The End of White America?

The End of White America? That's the title of an new article in the Atlantic Monthly the substance of which will no doubt get the Kool-Aid drinking elements of the GOP and Christian Right all a twitter and hyperventilating since they go absolutely crazy over the idea that America may cease to be a white majority nation. These are after all the same folks - or their descendants - who used the Bible to justify segregation and bans on interracial marriage. The only segment of the population that they like less than non-whites and mixed race individuals are LGBT citizens. They do not judge people by their character or abilities but rather only by their skin color, religious affiliation and sexual orientation. In my view, they are what's wrong with America and U.S. politics. And I expect that we will see even more intolerance arise from these self-styled "real Americans" as they seek to marginalize non-whites, mixed race, and gay Americans, all of whom are examples of the dreaded "other." Here are some story highlights:

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Whether you describe it as the dawning of a post-racial age or just the end of white America, we’re approaching a profound demographic tipping point. According to an August 2008 report by the U.S. Census Bureau, those groups currently categorized as racial minorities—blacks and Hispanics, East Asians and South Asians—will account for a majority of the U.S. population by the year 2042. Among Americans under the age of 18, this shift is projected to take place in 2023, which means that every child born in the United States from here on out will belong to the first post-white generation. Obviously, steadily ascending rates of interracial marriage complicate this picture, pointing toward what Michael Lind has described as the “beiging” of America.

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As a purely demographic matter, then, the “white America” that Lothrop Stoddard believed in so fervently may cease to exist in 2040, 2050, or 2060, or later still. But where the culture is concerned, it’s already all but finished. Instead of the long-standing model of assimilation toward a common center, the culture is being remade in the image of white America’s multiethnic, multicolored heirs. For some, the disappearance of this centrifugal core heralds a future rich with promise.

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Not everyone was so enthused. . . . [I]in his 2001 book, The Death of the West, [Pat] Buchanan rote: “Mr. Clinton assured us that it will be a better America when we are all minorities and realize true ‘diversity.’ Well, those students [at Portland State] are going to find out, for they will spend their golden years in a Third World America.” Today, the arrival of what Buchanan derided as “Third World America” is all but inevitable.

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You can flee into whiteness as well. This can mean pursuing the authenticity of an imagined past: think of the deliberately white-bread world of Mormon America, where the ’50s never ended, or the anachronistic WASP entitlement flaunted in books like last year’s A Privileged Life: Celebrating WASP Style, a handsome coffee-table book compiled by Susanna Salk, depicting a world of seersucker blazers, whale pants, and deck shoes. . . . But these enclaves of preserved-in-amber whiteness are likely to be less important to the American future than the construction of whiteness as a somewhat pissed-off minority culture.

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Like other forms of identity politics, white solidarity comes complete with its own folk heroes, conspiracy theories (Barack Obama is a secret Muslim! The U.S. is going to merge with Canada and Mexico!), and laundry lists of injustices. The targets and scapegoats vary—from multiculturalism and affirmative action to a loss of moral values, from immigration to an economy that no longer guarantees the American worker a fair chance—and so do the political programs they inspire.

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[T]his white identity politics helped swing the 2000 and 2004 elections, serving as the powerful counterpunch to urban white liberals, and the McCain-Palin campaign relied on it almost to the point of absurdity (as when a McCain surrogate dismissed Northern Virginia as somehow not part of “the real Virginia”) as a bulwark against the threatening multiculturalism of Barack Obama. Their strategy failed, of course, but it’s possible to imagine white identity politics growing more potent and more forthright in its racial identifications in the future, as “the real America” becomes an ever-smaller portion of, well, the real America, and as the soon-to-be white minority’s sense of being besieged and disdained by a multicultural majority grows apace.

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There will be dislocations and resentments along the way, but the demographic shifts of the next 40 years are likely to reduce the power of racial hierarchies over everyone’s lives, producing a culture that’s more likely than any before to treat its inhabitants as individuals, rather than members of a caste or identity group.

More Wednesday Male Beauty

A Page From the Hoover Playbook

I recently posted commentary on the obstructionist tactics currently being utilized by the Congressional GOP to delay and disrupt efforts to pass a comprehensive stimulus package. Not being content with the financial shambles in which they and the Chimperator have left the country, the GOP leadership in Congress seems to be trying to push the nation towards another Great Depression. As is now the norm for the GOP, extreme reactionary ideology is again trumping the best interests of the country and everyday Americans. Harold Meyerson has a new column in the Washington Post that looks at this phenomenon further and which underscores why knowing real history - as opposed to some Christianist rewrite - is absolutely important. Here are some highlights:

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As the nation navigates through the most perilous straits it has seen since the 1930s, policymakers are looking back to the '30s to see which of the paths that Depression-era America embarked upon actually led toward recovery. Well, some of our policymakers. Others, it seems, have seized upon the very policies that deepened the Depression and are repackaging them as solutions for our time.

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In Monday's meeting between President-elect Barack Obama and congressional leaders, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell suggested that instead of providing aid to the states to help them meet their Medicaid and education obligations, the federal government offer them loans. The idea is ridiculous on its face: With revenue drying up, states are already slashing services and reducing their workforces, which only deepens the downturn. The last thing they'd be inclined to do would be to take on more debt at the very moment they're struggling to balance their budgets.

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But back to my original point: This idea was tried once before, in the depths of the Depression. In 1932, Congress appropriated $300 million to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to send to the states for unemployment relief. . . . Unfortunately, Herbert Hoover's RFC didn't offer the funds to the states as grants but as loans. Already all-but-insolvent, many states didn't take the offer. And the economy continued its plunge into the abyss. This is Mitch McConnell's idea of a policy worth reviving.

