"If you're gay, lesbian, or bisexual, would you sacrifice for your trans neighbors and siblings? If you're trans, would you sacrifice for your gay, lesbian, or bisexual neighbors and siblings? It's something worth knowing about yourself and those around you." --Autumn Sandeen, 4/19/2010, the night before GetEQUAL's DADT repeal protest at the White House
Public Calendar
Press/media, organizations, and individuals send your time-based event info to: calendar@phblend.net
The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend: "a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).
"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist." (Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger." (MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
SpreadingSantorum.com is one of those domains with a history on teh Internets that is larger than life.
It has been up since 2003 to honor Mr. Man-On-Dog after he made this now-classic comments about homosexuality (Mother Jones):
[T]he then-senator from Pennsylvania compared homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia, saying the "definition of marriage" has never included "man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be." The ensuing controversy prompted syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage, who's gay, to start a contest, soliciting reader suggestions for slang terms to "memorialize the scandal." The winner came up with the "frothy mixture" idea, Savage launched a website, and a meme was born. Even though mainstream news outlets would never link to it, Savage's site rose in the Google rankings, thanks in part to bloggers who posted Santorum-related news on the site or linked to it from their blogs.
What's oh-so-beautiful is that the site is now haunting Little Ricky as he considers hopping into the 2012 GOP Presidential Contender Clown Car. His problem? SpreadingSantorum has been around so long and clicked so often that his campaign cannot think of any way to close the Google ranking deficit to get a "Santorum" search result that doesn't have SpreadingSantorum as the top entry.
To at least make a dent, Santorum could try a concerted push to generate links to his domain on prominent sites and blogs, ginning its Google ranking; Mark Skidmore, an expert in search-engine marketing at the online strategy firm Blue State Digital, says Santorum should also consider buying paid search results for his name. He says the Obama campaign successfully used this strategy to help bury sites that claimed Obama was a Muslim or not an American citizen. But like Fertik, Skidmore thinks Santorum faces an uphill battle, in part because Savage's site has been up for so long-with more than 13,000 inbound links, compared with only 5,000 for Santorum's own site, America's Foundation. "He's staring at a very big deficit," Skidmore observes.
That deficit might grow even bigger soon. "I've sort of been in denial about the fact that Rick Santorum is going to run for president," Savage says. "But now I'm going to have to sic my flying monkeys on him"-in other words, mobilize bloggers to start posting and linking to his site again.
He certainly has the right to do this, but Terry Jones, the pastor of Dove World Outreach Church in Gainesville, Florida, is going to burn the holy book of Islam on the anniversary of the September 11th attacks.
This is in spite of a plea by General Petraeus for Jones to think twice about the political impact of the visuals of the burning in Moslem countries. (CNN):
"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan," Petraeus said in a statement issued Monday.
With about 120,000 U.S. and NATO-led troops still battling al Qaeda and its allies in the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement, Petraeus warned that burning Qurans "is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems -- not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."
Petraeus said he was concerned by the political repercussions of the church's plan.
"Even the rumor that it might take place has sparked demonstrations such as the one that took place in Kabul yesterday," he said. "Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy and accomplishment of the mission would be made more difficult."
In the clip below the fold, CNN's Kiren Chetry almost goes apoplectic in frustration over the nonsense Jones bleats.
And while I don't expect that LePage (who thinks the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is "very pro-environment") would know this, but the large populations of black flies are an indication of clean rivers:
But there are now more black flies in more places in Maine, and the reason may be surprising: It's the success of the environmental movement.
Many species of the gnat-sized insects are sticklers for cleanliness. When Maine's rivers were filled with contaminants from paper mills and other industries, only the hardiest black flies laid eggs in them. Now, rivers and streams are progressively cleaner, providing ideal breeding grounds for the annoying pests.
Yeah, I know- but I just love this image!
I never thought I would say this... but hooray for "Maine's Other State Bird"?
This was a really interesting and unexpected event. Kate and I were watching VH1 Classics "Best of I Love the 70s" and the phone rings.
Usually if we don't recognize the phone number we ignore it because it's usually tele-spam (how many of you have received the urgent "we need to talk to you about reducing your interest rate NOW" from your credit card company that you have zero balance with). Kate this time decided to ask who was calling and it was Billy Kennedy, running for the U.S. Congressional seat in the 5th District of NC currently held by the repulsive, homophobic embarrassment Virginia Foxx.
