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.
The surprising thing about this development is that it isn't a surprise at all. After his little ACORN play pimp for the camera nonsense and an attempt to wiretap Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu's phone lines, the fact that rising right-wing star James O'Keefe (now facing fed charges for the wiretap break-in) has attended a white nationalist confab -- and was photographed at it.
Once upon a time, right-wing pundits hailed the 25-year-old O'Keefe as a creative genius and model of journalistic ethics. Andrew Breitbart, who has paid O'Keefe, called him one of the all-time "great journalists" and said he deserved a Pulitzer for his undercover ACORN video. Fox News' Bill O'Reilly declared he should have earned a "congressional medal."
His right-wing admirers don't seem to mind that O'Keefe's short but storied career has been defined by a series of political stunts shot through with racial resentment. Now an activist organization that monitors hate groups has produced a photo of O'Keefe at a 2006 conference on "Race and Conservatism" that featured leading white nationalists. The photo, first published Jan. 30 on the Web site of the anti-racism group One People's Project, shows O'Keefe at the gathering, which was so controversial even the ultra-right Leadership Institute, which employed O'Keefe at the time, withdrew its backing. But O'Keefe and fellow young conservative provocateur Marcus Epstein soldiered on to give anti-Semites, professional racists and proponents of Aryanism an opportunity to share their grievances and plans to make inroads in the GOP.
...OPP covered the event at the time, sending a freelance photographer to document the gathering. Jenkins told me the table was filled with tracts from the white supremacist right, including two pseudo-academic publications that have called blacks and Latinos genetically inferior to whites: American Renaissance and the Occidental Quarterly. The leading speaker was Jared Taylor, founder of the white nationalist group American Renaissance.
And you knew a shoe like this was going to drop. I emailed Max and told him it was going to be either something like this -- or that O'Keefe was caught with his pants down soliciting a man at a rest stop. That's just how it goes with these wingers.
While Andrew Sullivan has been hard to peg on some issues (and catches heat on all sides for many) , he's been clear that he was searching for U.S. conservatism to reflourish. As he notes in his latest column, he's supported Reagan and Bush and Clinton and Dole and Bush and Kerry and Obama, so for Sully, it must be painful, yet easy to write "Leaving the Right," citing many of the same reasons Little Green Footballs founder Charles Johnson did for leaving a movement that is driving the comservative movement -- and the GOP -- over a cliff (see my earlier post). A sampling of Andrew's kiss off to the whack job right wing:
I cannot support a movement that claims to believe in limited government but backed an unlimited domestic and foreign policy presidency that assumed illegal, extra-constitutional dictatorial powers until forced by the system to return to the rule of law.
I cannot support a movement that exploded spending and borrowing and blames its successor for the debt.
I cannot support a movement that so abandoned government's minimal and vital role to police markets and address natural disasters that it gave us Katrina and the financial meltdown of 2008.
I cannot support a movement that holds torture as a core value.
I cannot support a movement that holds that purely religious doctrine should govern civil political decisions and that uses the sacredness of religious faith for the pursuit of worldly power.
I cannot support a movement that is deeply homophobic, cynically deploys fear of homosexuals to win votes, and gives off such a racist vibe that its share of the minority vote remains pitiful.
...I cannot support a movement that would back a vice-presidential candidate manifestly unqualified and duplicitous because of identity politics and electoral cynicism.
I cannot support a movement that regards gay people as threats to their own families.
I cannot support a movement that does not accept evolution as a fact.
I cannot support a movement that sees climate change as a hoax and offers domestic oil exploration as the core plank of an energy policy.
I cannot support a movement that refuses ever to raise taxes, while proposing no meaningful reductions in government spending.
I cannot support a movement that refuses to distance itself from a demagogue like Rush Limbaugh or a nutjob like Glenn Beck.
Go read the rest. As I said in my post on Charles Johnson's departure from the movement, I really don't see an easy way back to the party of limited government with the disturbing stranglehold of the theocrats on the GOP and its fealty to the likes of Rush and his dittoheads. Not that I have any advice that the GOP would care to take, but where are all the country club Republicans and moderates? Why aren't noted conservatives in a race to publicly call out the jackbooted thugs and bible beaters who are holding them hostage?
Part of the reason, of course, is that the movement's political strategy that is now so beholden to a voter base that is rife with under-educated, easily massaged-by-messaging populace that spends way too much time believing and spreading conspiracy theories, irrationally fearing brown and black people, and trying to control private behavior they abhor, yet they often commit themselves because of their own tortured, hypocritical madness. The small-government traditional conservatives are far outnumbered by these know-nothings, but as long as the fundies and crazies just behaved like sheep, everything was fine. Naturally, when the fringe wing finally noticed that, aside from getting their SCOTUS picks, they weren't receiving anything by lip service to its social agenda, there was going to be a move for a coup when the Republicans went down hard in defeat in 2006 and 2008.
Now the beast is awake, caterwauling and calling for hard-right "purity" in the movement; nothing will make it cease at this point, and thus it's time to abandon ship -- the beast has stepped on the auto-destruct sequence button. Other sane conservatives need to come to their senses, swallow their pride, and save their own movement.
