More Saturday Male Beauty

One Way Or Another, USA Needs to Leave Iraq and Afghanistan

Columnist George Will is hardly a liberal and he and I often differ radically in our views, but we now are in agreement on two things: the USA needs to leave Iraq and Afghanistan which are now no win quagmires regardless of what bullsh*t the military commands may say. The USA now finds itself in roughly the same situations got themselves into going on two decades ago - we are stuck in foreign nations that have long eluded being conquered governed by utterly corrupt and self-serving governments. No amount of money expended and no amount of blood from U.S. military members will change the long existing dynamics. The first Bush administration understood this when George H.W. Bush called off the advance on Baghdad - sadly, the Chimperator never even thought of the aftermath since he was driven solely by religious fanaticism and a warped desire to avenge his daddy. Unfortunately, Barack Obama seems to have learned nothing from the Soviet experience in Afghanistan and is increasing the number of U.S. troops - even as our European allies get closer and closer to recognizing reality and withdrawing their troops. Here are some highlights from Will's recent column:

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Since U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq's cities, two months have passed, and so has the illusion that Iraq is smoothly transitioning to a normality free of sectarian violence. Recently, Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. troops there, "blanched" when asked if the war is "functionally over." According to The Post's Greg Jaffe, Odierno said:

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"There are still civilians being killed in Iraq. We still have people that are attempting to attack the new Iraqi order and the move towards democracy and a more open economy. So we still have some work to do."

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No, we don't, even if, as Jaffe reports, the presence of 130,000 U.S. troops "serves as a check on Iraqi military and political leaders' baser and more sectarian instincts." After almost 6 1/2 years, and 4,327 American dead and 31,483 wounded, with a war spiraling downward in Afghanistan, it would be indefensible for the U.S. military -- overextended and in need of materiel repair and mental recuperation -- to loiter in Iraq to improve the instincts of corrupt elites. If there is a worse use of the U.S. military than "nation-building," it is adult supervision and behavior modification of other peoples' politicians.

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Already that [U.S. military] presence is irrelevant to the rising chaos, which the Iraqi government can neither contain nor refrain from participating in: Security forces seem to have been involved in the recent robbery of a state-run bank in central Baghdad.
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Two more years of U.S. military presence cannot control whether that is in Iraq's future. Some people believe the war in Iraq was not only "won," but vindicated by the success of the 2007 U.S. troop surge. Yet as Iraqi violence is resurgent, the logic of triumphalism leads here: If, in spite of contrary evidence, the U.S. surge permanently dampened sectarian violence, all U.S. forces can come home sooner than the end of 2011. If, however, the surge did not so succeed, U.S. forces must come home sooner.

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The sad truth is that the Iraq War is a disaster that need never have happened had the MSM asked hard questions, demanded hard evidence from the Chimperator and his idiot [and in the case of Cheney, insane] minions. So many lives lost and so much destruction or nothing. At least George Will has the integrity to admit he was wrong. If only the media would have learned its lesson and stop focusing on organized displays of lunacy - such as at the town hall meetings - and asked for hard facts and figures. True, that takes more work, but isn't that what journalists are paid to do?

Navy Investigation Finds Hazing and Harassment - Gay Victim Expelled Under DADT While Abuser Promoted.

A number of LGBT blogs and web sites had picked up this story about yet another case of psychologically sick and twisted heterosexual members of the military engaging in sexually charged hazing and harassment. Worse yet, Michael Toussaint, the Chief over the unit during the period that the abuse occurred, has been promoted to Senior Chief and is now stationed with the elite Naval Special Warfare Development Group at the Dam Neck Naval Base in nearby Virginia Beach, Virginia. Meanwhile, one of the victims, Joseph Christopher Rocha, had his career ended under DADT. Among some of the perverse conduct overseen by Toussaint included the following:

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All say the tone was set by Chief Toussaint. Some sailors participated in the culture of hazing as victims, others as perpetrators, or in some cases both. They say the hazing continued because of a series of threats that were also integral to the culture of the unit, which not only tolerated abuse, but also invited it. To prevent them from speaking out, sailors Youth Radio interviewed say Toussaint would threaten to revoke their handlers’ licenses--taking away their dogs and their specialty in the Navy.

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Another incident cited in the investigation found that two female service members were ordered to simulate sex with each other on video. According to the Findings of Fact, the women were handcuffed to a bed and appeared to be naked under a sheet.

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Again, that this type of nastiness and abuse of power is allowed to go on makes a mockery out of the feeble excuse for DADT being needed to protect unit moral and cohesiveness. Its supporters can dress up DADT however they want, but in the final analysis its only justification is the legalization of religious based anti-gay discrimination and homophobia. Instead of receiving a promotion, Toussaint should have been expelled from the Navy. Some of the Navy investigation report that confirmed the abuse can be found here. Even the Virginian Pilot is now reporting on the abuse and misconduct that occurred. Here are some highlights:

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An internal Navy investigation of a dog-handling unit in Bahrain found repeated episodes of hazing and sexual harassment in 2005, as well as allegations that prostitutes were routinely brought into government quarters for parties. The non commissioned officer who allegedly allowed and encouraged the abuse to flourish was promoted and is now assigned to an elite special warfare unit at Dam Neck Annex to Oceana Naval Air Station.

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"These actions don't reflect who we are as a Navy," said Cmdr. Cappy Surette, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon.

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Most of the documents' pages have some information redacted, and entire sections - including the investigator's opinion and recommendations - were removed before the document was released. It is unclear whether anyone was punished for the alleged abuses.
But three things are clear:
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- Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint remains in the Navy and has been promoted since serving as head of the military working-dog division in Bahrain.
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- Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer Valdivia, a dog handler, was found dead in her living quarters on the Bahrain base. Her death was reportedly a suicide.