Since I've blogged about Foxx and Kennedy's campaign several times I thought that he was calling to ask about whether I could do a live blog or some fundraising pitch on the Blend, but he actually was just dialing for dollars outside of his district with the usual list, and I was on it. I don't think my name clicked at first, but as we continued our conversation he made the connection.
He started laughing because I was the last person on the call list for the evening and he hadn't made the connection. Anyway, I told him that it would be great to have him on the Blend for a liveblog to talk about Foxx's poor record of serving her district and what he plans to bring to the table.
What he has said in the past:
I will not run a wedge campaign. I want to focus on what all of us can do to improve our lives. I plan to listen to my constituents and hear what's important to them because I respect other people's points of view. I will not allow my opponent to play "gotcha" politics on these questions of individual liberty.
I want to make it clear. I support freedom and equal rights for all people. I will protect all individual constitutional rights, without allowing politicians to pick and choose which Amendments deserve to be taken seriously.
Even when a candidate or political party wins an election through the use of a wedge issue, once they arrive in Washington they do nothing to further its cause. That is when it becomes painfully clear that the candidate never had any real commitment to the issue itself. The candidate simply used the issue to try to fool the people and win the election at any cost.
So once Billy recalled PHB, he was excited about the prospect of a liveblog, as he's done them on DKos as well as Crooks & Liars and it would be nice to give him as boost - the 5th deserves better. We will have a date for a liveblog soon.
Earlier I posted the statement by GOProud's Chairman of the Board, Chris Barron, about the September 17th debate in Miami against WorldNetDaily publisher Joseph Farah (7:30 PM ET). Now Farah's spinning about the upcoming event, where they will tussle over the thesis "Is GOProud Conservative?"
You haven't seen this at any conference before.
The founder and chairman of GOProud, the homosexual activist group courting the conservative movement, has agreed to debate its biggest detractor, WND founder Joseph Farah at the "Taking America Back National Conference" here Sept. 17.
WND disinvited Ann Coulter from a keynote speaking role when she agreed to address GOProud's "Homocon" conference a week later, prompting outrage from the pundit and intense media coverage. Farah contended she was "affirming" the group with her high-profile speech and was permitting herself to be exploited by the group, permitting it to make deeper inroads into the conservative movement.
GOProud supports hate-crimes legislation, same-sex marriage, open homosexuality in the military and special tax breaks for people based on sexual proclivities, says Farah. He says there's nothing "conservative" about GOProud's agenda, which he calls "radical."
..."This conference has always been about debate," Farah said. "We invited, among others, the American Civil Liberties Union, La Raza, the NAACP and Freedomworks, to come debate the issues of the day with us. To GOProud's credit, it was willing to stand toe to toe with us. I'm looking forward to the challenge. From my point of view, this represents a much-needed opportunity to expose GOProud's actual goals and agenda."
We learn a bit more about the format, as well as Farah's correct assumption that he will be labeled a hypocrite for inviting Barron when he disinvited Coulter to what Joe calls "The Tea Party at Sea":
To ensure the fairest debate circumstances possible, WND proposed a format affording both Farah and Barron five-minute opening statements, five-minute rebuttals, 20-minute affirmative and negative cross examinations apiece, five-minute closing statements and 30-minutes of audience questions.
The standard agreement included a platform for GOProud to market event tickets - $15 in advance, $20 at the door - to its supporters, keeping revenue derived from its sales. However, GOProud is receiving no payment from WND for the appearance.
Anticipating that critics will lob a "hypocrite" label his way, Farah draws a sharp distinction between his decision to disinvite conservative star commentator Ann Coulter from the Taking America Back Conference for addressing GOProud's 'Homocon' event in New York and inviting Barron to the WND conference to debate GOProud's positions.
"Coulter's paid speaking appearance at GOProud's event serves to validate the group's agenda, which as I've written goes far beyond just tearing down and remaking the Judeo-Christian institution of marriage, attacking free speech with hate-crimes laws or integrating open homosexuality in the military," he said. "With so-called 'conservative' superstars embracing GOProud, a faceoff like this becomes an absolute necessity. If Ann Coulter were going to 'Homocon' to debate and expose GOProud, I would have congratulated her."
If Blenders in the area are interested in attending, the tickets are for the debate only -- not the wingnut cruise -- this could be a seriously entertaining and historic live-Tweeting opportunity.
