Christian Right Compassion: "Fund Your Own Damned Disease!"

The REAL The Battle for Life Begins

Florida Independent

President Barack Obama’s budget proposal calls for an additional $80 million in funding for AIDS Drug Assistance Programs —enough to “support access to life saving HIV-related medications for approximately 13,000 additional people living with HIV/AIDS,” according to the administration.

Most people who identify as "pro-life" are, as a theologian put it, actually "pro-birth:" in other words, "we want your baby to be born, but after that, you and the kid are on your own ... and don't come to us for any handouts!"

So the "pro-birthers" have been given a war to wage: Obama's proposed budget. It just doesn't cut enough "life" out!

The anticipated fight over AIDS funding (specifically research and prevention) can really be looked upon as a grudge match of sorts: the ruling elite of the Christian Right wants to get back at advances in gay rights and the repeal of DADT.

And to them, any show of support for AIDS funding is, well, an abomination:

In a blog post published on World AIDS Day, Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis at the AFA, wrote that “we know what causes AIDS: homosexual sex and injection drug use,” and goes on to suggest that taxpayers should stop funding AIDS research.
“Homosexual activist groups likewise are pushing a lifestyle that kills. If anybody should be obligated to pony up funds to mitigate a health crisis, it ought to be the organizations that are responsible for advocating the very behavior that created and perpetuates the epidemic.”

So now let's look at the arrows of outrageous fortune that are going to wound the Christian Right:

1. Fund Cross-Cutting Innovative Efforts for Care and Prevention. The reaction: To groups like the American Family Association, this aspect of AIDS funding intending to look like an effort at being as efficient as as possible. Trust them to say that this one's a ruse just to get more money.


2. Increase HIV/AIDS Research.  The reaction: shades of Jesse Helms. Enough said.


3. Support the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) and Expand Investments in Prevention, Care, and Research. The reaction: Since the Strategy emphasizes concentrating prevention efforts in "high-burden areas" (inner cities), there will be a "welfare/on-the-dole" judgment against such funding. Unfortunately, the increased funding also includes Veteran's HIV/AIDS benefit funding, so they'll be hard-pressed to squawk too loudly.

4. Expand the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. The Budget includes an increase of $88 million for care and treatment through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.

The reaction: "You got yourself into this mess. Get over it." Since much of Ryan White funds go to people already living with HIV/AIDS, this may be the one point that will undoubtedly become the mantra of Bryan Fischer who, as we have seen, thinks only certain communities should pay for funding. This is, of course, Fischer's brand of "compassion."

5. Increase Funding for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Service Integration. The reaction: "Big government telling us all what to do." This part of the budget will concentrate on the Center for Disease Control (CDC) which the Right,  in all its wisdom, thinks is way too powerful. After all, prayers are cheaper.

6. Support Housing Assistance for People Living with HIV/AIDS.The reaction: "ABSOLUTELY NO WAY!" "Citizens of the United States should not be helping to house Biblical 'Obama-nations!'" (thinking themselves very, very witty). 

7. Fight the Stigma of HIV/AIDS. The reactions: "special rights, again!" "stigma, what stigma?" and "they stigmatized themselves!"

8. Increase Support for Global AIDS Programs. (e.g. PEPFAR). The reaction: "Abstinence only! No Condoms or No Funding!"

Revenge: it hurts both parties in the long run. 

Alright. I realize that I've come across as a bit pre-judgmental. After all, nobody's callous enough or righteously arrogant enough to react to funding a health initiative or an epidemic such as AIDS, are they? 

Riding The Train To Homophobia: Those Tickets Cost A Lot, Don't They, Tony?

Putting A Train In The Doghouse

Two hundred fifty thousand dollars - sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But not if you're in the travel business - or the bigot business.

Fifteen years ago, I was able to get some pretty remarkable local advertising for SF's AIDS Emergency Fund. The market value for transit posters and production of 4 black & white public service announcements: $350,000. In 1995 dollars. In a local market.

According to FRC's Tony Perkins, however, this amount is an absolute fortune of taxpayers' money going out to advance the "homosexual agenda."

FRC Action

If there was ever proof that the Obama Administration has gone off the rails, it's Amtrak. For the first time in the train service's history, Amtrak has decided to spend a quarter-million dollars recruiting homosexual passengers. As you may know, Amtrak isn't a private business. This is a government-run business, meaning that this $250,000 is taken directly from taxpayers' pockets. In a very real sense, this ad campaign is a federal endorsement of homosexual behavior -- one of the most serious public health threats in America.

Whoa! Tony! Do you mean that Amtrack is going to turn into one big rolling bathhouse? Hmmm.