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- Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Rocha - called "an exceptionally outstanding young sailor" in a performance evaluation and recommended by the secretary of the Navy for an appointment to the Naval Academy - is out of the military [under DADT] and in treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder that resulted from two years of alleged abuse.

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Central to the unfolding story is Petty Officer 1st Class Shaun Hogan, a dog handler who was assigned to Bahrain with Toussaint, Valdivia and Rocha. . . . Hogan said in an interview Friday that he witnessed many of the alleged abuses, including a videotaped "training scenario" in which Rocha was directed to simulate homosexual sex.

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Hogan said he participated in that exercise as a dog handler. When he entered the room with his dog, he said, "I was expecting to find someone role-playing an intruder. I didn't expect to see somebody role-playing homosexual sex." Hogan said he saw a videotape of another "training scenario" involving a woman handcuffed to a bed. The woman in the bed, he said, was Valdivia, the unit's second-in-command.

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"There are a lot of people who were victimized," Hogan said. "I think the Navy is trying to cover this up." Particularly galling to him, Hogan said, is that Toussaint, whom he considers the ringleader of the alleged abuses, not only escaped punishment but received a career boost. "To the best of my knowledge, the charges were dropped," he said. "The guy got promoted, and now he's in charge of the most coveted canine position in the entire Navy - the canine special warfare unit. That's the Navy's way of punishing him?"

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Rocha left the Navy after acknowledging he was gay. He said the abuse began after he refused to have sex with a female prostitute in Bahrain - something he claimed was common among other masters-at-arms and dog handlers in the unit. Rocha is now attending classes at the University of San Diego. In an interview Friday, he said he continues to suffer PTSD symptoms, including nightmares, anxiety attacks and extreme depression.

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Rocha said he was assured by his commanding officer in Bahrain that Toussaint would be punished. In late 2007, he said, a Navy lawyer contacted him and asked if he would testify in a court-martial. Even though he was afraid of retribution from Toussaint, he said, he finally agreed. Weeks later, he said, the lawyer called back and said the case was being closed and his testimony would not be needed.

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As I read this case, the moral is that members of the military who are straight sexual perverts and sadists get promoted while exceptional gay service members are forced out. Something is very, very fucked up in this picture. No doubt, the sexually disturbed Elaine Donnelly thinks all of this is fine since the gay guy was thrown out of the military.

Saturday Male Beauty

Coverage of Taliban Bob's Thesis Goes International

I use several Google search agents to find stories on varying topics, one of which focuses on Virginia and gays. I was rather surprised this morning to find that the venerable British publication, the Economist, has now done a story on Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell's thesis, thereby exposing the religious right insanity in Virginia to the entire world wide business community. Obviously, one of the tasks of the next governor of Virginia will be to work to create new jobs and attract progressive businesses to the Commonwealth. Having a governor now known throughout the business world as at theocratic whack job doesn't strike me as a positive when Virginia is trying to recruit business relocations to the state. Low taxes go only so far in attracting businesses and a backward and intolerant perception of the state will not make it attractive to many businesses or their key staff members. Companies do NOT want to relocate to areas where their key personnel will refuse to move. One need only look to parts of Virginia like Martinsville with 20% unemployment as an example of how being culturally reactionary is not a positive for recruiting new businesses. Here are some highlights from the Economist:

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SOMETIMES it seems that the candidates for governor of Virginia aren’t running against each other. They’re running away from other people. The Democratic candidate, Creigh Deeds, is fleeing from Barack Obama and his health-care plan. His Republican rival, Bob McDonnell, is hectically distancing himself from—well, himself.

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Over more than two decades in public life, Mr McDonnell has been a reliable social and religious conservative. He successfully diverted attention from his flinty views by playing to voters’ worries about the economy and too much change in Washington. At one point he held a double-digit lead in the polls. Mr Deeds struggled to compete with him—until, at the end of August, he was handed a gift by the candidate himself.

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It came in the form of a long-forgotten 1989 graduate thesis. Mr McDonnell made the mistake of mentioning its existence to the Washington Post; the paper lost no time in splashing it. Its tone is not going down well in the Washington suburbs, where many of Virginia’s voters live.

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As a lawmaker and, later, Virginia’s attorney-general, Mr McDonnell did not forget his research paper. He clamped down on abortion, resisted anti-discrimination protections for gay public employees and aligned the state government with breakaway Episcopal parishes after the appointment of an openly gay bishop. Now, however, he is in hot-disavowal mode.

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His professed conversion was apparently meant to soothe independents. But it may rattle the Republican base. Patrick McSweeney, a former state party chairman, told the Post that Mr McDonnell risks losing votes for retracting his previous views. He can’t win. Mr Deeds, backed by the Democratic National Committee, is fanning the fire with glee. He intends first to reduce Mr McDonnell to a caricature, and then to shift the campaign’s focus to issues on which a governor can actually make a difference: transport, education and public safety.

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Having known Bob McDonnell for 15 years, I remain convinced that his disavowal of his thesis views is not genuine. His has long been beholden to Pat Robertson - who I suspect gave him a large campaign contribution - and The Family Foundation, the Virginia affiliate of James Dobson's Neanderthal organization, Focus on the Family. I just hope moderates and independent voters wake up to who really pulls the puppet strings on Taliban Bob.

