Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Is It True? WAL MART IS AS GAY AS DISNEY?

(Shock!!) Maybe Gayer!


Holy Blue Light Special! According to a VERY Christian mutual fund site, Wal-Mart is as anti-family and unChristian as Disney and a whole host of huge companies! I just stumbled upon a site that I couldn't believe. O.K., maybe I've been living somewhere else other than the real world but, honestly, I didn't know it existed! There's a mutual fund that caters to right-wing evangelicals, presenting a portfolio with "approved" investments, a portfolio built to please "moral investors". It's called The Timothy Plan.

(Financial Times ,Jan, 2008) "Christian group top among US faith-based investors"--Timothy Plan's "funds are heavily invested in energy stocks such as ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil, a big factor in their outperformance."

And just wait til you see who's on their shit list - ooops, I'm sorry, "Hall of Shame" list.These are companies who hire gay people, give to gay causes/organizations, and are active in gay organizations. The list is VERY interesting. A mind-blower even. Here is list of Hall-of-Shame"ers that have x's in all three categories:

Aetna, Inc.
American Express
Borders Group
Bristol -Myers Squibb
Clear Channel Communications
Coca Cola Earthlink Co.
General Electric
Johnson & Johnson

JP Morgan & Chase Co.
Microsoft
Molson
Coors Brewing Co.
Pepsico, Inc.
Pfizer, Inc.
PlanetOut, Inc.
Prudential Financial

Starbucks, Inc.
Time-Warner,Inc.
Wal Mart Stores, Inc.
The Walt Disney Company

In today's economy (or lack of it) The Timothy Plan shows you who NOT to invest in: pro-choicers and gays:

From Prospectus:
By using this methodology, investors can choose to honor their moral convictions with their investments without sacrificing investment return opportunities. By being denied the use of investment capital, corporate America will learn that a financial cost is incurred for conducting business that undermines American families, moral integrity, and the institution of marriage.
In other words, "Fuck the Economy! We're sticking to blood, oil, and self-righteousness for our money!"

Crouching Christians, Hidden Lions - The Culture War Heats Up

Even Christians Need Money To Go To War!

I warned everyone. Sure, my timing was off, but the Christofascists look like they might attack at any minute.

(Associated Press)

“I’m telling you straight up, I would choose life,” Emrich told about 100 worshippers Sunday at New Life Church, a nondenominational evangelical congregation about 40 miles from Milwaukee.

“I would cast a vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin,” he said. “But friends, it’s your choice to make, it’s not my choice. I won’t be in the voting booth with you.”

All told, 33 pastors in 22 states were to make pointed recommendations about political candidates Sunday, an effort orchestrated by the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund.


Tax Exemption is a PRIVILEGE, NOT A RIGHT.

Exemption, in a way, is a quid pro quo situation: "If you don't tread on secular political areas affecting everyone - not just your own church - then, you will be given tax exempt status." Is that fair enough? I think so, but there are many people that think churches should be given special privileges over the rest of mankind. After all, you have to pay to play. In politics at least.

The "religious freedom" of the Founding Fathers was freedom OF religion and freedom FROM STATE religion, but not from religion itself. To have religion stepping into politics invites the complete take-over by religion that colonists from England were trying to avoid. If religion was allowed to get a foothold into politics, there would be nothing holding it back from having its own political party running on a strict morality ticket. That ticket would also include isolationism (we're assuming that the Party would we "Christian" and show disdain for other countries not totally "Christian"). It would also be hawkish.

And, of course, all that morality will take money. During economic hard times, people tend to look to their church (any church) for solace. Osteen's "prosperity gospel" church/stadium will undoubtedly be packin' 'em in. What many people don't realize is that the church they worship may have "more money than God." Many of them will be fleeced of their poor savings and think it is a "seed" of faith.

So the Christofascists will be rolling in money during our recession/depression. They will preach "tithing" at their loudest lectures. And how will they use it? "Soup kitchens" are great gestures to the poor, but they won't dent the vaults of megachurches. No, those churches will be spending the money on politics...and politicians, and campaigns.

Just a thought.

Let's Take Sarah Palin To The Creation Museum...



THEN LEAVE HER THERE AS A CURATOR

(She'll be as happy as a lipsticked pig in shit!)

That's it! Sarah Palin has crossed the line to register as a dyed-in-the-wool dimwit: she's a "young earther!" believing that dinosaurs cavorted with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden 6,000 years ago.

(sigh) Oh boy!

I hope Tina Fey's up to doing more SNL skits, because this latest revelation will go far. Very far.

By Stephen Braun, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 28, 2008:
ANCHORAGE -- Soon after Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the foothill town of Wasilla, Alaska, she startled a local music teacher by insisting in casual conversation that men and dinosaurs coexisted on an Earth created 6,000 years ago -- about 65 million years after scientists say most dinosaurs became extinct -- the teacher said.
Rundown of Sarah Palin:
  • Assemblies of God follower
  • Thinks Iraq war is part of God's Plan
  • Thinks witch-hunting preacher caused her to become governor by the laying on of hands
  • Is against abortion even in the cases of rape or incest
  • Made rape victims pay for their own rape kits
  • Young Earth Creationist
No, the woman is not crazy, but she sure as hell is stupid! Her rhetoric - knee-deep in vagaries, generalizations and buzz-words - adds up with her "knowledge" of current affairs, foreign relations, economic and domestic issues to equal "0". That's it.

