More Saturday Male Beauty

“60 Votes” — It Was Always Bullshit

Jane Hamsher at Fire Dog Lake has been very vocal in taking the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats to task for the abortion of bill that would purport to "reform" health care. Among other things that she has called for is a strong public option because without one, health insurers will have no real pressure to reign in premium hikes or cease throwing up loop hole to avoid payouts to insured individuals. Now, in the wake of the Massachusetts debacle, she has a post that looks at the need/excuse for a 60 vote in the U.S. Senate. Here are some highlights with which I very much agree:

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One of the ways the administration tried to jam its PhRMA deal/Aetna bailout on the country was forcing a series of false choices onto the debate. Those who opposed this corrupt hijacking of the democratic process were told that the reality was, you gotta have 60 votes in the Senate. And Lieberman, Landrieu, Nelson and Lincoln stood firm, so you had to give them what they wanted.
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It was that or nothing. What can you do? We now hear “If only we didn’t have the filibuster” as frequently as we heard “if only we had 60 votes” when the Democrats didn’t own the war. And now, we find out something that may surprise many (though probably not anyone who has watched politics for more than 6 months): it was all bullshit

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The 60 vote bar was always crap. Now that it only takes 51 votes to pass a public option (which the OpenLeft whip count says they have), they can’t clear that either. It’s all about kabuki — who gets to feign support for publicly popular legislation vs. who gets to take credit for bashing the hippies and killing it. The White House wants what it wants, and the Senate — largely insulated from the electoral consequences of the bill — is totally willing to sacrifice those in the House who are much more vulnerable in order to give it to them.
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Now the apologists are peddling the “it’s this or nothing” false choice about a bill that won’t even kick in for the next four years, as if their “60 vote” myth didn’t just explode. How is it suddenly Raul Grijalva’s fault if he stands firm and won’t accept a hideous bill crafted on the imperative of getting Joe Lieberman’s vote, which isn’t necessary any more?
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I truly become more disgusted with each passing day. Even when they were given all that they needed, the incompetent/corrupt Democrats failed to deliver. Why should anyone believe them any longer?

Pope Palpatine to Priests: For God's Sake, Blog!

In an ironic move, Pope Benedict XVI, a/k/a Pope Palpatine, who wants to return Catholicism to a 13th century level of scientific knowledge, is now encouraging priest to use blogs and social networks to "proclaim the Gospel." Somehow, I suspect that some priests are already using social network sites such as Gay.com and Manhunt,com, although not to proclaim the gospel (even this blog has had a number of visitors from the Vatican City). If the Roman Catholic Church wants to avoid losing younger generations outside of uneducated parts of the world such as Africa, it is going to require more than the use of the Internet and Facebook to turn the tide. The worldwide sexual abuse scandal has shown the world that the Church's feet are made of clay and its venturing into interfering with civil legal rights for gays will likewise not help its cause among younger generations. Here are highlights from MSNBC on Pope Palpatine's message to priests:

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For God's sake, blog! Pope Benedict told priests on Saturday, saying they must learn to use new forms of communication to spread the gospel message. In his message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Communications, the pope, who is 82 and known not to love computers or the Internet, acknowledged priests must make the most of the "rich menu of options" offered by new technology.
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"Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources — images, videos, animated features, blogs, Web sites — which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis," he said.
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After decades of being wary of new media, the Vatican has decided to dive in head first. Last year, a new Vatican Web site, www.pope2you.net, went live, offering one application called "The pope meets you on Facebook," and another allowing the faithful to see the pope's speeches and messages on their iPhones or iPods.
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The Vatican got egg on its face last year when the pope admitted that, if the Church had surfed the Web more, it might have known that a traditionalist bishop whose excommunication was lifted had for years been a Holocaust denier.

Obama and "Hope" Have Been a Bust

Earlier in the week Arianna Huffington wrote a post that - in my view - sums up where progressive Americans and the country now find themselves. Barack Obama's lofty promises of "Hope" and "Change" have proven to have been false and unless the grassroots does something to change the game, the changes desperately needed are never going to happen. Obama has abdicated his role as an outspoken leader of the Democrats and left far too much of the movement for change with Congressional Democrats who, with a few notable exceptions, have shown themselves to be either utterly incompetent or too beholden to special interests (think health insurers, banks and drug manufacturers) and far to eager to sell out average Americans. So what needs to be done? Recreate a ground swell across the country that demands the bullshit politics as usual need to end now, or else there will be adverse repercussions for both political parties, but particularly the Democrats. Here are some highlights from her post:

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On the eve of the first anniversary of President Obama's inauguration, it's become painfully obvious that elected officials are not going to save us. The 2008 election was all about "Hope." But Hope is simply not cutting it. . . . our system is too broken to be fixed by politicians, however well intentioned [or not]-- that change is going to have to come from outside Washington.
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This realization is especially resonant as we celebrate Dr. King, whose life and work demonstrate the vital importance of social movements in bringing about change. Indeed, King showed that no real change can be accomplished without a movement demanding it. As Frederick Douglass put it: "Power never concedes anything without a demand; it never has and it never will."
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since the days of FDR and LBJ, the system has only gotten more rigged, and the powers-that-be more entrenched. As Janine Wedel shows in Shadow Elite, the power of special interests to thwart meaningful change -- often by co-opting the rhetoric of change but producing in its name a further consolidation of the status quo -- has never been stronger. The health care bill's path from fundamental reform to fiasco is only the latest example.
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One year later, wracked with conflict and discord, and battered by petty grievances, false promises, and worn out dogmas, we stand on the verge of passing a giant boon to health insurance companies and calling it "reform." The reason we are given? What else: the votes just aren't there for a real reform bill. That's where Hope 2.0 comes in. If the votes aren't there, the people need to create them. Just like King did. They need to build a movement. And to make that happen, we need to adopt another of the great lessons of Dr. King's life: elevating the role empathy must play in our society.
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Watching the [bank] CEOs, I was stunned by the utter lack of even a feigned sense of empathy for those whose lives the banks have destroyed. Only a complete inability to feel empathy could explain the fact that the bankers are not just back to operating at their old bonus levels, but at their old smugness levels as well.
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One year ago, writing about former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain and his now infamous $1.2 million office redecoration in the midst of the economic collapse, I bemoaned the Marie Antoinettes of the Meltdown, and our era of Not Getting It. Little did I realize just how small-scale Thain's outrages would now seem, and how much worse things would get in the ensuing year. Lloyd "Doing God's Work" Blankfein and his fellow "too big to fail" CEOs -- with their utter cluelessness about the public's anger over what they've done and continue to do -- take Not Getting It to a whole other level.
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But the question is, can this righteous -- and entirely justifiable -- rage be productively channeled to produce a real movement for reform, or will it be hijacked by tea party wackos and dangerous demagogues? . . . One year ago, Hope was about crossing our fingers and electing leaders that we thought would enact real change. Hope 2.0 is about using the lessons of Dr. King to create the conditions that give them no other choice.
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Of course, the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down restrictions on corporate campaign contributions that will be used to literally buy legislators will not make the task any easier. On the other hand, if corporations are "persons" within the meaning of freedom of speech rights, perhaps the Court's bestowing of such rights on non-living "citizens" can be used to somehow bite the conservatives on the Court in the ass when Perry v. Schwarzenegger makes its way before the court sometime in the future.

Saturday Male Beauty

Prop 8 Trial Witness: Being Gay Not a Choice

Testimony in Perry v. Schwarzenegger yesterday again demonstrate why it is so crucial to the Christianists and gay haters that the "choice myth" and "ex-gay myth" be perpetuated. Numerous posts on this blog and others such as Truth Wins Out have focused on the large amounts of funding poured into groups like Exodus International and other "ex-gay ministries" with the sole goal of throwing up a smoke screen that sexual orientation is a choice and, therefore, not an immutable trait which would make anti-gay discrimination a suspect activity from a constitutional law perspective. The anti-gay "family values" organizations realize that once the choice myth is full destroyed, their anti-gay legal agenda will likely be fatally wounded and, therefore, continue to find "ex-gays for pay" such as the fraudulent Michael Johnston and John Paulk. Here are highlights from the San Jose Mercury on yesterday's testimony:
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The plaintiffs' side in the legal challenge to California's ban on same-sex marriage concluded Friday, offering a final expert who spent a full day on the witness stand engaged in a debate over whether homosexuality is a product of nature or choice. Gregory Herek, a University of California-Davis psychology professor, testified that research for the most part sides with the theory that gays and lesbians have no choice in their sexual preference, a position confronted for more than five hours by a lawyer defending Proposition 8.
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The testimony went to a central competing theme in the standoff over gay marriage. Same-sex couples seeking the right marry maintain that homosexuality is an inherent characteristic, a factor that should extend constitutional protections to them as a minority group facing discrimination. Foes of same-sex marriage insist homosexuality is a social choice, not a biological characteristic deserving of the highest legal protections.*
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During Friday's proceedings, Proposition 8 attorney Howard Nielson Jr. spent the better part of the day trying to poke holes in Herek's assertions about the origins of sexual orientation. Invoking everyone from Sigmund Freud to one of the plaintiff couples suing over Proposition 8, Nielson attempted to show that gays and lesbians opt for their sexual preference at different points in their lives.
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But Herek kept pushing back, saying gays and lesbians typically do not come to terms with their sexual identity until after their youth because of society's emphasis on heterosexuality. That, he said, does not mean they choose their sexuality. "Most people report some consistency "... in their sexual orientation," he testified.
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The other obvious reason that Christianists so desperately seek to maintain the choice myth is because, if people are born gay, then God made us this way and their entire house of cards religious belief system begins to crumble.