Straight Pastors Do Not Know the Suffering of LGBT Lutherans

I have been a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ("ELCA") for over seven years after leaving the Roman Catholic Church in which I was raised because its hierarchy still describes LGBT individuals as "inherently disordered" - talk about the pot calling the kettle black - and accepts us in the Church only so long as we condemn ourselves to a lifetime of celibacy - in short, a cruel life sentence without love and physical intimacy. Two weeks ago the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly took the major step of allowing partnered gay clergy, thereby bringing the ELCA in line with modern medical and mental health knowledge on the immutability of sexual orientation. I have discussed this issue a great deal and now Queerity has several relevant follow up posts that look at the split between homophobic elements in the ELCA who selectively apply a literal application of a few passages in the Bible (while utterly ignoring many others) and progressives and gays within the Church. One post is by a straight pastor who makes a stab at what this change means for LGBT Lutherans and he does a pretty good job:

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It's easier to hate people when you don't have to look across the table and say “pass the salt” to them. But the witness of the Gospel of Jesus (when we are getting it right) is that everyone means everyone, all are welcome at the table—and that means anti-gay folks as much as gay folks, as hard as that may be. What the “magical homo” did was a very difficult act of justice, kindness, and humble walking with God, when nobody would have been surprised if he were to have acted in vengeance instead (as one queerty.com commentator said: “kick some ass”) and many would have cheered him on. And what I saw again and again on that assembly floor was that gay and lesbian people and their allies (including me) were surprised by the feeling of pain and compassion they experienced when the thing they had longed for finally was reality.

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Leading up to the vote I wrote all of the voting members attending from the Virginia Synod trying to explain the spiritual harm the denial of full membership in the Church did to its LGBT members. I refer to it as a form of spiritual murder since the message is that if one is gay, you can never, ever be good enough. Thankfully, a majority at the Assembly figured that out. One voting member sent me the following note:

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Thank you for the communications you provided over the past several weeks. You should know that testimonies like yours were offered throughout the assembly. You should also know that the work on the floor of the assembly was accompanied by many people who sat in the adjacent halls praying for the work of this church. I do not underestimate the power this prayer had in achieving the results of last week. Our work as voting members was only part of the story (albeit the only part reported by the press).

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The most recent Queerity post on the ELCA is from the perspective of a lesbian pastor from Houston, Texas. She does a great job of holding the Church - that's all Christian churches - for the harm done to LGBT individuals over the centuries. Hopefully, pastors like this one will get the message across to those who would prefer to cling to a few Bible passages and continue to inflict spiritual and psychological harm on other human beings. Here are some highlights:

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The church, including the Evangelical Church of America, has done great harm to people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. Not only has it denied our callings and refused to bless our relationships, it has provided a theological framework for homophobia. This is more than causing pain to us; this is participating in our discrimination.

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Homosexuality is not wrong, sinful, or deviant. But homophobia is deviant. Heterosexism is sinful. Remaining silent in the face of discrimination is wrong. Homophobia, Heterosexism, and silence have caused many of us to lose our livelihoods, our families, our safety, and even our lives. By providing theological reasons for these sins, the church has participated in this discrimination.

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The church has also tried to teach us that the love at the center of our beings is sinful, that our sexualities are not created by God, and that the church’s acceptance of us is conditional. The harm caused to our relationships with God is even more violent than the beatings, the murders, some of us have endured. I won’t pretend to know what Pastor Ryan Mills feels [a pastor contemplating leaving the ELCA due to the vote]. But to equivocate the suffering he, and other like him, may be feeling to the queer experience is false and perpetuates discrimination.

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Mills . . . does now know the pain of having his church profoundly disagree with him on the issue of sexual orientation, and perhaps he knows the pain of wondering whether to go or stay. . . . But to equate those two experiences to the discrimination that LGBT people face is to show that you cannot understand the depth of queer experience.

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Because we need to truthfully, lovingly, tell those anti-gay sisters and brothers not only that they are wrong, but that they are sinful. I expect my straight allies to take up this work, not ask to be congratulated for the small steps we have taken. And I don’t expect non-Lutheran queer people to celebrate when we reach a compromise that still falls short of the church apologizing for the sin of homophobia, heterosexism, and silence.

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Personally, I cannot understand anti-gay pastors. Accepting gays - and modern knowledge - costs them nothing other than perhaps taking away the ease with which they have been allowed to feel privileged and felt free to look down on others. In contrast, LGBT Lutherans have been told after years of pain that they are after all fully human. I hope and pray that in time the homophobic elements will come to realize these horrific harm they have done to others and cast aside their anti-gay crutch. Also, with younger generations increasingly rejecting homophobia, these pastors need to realize that their message of exclusion may in time jeopardize the continued existence of their parishes.

More Friday Male Beauty

A Delusional Cristianist Attacks the Washington Post for Exposing Bob McDonnell

Over the last 6 or more years I have crossed swords with Uber-Christian and hysterical self-hating closet case (that's my assessment) Robert Knight on a number of cases and we have had some battles royal via e-mail. For example, in one exchange where Knight claimed that the Roman Empire fell because of its acceptance of homosexuality when pressed with the real historical facts behind Rome's fall, Knight recanted and admitted that his heated rhetoric was not correct. Yet literally within days he was again making the same false statements to history ignorant audiences. Personally, I believe that Knight, being a self-hating closet case, just cannot handle the thought of gays accepting their God given sexual orientation and having happy, normal lives. The envy just drives him over the top.