And as I've said before, with an opposition party in such distress, why are our Dem leaders so obsessed with not offending the know-nothings, bigots and bible beaters? They will never get their votes, and the folks in the middle of the road are tired of the slacker-*ss behavior on the Hill -- for instance, many of them want not just a public option, but single-payer health care (they live in the real world as opposed to Beltway world), and yet they see both sides caving to interests other than those who put them in office. I don't know how much more weakened the GOP could be before some spines were grown by these Dems.
1. Support for fascists, both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan, etc.)
2. Support for bigotry, hatred, and white supremacism (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, Lew Rockwell, etc.)
3. Support for throwing women back into the Dark Ages, and general religious fanaticism (see: Operation Rescue, anti-abortion groups, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, the entire religious right, etc.)
4. Support for anti-science bad craziness (see: creationism, climate change denialism, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, James Inhofe, etc.)
5. Support for homophobic bigotry (see: Sarah Palin, Dobson, the entire religious right, etc.)
6. Support for anti-government lunacy (see: tea parties, militias, Fox News, Glenn Beck, etc.)
7. Support for conspiracy theories and hate speech (see: Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Birthers, creationists, climate deniers, etc.)
8. A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic, Ace of Spades, etc.)
9. Anti-Islamic bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing radical Islam, into support for fascism, violence, and genocide (see: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, etc.)
10. Hatred for President Obama that goes far beyond simply criticizing his policies, into racism, hate speech, and bizarre conspiracy theories (see: witch doctor pictures, tea parties, Birthers, Michelle Malkin, Fox News, World Net Daily, Newsmax, and every other right wing source)
And much, much more. The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff.
I won't be going over the cliff with them.
It's up to nearly 600 comments at the time of this post, and I hate to break it to Mr. Johnson, but the Goldwater conservatives and moderates have been put six feet under by the theocrats and know-nothings. I don't know how you can wrest the GOP back from the crazies. I am under no illusion that Charles Johnson is now progressive or agrees with the Obama admin on policy (heaven knows we have enough beefs with the admin); I actually feel for him.
These low-brow conservatives that coo over Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush are sheep -- no critical thinking whatsoever, in denial about how they are shilling for policies that hurt them, instead they focus on blaming on the "other" -- that doesn't look like them, worship like them, believe in reproductive freedom or isn't heterosexual. With fumes that weak, how can that movement sustain itself? It's an incredible feat.
Yet it also reminds me that this administration and Congress would need the 100% control on the Hill and a completely impotent GOP to find the spine to do anything of consequence without selling the whole farm to cover their political posteriors. It's all a mess.
Late update: The application that hosted these polls has apparently been disabled. The links above now lead to an error message: "The application 'Polls' is temporarily unavailable due to an issue with its third-party developer. We are investigating the situation and apologize for any inconvenience."
Late late update: The Secret Service is investigating the incident and asked Facebook to remove the poll, Greg Sargent reports.
Dammit, instead of going to the animal shelter to see the dogs, Kate and I should have taken the opportunity to rub shoulders with the queen of Opposite Marriage in the wingnut movement, disgraced Miss California Carrie Prejean, who was in the Triangle to stimulate intellectual discussion during her lunch keynote at the 4th Annual NC Conservative Leadership Conference, sponsored by the John William Pope Civitas Institute.
This is a gathering of the good-old-boy set and economic/fiscal conservative crowd.
The vision of the Civitas Institute is of a North Carolina whose citizens enjoy liberty and prosperity derived from limited government, personal responsibility and civic engagement. The mission of the Civitas Institute is to facilitate the implementation of conservative policy solutions to improve the lives of all North Carolinians
* Judicial Misconduct and Gay Adoption * Defending Marriage in N.C. * 2009 Session Legislative Recap Series: Life and Family * Why "Sexual Orientation" is Not a Protected Nondiscrimination Class * Government-Run Health Care And Taxpayer-Funded Abortions * Deception: The Story of North Carolina's Bullying Bill and How It Was Passed * The Damage of HB 88/ S221-An Unhealthy Youth * Get The Facts... On Abstinence Education * Life & Family Legislation: A Coming Storm? * Legislative Recap Series * Let's Not Forget Life * North Carolina Needs Fetal Homicide Law * Life and Family Issues Recap * Stem Cell Research in North Carolina ... What's Really Going On? * Marriage Amendment Blocked * A Decade of Parental Consent...And 750 Shining Faces!
According to the N&O, Prejean gave the usual stump speech about being persecuted for her beliefs about marriage by the Miss USA Pageant. I doubt her Piousness brought up her topless modeling photos or the contract terms she broke that caused pageant officials to yank her crown. Also, a group of progressives from Durham attended as the eyes and ears of the reality-based residents in the state.
"It has illuminated why the extreme right-wing grass-roots are so cynical and hateful," said Lanya Shapiro, executive director of Traction Action Fund, a social network of activists. here's Traction on FB
"Their leaders call the left evil and power-grabbing," Shapiro said. "We want to know what we're up against."
Friday featured Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform along with the author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam," Robert Spencer. How could I have missed the "Ongoing Terror Symposium"?