Even if she can now point out Kabul and Baghdad on a globe, she doesn't measure up to anything vice-presidential. Visit the site, Women Against Sarah Palin (WASP). It's chock full of her stupidity. It would be funny if it weren't so scary.





Sarah Palin's Not So Intelligent Design


Intelligent Design
Originally uploaded by shawn.waugh
Jesus Christ With A Dinosaur Baby?

Yup, Sarah Palin thinks that Adam and Eve existed with dinosaurs, so why not Jesus Christ? After all, with God, anything's possible, right? Notice that the depiction of Jesus is, of course, non-Jewish. That's probably because dinosaurs ate Jews, being Christ-killers and all.

Will It Help?

The photo was taken in front of the Marienkirche in Berlin. The woman was a gypsy. She probably receives more largess than if she were standing in front of Joel Osteen's church (stadium). Some of his people might take the time to tell her that she hasn't prayed hard enough. Or tell her that being a gypsy was a Godless lifestyle.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

John Flips Again! Now It's Only A Phone-In Crisis For McCain


Just How Many Faces Does This Guy Have?

McCain flip-flopped his image by insisting he attend the Capitol Hill meetings about the economic crisis, threatening a postponement of the Presidential debate, attending one day's worth of meetings, then going back to the Mississippi debate (spurning David Letterman in the process)and then going back to Washington for meetings on Friday. He spent yesterday "phoning in" his stance from his Arlington, VA condo.

By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer

McCain flew to Washington from Mississippi to resume work on the bailout, arriving shortly before dawn. Obama continued his campaign schedule, appearing at rallies in North Carolina and Virginia.

After making a dramatic entrance on Capitol Hill Thursday to be part of the bailout negotiations, McCain stayed away Saturday as lawmakers inched toward an agreement. He made phone calls to the White House and GOP leaders from his suburban condominium and later at campaign headquarters.

From all accounts, McCain's actual appearance on Capitol Hill was more hindrance than help. He then accused Obama for "politizing" the crisis!?

I agree with David Letterman: "Someone in his campaign is screwing up! This isn't the John McCain we know." It's too late in the game to fire Rick Davis, the "ex" lobbyist (as of last May?). McCain is sending mixed signals to the press and the public. He should go back to the campaign trail and continue with the debates.

He should also cut the "maverick" image thing, because he's doing just what a young maverick steer would do: trying to run in all directions at once. John, the image is not working for you anymore. You look totally panicked and undisciplined. Telephoning hundreds of Congressmen from your condo or campaign headquarters is as easy as it would have been from Mississippi BEFORE the first debate. Have you never before been in a video conference? Technology has stepped up a bit in the last 10 years. In a flash, you could have requested and received state-of-the-art equipment in Mississippi. You could have shown people what a great leader you would be for the 21st (and not the early 20th) century. Instead you wasted congress' time, your own campaign time and, yes, the public's time by going back and forth, tither and yon.

The McCain campaign is nothing if it is not sloppy. The Palin debacle shows it. "Let's pick a...Fundamentalist WOMAN! ah, from a huge but barely populated state, put her in the public eye, no wait, keep her away from the press and pick her quickly to show everyone how good we are at snap decisions, then if we find out anything shady about her, we'll teach her how to stretch the truth like a true Washington lawmaker and trooper!"

The list of McCain flip-flops has been upped to 76 major issues. Steve Benen in The Carpetbagger Report has them all with solid reference to McCain's votes and contradictory speeches and quotes. I'm particularly to #65:

65. In May 2008, McCain approved a ban on lobbyists working for his campaign. In July 2008, his campaign reversed course and said lobbyists could work for his campaign.

Then there's his opposing views on gay marriage: (Chris Matthews, Hardball, Oct. 19, 2006):

MCCAIN: I think that gay marriage should be allowed, if there’s a ceremony kind of thing, if you want to call it that. I don’t have any problem with that, but I do believe in preserving the sanctity of a union between man and woman.

(Again, with Chris Matthews at the Stephens Auditorium at Iowa State University, in Ames)
"On the issue of the gay marriage, I believe if people want to have private ceremonies, that’s fine. I do not believe that gay marriages should be legal.”
To which he surprisingly received a chorus of "boos"!

To some people, McCain is "McSame." While to others, he has several more (aggressive) faces:















Which one do you want?

Just a thought.

Homophobic, Racist Michele Bachmann And Minorities Redux

Why, Cap'n Bush! Let's hope Mammy Doesn't See Us Together!

And Yes, She's Christofascist Too!


I just looked at my numbers for the last post. O.K., I get it, very few people were interested in a pink ATM. But I'm still going to write about this Bachmann-minority mess.