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Knight's latest rant over at OneNewsNow - the alleged "news" arm of American Family Association - involves the Washington Post's August 30, 2009, story that brought to light Bob McDonnell's 1989 Christianist thesis written when McDonnell was a 34 year old graduate student. Knight is so over the top and factually off base that one might nearly expect him to wet himself in the midst of his spittle flying frenzy. As is the norm for Knight, he never lets facts and reality get in the way of his demagoguery. Indeed, goes so berserk that he alleges every possible conspiracy other than claiming it was gay rights activists responsible for the thesis coming to light. In truth, it was McDonnell's own remark to the Post reporter that lead her to review the thesis. But then, facts and the truth have never held much sway with Mr. Knight. Here are some highlights of his foaming at the mouth:

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The Washington Post's behavior lately goes so far beyond mere bias that it looks like a caricature cooked up by a comedian or saboteur. The paper's bid to fix the Virginia gubernatorial election is right out of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.

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The Post has launched a bald-faced attempt to "freeze" GOP candidate Robert McDonnell. It would be funny if it were not such a serious breach of journalistic ethics. The campaign began on August 30, with a top of the page, single column headline, "'89 Thesis a Different Side of McDonnell: Va. GOP candidate Wrote on Women, Marriage and Gays."

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As a grad student at what became Regent University, McDonnell penned a paper in 1989 that focuses a biblical lens on public policy. A Post reporter doing opposition research turned it up. Perhaps the most egregious assertion in the Post's eyes is McDonnell's use of the term "fornicators" to describe people who engage in, well, fornication. He didn't think the law should give those folks the same marital rights as those of folks who take a marriage vow.

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Now, it's not bad per se to be a culture warrior. It's okay if you want to redefine marriage, teach children that "safe" fornication and sodomy are fun and inevitable, oppose partial-birth abortion bans, ensure an onslaught of pornography and illegal immigration, expand government and redistribute income as fast as possible. But if you believe that God's plan for natural marriage should be reflected in the law, that sex outside marriage should be discouraged for everyone's benefit, especially children's, then you are a "culture warrior" of a different sort.

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Unless McDonnell wants to go down Allen's trail, he might consider giving a bold defense of the importance of Judeo-Christian values to the founding and continued success of our free republic.

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As I have suggested before, Knight needs to get himself a cute rent boy, satisfy his inner most secret longings, and stop trying to force his extreme religious views on the rest of the citizenry. He might also do well - as would Bob McDonnell - to read the preamble to Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Virginian Statute for Religious Freedom and then look in a mirror and understand that Jefferson was condemning people exactly like Knight and his Christianist allies.

What Happened to the Rational Right?

I just finished watching Keith Olbermann and part of the Rachel Madow show and what struck me once again is how utterly insane and detached from objective reality the base of the Republican Party has become. From the birthers to the town hall opponents of health care reform, any semblance of rational thought and a grasp of objective facts was entirely absent. I especially like the idiots - that's about the only term that fits the level of ignorance displayed - who whine about "death panels" as insurance companies in effect are already acting as death panels as as much as 39% of health insurance are denied by one large California insurer. As a former Republican, I continue to be shocked by how ignorant and insane the main stream members of the Party have become. William F. Buckley (pictured above) must be rolling over in his grave. Leading the charge of conservative insanity are Faux News - Glenn Beck in particular - and WingNutDaily. I seriously wonder what mind altering drugs these folk are taking because they are simply batshit crazy. Here are some highlights from a recent column written by a disgusted conservative (a dying breed) that looks at the intellectual suicide of the GOP:
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Over the last few days, Jon Henke has laid out the case for the Right more strongly disavowing outfits like WorldNetDaily that actively peddle Birther nonsense. To the extent the mainstream Right has weighed in, it has been to urge Jon to ignore WND and move on, in the interests avoiding an intra-movement civil war. Some have even tried to subtly distance Jon from the conservative movement, saying his views don't represent those of most conservatives. Many on the Right have made the calculation that however distasteful their views, a public fight with the Birthers just isn't worth it.

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The Birthers are the latest in a long line of paranoid conspiracy believers of the left and right who happen to attach themselves to notions that simply are not true. Descended from the 9/11 Truthers, the LaRouchies, the North American Union buffs, and way back when, the John Birch Society, the Birthers are hardly a new breed in American politics. Each and every time they have appeared, mainstream conservatives from William F. Buckley to Ronald Reagan have risen to reject these influences -- and I expect that will be the case once again here.
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But there is another subtext that makes Jon's appeal more urgent. As a pretty down-the-line conservative, I don't believe I am alone in noting with disappointment the trivialization, excessive sloganeering, and pettiness that has overtaken the movement of late. . . . In founding National Review, Buckley made a point of casting out the conspiracy nuts and the cranks of his day because he saw them as a fundamental threat to a conservatism that was just emerging as a political force. In doing so, he was able to define conservatism for a generation.

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What is interesting about Buckley (and that is so different today) was his ability to align intellectual firepower and a faster march to the Right. Buckley was a man of class and erudition who happened to be more conservative than virtually all of his peers. That's the key point. To the extent we think of intellectuals today, we deride them as creatures of the Left.

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The automatic problem that arises when someone who is not a William F. Buckley (and none of us here pretend to be) is that you're instantly tagged a RINO for calling out something that is objectively and demonstrably false. The space between fact and fiction is confused as a litmus test between right and left. But what if the WNDers are not the true conservatives in this argument? What if the actual test of conservatism was not how fervently you oppose Obama, or where you went to school, or where you pray, but how firmly your conservatism is rooted in First Principles and not personalities or conspiracy?

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.This is why there is a unique urgency now to cast out the obscurantists and the conspiracy nuts We don't have a Buckley anymore. Our intellectual giants have died off and not being replaced. And preventing the lowest common denominator from filling the void is a constant daily struggle. In a movement and a party that has largely defined itself outside centers of higher learning in recent years (for good or ill) I believe the time is ripe for a return to Buckleyite elite conservatism.