And look at what I missed on Saturday...plus: if you want to see how the wingnuts put on a real slamming fest, check out some video from last year's conference below the fold, complete with move-to-the-beat elevator music...
I was watching CNN this AM and saw this pathetic piece about North Carolina Principal Chris Gibbs of Claremont Elementary School. He was forced by winger parents to censor the President's school speech on Tuesday. For point of reference, the school is west of the Triangle, near Hickory. Needless to say, it's Red territory.
In this interview, Gibbs, who is black, knows exactly what the score is -- he's dealing with a bunch of ignorant bigots, and his head was going to roll if he didn't comply with the bullying extremists who thought the speech contained "communist" rhetoric that they didn't want to expose their precious children to.
Gibbs does his diplomatic best in the heat of this situation, but he calls it like it is:
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This North Carolina school principal had to decide whether or not to air President Obama's speech for students in his school. The pressure was on.
CHRIS GIBBS, PRINCIPAL, CLAREMONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: This may sound a little strange, but after a flurry of phone calls, my first thing was to go in my office, shut my door and have a prayer because I knew I was going to have to make a decision.
TUCHMAN: What was he hearing from parents? Mostly comments like those we heard at the county fair just down the road.
(on camera): Do you think the school should play Barack Obama's speech?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's more like communism saying we're going to do this and we're going to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it should be up to the parents' decision if they want their children to hear that or not.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): And that is exactly what Principal Chris Gibbs decided. The speech will not be shown at Claremont Elementary School.
Teachers we met at the school told us they backed the decision.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not something that we want to divide our school with.
TUCHMAN: In our research of the schools and school districts that will not be showing the president's speech live, we found that most of them perhaps not surprisingly are in counties where Barack Obama did not do particularly well during the November elections.
(on camera): Catawba County, the home of the Claremont Elementary School is no exception. John McCain received 67 percent of the vote here.
This is what he's going to say in his speech. If you quit in school, you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country. Isn't that a message you want your kids to hear? Isn't that part of what education is all about?
GIBBS: Most definitely. And we've asked our parents, again, going back to responsibility. A responsible parent is going to sit down and talk to their kids about staying in school.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): But Barack Obama's message about it won't even be shown here in an edited form in the days to come. The principal has decided that the children are to see any of it, it should only be from their parents.
(on camera): Let's say if President Obama said I want to come to you school? He calls you up, I want to make a live appearance at your school and we'll have an assembly. You would be dealing with the same things with these parents, wouldn't you?
GIBBS: I would, probably.
TUCHMAN: How does that make you feel?
GIBBS: Well, we have a long way to go (And these synapse-firing-free parents are a prime example of this -- ed.). And the issues out there today are the issues, they're sensitive issues (As in these bigots are thisclose to calling the POTUS an uppity n*gger. -- ed..) But if the president wanted to come to Claremont Elementary School, he would certainly be welcome to come to Claremont Elementary School. And I guess I would have to go back in my office and shut the door and pray again.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Gary Tuchman, CNN, Claremont, North Carolina.
Thankfully Wells Fargo, the employer of leading Idaho tea-bagger Charles McAffee, doesn't train its representatives to document loan-delinquent homeowners in this manner. Via Raw Story:
The Republican Party chairman of Boise County in Idaho was arrested Thursday for aggravated assault after he pulled a gun on a man whose house he was photographing.
Charles McAffee, 33, was among Idaho's anti-tax tea-party activists, and is a member of the Idaho Republican Party Central Committee. He was arrested after pulling a handgun on a homeowner whose mortgage his employer sought to photograph for being delinquent
Do you see a trend here? Gun-brandishing teabaggers, right-wing preachers calling for the execution of gays and the President...in all of the years the left was out in the political cold, did we see any of this completely unhinged behavior? At some point the GOP and religious right leaders need to condemn these extremists and eliminationists or we can safely assume that they agree wholeheartedly with a class of people who encourage - or partake - in violence as a protest or act of intimidation. The AP:
According to police in the Boise suburb of Meridian, resident Robert Lutes called officers just before 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to report McAffee had pointed a .357 Magnum handgun at him during a verbal confrontation. McAffee acknowledged he pointed the gun at Lutes, according to the police account.
"I'm unarmed, I'm an old man," Lutes, 51, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I'm trying to find out why he's taking pictures of my house. I said, 'Knock on my door, let me know what you want.' Then, I think he's reaching for his business card and he pulls out a concealed weapon and I think he's going to blow my head off."
If the opponents of the President's health care reform want to look like legitimate opposition and not fringe crazies like the birthers, it's probably a good idea to closet up this faction of its "support" (Firedoglake);
Last night we had a rapid response effort after hearing reports that the Malkinites were going to swarm a health care event in Denver where Nancy Pelosi was showing up in support of Jared Polis and Diane DeGette.
Mark S. took videos and uploaded them to us after the event. Notably, he spoke with on 16 year-old who had identified himself to Jeralyn as hailing from Wasilla, Alaska. Mark got a shot of his t-shirt, which had a picture of Obama and the slogan "Hitler gave good speeches, too":
He was chanting "read the bill, read the bill." I'm having a hard time believing that kid read the 1000 page bill.
