Friday, October 20, 2006
The hypocrisy in the GOP has reached new depressing lows. A
Washington Post article today explains that many of the "homophobes" are really play-acting to kiss the ass of the Religious Right. How sad and pathetic this is, but the Foley scandal has made it difficult to maintain this facade. Let's hope the Republican Party chooses acceptance over thier loopy base, but I would not place a bet on that.
16 Comments
Down double digits in the polls, sleazeball Ken Blackwell
smeared his Democratic opponent Ted Strickland by linking him to child sex predators - and then his state Republican spokesman raised questions about Strickland's sexuality.
Strickland campaign spokesman Keith Dailey reacted: "I think it's telling just how low the Republican Party has sunk. These are the same ridiculous innuendos that the same party apologized for'' after firing a GOP committee employee for smearing the Stricklands in an e-mail in late July, he said. "They should be ashamed of themselves,'' Dailey said. "It's most disgusting, it really is."
Amazing how these born again bigots that brag about their integrity and morality always run the most cynical and disgusting campaigns.
5 Comments
With the elections looking bleak, Republicans are engaged in a deliciously
delightful finger-pointing game. According to
The New York Times, Tax-cutters are calling evangelicals bullies. Christian conservatives say Republicans in Congress have let them down. Hawks say President Bush is bungling the war in Iraq. And many conservatives blame Representative Mark Foley's sexual messages to teenage pages.
Even former Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX), who once referred to Barney Frank as Barney Fag, thinks that Focus on theFamily's leader James Dobson is a "real nasty bully" who commands a "gang of thugs."
Welcome to our world, Mr. Armey. We have had to deal with Dobson's hateful scumbaggery and libelous lies on a daily basis. Now that Republicans have given the extreme right too much power, they are going to have to take it back or lose the party completely.
In any case, it is fun watching the very men and women who subverted democracy and worked hard th ruin America, turn on themselves.
Let the gruesome games begin.
2 Comments
Thursday, October 19, 2006
"The big-tent strategy could ultimately spell doom for the Republican Party," said Tom McClusky, chief lobbyist for the Family Research Council, a Christian advocacy group. "All a big-tent strategy seems to be doing is attracting a bunch of clowns."
3 Comments
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
On the Ed Schultz show, Mike Rogers outed Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) today as a practicing hypocrite and alleged homosexual. Rogers has once again rocked the Capital and made sure that closeted gay people do not win elections on the backs of out and proud gays. He deserves our deep gratitude for his important work.
8 Comments
(Weekly Column)In 1995, I arrived in Washington, DC as a fresh faced and doe-eyed twenty five year old. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for a living, but I thought working on Capitol Hill might be interesting and the big buildings looked kind of cool. Although I had just served as a press secretary in a U.S. senate primary, I wasn't a political junkie and all I really knew was that Democrats were the pro-gay "good guys" and Republicans were the anti-gay "bad guys."
For days, I scurried down the long corridors of the ornate and musty Congressional offices to drop off resumes. While I was ultimately unsuccessful in attracting a job offer, I did manage to attract furtive glances from many staffers on The Hill - particularly well-scrubbed Republicans. If there were steam coming out of some of those Republican offices, I would have sworn I was in a bathhouse. Wasn't the GOP supposed to be the party that loathed homosexuals?
This bizarre dynamic was simply too mind-boggling for a political neophyte like myself to comprehend. I chalked it up to one of life's great unknowable mysteries, such as "Does God exist" or "why do straight women think Fabio is hot?"
Eleven years later, I must admit, I still don't get it. How can people go home with a same sex partner at night and then show up at work the next morning to denounce homosexuals?
(I want to qualify this by stressing that many Republicans office holders are pro-gay and there are many honorable Republican activists, such as former Log Cabin leader Patrick Guerriero.)