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I totally agree that intellectuals are needed if the Republican Party is to escape becoming a Southern party made up of racists, Christo-facists and the ignorant. However, given the dynamics of the Party's base and the near cult of anti-knowledge, I do not know how any intellectual who has not undergone a lobotomy will be able to rise in the GOP. The lowest common denominator is now in control and elected officials - even U.S. Senators - are afraid to take on the rabble of the Party base. Hence it becomes an ever increasing downward spiral.

Friday Male Beauty

Should Virginia Tourism Groups Push for Gay Marriage?

With tourism struggling in many parts of Virginia - e.g., Colonial Williamsburg is laying off staff and despite its efforts to become more upscale, Virginia Beach remains a largely blue collar destination - perhaps the tourism industry needs to throw the Christianists overboard and push for the repeal of the heinous Marshall-Newman Amendment that was championed by Bob McDonnell and Ken Cuccinelli, et al, and look at what's happening in Iowa where out of state gays and lesbians are visiting and spending money on weddings. Truth be told, LGBT Americans are among the biggest spenders on tourism, yet Virginia currently has made itself not only hostile to gay tourists but has also created a legal structure where LGBT Virginians typically travel out of state to spend their money. I often wonder at what point citizens as a whole will vote to over ride the narrow mindset of Christian extremists and welcome all citizens. Here are some highlights from the Washington Blade on what's happening in Iowa:

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Data show that same-sex couples are coming from other states to get married in Iowa. An Iowa Supreme Court ruling in April legalized same-sex marriage in the state. The Des Moines Register reports that since the April ruling, state data show about 45 percent of Iowa’s same-sex marriages were between out-of-state couples.

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Between April 27 and July 27 there were 5,214 marriage certificates issued statewide. Of those, 676 were for same-sex couples. Gender was concealed on 339 marriage certificates. Of the 676 same-sex couples, 312 couples weren’t from Iowa. They were from neighboring states. Data show 57 couples were from Illinois, 38 were from Nebraska, 37 were from Missouri and 36 were from Minnesota.

Bob McDonnell, GOD and the GOP

I am sure much to the dismay of Taliban Bob, his masters thesis written at Pat Robertson's wingnut university - now known a Regent University - continues to get play in the press and thus helps to keep attention trained on his extreme Christianist views that government should enforce a particular religious belief system. Indeed, the thesis shows an utter contempt for the religious freedoms of others of differing faiths or even no faith. Like so much involving the Christianists, their beliefs are to trump those of everyone else. Unfortunately, with all the focus on McDonnell, the MSM has failed to focus on Ken Cuccinelli whose Christo-fascist views almost make McDonnell's thesis look relatively moderate. As I have commented before, this year's GOP slate is probably the most extreme in many, many years and must be defeated if Virginia is not to back slide into reactionary territory more frequently seen in Alabama or Mississippi. Here are highlights from another Washington Post column:

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Politicians have a habit of saying what their audience wants to hear. Twenty years ago, Bob McDonnell's audience was Pat Robertson's extremely conservative evangelical university, and the three faculty members who were judging his master's thesis. Today his audience is the more politically and theologically diverse voting population of Virginia who are judging his Republican candidacy for governor.

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But regardless of whether you agree with McDonnell, then or now, his 93-page thesis for Regent University -- whose motto is "Christian Leadership to Change the World" -- is worth reading. McDonnell's thesis provides one of the clearest expressions I've found of the conservative evangelical mindset -- especially its view of the appropriate God-ordained roles of church, government and family in society, and its reliance on the Republican Party "to restore the proper balance of church, family and state authority."

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McDonnell goes on to explain in great legislative detail "how to attain the ideal" by implementing and following The Republican Vision for Family Policy. It's clear McDonnell doesn't think much of the Democratic vision for family policy.

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It is also clear that McDonnell holds contempt for those who would differ with him be they gays, working women, those who want equal pay for women, or those who believe in Thomas Jefferson's concept of religious freedom. Bob McDonnell would do well to re-read the preamble of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom written by Jefferson. McDonnell's views are directly opposed to those of Jefferson.

Final Thursday Male Beauty

Bob McDonnell's Blue Print to Take Virginia Backwards

Creigh Deeds seems to have finally awakened to the need to really pound on the issue of Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell's extreme far right record - something I have been screaming about for months now. Yes, Deeds still needs to have solid proposals for transportation, education and a number of other pressing issues in Virginia, but he needs to convince moderates and independents that McDonnell's entire campaign depicting Taliban Bob as a moderate has been one huge carefully scripted lie. But for McDonnell's own loose lips in an interview, the infamous 1989 thesis might never have surfaced. Now that it has, Deeds must use this perfect entree to go after McDonnell. A new ad campaign appears to be headed in the right direction. In a nutshell it tracts McDonnell's legislative record with the 1989 thesis and clearly demonstrates that throughout his career, McDonnell has in fact consistently followed the outline contained in his Christian Broadcasting University thesis. Here are highlights from a Washington Post story that looks at the relevancy of McDonnell's thesis:

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Republican Robert F. McDonnell's 20-year-old master's thesis is a relevant topic for discussion in the Virginia governor's campaign because it helps shed light on his record, Democratic opponent R. Creigh Deeds said Wednesday. "The thesis explains the social agenda that has apparently driven his legislative agenda during the years," Deeds said in an interview. "If anything, this ensures people understand there are very clear differences between me and the other guy in terms of our record. Records are important."

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Deeds's campaign has been trying to keep public attention on the document, in which McDonnell wrote that working women were detrimental to the family and that federal child-care tax credits were harmful because they encouraged women to work outside the home.