And the FAIL isn't relegated to teens, look at this kid's probable role model, the untethered-from-reality-for-a-paycheck Glenn Beck, who jokes about poisoning Pelosi.
Damn. This lunacy is as bad as those bills declaring fetal personhood. A Republican state legislator John Adams of Sidney, has submitted a bill that would require a woman to obtain the permission of the man who impregnated her before she could receive abortion services. The language of the bill is beyond insane.
As written, the bill would ban women from seeking an abortion without written consent from the father of the fetus. In cases where the identity of the father is unknown, women would be required to submit a list of possible fathers. The physician would be forced to conduct a paternity test from the provided list and then seek paternal permission to abort. Claiming to not know the father's identity is not a viable excuse, according to the proposed legislation. Simply put: no father means no abortion.
...With the proposal, men would be guaranteed that voice under penalty of law. First time violators would by tried for abortion fraud, a first degree misdemeanor. The same would be the case for men who falsely claim to be fathers and for medical workers who knowingly perform an abortion without paternal consent.
In addition, women would be required to present a police report in order to prove a pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
So otherwise, a rape survivor would need to find her rapist and see if he's willing to sign off on the whole deal. Jesus H. Christ.
"This extreme bill shows just how far some of our state legislators are willing to go to rally a far-right base that is frustrated with the pro-choice gains made in the last election," said NARAL Pro-choice Ohio executive director Kellie Copeland. "It is completely out of touch with Ohio's mainstream values. This measure is a clear attack on a woman's freedom and privacy."
I’ve said this time and time again. If men were the ones that got pregnant and had to carry a child for 9 months, abortion procedures would be safe, legal, accessible, and fully funded. This bill simply goes to prove that sentiment. It is a slippery slope decision that seeks to deny women autonomy and control over their own bodies. And here’s the kicker: if you don’t know who the father is, you will be denied abortion services. Because you know, those slutty sex demons should be punished for their lack of purity with a forced pregnancy. This is just ridiculous. It’s yet another mechanism for demonizing and isolating women who have sex. The message here is pretty damn clear, if you have sex and don’t know the father, pregnancy is your punishment. Is it just me, or is using a baby to punish a woman flat out un-ethical?
Do your part and get involved. If you are as outraged as I am about this proposed legislation, contact Republican John Adams, and let him know how you feel. Regardless of whether or not you are able to change his mind, at least let him know what a giant douchebag he is.
On my Facebook page, Blender Terri said:
"contact republican john adams and let him know how you feel."
Even if I could produce a turd that large, I doubt fed ex would let me ship it to his office.
This is what you do when the times get tight in bigot world -- you join forces as to ride out the recession and regime change to keep the social conservative agenda viable until a return to power. Of course they are going to lose the war, but they are going to do everything in their power to slow the advancement of anything remotely resembling equality. The groups are holding a press conference today at the National Press Club. Take a look at this who's who list of A-Z list winger orgs:
The Freedom Federation is a new and unique federation of some of the largest multi-ethnic and transgenerational faith-based organizations in the country committed to plan, strategize, and work together on common interests within the Judeo-Christian tradition to mobilize their grassroots constituencies and to communicate faith and values to the religious, social, cultural, and policymaking institutions.
WHO:
-- American Association of Christian Counselors - its mission is to "equip clinical, pastoral, and lay care-givers with Biblical truth and psycho-social insights"
-- American Family Association - here at the Blend we already know about Don and Tim Wildmon's Tupelo, MS-based hate brigade
-- Americans for Prosperity -- free market, small tax crowd
-- Exodus International - ruining LGBTQI lives daily.
-- Faith and Action - Rob Schenck, who anoints Senate Judicial hearing rooms with oil, says his org is "America's only Christian outreach across the street from the United States Supreme Court"
-- Family Research Council - Tony Perkins den of bigotry in the name of "family."
-- Liberty Alliance Action - the successor org to Falwell's Moral Majority. Very LGBT-obsessed.
-- Liberty Counsel - Bam Bam Barber's and Mat Staver's lair.
-- Liberty University - more Falwell-based "education"
-- Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN) - a group of Indiana homeschooling families from Bloomington and Monroe County
-- Marc Nuttle - author of a tome called Moment of Truth, "a clarion call for conservative America to take a stand today for the future the country."
-- Morning Star Ministries - Rick and Julie Joyner's ministry's goal is to "provide the household of faith with the highest quality spiritual food that is timely, or "meat in due season."
-- National Clergy Council - Rob Schenck, AGAIN
-- National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference - willlead the Hispanic born-again community in America for the purpose of transforming our culture, preserving our Judeo Christian Value System and building the spiritual, intellectual and social/political capital within the Hispanic American Community.
-- Renewing American Leadership - I have no idea what this is, but it has a dormant web site. Right Wing Watch says this is Newt Gingrich's new parking space.
-- Strang Communications - it's "a multi-media communications company focused on spreading the name and fame of Jesus throughout the world through the mass media."
-- Teen Mania - Ron Luce's organization; his call to action is to retake America from the "virtue terrorists" (gays, pro-choice supporters, etc.) is "Battle Cry."
-- The Call to Action - not sure about this oneKyle at RWW says this is Lou Engle's new hole-in-the-wall.