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Such historical illiteracy can result not only in cures that kill the patient but is also a cause of our current crisis. . . . Wall Street [and the GOP] should have hired a handful of hists (my version of Wall Streetese for economic historians). Those hists might have insisted that the risk models include data from the late 1920s, the last time that America's financial institutions were as highly leveraged and as lightly regulated as they were last year. . . . Unfortunately for us all, it's on the question of how to restore broadly based prosperity that the historical illiteracy of the American elite is at its most acute.

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The business lobby is throwing big money into ads opposing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would make it easier for workers to join unions, but one concern it has neglected to address is how the United States can again become a land of broad-based affluence with private-sector unionization at its current 7 percent level. There is no historic precedent for mass prosperity absent mass collective bargaining. The model cannot be constructed.

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Happily, Barack Obama seems to have learned the right lessons from America's economic history. He knows that the stimulus package needs to be big enough to compensate for the collapse of bank lending. He knows that unemployment insurance and food stamps cannot be allowed to run out. He supports the EFCA as a way to boost Americans' incomes.

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The problem is that a number of powerful members of Congress aren't much more historically literate than McConnell. Some Republicans advocate time-honored business tax breaks that have never done anything to jump-start the economy.

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Now is a time when innovative thinking is needed. Sadly, the Christianist controlled GOP is incapable of innovative thinking and will not consider supporting any policies that run counter to the anti-union and anti-progressive mindset of the party's Kool-Aid drinking base.

Rick Warren's Africa Problem

I have consistently believed that, given Rick Warren's huge ego and his propensity to run his mouth bragging, eventually much closer scrutiny would be given to his boasts. It's beginning to happen and not surprisingly, once you look behind Warren's claims, the picture is less than pretty. A case in point is Warren's claims that he's done so much to fight AIDS in Africa. The true story is that Warren's "help" has been to undermine legitimate scientifically based efforts with typical whacked out Christianist abstinence only sex education only. Worse yet, he is in league with far right religious extremists advocating for the criminalization of homosexuality. The bottom line? Warren is a liar just like most of the Christianist leadership. It looks to me like Obama might have done a better jog "vetting" Warren. Obama needs to get some balls and uninvited Warren NOW. Here are highlights from Max Blumenthal's latest column in the Daily Beast that provide the real story on Warren :

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Once hailed by Time magazine as “America’s Pastor,” California mega-church leader and bestselling author of The Purpose Driven Life Rick Warren now finds himself on the defensive. President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Warren to deliver the inaugural prayer has generated intense scrutiny of the pastor’s beliefs on social issues, . . . Warren’s defense against charges of intolerance ultimately depends upon his ace card: his heavily publicized crusade against AIDS in Africa.

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David Axelrod cited Warren’s work in Africa as one of “the things on which [Obama and Warren] agree” on the December 28 episode of Meet the Press. Warren may be opposed to gay rights and abortion, the thinking goes, but he tells evangelicals it is their God-given duty to battle one of the greatest pandemics in history. What could be wrong with that?

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In a word, PLENTY. And Obama and his minions like Axelrod need to admit that the selection of Warren was a massive mistake and cut their loses. Here's the real story:

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[A]n investigation into Warren’s involvement in Africa reveals a web of alliances with right-wing clergymen who have sidelined science-based approaches to combating AIDS in favor of abstinence-only education. More disturbingly, Warren’s allies have rolled back key elements of one of the continent’s most successful initiative, the so-called ABC program in Uganda. Stephen Lewis, the United Nations’ special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, told the New York Times their activism is “resulting in great damage and undoubtedly will cause significant numbers of infections which should never have occurred.”

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Warren’s man in Uganda is a charismatic pastor named Martin Ssempa. The head of the Makerere Community Church, a rapidly growing congregation, Ssempe enjoys close ties to his country’s First Lady, Janet Museveni, and is a favorite of the Bush White House. In the capitol of Kampala, Ssempa is known for his boisterous crusading. Ssempa’s stunts have included burning condoms in the name of Jesus and arranging the publication of names of homosexuals in cooperative local newspapers while lobbying for criminal penalties to imprison them.

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Dr. Helen Epstein, a public health consultant who authored the book, The Invisible Cure: Why We’re Losing The Fight Against AIDS In Africa, met Ssempa in 2005. Epstein told me the preacher seemed gripped by paranoia, warning her of a secret witches coven that met under Lake Victoria. “Ssempa also spoke to me for a very long time about his fear of homosexual men and women,” Epstein said. “He seemed very personally terrified by their presence.”

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Janet Museveni, who had become born-again . . . flew to Washington at the height of a heated congressional debate over PEPFAR. She carried in her hand a prepared message to distribute to Republicans. Abstinence was the golden bullet in her country’s fight against AIDS, she assured conservative lawmakers, denying the empirically proven success of her husband’s condom distribution program. Like magic, the Republican-dominated Congress authorized over $200 million for Uganda, but only for the exclusive promotion of abstinence education.

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HIV infections were on the rise again. The disease rate had spiked to 6.5 percent among rural men, and 8.8 percent among women—a rise of nearly two points in the case of women. “The ‘C’ part [of ABC] is now mainly silent,” said Ugandan AIDS activist Beatrice Ware. As a result, she said, “the success story is unraveling.”

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With safe sex advocates on the run, Warren and Ssempa trained their sights on another social evil. In August 2007, Ssempa led hundreds of his followers through the streets of Kampala to demand that the government mete out harsh punishments against gays. “Arrest all homos,” read placards. And: “A man cannot marry a man.” Ssempa continued his crusade online, publishing the names of Ugandan gay rights activists on a website he created, along with photos and home addresses. “Homosexual promoters,” he called them, suggesting they intended to seduce Uganda’s children into their lifestyle.