When I questioned gay republicans, they would often scoff and say that the Republican Party is tolerant. As proof, they would point to the offices where they worked and proclaim that they were gay friendly environments. The Mark Foley scandal, as it turns out, proves that they weren't lying. The Republican elites in Washington love gay people, as long as they don't broadcast their sexual orientation.
Read: "Don't let the yahoos on the prairie know you are a fairy or they will stay home on Election Day and we won't get our tax cuts and promotions."
On a recent airing of the Chris Matthews Show, commentator Tucker Carlson revealed that educated and wealthy Washington Republicans can't stomach the religious fanatics.
"The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power," admitted Carlson. "Everybody in our world has contempt for the evangelicals. And the evangelicals know that, and they're beginning to learn that their own leaders sort of look askance at them and don't share their values...It's pandering to the base in the most cynical way, and the base is beginning to figure it out."
A combustible
new book, "Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction," by former faith-based initiative honcho David Kuo, asserts that top GOP strategists privately called evangelical leaders "nuts" and "goofy."
It is easy to sympathize with evangelicals. For more than two decades, they had admirably outworked every other group in America to win offices from the presidency to lowly school boards -- and still had time to send their kids to Jesus Camps.
In the process, the GOP became part of the conservative evangelical religion. The creepy worship of politicians, such as President Bush and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan) seems, at times, to approach idolatry.
This is why it must be incredibly painful to find that national party leaders are more likely to play show tunes than gospel hymns once safely ensconced in the Beltway. Indeed, gay activist Mike Rogers has outed so many hypocrites that it now seems more newsworthy if he reveals a Republican is actually heterosexual.
If you are having trouble understanding the betrayal felt by Christian conservatives, look at it from a different perspective. Imagine how you would feel if you came to find that Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had offices filled with homophobic, apocalyptic Christians waiting for the End Times?
Incensed by the duplicity, the Traditional Values Coalition's Lou Sheldon
has called for a "Come to Jesus meeting" between the GOP elite and their conservative base. It is clear that the Republican Party is in the midst of a major identity crises and there is no turning back. In the "come to Jesus meeting" Republicans will be forced to either abandon the goofy nutjobs or reluctantly agree to crucify gays.
Sorry if I don't shed a tear, but gay conservatives may be getting exactly what they deserve. They have helped elevate the very puritans that now may purge them. It was a good ride while it lasted, but the party is over. The only regret is that the halls of Congress won't be quite as much fun to cruise once they are gone.
17 Comments
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
How is it that officials at the Human Rights Campaign, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the Empire State Pride Agenda, and other prominent gay groups
got suckered by a 25-year-old heterosexual evangelical Christian, a man who promised to be their gay-friendly savior but who was simultaneously giving training sessions to antigay groups and calling homosexuality a "sin" on Christian radio? The simple answer is: They wanted to believe.
6 Comments
Homophobic nutjob Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) said she would
file a complaint over her democratic opponent Angie Paccione's campaign-paid trips to the salon before appearances at a fundraiser and news conference. Musgrave campaign manger Shaun Kenney said the $424.02 spent on "salon services" violates the Federal Election Commission rule barring campaign expenditures on personal use.
The truth is, Musgrave is just jealous because she is a dog with bad hair. While Paccione looks fabulous, Musgrave has a fundie big hair that requires no more than Big Gulp-size bottles of hairspray and a industrial blowdryer. Just look at the picture and see how much better Paccione (left) looks than the drab, frumpy Musgrave.
Finally, by trying to create a last minute "Hairdo-gate" Musgrave is revealing that she has no issues other than opposing same-sex marriage and her opponet's mane. Indeed, a drought in her Colorado district has farmers having to sell their farms, yet, all she can focus on is homosexuals and her opponents hair. If the people in Musgrave's district vote for her, they deserve what they get economically. I certainly don't want to hear them bitch and whine when they are broke, lose their farms and find themselves working in Taco Bell.
6 Comments
Sunday, October 15, 2006
'Ex-Gay' Group Draws Fire From Allies
Backers raise concerns about online postings. One advocated ridicule of
nonconforming children; the other seemed to justify slavery.