-- Traditional Values Coalition - possibly the most hateful anti-LGBT organization out there, Lou Sheldon sets a new standard for peddling fear-based ignorance.
Wow - did they put this coalition together by going through our list of right-wing organizations and simply inviting all the groups and individuals we write about most frequently to join? Sorry, Christian Anti-Defamation Commission - if only we had written about you a few more times, maybe you would have been deemed worthy of inclusion in this ground-breaking new effort by the Religious Right ... to do whatever it is this new organization is going to do.
Honestly, what purpose can this possibly serve? Are the Council for National Policy and the Arlington Group somehow lacking and so these groups decided that what they really needed was yet another coalition to carry out the same work?
Ex Gay Watch's David Roberts managed to get a quote from Alan Chambers of Exodus on the project. Read it below the fold.
Following up the last post on the kind of people bedding down with the GOP, here's another wing of the fringe -- the Minutemen nativists now have to comment on a just-arrested multiple-murder suspect that used to be among its leadership. The body count by the eliminationist wing continues to rise.
Two of three people arrested in a southern Arizona home invasion that left a little girl and her father dead had connections to a Washington state anti-illegal immigration group that conducts border watch activities in Arizona.
Jason Eugene Bush, 34, Shawna Forde, 41, and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42, have been charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and other charges, said Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County, Ariz.
The trio are alleged to have dressed as law enforcement officers and forced their way into a home about 10 miles north of the Mexican border in rural Arivaca on May 30, wounding a woman and fatally shooting her husband and their 9-year-old daughter. Their motive was financial, Dupnik said.
...Forde is the leader of Minutemen American Defense, a small border watch group, and Bush goes by the nickname "Gunny" and is its operations director, according to the group's Web site. She is from Everett, Wash., has recently been living in Arizona and was once associated with the better known and larger Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.
Of course now the Minutemen are scurrying like roaches when a light is flipped on to disown her and declare her a lone wolf. I guess the positive way to look at it is that they knew it was beyond the pale to have their name attached to this woman.
"This is not what Minutemen do," said member Chuck Stonex, who responded to an e-mail from The Associated Press sent through the Web site. "Minutemen observe, document and report. This is nothing more than a cold-hearted criminal act, and that is all we want to say."
Also, PunkZanyJ in the comments mentioned this bit of business from Mat Staver, Matt Barber and their friends at Liberty Counsel....via Kyle @ Right Wing Watch:
Back in April and May I wrote a whole series of posts about how the Right was systematically trumping-up a controversy over the Department of Homeland Security Report, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment" (PDF,)" which eventually led the DHS to pull the report.
Now, in light of the murder of Dr. George Tiller and the recent shooting at the Holocaust Museum, we're seeing a variety of pieces claiming that these events validate the report's warnings. And undoubtedly they do, but the irony here is that this report was never about run-of-the-mill conservatives or right-wing political groups - it was focused on violent, racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-government extremists - but it was the conservatives and right-wing political groups who made it about them.
...The report was not a warning about mainstream conservative political groups or lawful anti-abortion activists or religious organizations - it was a report about violent, radical extremists. But it was the Right that intentionally conflated the two and now, in the wake of two high-profile violent acts carried out by right-wing extremists, it is the Right that is insisting that they have nothing in common with such people.
And that is exactly the point: the report was not about them, but they made it about them because they thought they could score some political points and raise money by doing so.
How ridiculous and crass this phony controversy became can pretty much be summed up by these cards, which the Liberty Counsel is still selling on its website, that, in light of the recent attacks, seem to be in pretty poor taste:
Wow. Just Wow. This is what it says as it asks for a donation:
If you believe in the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, traditional family values, supporting our veterans, the right to bear arms and limited federal government, you might be considered a right-wing extremist by Homeland Security.
George Washington would call you a Patriot!
If you are proud to stand for liberty, the original intent of the Constitution of the United States of America and the Declaration of Independence, you can order your Right-Wing Extremist ID Card for a donation of any amount. If you want to be the proud owner of this humorous card, click here to donate and remember to note "ID Card" in the Comment section. Thank you for standing firm for American liberty.
The desperation in the womb-control movement is out of control. Killing doctors for performing legal medical services is obviously not a bridge too far for these people; even contraception has driven them over the edge. (Huff Post):
Unable to turn the public against sex, the pro-life movement will be on the march Saturday trying to convince women that birth-control pills will kill them.
The right-wing American Life League and a handful of regional organizations will stand around outside U.S. pharmacies and Planned Parenthood chapters this weekend for the second annual "Protest the Pill Day." Dispatches from last year's protests, posted at thepillkills.com, offer a sense of what to expect.
...The American Life League blames birth control -- all birth control, conflating the pill with less time-tested contraceptives -- for abortions and a wide variety of deadly health problems.
Any drug can be dangerous or even fatal, so where's the news? It's not as if The Pill doesn't come with a fact sheet just like any other prescription medication. This kind of fear mongering makes no sense if the goal is to prevent pregnancy. Of course these people don't like ANY contraception -- sex should not occur outside of marriage and even then, only for procreation.
