Remember that GMC Electric Car exhibit at the Smithsonian…?  Oh…missed it did you …

Smithsonian removes electric-car exhibit

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Just weeks before the release of a movie about the death of the electric car from the 1990s, the Smithsonian Institution has removed its EV1 electric sedan from display.

The National Museum of American History removed the rare exhibit yesterday, just as interest in electric and hybrid vehicles is on the rise.

The upcoming film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" questions why General Motors created the battery-powered vehicles and then crushed the program a few years later. The film opens June 30th.

GM happens to be one of the Smithsonian’s biggest contributors. But museum and GM officials say that had nothing to do with the removal of the EV1 from display.

A museum spokeswoman says the museum simply needed the space to display another vehicle, a high-tech SUV.

The Smithsonian has no plans to bring the electric car back on view. It will remain in a Suitland storage facility.

[Emphsis mine…]  Nothing to see here people…  Just another proud American institution of science and history kowtowing to the political realities of our times.  Move along…move along…  Perhaps you’d like a nice trip to the Grand Canyon gift shop…?

Imagine you’re a columnist. You decide to write something about how the National Park Service is allowing a creationist book to be sold in their Grand Canyon stores, over the protests of its own geologists, who point out that NPS has a mandate to promote sound science. Hawking a book that claims that the Grand Canyon was carved by Noah’s Flood a few thousand years ago is the polar opposite of this mandate. So what do you write? Well, if you’re Republican consultant Jay Bryant, and you’re writing for the conservative web site Town Hall, you declare that this as a clear-cut case of Darwinist atheists censoring freedom of speech in a desperate attempt to squelch Intelligent Design.

They’ll be closing down Cape Canaveral soon, because sending rockets up into space might break the crystal spheres the planets and the sun orbit around the earth in.

Seems that Jack Burkman, republican stratigist, defender of Ann Coulter’s attacks on 9-11 widows, lobbyist for the relgious right, critic of The Lesbian Agenda For Kids In Our Public Schools…

CNN Interview With Jack Burkman, Dan Perez

Aired June 20, 2003 – 14:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Barbie? A lesbian? Well, that’s the message on a T-shirt worn by a middle school student in Queens. And now the girl’s mother is suing the city of New York over what happened after her daughter showed up for class. Glen Thompson of affiliate station WPIX fills us in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLEN THOMPSON, WPIX CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 14-year-old Nicky Young shows off the "Barbie is a lesbian" t-shirt that got her in hot water at Middle School 210 in Ozone Park, Queens. Nicky, who is openly gay, says the school’s principal also took offense at her gay pride beads.

NICKY YOUNG, MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT: I went to school with a t- shirt that said "Barbie is a lesbian," and they held me in a room for two hours and they said, it’s not appropriate to wear, I should take it off and I didn’t have any other clothing. So I told them, I’m not going to take it off.

THOMPSON: After being held in the principal’s office, Nicky’s mother had to come get her after she was suspended for refusing to take off the shirt.

YOUNG: Everybody should be treated equally, and I think that I was treated differently because of my sexual orientation, and I don’t think it was fair and what they did was kind of rude, and to me it was childish.

THOMPSON: Nicky says she was only goofing on Mattel’s widely popular Barbie doll and didn’t mean to offend anyone. Her lawsuit against the school system claims she had a right to wear the t-shirt. The Department of Education isn’t commenting.

DAN PEREZ, ATTORNEY: The First Amendment doesn’t stop at the school house door, and students have the right generally to wear a variety of clothing that contains social and political commentary, as well as engage in symbolic speech.

THOMPSON (on camera): Nicky’s lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount in monetary damages and an injunction preventing the school system from suspending her if she ever wears the t-shirt again. I’m Glen Thompson, for the WB11 News at 10.

(END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: School and city representatives have declined to comment on this, but Natalie Young’s attorney, Dan Perez, is talking, and in Washington, attorney Jack Burkman has agreed to look at this from the school district’s point of view. Gentlemen, thanks for being with me.

Good afternoon. Dan, let’s start with you. Mom — I’m looking at the charges here. Mom is saying that her daughter suffered emotional and psychological injury, but she seems very confident about being gay, coming out and saying that she’s gay and addressing all the cameras and the press.

PEREZ: She does. She is a very self-assured young lady. She came out when she was 12 years old. In fact, lots of people are comfortable with who they are from a sexual orientation standpoint far earlier than that. Lots of straight people come out and realize that they like girls if they’re a guy or they like boys that they’re a girl by the time they’re 12, so there’s nothing — there’s nothing about that that’s particularly remarkable.

PHILLIPS: Jack, what do you think? Does Dan have a case here?