The Conversion of a Right Winger

The New York Times Magazine has an interesting story that follows the ephiphany of Charles Johnson, author/editor of the blog, Little Green Footballs, which for a time was an avatar of the American right wing. Like many others, Johnson ultimately broke with the far right as it hate laced insanity became increasing delusional and, in my view, down right dangerous. While the Republican Party has made recent gains, if it does not distance itself from the most lunatic core of the party base, a long term recovery may be difficult to achieve. Too many people, myself included, find the Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck crowd to be outright scary. It's one thing to be a conservative, it's something else entirely to be a foaming at the mouth bigot who hates everyone who doesn't look and believe just like one's self. In any event, by 2007 or so Johnson found his blog at the heart of a vast, amorphous grid of right-wing sites of every description. Johnson himself had become, in a way, too popular to control and, as a result, when he came to disavow the hate emanating from the far right, the reaction from those who thought him an ally was nearly violent. Here are some highlights from the Times article that look at Johnson's change in direction:

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Johnson, who is 56, sits in the ashes of an epic flame war that has destroyed his relationships with nearly every one of his old right-wing allies. People who have pledged their lives to fighting Islamic extremism, when asked about Charles Johnson now, unsheathe a word they do not throw around lightly: “evil.” Glenn Beck has taken the time to denounce him on air and at length. Johnson himself (Mad King Charles is one of his most frequent, and most printable, Web nicknames) has used his technical know-how to block thousands of his former readers not just from commenting on his site but even, in many cases, from viewing its home page. He recently moved into a gated community, partly out of fear, he said, that the venom directed at him in cyberspace might jump its boundaries and lead someone to do him physical harm. He has turned forcefully against Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, nearly every conservative icon you can name. And answering the question of what, or who, got to Charles Johnson has itself become a kind of boom genre on the Internet.
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It seems borderline ridiculous that the political character of an extremist Belgian party, which in the last parliamentary election captured just 17 seats out of 150 in the Chamber of Representatives, should become the issue over which a kind of civil war among American conservatives broke out, but that is what happened. Opposing “Islamofascism,” Johnson had come to believe, shouldn’t require identification with fascism of the older sort. Johnson began taking shots at not only Vlaams Belang, an organization it seems safe to say the vast majority of his readers had never heard of, but also at formerly favored colleagues like Spencer and Geller, to whom, by attending the same conference, the European neofascist movement was now . . . linked.
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Johnson broke off relations with blogs that claimed openly to owe their own existence to him. He called the syndicated columnist Diana West and the investigative reporter Richard Miniter fascist sympathizers. He threatened to take down Michelle Malkin. In some ways, it was an exploration of the limits of his own influence: all over the blogosphere, you were either with him or with the fascists.
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[I]n retrospect it also seems clear that the Vlaams Belang blog war, with its attendant scary buzzwords (“fascist,” “racist,” “Nazi”), gave Johnson the intellectual cover to do something he wanted to do anyway, which was to conduct a kind of public self-purge of the alliances he acquired on the road to fame.
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It was a kind of orgy of delinking, an intentionally set brush fire meant to clear the psychic area around Johnson and ensure that no one would connect him to anyone else, period, unless he first said it was O.K. No one would define Johnson’s allegiances but Johnson.
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Johnson, too, insists that he hasn’t really changed. His recent expressions of support for abortion rights, of contempt for creationism and the religious right — all these beliefs, he told me, are elements of the “classical liberalism” he has always believed in but previously opted not to write about. Why now? The answer is so heretical it seems destined to raise the tizzy-level among his former followers to new heights: “It’s not that the war on terror has finished,” he said. “It’s never going to be finished, but I think things have reached the point now where it’s not as pressing as it was. Some of the measures we took to protect ourselves against extremists have been pretty effective. And so I realized, you know, that maybe it’s time to tell people that I’m not onboard with a lot of this social-conservative agenda. And I think that I actually speak for a lot of people.”
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ON THE LAST DAY of November, Johnson delivered the final blow to his old alliances. In a post that he said took him about three minutes to write, he listed 10 reasons “Why I Parted Ways With the Right.” The “reasons” themselves amounted to little more than laundry lists: “Support for conspiracy theories and hate speech (see: Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Birthers, creationists, climate deniers, etc.),” for instance.
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Sitting at his desk, he read me an e-mail message he received that day from a stranger who wished upon him a series of unprintable misfortunes involving a “male black crack whore.” He closed the e-mail message and shook his head. Incivility, at least of the F2F variety, clearly makes him uncomfortable; in fact, he can be downright squeamish about it. “I don’t know why things can’t just stay on the level of the factual,” he said.
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Where the right will go is any one's guess. Personally, I believe Johnson made the right move and I agree with him that comments should be fact based and not personal attacks on the blog author - something I experience frequently from far right and Christianists commenters who, for the life of me, I don't know why are reading a gay blog in the first place. Obviously, I do not publish such comments - most of which are by "anonymous," but they nonetheless can make one shiver at times. Especially the ones that talk about physical violence like one that greeted me this morning.