Why isn't there an effort to save and protect all of those billions of sacred sperm that are spilled in non-procreative activity? You never see marches against men spanking the monkey.
Get ready for more of these because the fetus-citizen advocates and womb-controllers are distressed at the political change around the country, and a good number of them are off their rockers evil. Late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was shot to death at a Wichita, Kansas church today.
Dr. George Tiller, who remained one of the nation's few providers of late-term abortions through decades of protests and attacks, was shot and killed Sunday in a church where he was serving as an usher and his wife was in the choir.
...Long a focus of national anti-abortion groups, including a summer-long protest in 1991, Tiller was serving as an usher during Sunday morning services when he was shot in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church, Stolz said.
..."We just thought a child had come in with a balloon and it had popped, had gone up and hit the ceiling and popped," [congregation member Adam] Watkins said.
Another usher came in and told the congregation to remain seated, then escorted Tiller's wife out. "When she got to the back doors, we heard her scream, and so we knew something bad had happened," Watkins said.
The 51-year-old gunman fled the scene in a car, and was arrested three hours after the shooting.
According to the Wichita Eagle, Tiller's clinic has been vandalized repeatedly.
Tiller's clinic was severely vandalized earlier this month. According to the Associated Press, his lawyer said wires to security cameras and outdoor lights were cut and that the vandals also cut through the roof and plugged the buildings' downspouts. Rain poured through the roof and caused thousands of dollars of damage in the clinic. Tiller reportedly asked the FBI to investigate the incident.
...Sgt. Bart Brunscheen of the Wichita Police Department said there has been no activitiy today at Tiller's clinic, although security crews were being brought in to make sure the building was secure. Officials also were going to check the clinic's security cameras to see if there was any activity over night.
Tiller and his clinic have faced continuous threats and lawsuits. A Wichita jury ruled in March that he was not guilty of illegal abortion on 19 criminal charges he faced for allegedly violating a state law requiring an "independent" second physician's concurring opinion before performing later term abortions.
The President on the murder:
I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.
National Groups Come Together To Fight Media Bias. The people maintaining the venue for this conference of wingnuts, fundies and professional homophobes, must have needed to fumigate the place after this get together (it was supposed to have taken place last week). The event was organized by Don Irvine, the chairman of the wingnut media watchdog organization Accuracy in Media, and this is what was said about the meeting:
"We all know the role a biased, leftist media played in selecting Barack Obama, who was largely a media creation. In the last election, the media's support was worth hundreds of millions of dollars and legions of campaign workers. It seems with each election cycle, the media becomes more biased and more brazen. If we don't act now, 2010 and 2012 will be disastrous repeats of 2008.
The purpose of this summit is to formulate a joint plan of action to confront and combat media bias that much of the conservative movement's leadership can endorse and participate in..
The author of this article in The Bulletin, Herb Denenberg, was also invited, and he came up with some talking points to explore with his colleagues, including:
* Media Bias Can Literally Destroy The U.S * The Importance Of The Alternative Media * Growing More Media Boycotts * Bringing Together All Victims Of Media Bias * Opening Up Presidential Press Conferences And Briefings * Publicizing The Media Watchdogs * A Drudge-Style Report On Media Bias * Bringing Everyone Into The Anti-Bias Campaign * Reminding The Media And Everyone Else Of The Role Of The Media * Media Bias As Part Of A Larger Problem
Look at the cast of characters who attended the invitation-only summit.
The committee is made up by a high-powered group of nationally known figures that include Mr. Irvine, mentioned above; Gary Bauer, American Values; Bill Donohue, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights; Wendy Wright, Concerned Women for America; Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle Forum; Morton Blackwell, The Leadership Institute; Brent Bozell, Media Research Center; and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas).
Since this was a super-secret meeting, I wonder how long it will be before we see any signs of "strategy"?
These days, a few of you may know me from my occasional and typically infuriating comments here at PHB, or occasionally on Bilerico.
My name is Toni D'orsay. I am a multi-ethnic woman living in Phoenix, Arizona. Starting in late 2010, I will begin running for office here in Arizona -- office in specific to be determined. I am also a transsexual, and while I am *not* an activist, I am an advocate.
The distinction is a fine one, as I see my role as an advocate more educational -- both within and outside the queer/lgbt/whatever community -- than political, although obviously a run for office will sorta change that.
I do not always see things the same way that the general leadership of much of the community does -- at 44, I come from a different worldview and understanding of things than many of them.
I have talked in the past about strategy, about the way of doing things, and, given the general unrest regarding many of the current leadership's methods, I figure why not do the advocate thing and talk about possible changes.
I approach things with a focus on the Transgender side. I look at all of these issues as being trans issues because the majority of transfolk are also gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals. The straight one's like me are pretty rare, comparatively.
In looking at the big issues that loom in the future, the fights that matter the most, right now, in my opinion, are pretty wide ranging, and consist of 5 things:
Recognition of Unity
Non-discrimination in housing, employment, etc.
The "Bathroom Issue"
Health care issue resolution
Marriage equality
Now, I realize that a lot of my cis queer/LGBT friends will be somewhat taken aback that I would list marriage as the last one, but I did say that I am informed through a transgender lens -- there are gays and lesbians for whom marriage is worthless since they won't have a place to live or a job to pay for the license and rings.