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Warren, in his effort to dispel criticism, has denied harboring homophobic sentiments. “I could give you a hundred gay friends,” he told MSNBC’s Ann Curry on December 18. “I have always treated them with respect. When they come and want to talk to me, I talk to them.”

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But when Uganda’s Anglican bishops threatened to bolt from the Church of England because of its tolerant stance towards homosexuals, Warren parachuted into Kampala to confer international legitimacy on their protest. “The Church of England is wrong and I support the Church of Uganda on the boycott,” Warren proclaimed in March 2008. Declaring homosexuality an unnatural way of life, Warren flatly stated, “We shall not tolerate this aspect [homosexuality in the church] at all.”

Wednesday Male Beauty

Fruits of Christianist Hate

Dan Savage is reporting that eleven gay bars in Seattle have received letters - a copy is set out below - threatening ricin attacks on patrons. Unfortunately, when Christianists are permitted to run unfettered claiming that gays are "destroying the family," threatening civilization, and as per the Catholic Church are inherently disordered, the result is that some of their followers will feel that they have a license - indeed are justified - in attacking and killing LGBT citizens. Yet, we have Obama selecting one of these hate merchants to give the invocation at the upcoming inauguration. These people need to be shunned and exposed for the extremists that they are not embraced. Read the letter and see if you find anything Christian about it. Here's more from Dan Savage:

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Eleven gay bars in Seattle received letters today addressed to the "Owner/Manager" from someone claiming to be in the possession of ricin, a deadly poison. "Your establishment has been targeted," the letter begins. "I have in my possession approximately 67 grams of ricin with which I will indiscriminately target at least five of your clients." "I felt sick when I read it," said Carla, the owner/manager of Re-bar. "It's so vile. It's just hatred. It made me worry for all the other bars, and for my bartenders, and our clientele."

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"I just had the police come pick [the letter] up," said Keith Christensen, the manager of the Eagle, when reached by phone. Christensen had already heard about the letter from other bar owners and managers, and so he didn't open it. "It's probably nothing," Christensen added, "but the economy is really screwing all the bars right now, and the last thing we need is something ramping up the not-go-out mode people seem to be in right now. It's really freaky that someone would do something like this at a time like this." Christensen says he's posted signs at the Eagle advising patrons not to leave their drinks unattended.

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A letter also arrived in The Stranger's offices, addressed to the attention of "Obituaries." The letter's author said the paper should "be prepared to announce the deaths of approximately 55 individuals all of whom were patrons of the following establishments on a Saturday in January." The listed bars are: the Elite, Neighbours, Wild Rose, the Cuff, Purr, the Eagle, R Place, Re-bar, CC's, Madison Pub, and the Crescent. "I could take this moment to launch into a diatribe about my indignation towards the gay community," the letter concludes, "however, I think the deaths will speak for themselves."

Final Tuesday Male Beauty

Dedicated to Benedict XVI

Catholic Church Apologists

I received an e-mail from Sebastian, a Catholic priest who is reportedly gay and who has his own blog found here, that tried to defend Pope Benedict XVI - a man that I admit I personally find to be a hypocritical force for evil in the world - for his handling of the sex abuse scandal and took me somewhat to task for my harsh judgments against the Catholic Church. Among Sebastian's comments were the following:

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No right thinking person believes that the various parts of the Catholic Church have done all that they should have to clean up the mess of child sex abuse. However, credit should be given where credit is due.

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First, Pope Benedict has taken a far tougher stand than his predecessor. As but one example, when Benedict was still Ratzinger, his Vatican office was thwarted in removing the founding head of a large, new, religious order. JPII refused to allow it. When Benedict became pope, the offender - Marciel - was removed from all public ministry and retired (he was then in his 80s and has since died).

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Second, the US bishops have been notorious in their blaming of priests and their unwillingness to confront themselves. They have, by and large, contributed to an anti-gay approach to resolving this problem. However, there is now in place -and has been for several years - a "zero tolerance" for anyone credibly accused of child sexual abuse.

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There is certainly much work to be done. But it is unfair, and perhaps even bigoted, to write as if no work has been done. To pretend that nothing has changed in the last 15 years is simply not true.

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Yes, Benedict XVI has done more than John Paul II. That is because John Paul II did NOTHING except blame the problem on gays (in my view John Paul II is utterly unworthy of the declaration of sainthood that the Vatican seems Hell bent to bestow). And yes, it is true that Benedict XVI finally took action against Marciel. who was a predatory abuser himself. But what about Cardinals Eagan and Mahoney, Bishop Daily, former Supreme Chaplin for the Knights of Columbus, and the 2/3's of the US Catholic Bishops who enabled and/or covered up sexual abuse or threatened and browbeat victims and families into remaining silent? The same goes for bishops in cardinals in other countries around the world. Where is the just punishment of these men? I can think of NO other institution where individuals who so horrifically failed to protect children and minors would not be summarily fired and/or prosecuted. In the Church, they go unpunished and expect to be fawned over and have their asses kissed daily. As a parent of three children, this phenomenon utterly sickens me.

