Former CEO of eBay Meg Whitman launched her bid today seeking the Republican nomination for California governor.

During the presidential race, Whitman worked in both the Mitt Romney and John McCain campaigns, and was viewed as a possible Secretary of the Treasury pick. Whitman also came out in favor of Proposition 8 as reported in the Sacramento Bee…

“Because she is not yet a candidate for governor, we are respectfully declining to participate,” said Whitman political adviser Mitch Zak. Whitman has not previously made a broad public announcement about supporting Proposition 8, but she has told GOP groups in the last week she supports the measure.

Geoff Kors, Exceutive Director of Equality California had this to say about the announcement…

“Republican and Democratic voters alike know that the only way to win statewide elections in California is to nominate candidates who will work for all Californians and bring people together, not politicians who pit one group against another in an attempt to divide us.

“As our country and our State move forward, Meg Whitman is stuck in the past, practicing the politics of divisiveness by publicly supporting Prop 8. Whitman is wrong for LGBT people and wrong for California.”

Looks like we may have our work cut out for us in 2010. A possible gay marriage proposition to undue the damage of Prop 8 and the defeat of this wingnut, who made her 1.3 billion off the backs of the thousands of LGBT eBay users.

After consulting with the Vatican, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy has decided to intervene in the life of Eluana Englaro, who has been in a vegetative state since a car accident 17 years ago.  

As reported in the U.K. Guardian…

Justifying his campaign to save Englaro’s life, the prime minister added that, physically at least, she was “in the condition to have babies”, a remark described by La Stampa newspaper as “shocking”. Giorgio Napolitano, Italy’s president, has refused to sign the decree, but if it is ratified by the Italian parliament doctors may be obliged to resume the feeding of Eluana early this week.

…

The case has deeply divided Italian society and raised concerns over the influence of the Vatican. Yesterday Pope Benedict indirectly referred to Englaro in a message delivered to mark the World Day of the Sick, stating that society had a duty to defend “the absolute and supreme dignity of every human being” even when “weak and shrouded in the mystery of suffering”. But even some of Berlusconi’s political allies, including the president of the lower house of parliament, Gianfranco Fini, have stated that the supreme court ruling should be obeyed and Englaro should be allowed to die.

Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family at the Vatican said back in November…

“Many words have been said and written about Eluana’s case. The most beautiful and persuasive of these are those [spoken] by the nuns (who care for Eluana): ‘If there is someone who considers her dead, let them leave Eluana to continue with us, who feel she is alive … Let us have the freedom to love and to give ourselves to one who is weak.'”

Let me get this right… The nuns are owed the freedom to care for Eluana, while denying Eluana’s family, her own flesh and blood, the freedom to bring her life to a close with some sense of dignity? Really? I thought selfishness was a sin. 

And PM Berlusconi might want to consult elsewhere. The Vatican and the Pope’s track record haven’t been terribly reliable as of late, including  a Holocaust denying bishop  and another bishop calling Hurricane Katrina “God’s punishment.”

And now another fine example of bigotry and intolerance from the great wackadoo state of Texas. Richard Mullins, history and government teacher for over 30 years was suspended for being a “suspected atheist” and a liberal.

Mullins on the angry mother of the student making the accusations…

She accused me of being an atheist, saying I was too liberal, and that I allowed the students to talk about inappropriate things in the classroom. I told her that occasionally students would get on topics and say things, but I was unable to censor them before they were able to say them. She said that I called her daughter a name and I denied the accusation. But then she said that I didn’t believe in god and shouldn’t be teaching. She also said that she had spoken to 3 other board members who agreed with her that I shouldn’t be teaching because I was too liberal and I was an atheist.

After the principal of the school suspended Mullins…

I later had conversations with parents and a person who lives in the community, who informed me that the principal had met with the minister of the local church and had discussed my suspension with him. I also later received information from REDACTED,a “SCHOOL EMPLOYEE-POSITION REDACTED”, that the minister was now subbing at the school and that he had heard that he would be taking my position, or if I returned he would be co-teaching with me.

There have been a number of rumors in our community now concerning inappropriate behavior: high school girls coming to my class to supposedly smoke marijuana, all kinds of accusations made by the members of the missionary baptist church at which this minister is the preacher. In the January 24th letter from Mr. Richard Turner, my principal, I was also informed that my suspension had been extended indefinitely.

After the suspension, 100 of 103 students refused to sign a petition listing charges against Mullins, and now the principal of the school has forbade students from taking any action that would get Mullins reinstated.

For more information, Mullins’ complete statement and an article in the Beaumont Enterprise.

The dramatic chart below compares job losses from the past two recessions in 1990 and 2001 to the current economic crisis.

Thirteen months into a downward trend from a peak job month, employment numbers in 1990 and 2001 began to stabilize, but in the current recession the steep drop continues, with a total of 3.6 million jobs lost, and much of that in the past 4 months.

Scary chart provided by The Gavel.