The law [the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act] imposes on the covered depositories an affirmative duty to lend throughout the areas from which they take deposits, including poor neighborhoods. The law has teeth because regulators' ratings of banks' CRA performance become public and inform important decisions, notably merger approvals. Studies by the Federal Reserve and Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, among others, have shown that CRA increased lending and homeownership in poor communities without undermining banks' profitability.

...Second, it is hard to blame CRA for the mortgage meltdown when CRA doesn't even apply to most of the loans that are behind it. As the University of Michigan's Michael Barr points out, half of sub-prime loans came from those mortgage companies beyond the reach of CRA.

Michele Bachmann (R-MN) quoted Terry Jones in the right-wing publication Investor’s Business Daily about minorities and the CRA. Now remember, this is a congresswoman who told Nancy Pelosi that the planet had already been "saved" by Jesus Christ. She's also woman who can't spell her own first name (honey, she ain't that original!)

It wouldn't be so bad if she were just a moron. After all, being a moron is not a crime. But she's a MORALIZING moron!

And those kind of morons are especially dangerous. She's obviously a politician backed by some very strange, but powerful people:




McCain: Unoriginal Maverick

"Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!"
Said Jan Brady.

"Maverick, Maverick, Maverick!"
Said Sarah Palin.

"Sarah, Sarah, Sarah!"
Said John McCain.

McCain's supposed to be the Maverick, but Palin's in the spotlight. This campaign is riddled with more holes than a ten-times used condom. No wait, PALIN'S supposed to be the condom, or at least she was pegged for protection. But she's abstinence only. See how confusing this campaign is?

I wouldn't hire Rick Davis to promote an ugly dog contest! I guess that's what McCain gets for campaigning against lobbyists, then hiring one to manage his campaign.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

The Two Christofascist Michelles: Blacks, Hispanics, Gays to Blame for Economic Crisis!

"And by now, it's getting into
PROTOCOLS of the ELDERS of ZION territory."

The neocons and Christofascists have actually figured out ways to blame minorities about Wall Street's Financial Meltdown. While they haven't mentioned gays directly, they've managed to implicate two major minorities (major-minors?): Hispanics and African Americans.

Michelle Malkin:

It’s no coincidence that most of the areas hardest hit by the foreclosure wave — Loudoun County, Va., California’s Inland Empire, Stockton and San Joaquin Valley, and Las Vegas and Phoenix, for starters — also happen to be some of the nation’s largest illegal-alien sanctuaries. Half of the mortgages to Hispanics are subprime (the accursed species of loan to borrowers with the shadiest credit histories). A quarter of all those subprime loans are in default and foreclosure.

Amanda Terkel (Think Progress):

Yesterday in a Senate hearing on the financial crisis, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) spoke on what caused the situation. To make her point, she read from an article called “How A Clinton-Era Rule Rewrite Made Subprime Crisis Inevitable,” written by Terry Jones in the right-wing publication Investor’s Business Daily.

The article criticizes the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) for pushing “Fannie and Freddie to aggressively lend to minority communities.” Jones goes on to say that Clinton was misguided to push “homeownership as a way to open the door for blacks and other minorities to enter the middle class.”

(Rick Perlstein - Campaign for America's Future)

Third of all: the part that makes you sick to your stomach. The pattern being drawn across the right—the Big Lie so notorious it's hard to belief they'd even dare it—is that this financial mess is something black people have done to white people.

Now watch this recent John McCain ad, the one that gratuitously, and with visual bluntness, ties Barack Obama a mustachioed villain who has nothing to do with the Barack Obama campaign but does have something to do with the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack—a man who happens to be black.

National Review's Mark Kikorian added gays and lesbians to the fault mix just by titling his post "Cause & Effect?" It was WaMu's press release the day before the fall:

WaMu Recognized as Top Diverse Employer—Again

Company ranks in top ten of Hispanic Business’ Diversity Elite and earns perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.

I haven't been able to link diversity with bank failures, but God does work in mysterious ways! Hell, we knew they'd find a way, ANY way to link all minorities to Wall Street's Great Fall.

The reasoning of bigotry never ceases to amaze me.

Just a thought.


Friday, September 26, 2008

But Will They Turn Them Gay?

When it comes to kids with special needs....

(New York City) A study released Thursday by a non-partisan adoption group says that states need to tap into the gay and lesbian community to reduce the number of children up for adoption.

There are about 129,000 children waiting to be adopted, the New York-based Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute said in the report.

Many of these children are older and have special physical, mental health, and developmental challenges.


In other words, these poor kids are deemed "unadoptable." The Evan Donaldson Adoption Institute goes on to say that it found gay and lesbian adults to be “very willing to adopt children with special needs and, as a demographic group, may be more willing to do so than heterosexual adults.”

Yes, they're willing to take the children other people don't want.

The little guy to the left was adopted by a gay couple. Does he look like he cares?