After the break, I'm going to suggest some approaches to these issues that may not have been considered before, and that are actually inspired and informed by our very own enemies in this battle. To do so, I will explain some aspects of history that are often ignored or overlooked by the queer community (which is how I will refer to them going forward).
I hope that some of you will follow. I hope because it is not a short posting. Indeed, it is one of the longest political posts I've ever written in my life. Sorry I'm so wordy.
I tried to bring this up during our last phone call, but the conversation went another way, as conversations are wont to do. The pressure of events moves me to return to it here, in a format that should minimize the drift. So I'll tell you again: I feel the time is coming when you will be confronted with a choice to vote for or against my civil rights. What is more, your Church or some of its members are highly likely to weigh in on the matter. The "culture wars" are heating up, and I fear we may find ourselves on opposite sides.
A précis follows, in case you haven't been keeping up with events: Here in Iowa, several same-sex couples filed a lawsuit challenging the state's definition of civil marriage (Varnum vs. Brien). The judge who heard the case found for the plaintiffs on equal protection and due process grounds. One couple managed to get married before the judge stayed his ruling, pending the decision of the state Supreme Court. That court accepted the case and received amicus briefs from various parties (including two former female lieutenant governors and church groups on both sides); oral arguments are set for 9 December of this year. In January, Gov. Culver told a reporter the if the high court upholds the lower court's decision, he will ask the legislature to overturn the ruling by amending the state constitution-even if this means recalling a departed Assembly to gather in special session for the purpose.
Meanwhile, a similar case worked its way through the courts in California. In May, that state's highest court found for the same-sex couples, and weddings were performed starting in June. Though thousands of couples married (I've heard figures ranging from 11,000 to 18,000), opponents of gay rights sought to thwart the judiciary and put a proposition on the ballot to strip the right to marry from same-sex couples, thereby putting minority rights to a majority vote. With support from Catholic and Mormon churches among others, Proposition 8 passed by a small majority, and protests have since been held in many cities. I shall join such a protest here in Des Moines in a few hours' time.
Beyond this, I cannot give a precise timeline. In California, the high court has asked for documents in the case; there are a number a lawsuits alleging the proposition, in seeking to enact a change that conflicts with the equal protection guarantee, amounts to a revision of the document; revisions, under the terms of that constitution, must be passed by the legislature first. Here in Iowa, the high court ruling isn't expected until some time next year. If the court sides with the plaintiffs, Culver will no doubt make good his threat. An amendment to the Iowa Constitution must pass the legislature twice before going to the voters for approval; a simple majority is then sufficient to ratify it.
If you have read this far, I expect you have a cascade of objections going through your mind. Perhaps you've even given voice to one or more of them, much as I mutter "a pleasing stream of the old rancid" when I find my predecessor has left the booth radio tuned to Rush Limbaugh. I propose to address as many of your objections as I can anticipate below; feel free to raise any other objections you may have.
You may think all of this is far away, in time or in space. I grant you that California a a couple of thousand miles from here; it is also true that it will take some time to amend Iowa's constitution. Yet the foes of gay rights will not wait and bide their time. They have been castigating people like me for decades, and they will not hold their tongues while the matter is discussed in the courts. There are funds to be raised and fears to be mongered and outrage to be incited. The fear and the outrage can then be tapped for more money and for volunteer labor-yielding the email trees, the phonebanks, the books and videos, and all the efforts to drive home the notion that homosexuals are sick, evil, perverse, predatory, and generally a threat to civilization and an affront to God. Lest you think I'm indulging in hyperbole, this history is amply and continually being documented; you can easily find the sources for yourself, though I will provide you with a list if you wish. (I have to warn you: much of it is not pleasant reading.)
What is more, the problem is not so very distant. Though only a few couples have sued, there are many more right here in Iowa. Consider one of my bosses (a black woman, as it happens) and her partner. They've been together for 24 years, yet legally they are strangers to each other. If the employer of one of them extends health insurance to both, the IRS will tax the partner's benefit as if it were income. They must spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on wills and other documents because they have no recognized right to make medical decisions for each other and no right of intestate succession-and those documents so dearly bought can be challenged in court by any blood relative who can't accept their recently departed family member was gay. If they go on vacation and one of them becomes ill or injured, they are at the mercy of whatever visitation policy the local ER chooses to apply, and they must be sure to bring their raft of documents (medical powers of attorney, etc.) to justify their relationship. All of this merely scratches the surface; there are over a thousand rights, now denied to same-sex couples no matter how long they have been together, that come with civil marriage.
Notice I said civil marriage. The foes of same-sex marriage intentionally elide this point. They claim that their rights would be violated, that they would be forced to perform same-sex marriages in their churches. When they say these things, they lie. They lie. Full stop. None of the lawsuits seek to redefine religious definitions of marriage. No civil court would order that, even if it could. The mere fact that clergy have been given a civil authority ("...by the power vested in me by the state of...") does not make the marriage wholly religious, nor does it mean that the tenets of the religion override the civil law (if that were so, you could still be married to Dad). What is more, they have no right to impose their beliefs on others. Mormons cannot stop Starbucks™ from selling coffee and tea because they disapprove of caffeine consumption. Orthodox Jews and Muslims cannot outlaw pork tenderloins or sausage, and kosher requirements cannot keep you from having a pepperoni pizza. In fact, they don't even get to banish such practices from public spaces.