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Removing one or two members of religious orders, accepting cardinal Law's resignation so that he could be given a luxurious post at the Vatican, and launching an anti-gay witch hunt in seminaries in my view do NOT begin to represent the house cleaning need within the Catholic Church. No doubt, it is hard for Sebastian to accept that he has dedicated his life to a corrupt and disingenuous institution, but in my view, unless and until (1) drastic numbers of resignations are demanded by Benedict XVI and (2) Catholic diocese stop fighting abuse victims tooth and claw, the Roman Catholic Church deserves no respect whatsoever. Its hierarchy consists of a bunch of corrupt, self-righteous, hate peddling old men who continue to cause untold pain to straights and gays alike. On those occasions when I attend church with my elderly mother, I feel dirty even being in a Catholic Church knowing what I know about the moral bankruptcy of its leadership.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

Spain Is a Battleground for Catholic Church’s Future

I have posted a number of times about the Roman Catholic Church's efforts to interfere with the civil laws in a number of countries, including Spain. The New York Times has a story that takes another look at the Church's efforts to intermix the civil laws in Spain with the Church's anti-gay, anti-divorce and anti-abortion religious crusade. As the article notes, the Church and its Nazi Pope worry that Spain's embrace of liberalism and modern science and knowledge may spill over to former Spanish colonies which contain a significant chunk of the Church's worldwide membership. One can only hope that modern knowledge and civil equality of all citizens will triumph over the Church's efforts to drag society back to a Medieval mindset. Here are some story highlights:

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The Macías Picavea primary school hardly looks like the seat of revolution. But this unassuming brick building in a sleepy industrial town has become a battleground in an intensifying war between church and state in Spain. In an unprecedented decision here, a judge ruled in November that the public school must remove the crucifixes from classroom walls, saying they violated the “nonconfessional” nature of the Spanish state.

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If the judge’s ruling was the latest blow to the Catholic Church’s once mighty grip on Spain, the church’s response showed Spain to be a crucible for the future of church-state relations in Europe.

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For Pope Benedict XVI, who has staked his three-year-old papacy on keeping Europe Catholic, Spain, with its 90 percent Catholic population and rich history, represents a last hope in an increasingly irreligious continent.

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That hope is quickly dimming. Since 2004, the Socialist government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has legalized gay marriage and fast-track divorce, and it is seeking to loosen laws on abortion and euthanasia. But in response, the church and religious Catholics have been pushing back, seeking a greater voice in public life. The result is that the church is in a full-throated war with the government.

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At stake is the vision of the country: Will Spain join the rest of secular Europe or stand as a final Catholic foothold? . . . Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said of Spain. “It’s a critical point in the church’s confrontation against secularization in Europe and in the Western world.”

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The implications are broader, since Spain, with its 42 million Catholics, remains a touchstone for Latin America. South America alone has 324 million Catholics, the world’s largest concentration.

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[D]uring Franco’s four-decade dictatorship, Catholicism was the official state religion. Until after Franco’s death in 1975, women could not open bank accounts without their fathers or husbands co-signing. Today, they hold many of the highest political offices in the country.

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“Spain changed very, very quickly,” said José María Contreras Mazarío, the director of religious affairs at the Justice Ministry. Today, he said, “Spain isn’t Catholic theoretically, culturally or politically.” In an increasingly multicultural society, he said, the government wants to revise its definition of religious liberty so all religions are effectively equal. Indeed, many see the church as a reactionary force trying to hold the country back.

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The Church IS a reactionary force and I truly hope that it is defeated and perhaps ultimately forced to reform itself, including the dismissal of corrupt and morally bankrupt members of the hierarchy - including Benedict XVI.

California Supreme Court: Break Away Parish Cannot Take Church Property

Legal battles are raging in various parts of the country between break away Episcopal parishes that are attempting to take with them church properties owned by dioceses of the national Episcopal Church. Unlike lower court rulings in Fairfax, Virginia that have relied on a Civil War era statute - that in true pro-discrimination Virginia tradition was enacted to allow pro-slavery Baptist churches to take church properties from the anti-slavery national denomination - to find for renegade parishes, the California Supreme Court has correctly ruled (as have courts in other states) against break away parishes. Candidly, I hope the Virginia appellate courts will reverse the lower court rulings and find the bigoted Civil War statute is not a proper basis for allowing the break away parishes to effectively steal millions of dollars of real estate. It is ironic that Virginia, which was a leader in the fight for liberty in the birth of the USA now more often than not supports discrimination rather than equality and liberty. Here are some highlights from the Los Angeles Times:

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Rebellious congregations that part ways with their denominations may lose their church buildings and property as a result, the California Supreme Court said Monday in a unanimous ruling. The state high court decision came in a case involving the Episcopal Church, but lawyers said it would apply to other denominations as well.

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Several Protestant denominations, including United Methodists and Presbyterians, have faced upheaval over gay rights issues. Monday's ruling, along with similar victories that the church leadership has won in other states, is expected to dampen enthusiasm for such separations.

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In a decision written by Justice Ming W. Chin, the court said the property of St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach was owned by the national church, not the congregation. The congregation split away after the national church consecrated a gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003."When it disaffiliated from the general church, the local church did not have the right to take the church property with it," Chin wrote for the court.

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The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles applauded the ruling even as he held out an olive branch to St. James and other parishes sued by his office The Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno said the diocese was "overjoyed" and predicted that the ruling would encourage disgruntled congregations to remain united with their mother churches.

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Because the ruling could affect other denominations as well, several churches joined the Episcopal hierarchy in arguing against the Newport Beach congregation. They included United Methodists, Presbyterians and Seventh-day Adventists."The other denominations who were with us were very pleased," Bruno said.

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Eric Sohlgren, an Irvine attorney who represented All Saints and St. James, said the ruling might deter congregations from joining national denominations in the first place. . . . Asked if the loss of a church and its property might make parishioners reluctant to break from a denomination, Sohlgren said, "I think people of faith make decisions about which church to attend based on theology and doctrine of that church." But he added, "It will certainly create an issue for them to think about."