More Friday Male Beauty

Yet Another Sell Out on Don't Ask, Don'T Tell

As Chris Johnson at DC Agenda is reporting, disturbing noises are coming out of Congress suggesting that even if President Obama includes a repeal of DADT in the defense budget request, the repeal may nonetheless be killed in Congress (the question is, will it be with or without Obama's acquiescence). I for one am sick to death of the constant betrayal of LGBT citizens by our alleged friends in Congress. Even though polls show that a significant majority of Americans - excluding the wingnut crowd, of course - support the repeal of DADT, Congressional Democrats lack the will and/or courage to deliver on this very clear campaign promise. It makes me furious and is why I continue to tell Congressional Democrat fundraising callers that neither the boyfriend or I are giving them a dime. I strongly support the Don't Ask, Don't Give campaign for which I have a link on the right side of this blog. Here are some highlight's from Chris' story:

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Even if President Obama includes a ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal as part of his upcoming defense budget request, the language could be yanked by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.). (DC Agenda photo by Michael Key)
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President Obama is being pressured to include a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal as part of his upcoming defense budget request to Congress, but the response from two key Democrats to such a proposal could hinder any change in the law.
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Two lawmakers with considerable sway over defense matters — and whether a repeal will initially be part of the fiscal year 2011 defense budget — are House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.).
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Some advocates, including Belkin [Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center], are questioning whether Levin and Skelton would retain Obama’s request to lift the ban on open service in the U.S. armed forces as part of their chairman’s marks for the defense budget. Belkin was particularly skeptical about Levin’s willingness to let repeal go forward because of the senator’s history on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
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“Levin has been a huge problem on this issue,” Belkin said. “Who the hell knows where Levin is personally, but I would say that very few people in the United States have done more to obstruct the service of openly gay troops than Carl Levin.” Belkin took issue with Levin’s abandoned plan to hold hearings last year on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Those hearings never took place.
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C. Dixon Osburn, former head of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said Levin has gone on record several times as noting that he supports repeal of the ban, but acknowledged Levin is “somebody who’s very much a consensus builder within the Senate Armed Services Committee.” “So if it’s not percolating up in the Senate Armed Services Committee, he’s going to be more reluctant even as he believes that the law should repealed, and right now you don’t have the bubbling up within the Senate Armed Services Committee,” Osburn said
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Lara Battles, spokesperson for the House Armed Services Committee, said she couldn’t say whether Skelton would include repeal language in his chairman’s mark for the defense budget, which she said would be public in May.
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If the House version of the bill has repeal language and the Senate version doesn’t, lawmakers would have to hash out whether repeal would be included in the final bill during conference committee — another potential point where the repeal strategy could fail.
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Osburn said “it’s a possibility” that repeal language could survive conference, but that would depend on who congressional leaders appoint as conferees. “The effort that the LGBT community would need to push for is to ensure that the conference committee includes people who are going to be supportive of this and will leave it in,” he said.

