Assault Charges Dropped Against Georgetown Student

Backstory (original article)

WASHINGTON -- Prosecutors have dropped assault charges against a Georgetown University student accused in a possible hate crime beating near campus.

D.C. police arrested sophomore Phillip Anderton Cooney in connection with the early morning attack on Sept. 9, 2007, in the 1400 block of 36th Street Northwest.

The 19-year-old student from Texas was charged with assaulting another student while yelling homophobic slurs. The case was flagged as a potential hate crime based on the victim's sexual orientation.

Prosecutors said they dropped the charges because they did not think they had enough evidence to prove Cooney was the person who committed the assault.

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Justice Dept. probes case of lesbian who was fired

The Inspector General’s Office at the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether a career attorney and former prosecutor at the department was dismissed from her job in 2006 because of rumors that she’s lesbian, according to a news media report.

If the allegations are confirmed, the Justice Department official responsible for the dismissal could be accused of violating an executive order issued by President Bill Clinton that bans sexual orientation discrimination in the federal workforce, said Elaine Kaplan, an official who monitored federal workplace issues during the Clinton administration.

President George W. Bush has left the executive order in place, rejecting calls by anti-gay groups that he rescind it.

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Eye on the world: Uganda

Anytime I see Bush shake the hand of a foreign politician I wonder, how much of the tax payers money did that cost?

So when I saw him praising the much talked about president of Uganda I had to wonder what was going on.

There is a lot of money going into Uganda that is ear marked for AIDS. There has been previous donor controversy.

In 1999, President Yoweri Museveni declared that he had ordered the police to detain and charge any homosexuals that they came across. This was an ultimate show of the defiant nature some leaders exhibit in regards to the denial of a group of people the protection that they deserve under the law, and an outright denial of basic human right principles that ought to be enjoyed equally by all people."

Authoritarian leaders like Museveni demonize homosexuality hoping to shore up their political support. This intolerance will spread until it is recognized for what it is—a threat to democracy and fundamental human rights."

According to the law, religion and culture in Uganda, homosexuality is strongly criminalized. The official maximum penalty is life imprisonment. Yoweri Museveni, the President of Uganda, once proposed the arrest of all homosexuals - though he subsequently modified his position and called for a return to the good old days when "these few individuals were either ignored or speared and killed by their parents".

In 2005 Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed into law constitutional amendments allowing him to stand for re-election (removing term limitations) and banning gay marriage in the east African nation.

In 2006 the Uganda Witch Hunt Escalates. A newspaper publishes names of gays/lesbians and appeals upon readers to call in more names.

In 2007 Bush meets with and praises Museveni. The two emerged from the meeting to appear for a camera opportunity with Bush praising Museveni for his push to lower the AIDS rate in the African nation by emphasizing abstinence until marriage.

Speaking of abstinence in the region. "In the first two years since the U.S.-funded focus on abstinence Uganda's rate of HIV infection has nearly doubled."

Gay basher has ties to Bush administration

Update: Charges dropped

A Georgetown University sophomore, implicated in a gay-bashing by a fellow student, has ties to the Bush Administration, PageOneQ has learned.

19-year-old Philip Anderton Cooney, pictured here in the spring of 2005, is the son of fallen Bush aide and American Petroleum Institute oil lobbyist Phil Cooney.

Phil Cooney was appointed chief of staff with the White House Council on Environmental Quality, suffering criticism for his lack of environmental experience. After his resignation and subsequent hire to a position with ExxonMobil, it was found that Cooney had reportedly tampered with data to support the Bush line on climate change.

Philip Anderton Cooney was identified by the victim and reported to police thanks to his Facebook profile, which contained a photograph. He is being charged with simple assault, which, as a hate crime, carries a jail sentence of up to 270 days, the Washington Post reports. On the morning of September 9, the victim says, he was attacked physically and verbally, including with anti-gay slurs, by Cooney while walking near 36th and O Streets in northwest Washington, DC.

Why GOP's are forced into closets and bathrooms

It's time for Republicans to embrace their own gay wing and stop fueling the sickness of suppression that drives men like Larry Craig into airport bathroom stalls.

The demise of Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig amuses those of us who enjoy watching right-wing heroes crash to the ground, spiked on their own hypocrisy. It further confirms my theory: prick any conservative and the kink oozes out. The rockier the rib, the more likely you'll find pink lingerie under the trousers or a bullwhip and manacles in the bedside drawer. You can bet those Beltway dominatrices, madams and escorts (gay and straight) have been able to buy second homes -- maybe even in Sun Valley! -- with their haul during W's reign.

The sickness, of course, is in the suppression, which is why closeted men seek love in rank public bathroom stalls.

The trouble with this wedge issue, as everyone now knows, is that it's Republican suicide. The hateful public stance of the party has driven its many gay members into ever more contorted acts of self-loathing excess, driving the disease of suppression out in the open and subjecting men to public stoning by their own frenzied followers.

Foley, Haggard and Craig are only the most famous. There's Florida Rep. Bob Allen, also caught lurking for sex in a public bathroom, Corporal Matt Sanchez, gay porn star and -- for a shining moment -- Fox News channel's right wing Marine of the moment. And who can forget Jeff Gannon, the right-wing faux journalist with a secret life as a gay escort favored with a hard (yes!) White House press pass by the Bush administration communications department.

It's time for Republicans to embrace their own gay wing and stop fueling the sickness of suppression that drives men like Larry Craig into airport bathroom stalls. Until they do, they're headed straight for the toilet with him -- not that they shouldn't jump right in anyway.

http://www.alternet.org/story/61228/