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McDonnell spent the day traveling by RV to Northern Virginia, where he met with the Rappahannock Rotary Club in Fredericksburg and the editorial board of the Washington Examiner. He tried to quell talk of the thesis.

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Deeds said that as a delegate, McDonnell sponsored legislation to establish covenant marriage in Virginia four times, an idea in the thesis. He has also backed bills restricting access to abortions and voted in 2001 against a resolution that urged equal pay for men and women.
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Deeds, of course, is not the only one to recognize that McDonnell has carefully worked to implement the blue print laid out in his thesis over the years. A Daily Press column likewise notes the manner in which the thesis explains most of McDonnell's actions as a legislator and some of his behavior as attorney general:

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Bob McDonnell, the man who would be governor, is the man who just a few short years ago infamously couldn't recall if he ever violated Virginia anti-sodomy laws.I mention this not merely to be prurient, but to set the tone.
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Twenty years ago, we now know, the then-34-year- old Army veteran set out in a graduate thesis his vision for government-imposed morality to strengthen the "traditional family. "He essentially argued that government should dictate who to love, when to have sex, when to abstain, whether to use birth control, when to abort (never), and then punish those who don't obey. It's a vision so preoccupied with the sex lives of others, so unseemly in its implications, it's like Big Brother drilling a peephole into every bedroom in the country. This is a broad characterization of McDonnell's arguments, but not by much.

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As state delegate, he pushed covenant marriage bills and abortion restriction. In 2001, he voted against a resolution for equal pay for women. Shortly after that, he helped oust a Newport News judge — the first black female circuit judge in the state. The objections to her continuing as a judge were varied, but they were colored by a suggestion that she might be a lesbian. On that point, McDonnell said that anyone who violated the state's crimes-against-nature law shouldn't be a judge.That was when a cheeky Daily Press reporter asked McDonnell if he had ever violated that law — which criminalizes oral or anal sex even between husband and wife — and McDonnell replied, "Not that I can recall."Really, Bob?

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I honestly don't care about McDonnell's sex life, except to wish him a rich and happy one. The specifics are none of my business. Just as the sex lives of anyone outside his own immediate family — gay or straight, married or not — are none of his.

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Now McDonnell is busy dodging questions about his thesis and no doubt wishing it would burn up like a Sinai bush, while his opponent, Democrat Creigh Deeds, is beating it like a rented mule. Voters will have to read it and decide for themselves if McDonnell still has a prayer in this race, or if this is his macaca moment — the self-inflicted wound that dooms an election front-runner.

Obama Has Only Himself to Blame for the Healthcare Reform Debacle

I was watching MSNBC this evening and as I listened to descriptions of the utterly gutted version of health care reform that might get passed - that's assuming anything gets passed - I again had to wonder if Hillary Clinton might not have been a better president than Obama who continues to show no backbone and a delusional desire to work with Republicans on a bipartisan basis. Indeed, watching Obama get repeatedly slammed by members of the GOP who want him to fail, I could not help but think of the parallels of Jimmy Carter trying to deal with the Iranian hostage takers so many years ago. Obama comes across as either an idiot or simply out of his league. I am not the only one sorely disappointed with Obama's performance - America Blog is running a poll and so far 67% of the responders say they are disappointed. Salon has a story that analyzes how Obama got himself - and those of us who supported him - into this quagmire. Here are some highlights:

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If President Obama expects Congress to pass a healthcare reform bill worth signing, he'd better grasp that "bipartisanship" is a means, not an end. After eight years of cheering themselves hoarse over one catastrophic Bush blunder after another, Republicans will start dealing with reality only when they're afraid not to. Right now, it's their talk-radio/Fox News-hypnotized base that's got GOP congressmen running scared. The White House ought to have learned from unanimous Republican opposition to the economic stimulus.

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Striking poses cost them nothing. Stimulus money found its way into their districts anyway. Remarkably, Obama failed to get the message. Seemingly preoccupied with the president's image as a transformative figure, the White House keeps trying to negotiate with people who seek his political destruction.

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On healthcare reform, Obama has mainly his own high-minded fecklessness to blame. To alter the cliché, he hasn't just brought a knife to a gunfight, he's brought a cake knife. The GOP's armed for war; he's showed up with a multilayered birthday cake of a bill hardly anybody understands. While insurance reform's opponents peddle hysterical falsehoods, Obama counters with professorial explanations. Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley's shameful endorsement of "death panels" should have taught Obama the futility of making nice.

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Even former GOP senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole tried to do the president a favor. "Obama's approval numbers would jump 10 points," he wrote in the Washington Post, "if Americans knew he was fully in charge." He urged the White House to introduce its own bill and fight for its passage. You won't hear this on TV, but Obama's slumping approval numbers reflect that many Democrats now worry he's a gutless wonder.

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Careful technocratic arguments won't cut it. For more than a generation, the well-organized, extravagantly funded, right-wing noise machine has steadily grown in power while liberals have deemed themselves too sophisticated to fight back. There was actually a recent Columbia Journalism Review article arguing that "mainstream" media can best counter disinformation like "death panels" by simply refusing to report it.