Orphans have suffered discrimination for centuries. Some years ago, many children's birth certificates were stamped ILLEGITIMATE. Good "Christian" people insisted upon the policy. The orphanage I was born in was labeled an "Infant Asylum" - the largest Catholic orphanage in Chicago. The orphanage was also very careful in "matching" me up with my parents so that no one outside the family could tell I was "adopted" "unwanted" "illegitimate." There is a bill floating in England's House of Lords that would make sperm-donor children identifiable through their birth certificates ("so that these poor children KNOW how they were conceived!!")

At Least They Won't Blame This Latest Disaster On Gays

God's Ambulence Chaser
"Disasters R Us!"

...OR WILL THEY?


Christofascists LOVE disasters of all kinds: hurricanes, floods, volcanic eruptions and (if you think of them as a disasters) wars. They tell people that God hates the victims for some reason or God's benevolence and protection has been removed by the devil and sinners. Then they rain Bibles and Scriptural tracts on those victims (after, of course, they've fed them a bit - they are Christian, of course).

But what about an economic disaster? Will proselytizers scream "Look what you've brought on yourselves! It's God's punishment!"?? This is a tricky one, indeed. In our latest and biggest economic disaster since the Great Depression, the origin points to the people the Christian Right put faith in: the bastions of capitalism. The deregulation of banks, savings and loans and even greedy retailers like Walmart was championed by the likes of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jesse Helms and, of course, George W. Bush. Are they going to say to Republicans "God punished you for your evil ways"?

Or will they find a scapegoat?

Scapegoats are big with Christofascists. They're so handy and so...hate-able. Pick any outside group of people, label them "sinners" and tell everyone that THEY were the cause of all our economic problems.

That's why I'm worried that the gay community will be blamed for the fall of WAMU, Goldman Sacks, etc. I don't as yet know exactly how they'll do it, but they will. Were gays marching and whoring on Wall Street last week? Did they pillage a Starbucks? Did gay marriage somehow threaten to close the women's wear section of The Gap? Who knows what those infidels were up to!

Rest assured that some "Reverend" head of a megachurch is going to say something to make a connection between the fall of Wall Street and the drop of our 501s.

Beware!

The show's just starting.

Just a thought.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Bush's Last Stand

He Always Wanted To Wear A White Hat
And Lead The Cavalry In A Charge.

He did.

He lost.


Last night, President George W. Bush gave what many consider his farewell speech. We should only hope. He entered the presidency with hubris enough to choke the nation. And it did. He is leaving it in shambles. His reputation goes beyond "the worst president ever." People all over the world deride him as a clown who thinks he's a leader and "decider."

People saw how hungry he was for a war. Any war. People saw how his administration handled natural disasters. People saw how he pandered to big business and deregulated everything in sight. People saw his avarice for oil and its protection. People saw him as a plunderer and torturer. People saw how he moralized about "marriage." People saw his hypocrisy.

But many Americans never really saw him.
How sad for America.
How sad for us all.


George:

We don't need you any more. We never did.

Say goodnight, George.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The Dippy Doctrine of The Mormon Menace

Not To Be Confused With The "National Menace" (Gays)

(from 365Gay.com)
(Hastings, Nebraska) For more than 20 years, Andrew Callahan has been a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter–day Saints. But now the Hastings, Nebraska man is being hauled up before a disciplinary hearing that could result in his excommunication from the Mormon faith.

His crime: opposing a call by Mormon leaders to support a proposed constitutional amendment in California to ban same-sex marriage.

It is estimated that as much as 40 percent of the money raised to support the California amendment has come from Mormons.


Notice that it the article doesn't say that Callahan is gay, but that he will be disciplined because he won't support a Mormon point of view. In Catholic terms, it would be the same stuff we heard four years ago: "If You Vote for Kerry, You Can't Take Communion."

Gee, somewhere in my old Catechism days, I remember that no priest could refuse anyone communion because they did not know if, beforehand, the communicant made "and act of contrition" He could, however, withhold it if he knew the person had been excommunicated.

Doctrines can be tricky: telling people what to think and how to think always begs the question: Why? With the Mormon Church, however (as with most Christofascist sect/congregations), you have no right to question. Like the Creation Museum's dictum, "Don't Think! Believe!" the Mormon doctrine wants to control your mind, hence your whole being (and your wallet).


Just a thought.

Letterman - 10, McCain - 0

The Way The Media Sees It

Sorry, John!
You Just Don't Treat David Letterman Like That!

Only one day after Vice-Presidential Republican nominee Sarah Palin attempts to snub the press BIG TIME, McCain does this to Dave Letterman (our thanks to Think Progress):

As part of his plan to suspend his campaign activities, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) today decided to cancel his appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. McCain’s campaign reportedly told Letterman that the senator was “racing back to Washington.” That, however, didn’t happen. In his show to air tonight, Letterman shows footage of McCain sitting down with CBS’s Katie Couric for an interview at the same time he was supposed to be on his show. You can watch Letterman's response below. Someone called it "an hour of ridicule boiled down to nine minutes."

I was in broadcasting for about 5 years (my own radio show). I had "no-shows" by some famous people (Peter Fonda was one). They knew that they would NEVER be asked to be on the show again. The McCain Campaign manager, Rick Davis (of Fannie-Freddie fame) knows how serious this situation is. It's something YOU JUST DON'T DO! Dave Letterman stated that "you know, there's something that's not right in that campaign. This isn't the John McCain I know."

