North Carolina Republican Party unleashes anti-gay mailer targeting Kay Hagan

...and counting

I'm surprised the sophisticated fossils at the NCRP didn't find a way to throw in "socialist".

Well - they've got, what, 12 more days?  They've still got time.  Didn't the Jesse Helms 'hands' ad materialize the weekend before the 1990 election?

>^..^<

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by: KatRose @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 11:46:13 AM CDT

Disappointing but understandable...

that Kay Hagan would link herself to the RAGING hypocrite John Edwards in his support for the "sacredness" of one man, one woman marriage.

Am I the only person who just cringes when he hears someone say, "I believe in marriage laws that are exclusive to one man, one woman couples but I am 100%, completely and utterly against ANY form of discrimination"?

Are these people clueless to what they are saying or are they just craven liars?

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by: Zeke @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 11:55:59 AM CDT

Makes me sick too

That's just another way of saying "I'm for segragation but I don't discriminate."

Once they are safely installed in office over the "take away their rights crowd" we need some kind of big movement or outcry against that hypocrisy.

watashi no yomeiri wa doko desu ka

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by: belfrieboi @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 13:55:27 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Ghost of Jesse

I'm surprised they didn't make the two grooms black.  Sort of a two-for-one ad.

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by: Jon Michaels @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 11:56:36 AM CDT

Of course the irony

is that Hagan's record on gay rights isn't all that great.
Business as usual.

Ås I read someone's statement about the lies Antigay Prop * proponents are spreading, "They're exercising their First Amendment right to lie."

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by: Karen in Kalifornia @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 12:03:55 PM CDT

"It's not like straight people or african-americans get attacked for being who they are every day do they?"

Well, not the straight people! Duh.
I don't understand the figures in that ad. They don't seem to be related to a wedding in any way. The standing one looks like a Rat Packer singing a song, and the kneeling one looks like he just bowled a strike.

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by: Decaf @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 12:37:09 PM CDT

SO typical.

These politicians who will pimp themselves for ANY vote, let alone the Gay Vote, and then turn their backs on those who voted them into office in the first place!!

I hope all you NCarolinians remember this two years from now... and vote for Jim Neal again.

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by: GraciesDaddy @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 12:40:27 PM CDT

OK, Democrats...

Look: you're going to be accused by the Republicans of supporting equality, and their base will buy it, even if you don't, or if you support this "equal except for the stuff where we don't believe in equality" garbage.  So why not actually take the ethically defensible position, here?

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by: M @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 13:05:02 PM CDT

Familiar graphic

The RNC must have made the graphic of the two "gay" figures available across the country.  The exact same graphic, only against a different background, was also used by a Republican in Ohio against his Dem opponent, only the argument was that the Dem favored gay adoption.  gasp!

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by: OH les @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 13:05:45 PM CDT

Text, too

Oh!  And it even says "Liberal Ray Pryor" across the top, like the "Liberal Kay Hagan."

Geez, did they only  hire one graphic designer for the whole country?  I guess the talented ones (aka, the LGBT ones) were all hired on by the "Liberal" Dems.  :)

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by: OH les @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 13:09:08 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I just received an email about the photo

This could get interesting...

Saw your post about the GOP mailer targeting Kay Hagan on gay marriage.
 
The photo used on the cover of the mailer -- the two men holding hands -- caught my eye because I had seen it used elsewhere on the Internet as a thumbnail. I guessed that it must be stock imagery, so I researched several Web stock photo databases to see if I could find it.
 
Sure enough, iStockPhoto.com ( http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/who/people_specific_attributes/body_parts/753188_guys_holding_hands.php?id=753188 ) has the image for sale.
 
iStockPhoto also ( http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=339854 ) lists who photographed the image. That credit goes to Cameron Pashak, whose profile says he is one of the site's "exclusive artists." He also has his own photography studios in Los Angeles and Vancouver ( http://www.cameronpashak.com ).
 
This sparked my curiosity. I did some more digging into Pashak's background -- really, just some simple Google searching -- and pulled up http://www.wesculwell.com/outlist.htm, a Web site conveniently titled "The International Outlist." Scroll down the page and one finds this entry:
 
Cameron Pashak, Vancouver, Canada
Facilitator of PFLAG (Retired) / Photographer
DOB: April 1965
OUT: September 1990
www.cameronpashak.com
 
So the stock photographer used by the NC GOP is gay. Ironic, isn't it? I wonder if they knew this when they designed the mailer. I wonder if Cameron Pashak knows it.

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by: Pam Spaulding @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 13:19:46 PM CDT

It'd be a DAMN SHAME if Freddy mac lobbying QUEER Mark Buse(McCain's chief of staff

Mailer hit NC BIGTIME

yeah a DAMN shame

  http://www.zimbio.com/Mark+Bus...