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I sincerely hope that Obama and some of the Congressional Democrats wake up to reality and get out the brass knuckles needed to fight back against the thugs, theocrats and lairs that now predominate the Republican Party - but I am not holding my breath.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

Dedicated to Bob McDonnell

U. S. Senate "Too Busy" to Worry About Gay Citizens

It is certainly unsettling to hear a U.S. Senator basically state that equality for all citizens and the elimination of religious based discrimination against LGBT Americans is of no import to the United States Senate. The poor senators are just too busy. Worse yet, the statement was made by a Democrat - Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Nothing like more or less telling LGBT citizens to go f*ck themselves. I hope and pray that the LGBT community gets the message and turns off the LGBT ATM machine completely. We are expected to give money, work on campaigns, and go out and vote for Congressional Democrats, but they are "too busy" to get off their fat asses and pass legislation that would make gays full citizens rather than second or third class citizens. My standard response to Democrats soliciting contributions is that (1) I don't have any money to give at this time and (2) even if I did, I would not/will not make ANY donations until Obama and the Democrats deliver on some campaign promises. They REALLY do not like the latter statement, but it is true. Here are some highlights from Politico where Durbin is throwing the LGBT community under the bus yet again:

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When gay rights advocates march on Washington in October, they’ll be confronting a bleak political landscape in their effort to allow gays to openly serve in the military. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) says the Senate is swamped and has little time on the schedule for this fight. The Pentagon brass is reticent and wants a go-slow strategy, while one poll suggests that there is still some resistance within the rank and file of the military to change the“don’t ask, don’t tell” law. With no Republican co-sponsors for a repeal, key moderate Democrats such as Sens. Jim Webb of Virginia and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas remain uncommitted.

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“We have a very heavy, busy agenda and a few months left to do it,” Durbin said in an interview recently. “So it may not be now, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be soon.” None of this is promising for a gay rights movement that raised a ton of money for President Barack Obama and believed that their moment was now.

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And absent a big push from the Pentagon and Obama, key Senate Democrats are signaling that there is little appetite to anger some of their more socially conservative voters at a time when election forecasters are signaling a tough 2010 election cycle for the party.

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And Kennedy’s death — already felt in the health care debate — has reverberated in the gay-rights community. Over the years, he’s been on the forefront in advocating for bills sought by gay-rights activists, pushing for legislation to prevent hate crimes against gays and bills to prohibit employers from discriminating against homosexuals.

Budget Woes Force Focus on the Family Layoffs

Apparently hate and intolerance are not as profitable as once was the case. In yet another round of layoffs, Focus on the Family will be leting go another 75 employees and not filling another 57 vacant positions. While I feel some empathy for those soon to be joining the ranks of the unemployed, I cannot help but wonder who would want to work for an organization that principally markets lies, bogus science, deliberate untruths and hate and intolerance. As for Daddy Dobson, I suspect that he has set aside a very nice nest egg for himself so that even if his Christianist empire were to fall, he would continue to live quite comfortably off of his ill gained monies - blood money if you will in light of the number of LGBT lives Dobson has likely ruined or negatively impacted. One can only hope that the financial woes of FOTF and similar organizations that denigrate other citizens continue to falter as older bigoted generations die off and are replaced by younger, more tolerant generations that believe in the concept of the separation of church and state. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Focus on the Family announced Wednesday it is laying off 8 percent of its work force, casualties of the latest budget shortfall at the influential conservative Christian group. Seventy-five employees will lose their jobs and an additional 57 vacant positions will remain unfilled, said Gary Schneeberger, spokesman for the evangelical ministry founded by child psychologist James Dobson. The cutbacks are necessary because projections show the group will fall 5 percent short of a $138 million budget for the fiscal year ending this month, Schneeberger said.

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The cutbacks include a staffer at "Love Won Out," a conference series about "overcoming" same-sex attractions that Focus on the Family announced last month would be ceded to another religious organization.

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An in-house ad agency also will be closed, Schneeberger said. The layoffs will leave Focus on the Family with about 860 employees, down from a peak 1,400. Last fall, budget problems prompted the group to eliminate more than 200 positions, the largest staff reduction in its history.

Prevent Buju Banton From Appearing at The NORVA in Norfolk, Virginia

I was horrified to learn via an e-mail from a friend that Jamaican gay hating performer Buju Banton is scheduled to appear at The NORVA theater located at 317 Monticello Avenue in Norfolk, Virginia on September 25, 2009. Yes, this is the same Buju Banton I wrote about a few days ago who advocates in his songs violence against and the murder of gays. Several concert venues have canceled his performances because of his violent song lyrics. I am shocked that The NORVA would book someone so vile. Would the NORVA book a performer who sang about murdering blacks or Jews? I suspect not. The standard should be no different with Banton. I am encouraging people to contact the NORVA and make it known that booking Banton is NOT acceptable. Here is the contact information to voice your concerns:

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Tel: 627-4547
Fax: 622-2829
E-mail: questions@thenorva.com

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Here's the text of the e-mail I received that says it well:

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Do we really need a concert in Norfolk, VA where the performer’s hit song is about shooting minorities and pouring acid on them?
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Buju Banton is coming to the Norva 9/25. His hit song, “Boom Boom Bye” said that “batty boys”, a slur for homosexuals, should be shot in the head and have acid poured on them.
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Is this an image of Norfolk’s performing arts that you are proud of? How on Earth can this be allowed to take place? This is no different than the KKK singing about lynching African Americans or Neo Nazis singing about how great it is to put Jewish people in concentration camps.

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I am embarrassed and disgusted that such a thing is taking place in a location I call home. What can be done to cancel this revolting event? I am ashamed for Norfolk.

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I fully concur with my friend's outrage and have put out the word to as many people as possible locally to raise a ruckus with The NORVA.

Thursday Male Beauty

Dustan Lance Black on the National Equality March

Besides being an Academy Award winning screen writer Dustan Lance Black has become a somewhat non-stop activist for LGBT equality. I was lucky enough to see him in person last December at the all expense paid LGBT Blogger Summit when attendees had a private screening of the movie "Milk." In an interview with the Windy City Times, Black explains why he supports the National Equality March on October 10-11, 2009, and the importance of LGBT Americans making a visible statement in the nation's capital. I share many of his views and, as I have said before, the boyfriend and I will be attending. Here are some interview highlights:

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Taking a break from writing on a recent Sunday afternoon, the San Antonio, Texas-raised Black discussed the upcoming National Equality March ( scheduled for Oct. 10-11 in Washington, D.C. ) , his experiences touring the country, closeted Hollywood actors and, for the first time, a national LGBT awareness campaign he will launch this Sept.