McCain will obviously come up with some sort of excuse and Letterman, as a gentleman, will accept it and have him on later.

Letterman tried not to show how livid he was, but when he stated his views on McCain's decision to suspend the campaign, he repeatedly said "You don't quit! You just don't quit!"

The entire McCain-Palin campaign is now anathema to the press and media, except Fox... maybe. If they lose Fox and Rupert Murdoch, you won't see or hear from McCain or Palin until it's all over!

Dave Letterman, at the last minute (literally) was able to have Keith Olberman on the program. They both watched the Couric segment together. Yeah!


Clergy Behind Bars! Oh My! Do Tell! Pass The Milk And Cookies!

The Place for Hate Speech?

Tony Perkins is hysterical and panicking: he thinks that same-sex marriage and legislation on hate-crimes will take away his freedom of religion.


Perkins' latest shriek:

I want you to hear something a California pastor said to me recently:
"If we lose, we go to jail."
It's just that simple, says Pastor Jim Garlow-if marriage loses in California, religious liberties everywhere will be next.
The stakes are enormous. We face a national menace to religious liberty!

WTF!?

I can think of some pastors who would look great behind bars. Some are frauds called televangelists. Some are outright Christofascists. And some are just plain crazy/homicidal. Three of today's Presidential-Vice Presidential candidates have crazy pastors (McCain has two and Palin has one-and-a-half - her Assemblies of God pastor and the guest preacher -Thomas Muthee - who cast out spells, hunted witches, and laid hands on Palin who - poof! - became a governor!). So what's keeping Joe Biden?

Now Tony Perkins himself has finally gone completely insane! In his latest effort at "Fear-mongering For Freedom" (FFF), he goes on to cite various instances where discrimination against gays has been questioned or banned. He equates discrimination with religious freedom. Gays are labeled a "national menace."

While the Constitution of the United States guarantees Freedom of Religion, it does not exactly guarantee Freedom FROM Religion. I wish it would. Perkins loves that aspect of the Constitution. With it, he can send out millions of fundraising emails and mailers with inflammatory rhetoric like the above. Perkins' arguments foster fear in "Christian" communities. He wants people to be so afraid of gay rights that they will donate to Family Research Council and ban same-sex marriage in California.

Perkins is too hysterical to realize the consequences of his rhetoric other than receiving money: it's not only the rhetoric of hate speech, but the rhetoric of gay bashing. Words like "national menace" only infuse people (especially teenagers) with empowerment to harm other people physically. Perkins knows it and doesn't care. He's panhandling from CINOs (Christians In Name Only) and using fear to ask for "donations." His Family Research Council has put forth faulty "research" against gays, the ACLU, feminists and Planned Parenthood. He bases his research on the "gay lifestyle" on people like Paul Cameron (whose "Love Won Out" programs are the talk of all ten "ex-gays" in the country).


And beware: if California's Proposition 8 is defeated, Tony Perkins will be leading a large group of cornered animals. Fear will overcome any semblance of rationality.

And some clergy will charge people to "kill a queer for Christ." Of course, they'll do it in an oh-so-Christian way: insisting that gays must "pray away the gay" while hoping that the ones who aren't successful will just go away, or better yet...kill themselves.

Sneaky.

Just a thought.

McCain's (Anti-Gay) Campaign + Gay Chief of Staff Mark Buse= Award-winning Hypocrisy


HYPOCRISY At Its Highest and Finest!

(Michael Rogers, Huffington Post, Sept.222, 2008)

Mark Buse is not just a Chief of Staff for a homophobic United States Senator, but he is helping that Senator get elected to the White House...he (McCain) supports amending state constitutions defining marriage as between a man and a woman... he knows that DADT is wrong, yet he swings to the right on repealing it.

Worst of all, and a demonstration of his inability to act rationally and with the country's best interests at heart, he picked someone who, if she becomes president (very likely), will be the most homophobic in American history.

Michael Rogers attempted to present Buse with "the Roy Cohn Award for working against the interests of the lesbian and gay community while living as a gay man." Wonderful! The video of Rogers entering Buse's office and trying to present the award is, to put it bluntly, awful. But it does make one want TO BE THERE and be more aggressive about presenting the award. After all, it's not often a personage like Buse gets such a distinguished honor.

Roy Cohn shall ever go down in history as the world's slimiest hypocrite: first as one of the prosecutors who helped convict Ethel Rosenberg, then as the henchman of Senator Joe McCarthy, he ruined lives for the feeling of power he had over them. The description of his character in Tony Kushner's play, Angels in America:
Probably the most famous is his role in Tony Kushner's Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, in which Cohn is portrayed as a self-hating, power-hungry hypocrite who is haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg as he lies dying of AIDS.
Back to Buse: What will the Family Research Council say about this latest development? Tony Perkins hasn't uttered a word yet. And...how will Sarah Palin respond to the news (if it ever gets to her)? Will she utter a forlorn "I don't know, I don't know" and tell the interviewer that she is just not one to judge? The Christofacist Right will be sooo diappointed if she does. They want her to say that Buse will go to hell if he doesn't repent!