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St. James was one of about 100 Episcopal parishes that broke off relations with the national church after Robinson's ordination. Disputes over the real estate landed in courts across the country, and most ruled for the church hierarchy.

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Even though Monday's ruling only affects California, the court is influential nationally.The issue is playing out in several states, including Virginia, where a judge last month backed the property claims of 11 breakaway parishes. That ruling is under appeal.

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The Rev. Ian T. Douglas, a professor of mission and world Christianity at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., said the decision probably would have a chilling effect on parishes elsewhere in the country that have left the Episcopal Church in recent years amid doctrinal disputes."The fact that the highest level of court ruled in favor of the Episcopal Church sends a message that it's going to be an uphill battle to try to withdraw properties from the church," Douglas said.

Tuesday Male Beauty

Fighting Off Another Great Depression

Nobel Prize winning columnist Paul Krugman has another piece in the New York Times which ought to send shivers down everyone's back, including GOP members of Congress who seem Hell bent on torpedoing much need stimulus legislation. Unfortunately, signs are that Obama is seeking to placate them rather than hold them responsible for the mess in the first place. The reality is that we've played by the rules of the GOP and the Chimperator - which basically were that there are no rules and regulations - and the result has been disaster. We need prompt action, not playing nice with those who care nothing about most members of society. It appears to be a case of those who created the problem now blocking efforts to fix the problem. A case of Nero fiddling while Rome burns. Obama needs to get more backbone. Here are some column highlights which are not pretty:

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“If we don’t act swiftly and boldly,” declared President-elect Barack Obama in his latest weekly address, “we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double-digit unemployment.” If you ask me, he was understating the case. The fact is that recent economic numbers have been terrifying, not just in the United States but around the world. Manufacturing, in particular, is plunging everywhere. Banks aren’t lending; businesses and consumers aren’t spending. Let’s not mince words: This looks an awful lot like the beginning of a second Great Depression.

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So will we “act swiftly and boldly” enough to stop that from happening? We’ll soon find out. We weren’t supposed to find ourselves in this situation. For many years most economists believed that preventing another Great Depression would be easy. . . . It turns out, however, that preventing depressions isn’t that easy after all. Under Mr. Bernanke’s leadership, the Fed has been supplying liquidity like an engine crew trying to put out a five-alarm fire, and the money supply has been rising rapidly. Yet credit remains scarce, and the economy is still in free fall.

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John Maynard Keynes, who argued that monetary policy is ineffective under depression conditions and that fiscal policy — large-scale deficit spending by the government — is needed to fight mass unemployment. The failure of monetary policy in the current crisis shows that Keynes had it right the first time. And Keynesian thinking lies behind Mr. Obama’s plans to rescue the economy. But these plans may turn out to be a hard sell.

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In reality, the political posturing has already started, with Republican leaders setting up roadblocks to stimulus legislation while posing as the champions of careful Congressional deliberation — which is pretty rich considering their party’s behavior over the past eight years. More broadly, after decades of declaring that government is the problem, not the solution, not to mention reviling both Keynesian economics and the New Deal, most Republicans aren’t going to accept the need for a big-spending, F.D.R.-type solution to the economic crisis.

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All of this leaves me concerned about the prospects for the Obama plan. I’m sure that Congress will pass a stimulus plan, but I worry that the plan may be delayed and/or downsized. And Mr. Obama is right: We really do need swift, bold action.

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Here’s my nightmare scenario: It takes Congress months to pass a stimulus plan, and the legislation that actually emerges is too cautious. As a result, the economy plunges for most of 2009, and when the plan finally starts to kick in, it’s only enough to slow the descent, not stop it. Meanwhile, deflation is setting in, while businesses and consumers start to base their spending plans on the expectation of a permanently depressed economy — well, you can see where this is going. So this is our moment of truth. Will we in fact do what’s necessary to prevent Great Depression II?

First "Moral" Waivers, Now Obesity Waivers, But Still No Gays

The U.S. military continues to struggle to achieve recruiting goals and having already increased the use of moral waivers to allow convicted felons to join the military, now the standards are being relaxed to allow those who are over the weight/obesity standards to enlist. Of course, LGBT Americans are still off limits regardless of who law abiding and physically fit they are so that Christianists and nut cases like Elaine Donnelly can feel superior. The excuse for the newest round off waivers is that Americans are getting more over weight rather than admit that fewer good recruits want to enlist due to the Iraq War debacle. It's pretty pathetic actually. Yet we continue to hear that there will be no immediate action to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell by the Obama administration even though DADT daily forces out qualified service members. Here are highlights from the Christian Science Monitor:

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The waistlines of America's youth are expanding, shrinking the pool of those eligible to join the US military. But an Army program is giving overweight enlistees a second chance – and helping the military with its own expansion. The recently-introduced waiver program allows enlistees who don't qualify for the military because of their weight a chance to shape up after joining. So far, the program has helped the Army make its recruiting goals in what remains a tight recruiting market.

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"We support any service who comes up with a scientifically defensible way of expanding the market [of recruits]," says Curtis Gilroy, director of accessions policy for the Pentagon. Such waivers had been studied for years but the program wasn't implemented until fiscal 2007, when it admitted about 1,500 individuals through the program (just a small slice of about 80,000 recruits).

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The Army has struggled the most with recruiting. Although it has met its active-duty goals in recent years, it has had to issue other waivers and let in more high school dropouts in order to do so. At the same time, the military is expanding through next year. The Marine Corps, which is not using the weight waiver, is growing to 202,000 and the Army will reach its "end-strength" goal of 547,000 this year. Many experts would like to see the military grow even larger to meet demands.