I don't think so. Even though Perkins thinks that every LGBT person is one big horny STD, one tiny piece of outreach to get gay dollars is not going to cause an influx of drag queens sipping martinis in the Vista Dome lounge. Point of fact: Amtrak should be so lucky! I know plenty of wonderful girls who could liven up that dreary run to Topeka!

Of course, Amtrak is really not so innocent or naive: for years it has bucked the market trends in following Perkins' homophobic ideology, but to put it in a more Biblical perspective:, "They saw the Light!":
 

Openly Gay Marketing:

Says Darlene Abubakar, the director of national advertising for Amtrak, “Most all of the major airlines, hotels and others in the travel and tourism industry target the LGBT market segment. Amtrak ’s goal is to raise the level of awareness of the benefits of train travel and increase consideration and ridership amongst this segment.”

And $250k is small change to the FRC. Promoting "Family Values" and lobbying for same costs over $30 million per year. FRC employs over 200 people and has satellites in all fifty states. FRC is a lobbying organization and, unless I've missed something, politicians still don't give discounts.

And all of Lou Engle's trips to the "Dark Continent" add up (not to mention keeping him odor-free with Right Guard!).

Another ridiculous rant. Another ridiculous headline. Another ridiculous case of fear-mongering.

 

Two hundred fifty thousand dollars - sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But not if you're in the travel business - or the bigot business.

Fifteen years ago, I was able to get some pretty remarkable local advertising for SF's AIDS Emergency Fund. The market value for transit posters and production of 4 black & white public service announcements: $350,000. In 1995 dollars. In a local market.

According to FRC's Tony Perkins, however, this amount is an absolute fortune of taxpayers' money going out to advance the "homosexual agenda."

FRC Action

If there was ever proof that the Obama Administration has gone off the rails, it's Amtrak. For the first time in the train service's history, Amtrak has decided to spend a quarter-million dollars recruiting homosexual passengers. As you may know, Amtrak isn't a private business. This is a government-run business, meaning that this $250,000 is taken directly from taxpayers' pockets. In a very real sense, this ad campaign is a federal endorsement of homosexual behavior -- one of the most serious public health threats in America.

Whoa! Tony! Do you mean that Amtrack is going to turn into one big rolling bathhouse? Hmmm.

I don't think so. Even though Perkins thinks that every LGBT person is one big horny STD, one tiny piece of outreach to get gay dollars is not going to cause an influx of drag queens sipping martinis in the Vista Dome lounge. Point of fact: Amtrak should be so lucky! I know plenty of wonderful girls who could liven up that dreary run to Topeka!

Of course, Amtrak is really not so innocent or naive: for years it has bucked the market trends in following Perkins' homophobic ideology, but to put it in a more Biblical perspective:, "They saw the Light!":

Openly Gay Marketing:

Says Darlene Abubakar, the director of national advertising for Amtrak, "Most all of the major airlines, hotels and others in the travel and tourism industry target the LGBT market segment. Amtrak 's goal is to raise the level of awareness of the benefits of train travel and increase consideration and ridership amongst this segment."

And $250k is small change to the FRC. Promoting "Family Values" and lobbying for same costs over $20 million per year. FRC employs over 200 people and has satellites in all fifty states. FRC is a lobbying organization and, unless I've missed something, politicians still don't give discounts.

The Council's Finances

While I couldn't get the 2009 data on the FRC, I was able to come up with some for 2007: $12,758,000 in revenue. And what, pray tell, was it spent on?

1. Mailing out copies of its 425 (mostly) anti-gay "findings"

2. Printing and shipping out 105,000 "educational" materials.

3. Publishing it's monthly newsletter and mailing to 150,000 homes.

4. Producing its weekly radio show, Washington Weekly. It also produces a daily "Commentary" aired on three 300 stations.

In addition, the FRC now hosts the extremely expensive Values Voter Summit. The speakers' fees are eye-popping when you consider that right-wing icons like Mike Huckabee, Ann Coulter(geist), Sean Hannity and heavy-hitting intellectual Stephen Baldwin (actually D-list-actor-brother-of famous-actor).

And all of Lou Engle's trips to the "Dark Continent" add up (not to mention keeping him odor-free with Right Guard!).

wikipedia:

In their report Funding the Culture Wars, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy^[18] lists the Family Research Council as one of the leading organizations funding the activities of the conservative movement. As a non-profit organization, FRC is completely dependent on donations from supporters.

Of course, the FRC screamed "Donations, Please!!"  while ragging the administration on a piddling $250k:

Yet Washington is targeting the demographically small homosexual population-probably because marketing surveys suggest it is also one of the richest. So let's be honest. This Administration is more interested in riding the gravy train than getting the culture back on track.

Another ridiculous rant. Another ridiculous headline. Another ridiculous case of fear-mongering.