This also doesn't bode well for the California Proposition 8 people: McCain supports the measure banning same-sex marriage. So now, McCain looks like a supreme hypocrite on BOTH sides. Franklin Graham wanted a sign that McCain was on the same wavelength as the other Christofascists. McCain presented him with Sarah Palin. Now he has to explain why he has kept Buse IN HIS OFFICE FOR THE LAST TWENTY YEARS!

The Republican Party sure is in a fine mess: during the last several years, Republicans and their Christofascist counterparts (ala Ted Haggard) have been the scandal treat not even Rupert Murdoch's printing presses can resist. What next? Will McCain become public with an affair with Phyllis Shlafley? (Good God! Plenty of wrinkles in that relationship!) Will Sarah Palin admit she has the hots for Condoleeza Rice?

Stayed tuned... This campaign is getting steamier (and sillier) by the minute!

Looking Into The Eyes of Hypocrisy


Avenue PA
Originally uploaded by BayerNYC
Look deep into his eyes. He is innocent. He is innocent. He is innocent. NOT. If Mark Foley was the heart of Republican hypocrisy, Larry Craig was the soul.

Although Mark Buse, John McCain's chief of staff, got the Roy Cohn Award, it was stolen from Craig! His performance was a magnificent picture of denial. It had pathos and guts and...well, a more than generous portion of stupidity. Did he study under George Bush?

Could be.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Palin's List of Crash Courses

To The Media: "Thanks But, No Thanks"

(A.P, Newsweek)

At first, campaign aides told the TV producer, print and news agency reporters in the press pool that followed the Alaska governor that they would not be admitted along with still photographers and a video camera crew taken in to photograph her meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who are here for the United Nations General Assembly this week. She also was to meet later with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

These sessions and meetings scheduled for Wednesday are part of the Republican campaign's effort to give Palin experience in foreign affairs. She has never met a foreign head of state and first traveled outside North America just last year.

This was the headline for Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sarah Palin is getting a crash course in foreign policy.

The term "crash course" could have several meanings, but after Palin's botched affair with the press this morning, I believe that A.P. means "doesn't know shit, but has to bone up!"

After I read it, I thought it would be helpful to the McCain-Palin campaign to give them a list of "crash courses" that Sarah Palin should have before Oct. 2. They are:

Media Relations - She will have to learn "damage control" VERY fast! (Like yesterday)

Inner City Crime - She will learn that guns are also used for killing people and she will have to recite 100 times "Guns don't kill people. People kill people" to bolster her NRA image.

American History Part I - She will be shocked to learn that most of the Founding Fathers were Deists and some were Freemasons! This is a prerequisite for the crash course in Religious Tolerance!

African American History - All of it.

Diplomacy - She will learn that the very idea of picking up any substantial knowledge of foreign affairs in two days is preposterous and insulting to people like former Secretary of State, Madelaine Albright, who came from a diplomatic background and is now teaching at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service!

Economics - learning to rid herself of the title, "Earmark Queen" and knowing the financial intricacies of faith-based initiatives and how to set up bread lines.

Environment and Natural Science - she will learn why some people DON'T shoot wolves.

PETA - She will learn why all baby animals look cute and defend herself while wearing a wolf fur coat. Because from the looks of some of her outfits, PETA will literally be on her tail.

Feminism - All of it

Comparative Religions - Not to be confused with Religious Tolerance course but still required and may be taken at the same time as American History Part I

Constitutional law - She will learn all of the First Ten Amendments of the Constitution and how not to confuse them with the Ten Commandments.

Hispanic Studies - She will learn that their are two definitions of the word "Alien"

Elective courses:

Washington cocktail parties - This is an interactive course where she will learn how to fight battles over Cosmos

Bug checking - She will learn the useful art of checking for hidden microphones and how to close doors VERY tightly while talking to energy companies.

I hope this curriculum is very helpful.

Just a thought.

And if she can't complete all the courses, she'll wind up being the Secretary of Education.

The Palin Channel: All Palin, All the Time!




People Never Seem Tire Of Sarah Palin!
Give Us More! More! More!

To Christian Broadcasting Network, Trinity Broadcasting Network and any other network that has a timeslot to fill: Create an All Palin Channel, broadcasting news, podcasts, pictorials, documentaries (there may be one out there) all about Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska. Think of the ratings! You'd push aside FOX news the very first day! She's a phenomenon! She's gold! People want to know what fragrance she wears! (it's a secret!), what Walmart she patronizes! They want Sarah Palin hairdos, Sarah Palin shoes, Sarah Palin Evangelical rape kits! An all-Palin, all the time channel would be a veritable blockbuster - at least for the next 5 weeks. After that, who knows? After that, who cares?

I care enough to say STOP! Stop and take a long, deep breath. Stop and READ what she has said and is being said about her. Stop looking at the

"Hockey-mom-just-like-everyone-else-wants-change-in-Washington-bonefied-WOMAN

Sarah Palin.
Start looking at her in conjunction with McCain, Obama and Biden...and policies. Ask yourself some very pertinent questions: (my personal answers in red - hey! who's blog is it?)