Gay McCain Chief of Staff Mark Buse Was Lobbyist for Freddie Mac

"McCain's chief of staff Mark Buse, whose sexuality was recently put under the spotlight by activists Michelangelo Signorile and Mike Rogers, was hired by mortgage giant Freddie Mac a few years ago to work with McCain because they feared the Arizona Senator "was too outspoken" on the issue of executive pay, the Washington Post reports:

"Mark Buse, a longtime McCain adviser who had been staff director of the Senate commerce committee, signed on as a Freddie Mac lobbyist, and his firm, ML Strategies, earned $460,000 in lobbying fees in late 2003 and 2004, according to lobbying disclosures. Buse is now chief of staff at McCain's Senate office. Buse was one of many strategic hires made by Freddie Mac in its efforts to sew up support and manage opponents on Capitol Hill, a push that peaked in 2004 with the retention of 34 outside lobbying firms. Over the past decade, Freddie spent more than $95 million on lobbying, while its sister company, Fannie Mae, spent more than $79 million. ...The story of how Buse came to get involved is emblematic of the interconnections among Fannie, Freddie and the lawmakers whose support was critical for their business."

"race, taste. and History finally overcome....and you ain't there"
by Tony Kushner

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by: peteyPornpig @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 13:26:48 PM CDT

I have just sent an email to Countdown

and I suggested to Keith Obierman to pick the NC Republican Party as "Worst Person of the World" award.

letters@msnbc.com

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by: paulko @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 14:08:06 PM CDT

harming children

SN: Are you saying that when I was a leader and a camp counselor I exposed children to something harmful? I was the ecology director for several years at my camp and the only harmful thing I may have exposed them to was poison ivy, ma'am.

who wants to make a bet that the next mailer uses this call and talks specifically about gay scout leaders admitting they expose innocent children to harmful things and activities?

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by: ol cranky @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 15:44:11 PM CDT

919-828-6423

is the number to the North Carolina GOP.  

"I like your Christ, but do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ." ~Gandhi

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by: keithan81 @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 17:03:20 PM CDT

I Was Wondering When They'd Get Around to That

M: I understand sir. It's just that some parents might not want their children exposed to certain people...they want to protect their children.

Ah.  The good old "gays are child molesters" shtick.  I'm surprised that hasn't crawled out from under the rock long before now.  I still expect to see it in the anti-gay prop ads before this election is over.  

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by: Jon Michaels @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 17:20:13 PM CDT

My Response to the Hagan Campaign

We should expect these attacks from republicans, but what the response from the Hagan campaign? In the News and Observer, campaign spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said:

"Kay believes that marriage is between a man and a woman, and this is fundamentally a state issue," she said. "She would not support a federal amendment defining marriage. Here in North Carolina, there is a law that she supports that says marriage is defined as a relationship between a man and a woman, and she sees no reason to change that."

This is my response I wrote to the Hagan Campaign upon seeing this:

To the Hagan Campaign:

I have already voted for Kay Hagan. I support a wide variety of Kay's policies, but as an advocate for LGBT rights, I have had to put aside in my mind that Kay, to my knowledge, has refused to answer specific policy questions about her stance on LGBT issues (Q-Notes, Pam's House Blend). I have had to put aside that she doesn't believe in gay marriage. I had to put aside that she does not address LGBT North Carolinians on her website. I know she is trying to win an election in conservative North Carolina, but I also know that Barack Obama has a section on his website that expresses exactly where he stands on the issues, even if he does not support same sex marriage. Marriage is not the most important issue to me, and I don't vote on candidates based solely on this issue. What is important to me is that a candidate for office is in support of non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace, which I think more broadly affects LGBT Americans of all backgrounds and income levels than marriage legislation. What I need to know is that a candidate would support legislation such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and more broadly would defend the LGBT community against baseless and divisive attacks that seek to paint us as evil or "less than."

Today, Sen. Hagan had her chance to to prove that she would defend me. The NC Republicans launched a mailer that seeks to use LGBT people as a scare tactic. Ideally, the campaign had a chance to affirm her anti-discrimination stance. At least, the campaign had their chance to call the republicans to the carpet for using divisive scare tactics and for using people as political pawns. From the information that was available in the News and Observer Report, the response was upsetting:

"Kay believes that marriage is between a man and a woman, and this is fundamentally a state issue," she said. "She would not support a federal amendment defining marriage. Here in North Carolina, there is a law that she supports that says marriage is defined as a relationship between a man and a woman, and she sees no reason to change that."

I expected more from the campaign. I wonder what will happen when Senate republicans start attacks against LGBT Americans on the floor (which they almost always do at some point during the session). Will Senator Hagan stand up to these attacks, or make sure that North Carolinians know that she believes marriage is between a man and a woman? If the campaign believes she will truly fight against discrimination and hate, it is this constituents hope she will start now.  

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by: onetowatch @ Thu Oct 23, 2008 at 22:12:30 PM CDT