And that's really the main point. There's a distinction between the religious sphere and the civic one, and some people, for feelings of insecurity or out of a desire for power, hate and deny that distinction. Right wingers gleefully rewrite history, claiming that "America is a Christian nation." On that basis, they think they can ignore or ride roughshod over the rights and concerns of people who follow a minority religion or no religion at all. Worse yet, their tribalistic us-versus-them worldview needs some group to be cast as outsiders to reinforce their precarious sense of identity. You and your fellow Catholics may feel comfortable allying with the Christian Dominionist crowd, but many of them, especially those in some of the Protestant groups, are hostile to Mormons and Catholics among others. (Hagee ring a bell? Google his name if not.) If the precedent set by the vote in California is allowed to stand, if one unpopular minority can have their rights stripped away by the vote of a tyrannical majority, other minorities will face a similar fate. "When they finish with us, they will find reason to come after you. And they will say that you have given them reason." (Nava and Dawidoff, Created Equal, p. 164)
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I must say I'm uncertain what you believe. I've heard you object when I refer to myself as "queer," but I'm not sure if you regard the word as scatological, or if you cannot bring yourself to accept that I am not straight. Perhaps it's a bit of both.¹ When I think back to a conversation we had before I came out to you (which you may not recall) in which you likened homosexuality to alcoholism and I likened it to left-handedness, I get no further. Was your reply ("Hey!") so swift and so loud because you are left-handed? In other words, was the comparison so odious to you that you couldn't let it pass? Did you-do you now believe all the invective and vitriol that has been hurled against people like me?
I will admit here that I made the comparison intentionally, partly to try to answer those questions, partly to drive the point home, and partly because I found the comparison apt.² Yet your response, while indicating your discomfort, gave me no real clue to your specific feelings on the subject. It seemed prudent to let you make the next move, so instead of coming out to you with some dramatic announcement, I chose to wait for you to ask the question. I told myself you would ask when you were ready for the answer. Eventually you asked and I answered, but you also told me you were more disappointed that I left the Church.³ Can you really have expected me to stay in a church that regards me as "intrinsically disordered"? Did you think I would endure such inherent hostility as my "cross to bear"?
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The other day on the phone you said, "But...Free will!" Where do I begin unpacking that phrase? Among your fellow Catholics, it begins to look as if free will isn't free. Actually, it looks as if the Vatican is taking a page from the conservative Protestant playbook. For several years, some Catholic clergy have advocated denying sacraments to Catholic public officials who espouse a pro-choice stand (Kerry faced this in 2004, and Biden's bishop has restated the principle). Today I read of a priest in South Carolina telling parishioners who voted for Obama that they should not seek Communion until they sought absolution for their vote. I realize not every priest is so doctrinaire, but for all I know you have been similarly admonished-or you soon will be. The Vatican tends to make a very grave pronouncement whenever gay people get their rights recognized somewhere, and the old phrases ("intrinsically disordered" and all the rest of it) get trotted out for the occasion. Does this not smack of coercion? And will they let you off with a few "Hail Marys" and a few "Our Fathers" should you fail to vote according to the Church's teachings?
In a strange way, you might one day enter my world. Should you be faced with a ballot that asks you to amend this state's constitution in the same way as the voters of California were, you will have several options. You could vote in favor or not at all without telling me (how would I know, given the secret ballot?) You could vote against it and face the prospect of bringing the decision to the confessional. No doubt the topic will arise when you meet with your fellow parishioners or when you talk to the rest of the family. Then you will face a choice: to stand up for what you believe in the face of hostility and derision, or to hide what you believe in so that you can avert the social consequences. Even if you never discuss the matter, that choice will be there, and you will have to make a decision, one way or the other.
Sean Hannity who regularly has his buddy, former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich on his show, asked his listeners to identify "Which Republican would you vote for in '08 even if they aren't officially running yet?" A question to which his listeners responed overwhelmingly that they'd prefer the adulterous political flunkee turned right-wing commentator.
Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House during the first part of the Clinton Impeachment debacle was discovered cheating on his ailing wife with a congressional aide.
At least they're sensible enough to stay away from Sam Brownback.
I cannot support a movement that claims to believe in limited government but backed an unlimited domestic and foreign policy presidency that assumed illegal, extra-constitutional dictatorial powers until forced by the system to return to the rule of law.
Dammit, instead of going to the animal shelter to see the dogs, Kate and I should have taken the opportunity to rub shoulders with the queen of Opposite Marriage in the wingnut movement, disgraced Miss California Carrie Prejean, who was in the Triangle to stimulate intellectual discussion during her lunch keynote at the 
I was watching CNN this AM and saw this pathetic piece about North Carolina Principal Chris Gibbs of Claremont Elementary School. He was forced by winger parents to censor the President's school speech on Tuesday. For point of reference, the school is west of the Triangle, near Hickory. Needless to say, it's Red territory.
Damn