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Dustin Lance Black: I'm doing anything Cleve [ Jones ] asks me to do—I guess that makes me a humble servant to the march on Washington. It starts with David Mixner calling for a march on Washington a couple of months ago [ on his blog ] . For a serious march. Not a gay Lollapalooza. And Cleve Jones, who has been so incredibly skeptical about having another march, read that piece and believed that now is the time. It's time for two reasons. One is to make our voices heard.

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There have been promises made by the Obama administration while he campaigned, really exciting and specific promises, and he still occasionally talks about them but has done nothing about achieving any of those goals. He's set no dates, he's shown no way forward meaning he's not pressing Congress or demanding or requesting legislation. We need to make our voices heard. The second reason, and the thing I think is so incredibly important, is this march unlike previous marches is an organizing march. We have reached out to LGBT leaders in all 435 congressional districts and where we couldn't find leaders we found people we're trying to teach how to lead and organize and gather a group of LGBT people that is representative of their district and bring them to Washington.

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We will have leaders from all 435 congressional districts represented in the D.C. mall and use that moment as an organizing conference so these people learn about grassroots activism, how to lobby their federal representative back home in their local district, and how to do the door-to-door activism that really does change minds. All of this is because there's a philosophy that you only can achieve full equality through the federal government. All the leaders before us have known that. But we haven't demanded it until now, and if you look at the history of any civil rights movement in this country federal quality is the only way to full equality.

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I think it's incredibly important that Obama is invited to speak. Cleve is the organizer at this point and I know he's negotiating that and in contact with the White House, and if Obama does show up and speak I think that says a lot. And if he doesn't, that also speaks volumes. I'm all for him being given the only VIP invite to speak."

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I've gone to many cities across the country that are either conservative, or like in Columbia, Mo., that's considered a purple area because it flip-flops from red to blue each election. In one of these places I was met with "You A Fag" written on the big wall of the green room. I'm met with that initially but as I get up and speak and begin to relate my story and I ask people from the audience to relate their stories, which is always a part of what I do, you can feel the homophobia melt away. The discomfort turns into laughter and by the end people are coming up and shaking my hand or shaking their friends' or classmates' and starting to have those conversations. I know it sounds corny but having had the chance to travel and speak in every kind of town there is across this country, I feel more than ever that all Americans love LGBT people and those who think they don't simply have not met us yet.

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I'm not in favor of outing people unless they're in a position of power and using that to hurt gay or lesbian people. It's not my mission to go outing people just so they're out, so I'm not going to have a confrontation with any actor who chooses to stay in the closet. That's their personal choice. I wish it was a different choice, I wish they would all come out. But in terms of the more aggressive tactic of outing I would save that for people who are deliberately hurting the gay community and there's a lot of that in Washington.

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I do agree with Black that many outward homophobes simply have not met and come to know LGBT individuals. I know for a fact among my clients that my being openly out and matter of fact about it has changed the views of a number of people who previously would not have seen themselves as gay allies. Coming out and living honestly and openly is perhaps the most effective type of activism any of us can do.

Former Regent University Assistant Dean and Wife Guilty of Child Sex Abuse

I have done prior posts on this story as it has developed along the way since the false piety that comes out of nearby Regent University is beyond sickening at times. Today there are to less hypocrites loose to prey on minors while deceitfully quoting the Bible. Not only was former Regent University assistant dean Stephen McPherson convicted of sexual abuse, but so was his wife, Melina McPherson (both pictured here). What is particularly disgusting is the manner in which these two abused their positions of trust. Meanwhile, of course, their fellow Christianists depict gays as sexual predators while they would be better served to police their own ranks. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

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Stephen McPherson and his wife, Melina, doted on the three teenage sisters at Hope Haven Children's Home. The couple, house parents at the Christian-based community in Virginia Beach during the late 1990s, treated the girls to dinner and movies. They gave gifts, allowed the girls to stay up later than other children and took them along on vacation. They also preyed on them.

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Court records show the McPhersons manipulated the teens into submitting to fondling, kissing and other sex acts. They cited Bible verses that they said justified the abuse and, afterward, would pray together for God's forgiveness.

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Court records show the McPhersons manipulated the teens into submitting to fondling, kissing and other sex acts. They cited Bible verses that they said justified the abuse and, afterward, would pray together for God's forgiveness.

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On Wednesday, the McPhersons admitted in separate hearings in Virginia Beach Circuit Court to committing the crimes. Stephen McPherson, a former assistant dean at Regent University, pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties with two of the girls; his wife pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties with the third. Stephen McPherson, 40, already is serving a 16-year sentence after being convicted of similar charges in Chesapeake. He pleaded guilty in January to forcible sodomy and object sexual penetration stemming from incidents involving two of the girls in his Chesapeake home.

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Stephen McPherson, shackled and dressed in an orange jumpsuit, was to be returned to the Chesapeake City Jail pending a Sept. 16 sentencing hearing in Virginia Beach. Melina McPherson cried at the defense table throughout her hearing. Circuit Judge A. Joseph Canada Jr. revoked her bond, despite protests by her attorney, Franklin Swartz. The judge ordered her jailed pending an Oct. 7 sentencing hearing and review of a psychosexual evaluation.

More Wednesday Male Beauty