Quote Of The Day - Desmond Tutu

"The then leaders of the United States [Mr Bush] and Great Britain [Mr Blair] fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart. They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand - with the spectre of Syria and Iran before us. The question is not whether Saddam Hussein was good or bad or how many of his people he massacred. The point is that Mr Bush and Mr Blair should not have allowed themselves to stoop to his immoral level." - Desmond Tutu, calling for Bush and Blair to by tried for war crimes.

BRITAIN: Iraq War Protester Heckles Former Prime Minister Tony Blair

Clip description: "A heckler burst in on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as he testified at a UK inquiry into media ethics at London's Royal Courts of Justice."

Liberia's President Vows Not To Decriminalize Homosexuality

We were previously encouraged by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's words against a proposed bill dramatically increasing the penalties for homosexuality. But that's as far as she goes. The Guardian reports:

The Nobel peace prize winner and president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has defended a law that criminalises homosexual acts, saying: "We like ourselves just the way we are." In a joint interview with Tony Blair, who was left looking visibly uncomfortable by her remarks, Sirleaf told the Guardian: "We've got certain traditional values in our society that we would like to preserve." Liberian legislation classes "voluntary sodomy" as a misdemeanour punishable by up to one year in prison, but two new bills have been proposed that would target homosexuality with much tougher sentences.

Think Progress has the clip.

RELATED: Blair may have "looked uncomfortable" because just last week he came out in support for marriage equality.

Tony Blair Backs Gay Marriage

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has endorsed David Cameron's plan to legalize same-sex marriage.

Mr Blair's position is likely to anger the Vatican, which is alarmed at moves in both the UK and the US for same-sex unions. Senior church figures are also opposed to church blessings of same-sex civil partnerships. Mr Blair was responsible for pushing through laws on civil partnerships and lowering the age of consent for homosexuals to 16, but he has remained silent on the issue of gay marriage until now. When Mr Blair joined the Catholic Church, six months after leaving Downing Street, the Vatican's chief spokesman, Federico Lombardi, said his conversion "can only arouse joy and respect". He joined because his wife, Cherie, is a Catholic and their four children were brought up in the church. But Ann Widdecombe, the former Tory minister and also a Catholic convert, complained that his record as prime minister clashed with the church's teachings.

Both the Catholic Church and the Church of England have launched vigorous campaigns against same-sex marriage.

Tony Blair To Pope: You're Wrong On Gays

Former British prime minister and new Catholic Tony Blair told the UK gay magazine Attitude that the Pope is wrong about homosexuality.

Tony Blair has challenged the “entrenched” attitudes of the Pope on homosexuality, and argued that it is time for him to “rethink” his views. Speaking to the gay magazine Attitude, the former Prime Minister, himself now a Roman Catholic, said that he wanted to urge religious figures everywhere to reinterpret their religious texts to see them as metaphorical, not literal, and suggested that in time this would make all religious groups accept gay people as equals. Asked about the Pope’s stance, Mr Blair blamed generational differences and said: “We need an attitude of mind where rethinking and the concept of evolving attitudes becomes part of the discipline with which you approach your religious faith.”

Blair says that Catholics are probably a lot more liberal and progressive that the Pope thinks. Hmmm.

Tony Blair: Six Weeks Left

A decade after taking over as British Prime Minister, Tony Blair steps down on June 27th. Widely credited for helping move Britain away from socialism towards a vibrant, pro-market economy, Blair instituted welfare reforms, tripled the funding for the national health service, and brokered a truce with the IRA. Today Britain has the world's 5th largest economy and the pound is at its strongest in more than 10 years.

British gays will remember Tony Blair fondly as the man who vigorously and enthusiastically supported gay rights, enacting a national LGBT civil rights law, a civil partnerships law, and a sexual offenders law that treats gays the same as straights. Blair has said that his successes in gay rights are among his proudest achievements.

However, Blair is also known as a lackey of the United States and his decision to support Bush in the Iraq invasion may well be his most lasting legacy. Blair is also the subject of a current criminal investigation regarding "cash for honors", the expression for selling knighthoods and seats in the House of Lords.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, is considered to be the strongest candidate to replace Blair. If he is named leader of the Labour Party, which is very likely, he will then meet with the queen to be named Prime Minister. Brown wants to distance himself from the Bush administration and has pledged to reduce the number of British troops in Iraq.

Britain Begins To Pull Out Of Iraq

Tony Blair has announced a reduction in British troops stationed in Iraq, saying that the British-held portion of the country is under better control by the Iraqi government than the U.S.-held portion. Denmark and Lithuania also announced plans to withdraw their tiny contingents. Bush is spinning the British reduction as a "positive sign" that the "corner is turning" in the war. Wait, did I just hear a crowded supermarket explode? The 2007 toll for American soldiers in Iraq: 148 killed, 681 wounded. Grim casuality stats here.