  • Is Sarah Palin a Christian Fundamentalist who follows the current Fundamentalist ideology? Yes. Her ties to Pentecostals, certain pastors, views of the Bible and links to people like Franklin Graham, make for one faithful Fundamentalist.
  • Would Palin try to exercise Fundamentalist beliefs as a head of state? Possibly. She showed some leanings toward censorship with the Wasilla librarian affair.
  • Does Sarah Palin have a working knowledge of minorities? No. No matter how many times she says that she's been exposed to many different cultures in Wasilla and Anchorage, she really doesn't have a working knowledge of minorities be they African American, Latino, gay, Asian, Muslim.
  • Does Governor Palin have a working knowledge of the various regional cultures of America such as New Englander, New Yorker, Los Angelino, Texan, etc.? Probably not. In a sense, Palin has been in isolation for most of her life, if her accounts are true.
  • Would Palin be able to represent the nation in foreign countries/affairs? No. She is too much like George Bush to be able to carry off any diplomatic mission. Period.
  • Would Palin be able to react quickly in terms of a natural disaster? Don't know. This would depend on how much briefing she gets on infrastructure affairs - how much John McCain would allow her to know.
  • Would Palin vote for or co-author a Marriage Amendment? If she thought the legislature could pull it off successfully, DEFINITELY.
  • Is Sarah Palin smart? Yes. She has cunning and a sense of political survival.
  • Is Sarah Palin intelligent? Probably not. While some people cite her as a "quick learner," she has not stopped repeating her liabilities (e.g. "Bridge to Nowhere" lie)
  • Is she secretive? Yes. There are too many questions left unanswered. When questioned about many things, she dodges questions, sometimes to the point of seeming to come off as clueless.
  • Can she lead? Condition: Only when she feels that EVERYONE supports her. Too many stories of vengeance for not supporting her are circulating.
  • Would she be a competent President? No. She would have to take too much time to learn things. She would sense her own incompetence and that would show.
There are, of course, many other questions to ask, but we should never stopping asking questions about her. All Palin, all the time? No, just reasonable scrutiny. She's not running to be a beauty queen.

Just a thought.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Three Birds, One Stone - The Christofascist Play Starring Sarah Palin (Of Troopergate Fame)

Three Birds, One Stone
A farce in more than one act.


This is a kind of "wikiplay" since people can write their own play based on the cast of characters and the scenario. They can even add more characters (pertinent, please!) and subject matter all the way up to November, but please make your changes as soon as possible.

Cast of characters:

  • Sarah Palin: Governor of Alaska, former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 5,000)
  • Todd Palin: Husband of Sarah, a shadowy figure, commercial fishing entrepreneur and advisor to British Petroelum (BP)
  • Walt Monegan: Former Public Safety Commissioner, fired by Palin
  • Chuck Kopp: Former Kanai City Police Chief, now currently serving as Public Safety Commisioner
  • Rev. Franklin Graham: son of great preacher Billy Graham and president of Samaritan's Purse, a faith-based charity organization
  • Rev. Jerry Prevo: Pastor of Anchorage Baptist Temple
  • Sen. John McCain: Republican Presidential nominee

Synopsis:

Senator McCain is feeling pressured by Fundamentalists and Evangelicals to come up with a sign that he is serious about religion's role in the next administration. However, he's been linked to two very unconventional Christian pastors and dare not link himself to any more. On June 30, he visits Rev. Franklin Graham, after which Graham states: "We had an opportunity to pray ... for God's will to be done in this upcoming election."

A video on the scrim is projected. It is a montage of Sarah Palin and various other cast memebers (From the Anchorage Daily News):
Subsequent events suggest that the price of support for McCain by the fundamentalist Christian leadership would be a vice presidential candidate of their liking.
Since it is known that Franklin Graham owns a vacation residence, runs a Bible Camp and confers with numerous Christian Fundamentalists at a small community called Port Alsworth, Alaska, Sarah Palin is considered by some to be a good contender. But most of the Fundamentalist community need a "sign" from Palin as well. Her first 18 months at the helm of Alaska didn't seem aggressive enough for them.

Enter Kanai Police Chief Chuck Kopp. He is, in a very real sense, Palin's and McCain's savior. Not only is he a devout Christian, but he is also president of Cook Inlet Academy, a Christian high school his missionary father had founded, and on the board of Port Alsworth's Tanailan Bible Camp, also founded by his father. The chief benefactor of the Bible Camp happens to be Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse.

Enter Rev. Jerry Prevo of the Anchorage Baptist Temple. Prevo is on the Board of the Tanailan Bible Camp.

Back to Palin who realizes that the best way to give a "sign" to Graham is to promote Chuck Kopp. But how? She turns to Walt Monegan the current Safety Commissioner. She and her family have been trying to get Monegan to fire her former brother-in-law because the divorce of her sister was getting very messy. If she fires Monegan for some (trivial) reason, she can place Kopp in an authoritative role in Alaska's government and, eventually have HIM fire her brother-in-law! It's brilliant! Three birds with one stone!