Drama Queens: New Research 2000 Poll Shows 30% of Republicans To Be Reactionary And Irrational

You've got to hand it to Christofascists and Right Wingnuts - they scream and rant and explode and stomp and faint and cry, well, they're just the greatest emoting animals on the planet! Their rhetoric makes every day Halloween with images of political demons and hellish moral catastrophes. They defend us all (yes, the sinners too!) with buzzwords that sting their enemies, like "God" "Bible" "Hell" "Satan" "Taxes" and "Tinky Winky!" They expand hyperboles, sometimes going on into infinity: "Throughout the history of mankind!" "They'll burn in hell - FOREVER!" "Your children and your children's children and their children's children will never, ever see the end of paying for this disastrous bill!"

They have deep-seated persecution complexes and are the biggest source of conspiracy theories. Meeting Democrats at a party makes them spout doom and gloom: they will never again see the return of Eisenhower's 50's or Reagan's 80's! Things were so much, much better!

Now a new poll conducted by Research 2000 released today shows us that:



39% of Republicans want President Obama to be impeached.

63% think Obama is a socialist.

52% do not believe Obama was born in the United States.

21% think ACORN stole the 2008 election --

AND EVEN SCARIER:

53% think Sarah Palin is more qualified than Obama to be president.

23% want to secede from the United States.

73% think gay people should not be allowed to teach in public schools.

31% want contraception to be outlawed

The poll

The last several weeks were particularly active and agitating weeks for Christofascists: the Prop 8 trial and, well, just about everything else.

The first one may not be classified as a "rant" because it's more like severe contempt, but it gets the party started:

On Haiti:

Right Wing Watch

Mark Krikorian, director of the predictably anti-immigrant Center for Immigration Studies (CIS)

My guess is that Haiti’s so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough.

Then, of course, there was Maggie Gallagher of NOM:

When this trial [Prop 8] began I told you: gay marriage activists were putting 7 million Californians on trial. But this week it got worse: They are clearly putting Christianity itself on trial. Why else have an expert read statements of Catholic and Southern Baptist doctrines into the record?

Bill Donahue, borrowing a trite and erroneous statement from Rick Warren:

Society cannot exist without families; families cannot exist without reproduction; reproduction cannot exist without a sexual union between a man and a woman; and every society in the history of the world has created an institution called marriage to provide for this end.

And Tony Perkins of Family Research Council showed us that when you're feeling frustrated and desperate, it's time to call the other side DESPERATE!

The desperation of the Left
January 22, 2010 | Share with Friends

Dear Daniel,

The Left is preparing a desperate 120-day ASSAULT on your values to appease its CULTURE OF DEATH, ANTI-MARRIAGE political base before the 2010 election campaigns begin.

And Family Research Council (FRC) is preparing to meet that BLITZ head-on.

Perkins' wild pronouncements included: (the good guys)

Reclaiming marriage
Defending innocent human life
Protecting children

(the bad guys)

radical agenda
Silencing faith
Silencing Christian and conservative radio

And ending with:

2010 is a turning-point year for faith, family, and freedom!!!.

And from another part of the globe, we have a drama queen's rant coming from the new archbishop of Belgium, Andre-Joseph Leonard:

"Homosexuality is not the same as normal sex in the same way that anorexia is not a normal appetite."

Drama. Irrational, baseless drama. Unfortunately their drama will create REAL drama.

Sarah Palin Hates Polar Bears - Again!

Attention! Polar Bears!

Former Alaska Governor and would-be vice-president/president/whatever Sarah Palin is coming after you in a big way! This isn't the first time, of course, because she even told George W. Bush to shove you off of the endangered species list. And even though your habitat is 93% ice floe way off the shores of Alaska, she's going to argue that you're not living on melting ice floes! And while she's plugging her new book on Rush Limbaugh, and every FOX news program, she'll be telling people that you're really not cute and cuddly, that you're vicious beasts, but that your meat tastes better than regular bear meat because you're white!

Probably one of the biggest slaps-in-the face the current administration has given to Sarah Palin:

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said Thursday it is designating more than 200,000 square miles in Alaska and off its coast as "critical habitat" for polar bears, an action that could add restrictions to future offshore drilling for oil and gas.

Designation as critical habitat would not, in itself, bar oil or gas development, but would make consideration of the effect on polar bears and their habitat an explicit part of any government-approved activity.

However, if the polar bear became extinct...

Sarah Palin and her associate, Gov. Sean Parnell have said that the Endangered Species Act was "...being used as a way to shut down resource development along Alaska's northern coast." And Parnell said he does not intend to let that happen.

So, we'll be seeing a LOT more of Sarah Palin as she sidles next to the cover of her book as well as photo of a vicious lone polar bear eating as cute baby seal while standing on the shores of Juneau.