JACK BURKMAN, ATTORNEY: No, he doesn’t and he knows it. It’s a entirely frivolous suit, Kyra. The thing with this, this law is well settled. There have been 70 or 80 cases over the years. The Supreme Court has ruled on it. All the circuits have ruled on it. You know, there’ve been cases with girls in the see-through t-shirts and the halter tops and the hair and the jewelry. Schools have fairly broad discretion to enforce the kind of values they want. If people don’t like that, the way you change that is to vote out the school directors. If you think gays are being discriminated against, vote out your school directors, vote out your congressman.

But look, schools from a family values perspective, that’s the legal — I think what the school district is doing is morally right. We shouldn’t have an atmosphere where gay values are encouraged in schools. I think it’s wrong. I think for too many years particularly up there in that area we’ve had a culture where there is a difference between, I don’t support discrimination against homosexuals, certainly not, but at the same time, schools should not create an atmosphere and allow an atmosphere to flourish where gay values will be encouraged.

PHILLIPS: So you’re saying family values — Jack, are you saying that family values means that being gay is wrong, it’s not good family values?

BURKMAN: It’s not that it’s being wrong. There’s a fine line between tolerating and encouraging. If you let this kind of behavior go, Kyra, what happens is more and more children — you know, for years in this country, let’s face it, the media has overstated the number of gays. You have a left-wing culture in schools that begins in grade school, goes to high school, goes to college, and children are told that being gay is OK and they’re almost pushed in that direction. And I think this is an example where a school district wants to put its foot down, and do the right thing, but again, you don’t have to take my word for it. If the public up there doesn’t like that, vote out those school directors. A lawsuit is not the way to handle this.

[Emphasis mine…]  …seems to have thing for Lesbians himself…actually (via Wonkette):

It’s getting so that a couple nice young girls can’t drive up to DC for the Pride parade without getting openly propositioned by Republican Strategists who give them their real names and business cards these days. Take, for example, the MySpace blog of one such lady, whose sordid tale is reprinted (as a warning to the well-endowed) below:

The initial proposition:

afterward, we got a snazzy hotel room at the mayflower downtown. on the way over there, this really hot business man in a pinstriped suit walked past me, said hello, and doubled back. he asked me my name and introduced himself (jack burkman, government relations strategies), asked where i went to school, etc, gave me his card, and asked me to call him. i later texted him and never could get rid of him again. he thought he talked to me on the phone several times, but he never did. i always made kat or kristin be me. he told kristin about how he really enjoyed my outfit (TITS GALORE) and that i was beautiful, etc. by the end of the night (5 am or so), he was offering to pay for our room and give us a thousand dollars if two of us would fuck him. oh, jack burkman. his card is my DC souvenir.

GOP Campaign Manager Guilty of Corruption of Minors

ABC News’ Andrew Katz and Fiore Mastroianni contributed to this report.

A man convicted of "corruption of minors" after being accused of having sex with two teenage girls is working as the campaign manager for a Republican candidate for Congress in Arizona, according to documents obtained by ABC News.

Steve Aiken, a former Quakertown, Pa. police officer and self-proclaimed reverend, was convicted of two counts of corruption of a minor stemming from his 1995 sexual relationships with two teenage girls. He served almost two-and-a-half months at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.

Aiken is listed as campaign manager for Randy Graf, a Republican in a five-way primary for the Congressional seat in Arizona’s 8th district.

Aiken told ABC News he had been "falsely accused and convicted" of the two misdemeanor counts.

Aiken says the candidate, Graf, was fully aware of the conviction when he was hired as campaign manager.

"What he did was no more serious than providing a teenager with beer," Graf told ABC News.  "I believe Steve when he says he was falsely accused."

The "corruption of minor" violations in Pennsylvania did not require Aiken to register as a sex offender.

Aiken advertises himself on his website as a leader of conservative thought, displaying photos of himself with leading Republicans including former President George H.W. Bush, Tom Delay, and Pat Buchanan.

Since his conviction, Aiken also has worked as a spokesperson for the Traditional Values Coalition, a Washington lobby group that represents over 43,000 churches.  A spokesman for the Coalition would only say, "He is no longer with us."

The self-proclaimed reverend met the underage teens in Pennsylvania through YouthQuest, a Christian counseling agency.

According to testimony by the victim, reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Aiken "came into her room while she was asleep, undressed her and began to rub her breasts."

Aiken reportedly forced himself on the girl about 15 times in the course of four months, according to the Inquirer.

Aiken says the girls "made up the charges" because he had kicked them out of the YouthQuest program.

According to the Allentown Morning Call, at his sentencing hearing in June 1996, Aiken said, "Steve Aiken’s days of helping kids are over."

In addition to his political activities, Aiken also hosts a weekly radio program on KVOI in Tucson. Aiken’s website includes a "help wanted" page seeking high school or college students to work as volunteer interns on the radio program.

On the show he espouses American traditional values and the abolition of "hate crimes" punishments.