More Monday Male Beauty

Israel PR Disaster Continues to Mount

On Saturday night I detailed how the boyfriend and I found ourselves in the midst of an anti-Israel demonstration while in New York City. The photo at bottom shows what we stepped out into when we exited the show we had gone to see earlier in the day. I continue to believe that regardless of its objectives, Israel has likely set itself up for a PR disaster in terms of the ongoing assault in the Gaza Strip. The destruction and deaths being wrought on Palestians (as seen in the photo above of the legs of the body of one of three Palestinian siblings killed by an Israeli tank shell from Andrew Sullivan) seems to far out weigh the losses suffered by Israel and I fear will further undermine support for Israel and been seen as validating Palestinian grievances. Here are some highlights from the Daily News about the demonstration:

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Chanting "Free Palestine," thousands of Palestinian supporters demonstrated in Times Square Saturday to protest Israel's punishing military offensive in Gaza. The wave of protesters stretched across three blocks, dwarfing the dozens of boisterous supporters of Israel assembled across Seventh Ave.

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"What's happening in Gaza is something that shouldn't be tolerated anywhere in the world," said Bassal Omar, 29, an American-born Palestinian from the Bronx. "It's a humanitarian crisis, and it's just going to get worse."

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Apparently some supporters of Israel are catching on and becoming appalled by the deaths of Palestinian children as evidenced by these comments from J Street:

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Israel has a special place in each of our hearts. But we recognize that neither Israelis nor Palestinians have a monopoly on right or wrong. While there is nothing "right" in raining rockets on Israeli families or dispatching suicide bombers, there is nothing "right" in punishing a million and a half already-suffering Gazans for the actions of the extremists among them.

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And there is nothing to be gained from debating which injustice is greater or came first. What's needed now is immediate action to stop the violence before it spirals out of control. The United States, the Quartet, and the world community must not wait - as they did in the Israel-Lebanon crisis of 2006 - for weeks to pass and hundreds or thousands more to die before intervening.

2009 Gay Rights Over All

It's funny how even as I have the continuing feeling that Barack Obama has perhaps played LGBT Americans for suckers, the Christianist wingnuts are foaming at the mouth as to how Obama will further "the gay agenda" and make "homosexuality a civil right." One such diatribe comes from uber-conservative talk radio host and writer Roger Hegdecock at Wing Nut Daily. According to Hedgecock, we gays want our rights to "prevail over everyone else's civil rights." Of course, it is standard fare for the Kool-Aid drinking GOP base to obsess over what other people do in the privacy of their homes and bedrooms. Here are some column highlights:

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If Barack Obama successfully translates his campaign rhetoric into law, 2009 will be the year homosexuality becomes a civil right. During the campaign, Obama said the issue of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) rights "is about who we are as Americans"

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At Change.gov, under the heading "civil rights," Obama promises legal protection for "gender identity" and "gender expression"; expansion of "hate crime" statutes and homosexual adoption rights, repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" rule for military service. Labeling homosexual behavior a civil right apparently trumps majority rule at the ballot box too.

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For example, in the November election, voters in California adopted Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment which defines "marriage" as the traditional union of one man and one woman. However, after the voters had spoken, homosexual activists started a statewide witch hunt, targeting the Mormon church, getting prominent supporters of traditional marriage fired and boycotting businesses whose owners had contributed to the "YES on 8" campaign. A skillful media campaign painted the voting majority bigots and the homosexual campaign to suppress democracy a defense of basic civil rights.

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Labeling homosexuality a "civil right" also seems to trump everyone else's civil rights. Just as illegal aliens seem to have more "rights" than citizens do, homosexuals claim their "civil rights" prevail over everyone else's civil rights.
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You don't need a weather man to know which way this wind is blowing. Current political commentary is largely focused on the transition from a market economy to socialism. The transition from civil rights for all to privileged rights for the small but politically powerful homosexual left is just as important a "change you can believe in."

New DNC Chair No Real Friend to Gay Rights

UPDATED: Ironically - or perhaps not - HRC is singing Tim Kaine's praises even though when contacted by my client for help, HRC did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, not wanting to "upset" Governor Kaine who I guess might not attend HRC parties if "upset." Kaine is cited by HRC for helping turn Virginia Blue even though in reality it is (1) Virginia's changing demographics, (2) the horrific track record of the Chimperator's regime, and (3) Obama's ground game that won the day. Once again, HRC is out of touch with reality. Yet another reason to NOT renew my HRC membership - at least not until it gets new leadership that doesn't focus on being a lap dog for elected officials.

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The Virginian Pilot and many other news outlets are reporting that Virginia Governor, Timothy Kaine will be the next Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. I am less than enthused by Kaine's selection. Why one might ask? Because when examined closely, Kaine is weak on gay rights and may represent yet another case like Barack Obama throwing gays under the bus after cynically courting our votes and soliciting our money as evidenced by the selection of Christianist Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation. At least with Warren, his appearance will be short lived and he will not be influencing Democratic Party policy. My prediction is that Kaine will do absolutely nothing to further LGBT equality as DNC chair. Zero. Nada.

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On the surface, Kaine can claim to be "gay friendly" - at least when compared to say Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell who tows the line with Daddy Dobson's Virginia affiliate, The Family Foundation, and has to date not found a piece of anti-gay legislation he cannot willingly embrace. Kaine did sign Executive Order 1 (2006) purporting to protect gay state employees upon taking office, thereby extending the policy of incoming U.S. Senator Mark Warner who Kaine succeeded as governor. But in terms of making sure that the Executive Order is enforced in a competent and timely manner, Kaine has been 100% missing in action. Moreover, the alleged investigation by the governmental department supposedly charged with enforcing the Executive Order of a complaint filed by a client against the Virginia Museum of Natural History has by the agency's own prior statements already taken 440+ days longer than it should have. And still no determination is in sight. I've even speculated that Kaine wants to drag the matter out long enough so that he can be out of office when a decision is rendered and thus avoid a show down with Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell who has issued a non-binding opinion that the Order exceeded Kaine's authority as governor.