The available tax data allows us to see what some of the key players at HRC are getting paid. However, it leaves a lot of unanswered questions about where the bulk of the money reported as compensation expense is going.
It's great to see the support for former Cathedral High School Dean and Athletic Director Christine Judd, who, as a Massachusetts resident, could legally marry her partner in the Commonwealth. What made her step down was the inevitable clash between her civil rights and the Catholic school's religious right to employ people who agree to abide by its doctrine. Dozens of students and supporters of Christine Judd gathered at St. Michael's Cathedral in Springfield. (WWLP):
"When I found out she was terminated and I found out why she was terminated, I was outraged and disgusted with the decision that was made. They have people working for them who are divorced, they have people who are using contraceptives, they have students who go to the school who are pregnant, and they don't make them leave, so why should they decide to act on those principles now?" said Martin Boyle, a Cathedral High School Senior.
Springfield Diocese Spokesperson Mark Dupont says Bishop Timothy McDonnell was not available for an interview Sunday.
But Dupont says these students' accusations are just speculation, and this is not a moral issue, but an employment issue.
Judd agreed to abide by school policy, which clearly indicates that administration members must uphold the doctrine and teachings of the Catholic Church.
"She has acknowledged to her credit, that she undertook actions this past summer, which were in violation of an agreement she freely accepted. Casting aside what she did, the nub of the issue is that we ask people to make agreements and we ask people to keep those agreements," said Dupont.
The protests will appeal to the hearts and minds of those at the school and in the community; it won't be the last time we see this clash occur. I see no successful legal recourse for Judd or others in similar cases, since the church can do what it wishes (barring acceptance of state funds), even if it's inconsistent in enforcing its "morality clause." What do you think?
Back when I used to watch Family Guy, there was this running gag with Spiderman that came up in a few episodes. Spiderman would save someone from falling from a cliff, tree, or building, then he'd say "Everybody gets one."
Maybe I'm a tad cynical, but I'm coming to the conclusion that this applies to politics too, when it comes to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community on the federal level.
In the United States, we have federal hate crimes legislation passed into law last year, but we can't seem to get the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) out of committee in the House, and who actually believes at this point that ENDA, should it get out of the House, will get by a Republican filibuster in the Senate? And as for repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, we're having a horribly put-together survey and -- well, again we have a bill that seems stuck in the Senate. And, as for repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) -- that definitely ain't happening this congress.
Plus, as Sen. Harry Reed put it to Dan Choi at Netroots Nation, which do we as the LGBT community want the Congress to work on now: ENDA or DADT?
Be it one per Congress, or one per year -- It appears to me that everybody in LGBT community just gets one.
Don't I wish I had the time and money fly down to Miami to cover this! On Friday, September 17th at 7:30 PM, the barely-tethered-to-reality head of WorldNetDaily, Joseph Farah, is going to get his clock cleaned by GOProud's Chairman of the Board, Chris Barron.
"Since we announced that conservative author and columnist Ann Coulter would be headlining our Homocon 2010 in New York City, Farah has attacked GOProud, attacked Ann, and challenged our work almost every single day," said Barron. "I look forward to standing on the stage with Mr. Farah to defend GOProud, to debunk the misinformation he has spread, and to make the case for GOProud's conservative mission."
Farah and Barron have agreed to debate the thesis, "Is GOProud Conservative?"
"I welcome the opportunity to debate whether GOProud is really a conservative organization. Our work on behalf of conservative policies and conservative candidates speaks for itself," continued Barron.
"The conservative movement is at a crossroads and this debate will display two very different visions for the road ahead," concluded Barron.
The real thesis should is whether "conservative" womb controllers and bedroom peepers represent true conservative principles or are simply better labeled as Dominionists.
For the past 30 years the Human Rights Campaign has been presenting itself as the official voice of Gay America. It has developed the ability to raise very substancial financial contributions from LGBT Americans and their friends and allies. This is the first installment in a series of articles that will examine that money. It will look at what it is being spent on and most importantly just what results are being accomplished with it.
It's an open thread! Pleeeeease feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread...
Hey, I'm on an AMTRAK train to Atlanta, via New Orleans. Will be in Atlanta for the Southern Comfort Conference (twitter hashmark of #sccatl). Pam, Lurleen, and I are all going to the conference this year.
So anywho, this is what my cartoon sockpuppet Bookworm Bob have been looking at since our last This & That post.