The only thing she has to do is overlook the fact that Kopp has had numerous allegations of sexual harassment. She can overlook that and hope that nothing comes to the fore. Then the sign of acceptance comes to her:
The Washington Post reported that when Palin met with the Alaska delegation after her nomination during the recent Republican National Convention, Rev. Prevo, a member of the delegation, said Palin asked them to pray for her. Then Prevo handed the governor his cell phone; it was Franklin Graham calling to congratulate her.

If this scenario seems preposterous, you can check out the Anchorage Daily News here. Also preposterous is the fact that when Kopp was embroiled in a harassment scandal, Palin defended him thoroughly and put no credence to incriminating emails. Read the comments below the letter. Some people who knew Palin are chiming in with their own stories.

The play's the thing in where we'll catch the conscience of the king."

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Inner City? - What's An Inner City?



Answer: It's Something Bigger Than Wasilla

The Democrats are finally getting around to countering Sarah Palin's jab against community organizers. There's a wonderful video of Barack Obama's work on Reuters. Unfortunately, I couldn't embed it into this post. I was able, however, to come up with an inspirational Obama ad. See it below.

Mocking Obama's service as a community organizer has been, well, mocked. And I'm glad. Palin's comments were as demeaning as they were meant to be. Have you noticed that Palin - like McCain - doesn't give much thought to what she says? Obama, on the other hand, chooses his words very carefully. Thoughtless, quick words point to a politician. Well-considered words denote a statesman. The same goes for McCain's "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran."

Biden, of course, should not be left out of the subject of thoughtless words. I know that he's had a lot of gaffs, but I think he's thoughtful enough to admit and correct them. Palin's speeches have not corrected themselves: she has repeated the insulting lie "thanks, but no thanks" about 11 times after it was discovered that she not only approved of earmarks, she had at one time hired a lobbyist to get as many as possible, and never had any communication with Washington whatsoever that she refused earmarks.

As to the comparison of a mayor of a small town to a community organizer in Chicago's South Side, yes, there is quite a difference. I would challenge Palin to say that she knows the problems of an inner city ghetto. She doesn't. She couldn't possibly relate. Obama pulled together schools and churches in an area populated by 100,000 (mostly) African Americans to whom gunshots and sirens were more common than the cries of a mating moose. "Actual responsibilities" were more numerous and more serious than Palin experienced in Wasilla, Alaska.

There is a rather silly inversion of Palin's comparison, but there is a ring of truth to it: "Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor." In the sense that Jesus was an activist, yes. In the sense that Pontius Pilate had more responsibilities, no: Pilate had responsibilities given to him by Rome, while Jesus had a mandate from God.

Palin's choice of the word "community" was also wrong, since communities are diverse and some quite large.

When it comes to attacks, I think Palin should stick to hunting moose.

Just a thought.



Evolution of a Republican

Thoughts on Evolution and Republicans:

Republicans don't believe in it, so they haven't bothered to evolve.
Republicans don't believe in hairy bodies (this picture was created by a Democrat) because all the "bears" I know are gay!
Republicans hope that some men "devolve" so that they can poach them for their pelts (or shoot them from helicopters to keep the population down)

Holy Homo Sapiens! A Church's Apology to Charles Darwin!


(From Washington Post - On Faith, David Waters, 9/17/08)

Sorry, Charlie: Church Apologizes to Darwin

Proving it's never too late to evolve, the Church of England has apologized to Charles Darwin for vilifying him for having the audacity to question, wonder, and doubt.

Darwin has been dead for 126 years, so it probably doesn't matter much to him, but the apology comes with a fascinating essay that could start a more intelligent conversation between religion and science, especially when it comes to the origin -- or genesis -- of the species.




(From Rev. Dr. Malcolm Brown's
Good Religion Needs Good Science)
The anti-evolutionary fervour in some corners of the churches may be a kind of proxy issue for other discontents; and, perhaps most of all, an indictment of the churches' failure to tell their own story - Jesus's story - with conviction in a way which works with the grain of the world as God has revealed it to be, both through the Bible and in the work of scientists of Darwin's calibre.

In other words, Christofascists are very stupid, Or they haven't evolved yet. We might add that the "anti-evolutionary fervor" is a proxy for the frighteningly close ideology of theocracy, not as a discontent, but as a hope to win over secular humanism. The Evolution/Intelligent Design/Creationism debate is a real war to Christofascists - a war that they MUST win.

I am, therefore, fearful for Dr. Brown. Both he and the Church of England will be vilified by America's "men of God" like Hagee, Parsley, Robertson, Crouch, Hinn and Copeland. They need as many churches as they can get to oppose evolution and to eradicate the just-a-theory science from all classrooms. Right now, Paul Hamm of The Creation Museum must be sticking pins in a little Dr. Malcolm Brown doll.

Dr. Brown: thank you. We need some semblance of reason in religion because religion without reason is a mindless cult.

Just a thought.