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Save and except for the theoretical protections afforded LGBT state employees under Executive Order 1 (2006), LGBT Virginians have ZERO employment non-discrimination protections. That's right. Zero protection from being summarily fired due to their sexual orientation. Sadly, Kaine's execution of Executive Order 1(2006) appears in retrospect to have been window dressing he never planned to have enforced based on a recent mealy mouthed letter from Kaine's office. The Executive Order was apparently a mere crumb thrown for show to the LGBT Virginians who helped get him elected. It is beyond troubling to me that someone with such a weak commitment to LGBT rights and equality is now DNC chairman. Maybe we should stop giving our hard earned money to such cynical and disingenuous politicians.

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NOTE: I have documentation on all of the above statements.

Monday Male Beauty

Irish Cardinal Pledges Abuse House Cleaning

In what on its face may be an unprecedented move, Irish Catholic Cardinal Sean Brady (at left) is pledging to perhaps finally do something to remove members of the Irish Church hierarchy who have failed to protect children from predator priests. This might even involve removing Bishop John Magee of the Diocese of Cloyne who has been shown to have abysmally failed to act to protect minors from sexual abuse. While it would be nice to believe that Brady's motivations are the right ones, it's likely that the real reason for the pledge is motivated by a desire to stop the Catholic Church's free fall in public opinion in Ireland. Time will tell if the long overdue steps to remove members of the hierarchy who enabled and/or covered up abuse will get removed from their positions. Here are some highlights from the Irish Independent:

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THE days of Bishop John Magee as head of the Cloyne diocese appeared to be numbered last night after a dramatic pledge by the leader of the Irish Catholic Church to eradicate clerical child sex abuse. In a strongly-worded statement, Cardinal Sean Brady pledged a root-and-branch reform of all 26 dioceses, as he desperately sought to restore public confidence in the Church's ability to protect children.

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The Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh admitted recent findings from a damning report on clerical sexual abuse in the diocese of Cloyne had "brought into question" the efforts of thousands of volunteers and trained personnel to protect children. Cardinal Brady's dramatic intervention, understood by the Irish Independent to have been issued after consultation with Pope Benedict, brings him out on the side of the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, who had threatened to withdraw co-operation from fellow bishops, including Bishop Magee.

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ast night, church sources predicted that if Bishop Magee, a former secretary to three popes, did not stand down before the Cabinet meets next Wednesday, Rome might be forced to remove him.

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Children's Minister Barry Andrews last night welcomed Cardinal Brady's statement, in particular "his specific comments in relation to Cloyne". However, abuse charity One-in-Four last night said Archbishop Brady's intervention was "too little, too late". Executive Director Maeve Lewis called on the Bishop of Cloyne to stand down and criticised Cardinal Brady for failing to comment directly on his handling of the scandal.

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The crisis takes on added significance with the imminent publication of the report of a Government Commission of Inquiry into the country's biggest diocese, Dublin. It is expected that the report will contain some shocking revelations, that could rock Church and State to their very foundations. The Vatican has, to date, not publicly commented on the controversy.

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Would that there was a similar government commission in the USA looking into the misdeeds of the Catholic Church and its hierarchy. Unless and until the Church is forced to do a much needed house cleaning, Catholics should vote with their feet and check books and not support the Church. I find it sickening that Catholics continue to fawn over such morally bankrupt Church leaders, Benedict XVI included.

New York Retrospective

The past long weekend in New York City was wonderful fun and it's a bit of a let down to be back in Tidewater Virginia with all its conservatism and backwardness on social issues, gay rights in particular. Saturday night we had dinner at a great restaurant in the West Village, Philip Marie, where we had a fabulous young aspiring actress as our waitress. Later, we went to Splash and then back by the Monster. Sunday was leisurely and then consisted of walking around China Town and Little Italy before heading to the airport.

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Besides its 100+ gay clubs, what is striking about New York in contrast to this area is the fact that gays are so much more open about who they are and that the fear factor that plagues so many gays here doesn't seem to exist. Sadly, I know a number of gay professionals and business owners in this area who live in terror of discovery, believing that all of their clients/customers would leave them if their sexual orientation became known. Some I think have allowed their fears to run amuck and make the danger far larger in their minds than what would be the reality. Nonetheless, with no state or federal employment non-discrimination protections and Don't Ask, Don't Tell still driving gays in the military underground, Virginia remains far behind the times.

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A repeal of DADT would be a good first start in changing the atmosphere here and might indirectly help get the Virginia General Assembly to come into the 21st century. Allowing blacks to serve in the military helped in many ways to dispel prejudice and if gays can serve openly as equals, it will mitigate the Christianists efforts to depict us as "other" and/or less than fully human. I will be watching to see if Obama moves to make good on his promises to the LGBT community - right now, he appears to have sold us out. Meanwhile, I guess we will just continue to muddle along.