The president of the University of California and the chancellor of the California community college system have quit the California Chamber of Commerce board of directors after the group voted to endorse Republican Meg Whitman for governor.
The endorsement is the latest example of the state's largest business organization increasing its political profile.
Jack Scott, a former Democratic state senator from Pasadena who was appointed as community college chancellor by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, announced his resignation Friday in a letter to chamber President Allan Zaremberg after the endorsement vote.
"I do not believe the board is using sound judgment by catapulting the California Chamber of Commerce into the center of a fierce political contest," Scott wrote. "...It is destructive to the chamber's core mission and the businesses it represents when it becomes a partisan operation."
And here I thought they'd be against Meg Whitman based on her politics, or something like that.
• Christian Science Monitor's Feds file new Arizona immigration lawsuit, this time to protect workers; The Justice Department alleges that an Arizona public college discriminated against immigrant job candidates. The case could pit states' rights against those of the federal government:
Less than two months after the US Department of Justice sued Arizona over the state's controversial immigration law, it has filed another lawsuit targeting immigration practices by Arizona authorities.
The new case is unrelated to the one against Gov. Jan Brewer and the state over the illegal immigration law, but that doesn't mean it won't be a divisive one. Legal experts say it further sets up a clash between the 10th Amendment - which gives to states all powers that aren't explicitly granted to the federal government - and the Supremacy Clause, which gives the federal government exclusive power over immigration.
In the new suit, filed Monday, the Justice Department says Phoenix-area Maricopa Community Colleges (MCC) discriminated against almost 250 noncitizen job applicants by requiring them to fill out more documents than the law requires to prove their eligibility to work.
Monday's suit is "stronger in a way" than the suit against Governor Brewer over the immigration law, because it is more specific, says Jesse Choper of UC Berkeley's Boalt School of Law.
Discrimination=Bad. Feds believe they see that bad. Another fight with Arizona on that involves immigration.
A convicted rapist in state prison wants the New Jersey Department of Corrections to pay for him to be castrated.
James Randall Smith claims he is a woman trapped inside the body of a man, but the Department of Corrections, or DOC, said Smith does not have gender-identity disorder.
An appellate court upheld the decision in August.
Smith, a former truck driver from Vineland, is serving a 105-year sentence for the abduction and sexual assault of two teenagers he kidnapped at knifepoint from the Ocean City Boardwalk in August 2000.
Craigslist shutdown its adult services listings on Friday replacing the link with a black bar with the word "censored" where the listings previously appeared.
The move comes after years of pressure to remove the ads, including an open letter from 17 state attorneys general in late August. The letter said "sharp public criticism of craigslist's Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution -- including ads trafficking children -- are rampant on it." The attorneys general requested Craigslist take immediate action to stop accepting ads since it "cannot, or will not" screen them.
The letter wasn't Craigslist's first scuffle regarding sex-related ads. The site formerly had an "Erotic Services" section that was shut down in May 2009. It was pulled after law enforcement filed suit, claiming the classifieds facilitated prostitution, and after the alleged "Craigslist Killer" was arrested.
The "Adult Services" section took its place shortly after. Craigslist said the postings would require manual, human approval of all entries and cost $10.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) issued a public warning Saturday not to consume a specific lot of Lafleur-brand Original hot dogs carrying an Oct. 22 expiry date "because the product may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes."
The agency said "five cases of this product were distributed only in Quebec, in the following regions: Montreal, Laval, Lanaudière, Laurentides, Montérégie."
The recall is limited to a total of 120 packages of the hot dogs, each weighing 450 grams, said Richard Vigneault. He's a spokesperson for the manufacturer, Olymel L.P. of Boucherville, a Montreal suburb.
...Listeriosis can cause high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea. Pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are particularly at risk. Infected pregnant women may experience only a mild, flu-like illness. However, infections during pregnancy can lead to premature delivery, infection of the newborn or even stillbirth.
As always, "The weenie tempts you!" But not so much from a lot from the Lafleur-brand Original Hot Dogs, with the lot code of 2010 OC 22 LOT 75022502.
So anywho...It's an open thread! What are you thinking about today, or what books or articles have you been reading the past few days? Wanna share?
And again, please feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread because...it's an open thread! Woo-hoo!
