying to come up with any profession where sexual preference would be relevant.

I don’t buy the “we can’t have gay scoutmasters/teachers/whatever because their agenda is to recruit our kids into their lifestyle.” Suuuuuuure. I mean, c’mon. That’s just dumb. And there are as many strange and dangerous heterosexuals out there — more, actually, since only a small percentage of the population identifies as gay or lesbian. What about the coach here in Oregon who ran off with one of his female players? The goal should be to weed out any sort of dangerous behavior on the part of adults who are in positions where they contact children — especially if it is a position of authority, like a teacher, coach, scout leader, or — dare we say it — priest. The sexual proclivities of that person are irrelevant. What is relevant is how he/she chooses to act on those proclivities.

I also don’t by the “gay marriage will bring down our country by undermining the sacred institution of marriage.” Nah. I haven’t seen any gay-marriage proposals that would outlaw the traditional kind. Seems to me that will still be legal. And our “sacred institution” is already pretty battered, what with almost half of all marriages ending in divorce and with the number of truly incompetent parents there are. That’s about as stable as a bowl of jello. I think we should celebrate all families, of whatever kind or makeup, that provide strong, safe and loving places for each other and for kids to grow up in.

But the whole schtick is just an election-year gambit by Dubya to try and rally the far-right-wing voters that sat out the last election and to take the focus off of things we really should be focusing on, like the economy, the price of gas, Iraq and Afganistan. Dubya needs to do something to rally the troops, since it seems a pretty fair bet that Jeb won’t be allowed to count the votes this time.

But I saw another article somewhere that reported that in this year’s Demo primary in Florida, touch-screen voting machines failed to count a vote something like 8 times more frequently than machines that scan paper ballots. So obviously there’s some technology issues there that Jeb might be able to use.