Sunday Male Beauty

Decrying the Catholic Church's Anti-Gay Hate

Growing up Catholic, I suffered at the hands of nuns and priests who strove to indoctrinate me and others that although supposedly God was a god of love, nearly everything was a path to Hell and eternal damnation. Things sexual were, of course, the most sure fired way to go to Hell of all. And homosexuality? The worse of the worse. It's taken me years to come to recognize the falsity of so much of what the Church tried to inculcate. Interestingly, the Buffalo News has a great opinion piece written by a life long Catholic who takes the Church to task for the anti-gay jihad pressed by Benedict XVI and the other bitter old men in dresses. It is sad that an institution that could do so much good spends so much energy demonizing other people. Here are some highlights:

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Now as a grandmother, I am very grieved that the Church that was so formative for me cannot be so for my adult children and their families. I am so proud of both of my grown sons. They are men of substance, men of honor and great fathers. One of them happens to be gay. He lives in Seattle with his husband. They are raising two adopted children.

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As any grandparent will affirm, grandchildren are one of life’s greatest joys. For my husband and me, our joy is clouded. The Church that was so central to our lives now preaches against our son and his family. This is not new, it is true, but the hurt was renewed when I learned of the active participation of the Catholic bishops in favor of the California proposition banning gay marriage. This is especially disturbing, since our son was married recently in California.

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My knowledge of the social gospel tells me that there are grave evils in the world that need the moral voice of the Church. For example, poverty, the distribution of wealth, war and torture cry out for serious attention. Instead of focusing on these weighty issues in important elections, the bishops try to denigrate families like my son’s.

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I wish for him and his beautiful children the support my family experienced back in the Riverside of the ’50s. Maybe tightly knit Buffalo neighborhoods are in a rose-colored past, but the message of the gospels should be eternal. It seems to me that the Church I was raised in taught the importance of love — love for all of God’s people.

Israel Invades Gaza

I often do not understand the reasoning behind Israel's actions - not at least if the leadership has any care about the media and propaganda advantage that is being given to the Palestinians. Coming out of a show on 42nd Street today here in New York City, the boyfriend and I found ourselves about to be enveloped in an anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian demonstration, complete with signs reading "Stop the Gaza Holocaust" and similar things. The protesters included Islamic looking women and children and all were decrying the deaths of innocent civilians caused by the Israeli actions. I truly do not favor one side or the other in the conflict. Instead, I just wish all the violence and killing being done by both sides would end. When I see photos of dead children, I at times think right is on the side of neither of the opposing factions. Here are a few highlights from the New York Times:

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In unleashing a series of punishing attacks in Gaza last week, Israel clearly aimed to hand Hamas a defeat from which it could not recover anytime soon. The campaign may succeed, experts here and in Israel say, but it could also backfire. Either way, the political consequences could reverberate throughout the Middle East, all the way to Iran, and help determine the ability of President-elect Barack Obama to pursue his stated goals of calming the Middle East through diplomacy.

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While Israeli leadership was not stating wider goals, there was clearly hope in the country — as tanks and troops massed late in the week — that the assault in Gaza would do more than just stop the rocket fire with which Hamas had broken a cease-fire last month. The larger hope was that subduing Hamas would delegitimize the group’s leadership in the eyes of the Palestinian people and eliminate its power to prevent a two-state solution.

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In a highly optimistic scenario for Israel and the United States, a clear victory for Israel would make it easier for Egypt, Jordan and countries farther afield to declare common cause against Islamic militancy and its main sponsor in the region, Iran. A two-state treaty could follow, and then perhaps peace between Israel and Syria, leaving Iran isolated behind the buffer of a newly democratic and peaceful, if not particularly friendly, Iraq.

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But Israel’s attacks also could fail outright, and history suggests that as the more likely scenario, Middle East experts across the political spectrum said. The strikes — and the Arab anger over scenes of death and destruction — have highlighted divisions in the Middle East that can prevent Arab nations from working with Israel.

More Saturday Male Beauty

Issues Pose a Challenge for Obama and Pope

The Washington Post has a story today about the differences in views/beliefs between Barack Obama's and Nazi Pope, Benedict XVI. Personally, I believe that Obama, if need be, should tell the Pope to stop attempting to meddle in civil law matters in the USA. As for the U.S. Bishops, perhaps a proposal to amend the federal racketeering laws by Obama so that it could be more broadly applied to bishops and cardinals who covered up the sexual abuse of children might be a nice response. Basically a message to shut up or be prosecuted and have even more disgusting Church secrets come out. I am so tired of people giving deference to those - including Benedict XVI - who had a hand in the sex abuse scandal cover up. Cardinals Eagan of New York and Mahoney of Los Angeles are two other names that spring to mind. The Church hierarchy consists of frauds and in some cases those who deserve to be criminally prosecuted. Here are some highlights from the Post story:

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VATICAN CITY -- In the 24 years since the United States and the Holy See established full diplomatic ties, relations have never been closer or warmer than during the administration of President Bush.

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The relationship between the Vatican and the White House is bound to change this month with the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, whose support for abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research has drawn denunciations from a number of church leaders.

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From the U.S. hierarchy, however, congratulations have been mixed with criticism. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the church should "rejoice" in the election of the country's first African American president, but insisted that it would confront Obama over abortion and stem-cell research.

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Of most urgent concern to the church is clearly the Freedom of Choice Act, a proposed bill that would overturn a host of restrictions on abortion. Critics say the proposal would eliminate so-called conscience exemptions for publicly funded health-care facilities, thus forcing Catholic hospitals to provide abortions or shut their doors.

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Another potential irritant in U.S.-Vatican relations emerged in late November when a federal appeals court ruled that a lawsuit over alleged sex abuse by Catholic priests could proceed against the Holy See, despite its sovereign-state status.

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In spite of such problems, the Vatican will seek to work closely with the new administration in a number of areas, Franco said. Foremost on its agenda is the fate of Christian minorities in the Middle East -- particularly in Iraq, where their status has grown increasingly precarious during the Bush administration.