Focus On The Family, via their activism arm CitizenLink, has been using their website to promote the Alliance Defense Fund's (ADF's) Model Anti-Bullying Policy. When I read the model policy, I saw the problem with the lack of enumeration, and contacted the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) to get their statement on the Model Anti-Bullying Policy. Also, I vaguely remembered their was documentation on why enumeration is important in bullying policies, and wanted to know they had information on the relevant court rulings and statistical documentation.
During my phone communication with their media relations department, I learned there are actually four significant issues with the ADF's Model Anti-Bullying Policy that Focus On The Family's/CitizenLink's Education Annalist Candi Cushman is pushing in the media. (You remember Candi Cushman: she's the point person that CitizenLink has declared on their website is "a leading national expert on education issues" without providing corroboration as to how or why she is a leading national expert in this field.) So here are the four major issues with the Model Anti-Bullying Policy:
Enumeration.
Lack of a training component.
Over-limitation on locations where school bullying falls under the policy; over-limitation on when school bullying falls under the policy.
In a legal sense, enumeration refers to the identification of categories -- of people or things -- to which a law applies. In anti-bullying laws, in hate crime laws, in laws that protect against discrimination -- these categories are referred to as protected classes.
One of the main reasons to spell out protected classes regards how students are better protected from bullying where enumerated polices exist.
The headline of Jacob Weisberg's column continues: "The president needs to find his principles."
It is one of the more scathic indictments of the Obama administration -- and the President himself that I've seen in a while. It touches on many issues, including immigration and marriage equality.
Obama has had numerous chances to assert leadership on values questions this summer: Arizona's crude anti-immigrant law, the battle over Prop 8 and gay marriage, and the backlash against what Fox News persists in calling the "Ground Zero mosque." These battles raise fundamental questions of national identity, liberty, and individual rights. When Lindsey Graham argues for rewriting the Constitution to eliminate the birthright-citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, or Newt Gingrich proposes a Saudi standard for the free exercise of religion, they're taking positions at odds with America's basic ideals. But Obama's instinctive caution has steered him away from casting these questions as moral or civil-rights issues. On none of them has he shown anything resembling courage.
With the Proposition 8 fight, Obama has fallen short in a different way, by his reluctance to join an emerging social consensus. Obama had previously criticized California's Proposition 8, the ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage, as "divisive." But his official position-which no one believes he actually holds-is that he is against legalizing gay marriage. Americans are changing their views on this issue with inspiring rapidity. Judge Vaughn Walker's moving opinion provided an occasion for Obama to embrace the extension of equal rights to gay people. Instead, he slunk mumbling in the other direction. How dismal that America's first black president will be remembered as shirking the last great civil-rights struggle.
...Few would argue that defending liberal principle serves Obama's short-term interests. Americans oppose the mosque 61 percent to 26 percent, according to one recent poll, and support the Arizona law by an even wider margin. But even if some people don't like Islam, or illegal immigrants, or gay weddings, they may respond to admonitions that our society is built around freedom of conscience and equal treatment under law. If he applied his oratorical gifts to these principles, Obama could remind a grumbling nation what it liked about him in the first place.
Weisberg may be overly optimistic about how responsive some Americans to logic or appeal to equal treatment under the law. It didn't help with Prop 8. And I really doubt that appeal with work for immigration. The nativism awakened with that and the "9/11 Mosque" shows just how much our nation is in moral distress.
He also takes the position is that the President's inability to weigh in with sufficient fervor has allowed the right wing noise machine to flourish - and put the WH on the defensive. After all, look at how it drops everything (including political common sense) to respond to Glenn Beck when he opens his mouth. The response is to ensure America that the President prays every day and is a good Christian.
This is a WH that chooses to be weak and respond with political pablum to challenges. That was not the Barack Obama that was on the campaign trail, and certainly not the same man who asked to be challenged if he was dropping the ball. There in lies the problem when you have a WH and President beholden to the charges of the likes of Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and the "papers, please" supporters, rather than the people who put in money, time and votes to get him into office.
***
Meanwhile, take a look at this NYT article - Democrats Plan Political Triage to Retain House. The meat of the story here is the begging for $$$ -- watch for more ploys to tap the gAyTM touting that long list of padded "accomplishments" as the desperation mounts. What it boils down to is "it's the economy, stupid." The jobs have no materialized in some of the hardest-hit areas of the nation. People are angry, and sadly, only a couple of years after over a decade or GOP economics, some are ready to revisit that disaster again.