By Stephanie SimonLA Times Staff WriterOctober 15, 2006The National Assn. for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality positions itself as a scientific group dedicated to helping gay men and lesbians shed same-sex attractions and realize their "heterosexual potential."
Its statements routinely outrage gay-rights activists. But two commentaries posted online in recent months by members of NARTH's scientific advisory committee have raised concerns among its closest allies as well.
One psychiatrist called for allowing schoolchildren to shame and ridicule classmates who don't act according to stereotypical gender roles. Another board member, a therapist, asserted that slaves may have been better off in chains than in "savage" Africa.
One of NARTH's scientific advisors has quit in protest, and a prominent therapist has canceled his presentation at the group's annual conference next month. Alan Chambers, who leads the nation's largest support group for "ex-gays," urged NARTH's members to "think long and hard about the mission
of the organization."
At issue are comments by Canadian psychiatrist Joseph Berger and New York psychotherapist Gerald Schoenewolf.
In a blog on NARTH's website, Berger expressed disgust with a Northern California school that accommodated a cross-dressing kindergartner and other children with "gender-variant" behaviors. Berger said that instead of teaching tolerance, schools should "let the other children ridicule" boys and girls who don't conform.
"It is a mistake for various interfering, ignorant and biased busybodies to try to 'counsel' the other children into accepting the abnormal," Bergerwrote. "It is very healthy to be able to draw the line between what is
healthy and what is sick."
Schoenewolf's essay on political correctness not only seemed to justify slavery, it also denounced the gay-rights movement as "mob rule." Using explicit language, Schoenewolf asserted that "the entire planet has now been forced to agree that [homosexuality] is normal."
"This puts a real spotlight on what we're dealing with…. This organization is incredibly reckless and irresponsible," said Wayne Besen, a gay-rights activist who founded a nonprofit, Truth Wins Out, to keep tabs on the ex-gay movement.
NARTH's premise that homosexuality is a disorder that can be overcome through therapy is routinely cited by activists pushing to get the "ex-gay" perspective into public schools. Besen said he hoped the controversies would slow that movement by discrediting the Encino-based organization — and its claim to take a scientific approach to homosexuality. "This is a group ofpeople with some very peculiar, if not dangerous, views," Besen said.
NARTH President Joseph Nicolosi acknowledged that some of the posted comments "were poorly phrased" but said he intended to keep Berger and Schoenewolf on the board.
Both of their commentaries have been removed from the NARTH website. Nicolosi said the group did not support public shaming of children; an official NARTH statement also expressed regret over Schoenewolf's remarks about slavery.
But those apologies have not quelled the controversy.
Therapist Warren Throckmorton, an associate professor of psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, has long been concerned that NARTH overemphasizes poor parenting as the root of homosexuality. He's also uneasy that NARTH rejects even the possibility of a fulfilling life with a same-sex partner.
At the upcoming conference, Throckmorton had hoped to persuade NARTH therapists to adopt the approach he uses, which is to help patients find harmony between their sexual identity and their religious values. For some, that means trying to change their attraction to the same sex; for others, it means finding peace with a gay identity.
"Therapists should not impose their view of the outcome on clients," Throckmorton said.
Late last month, he canceled his presentation, telling NARTH that he feared he would not get "a scholarly consideration" of his approach.
The two groups that regularly stage conferences on "overcoming homosexuality" - Focus on the Family and Exodus International - have both affirmed their support for Nicolosi. But Chambers, the president of Exodus, made clear he disagreed sharply with how NARTH has handled the controversy.
Berger's advice that children with differences be ridiculed "wouldn't be something we would tolerate from someone who was part of our board," said Chambers, who recalls being teased for acting effeminate as a boy. "We have to be very careful about what we say and how we say it. Peoples' emotions, hearts and even lives are at stake."
20 Comments