"We are going to have to win these races one by one," said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, conceding that the party would ultimately cut loose members who had not gained ground.
... A sputtering economy and discontent with Washington have created a high sense of voter unease that has also put control of the Senate in question.
To hold the line against Republicans, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, issued an urgent plea for members in safe districts to help their endangered colleagues by contributing money. She called out Democrats who were delinquent on paying their party dues and instructed members with no re-election worries to tap into a combined $218 million from their campaign accounts to help save their majority.
"We need to know your commitment," Ms. Pelosi wrote to lawmakers last week in a private letter, demanding that they call her within 72 hours to explain how they plan to help. She added, "The day after the election, we do not want to have any regrets."
As always, give time, effort and money to the individual pols who support issues important to you. No DINOs. No homophobes. No self-loathing closet cases. No more.
"New attack website created! Can't wait to see the negative attacks that www.MarkoMadness.com cooks up. It's the oldest trick in politics: if you don't have anything productive to say, distort and attack!"
My interest was piqued Friday when I saw the comment above appear on Rep. Marko Liias's (D-Edmonds) campaign Facebook page. Marko is a highly-respected openly-gay Washington state legislator facing a tea party candidate in the November election. Marko was the prime sponsor of the safe schools law which was passed unanimously by the legislature last year - a spectacular accomplishment. I had to find out who was promising to sling mud at Marko.
The website (pictured right) states that it is paid for by Red Snohomish PAC. Thirty seconds on the Public Disclosure Commission website revealed that Red Snohomish PAC is the project of Andrew Funk of Mountlake Terrace, WA.
The name Andrew Funk might ring a bell for two reasons. First, Andrew Funk was the Eagle Scout and college undergrad who was a 2009 candidate for Mountlake Terrace City Council. He lost the election, but not before refusing to state his position on Referendum 71 during a candidate forum. Funk lost that election to Doug McCardle who stated "I am for equal rights for everyone".
The other reason Andrew's name rang a bell would seem to explain his interest in setting up the MarkoMadness website. In 2008, Funk was Marko Liias's opponent in the race for Washington state Legislature. Funk not only lost both the primary and general election, he got trounced by Marko: 61% to 39% in the primary, and 64% to 36% in the general. His new website is looking like major sour grapes.
I do have to wonder whether the promised "week[ly] vote for the top reason to remove Rep. Marko Liias...from office" will be based on bits of red meat fed to Andrew Funk by the Elizabeth Scott campaign. Scott is Marko's challenger this election cycle, and her campaign has already proven itself willing to hit below the belt by attacking Marko's family. These comments, posted in August, are from Marko's Facebook wall:
Attack of the week: The Scott campaign is staring a huge primary loss in the eyes, the new strategy? Attack my family! It's the traditional Republican playbook...
My opponent's campaign is trying to drag the failure of my family's construction company and make it a political issue... Punch me all you want, but don't drag the rest of my family back through an excruciating time in our lives.
[B]oth parties have used personal attacks to win campaigns. I guess my preference is that we focus on the issues, since there is plenty of disagreement there. At a minimum though, I think we should all agree to leave our family out of the spotlight...
By the way, I am mad about Marko and so was pleased to see him entertain a supporter's idea that he print up MarkoMadness t-shirts as a campaign fundraiser. Making wine out of sour grapes, gotta love it!
To find out more about Marko and the great things he's done for the 21st and Washington, check out his website.
Update: Statement from Curt Kohlwes, Campaign Manager for Marko Liias is below the fold.
[T]he then-senator from Pennsylvania 
He certainly has the right to do this, but Terry Jones, the pastor of Dove World Outreach Church in Gainesville, Florida, is going to burn the holy book of Islam on the anniversary of the September 11th attacks.
And I'm still waiting to hear how LePage "dances" around 
This was a really interesting and unexpected event. Kate and I were watching VH1 Classics "Best of I Love the 70s" and the phone rings.
Since I've 
Don't I wish I had the time and money fly down to Miami to cover this! On Friday, September 17th at 7:30 PM, the barely-tethered-to-reality head of WorldNetDaily, Joseph Farah, is going to get his clock cleaned by 
Discrimination=Bad. Feds believe they see that bad. Another fight with Arizona on that involves immigration.
"New attack website created! Can't wait to see the negative attacks that www.MarkoMadness.com cooks up. It's the oldest trick in politics: if you don't have anything productive to say, distort and attack!"