More Hypocrisy - Tea Party Leader Busted For Child Rape

Yet another conservative protector of "Traditional America" has proven that hypocrisy knows no limits when it comes to Christianists and Tea Baggers. This story also shows how potentially dangerous these folks are and makes a strong argument for gun control. I mean, what ordinary citizen needs to be purchasing grenade launchers? It seems that Charles Alan Dyer, 29 (pictured at left), an ex-military man involved with a far right, teabagger allied group known as the Oath Keepers (which despite numerous disclaimers to the contrary seeks a second American revolution to take back the country), has been arrested on charges of rape of a child and forcible sodomy. Here are some highlights from the Duncan, Oklahoma, Banner:

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[Sheriff Wayne]McKinney said charges included first degree rape and two counts of forcible sodomy. It is expected the charges will be formally presented in Stephens County District Court today, McKinney said. “These are what we are asking for through the District Attorney’s office,” McKinney said.
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The investigation began after the last alleged incident that was said to have taken place Jan. 2, at Dyer’s residence on Hope Road near Marlow. McKinney said the Mary Abbot House in Norman has experts that specialize in interviewing children who are victims of rape. They Abbot House handled the interviews of the victim. “We feel there’s enough to charge him,” McKinney said.
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True, Dyer remains innocent until convicted, but on the weapons possession issue there seems to be little doubt. What's frightening is that Dyer is the poster boy for the lunatic fringe that support Sarah Palin and other far right politicians who care nothing for the truth and who have no grasp on reality. In another story, the Banner reports on the federal weapons charge facing Dyer:

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An arrest on charges of rape of a child and forcible sodomy has led to a complaint being filed in United States District Court. Charles Alan Dyer, 29, of Marlow, was arrested for the alleged rape and forcible sodomy of a child. During the investigation into the allegations, the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office obtained a warrant to collect DNA evidence. During the search the sheriff’s deputies noted several firearms and a device believed to be a Colt M-203, 40-millimeter grenade launcher, a complaint filed in the United States District Court of Western Oklahoma by Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco Special Agent Brett Williams said.
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On Wednesday, knowing that Dyer, an ex-Marine, had alleged contacts with militia groups and not knowing the legality of the alleged device, the Stephens County Sheriff's Office contacted federal agents and informed them of what the deputies had observed.
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Dyer’s affiliation with militia groups is apparent through the videos posted on his YouTube channel — July4Patriot.
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Deputies searched the National Crime Information Center database, according to the complaint, and found that the grenade launcher was one stolen from Fort Irwin, Calif., in 2006. The NCIC also indicated that there were two other grenade launchers stolen from Fort Irwin as they were being transported to Iraq.
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The complaint noted that the grenade launcher was not commonly available to civilians unless they possess a Federal Firearms License. Assistant District Attorney, Josh Creekmore said that Dyer is now in federal custody. “Federal crimes take precedent over state crimes,” Creekmore noted. Violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 5871, referring to Section 5861(d), carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and/or a $10,000 fine.

Blu Q Sunset Cruise

One of the true highlights of the Key West trip was the sunset cocktail cruise aboard the 42 foot catamaran, the Blu Q. As the photos below reveal, it was gorgeous and the other guys on the cruise were great fun.

Sun has disappeared beneath the water

Sunset over the Gulf of Mexico

The boyfriend and yours truly

Friday Male Beauty

New Homes Sales and Construction Fall to 25 year Low

Today's Virginian Pilot looks at the abysmal state of real estate in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia - an area that by many reports is relatively "stable" compared to housing markets in areas such as Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada, and where unemployment and job losses are not as severe as the national average. What's driving this trend? In my view it's very simple. The banks and financial houses that were bailed out with taxpayer money are not lending (even as obscene bonuses are being paid out to many of their personnel). Other than lower end homes - i.e., homes typically under $200,000 being purchased by first time home buyers - people cannot get mortgage financing. And as the price tag of homes goes up, so does the difficulty in securing financing. Indeed, the only larger loans we are seeing are refinances where the owners have huge amounts of equity. Things are equally bad in the commercial lending realm. Unless and until Obama and Congress get banks lending again, the economy will never recover. Here are some story highlights:

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New-home construction and sales in Hampton Roads last year fell to their lowest point in more than two decades despite a tax credit for first-time home-buyers and record low interest rates, according to a report released today.
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A similar trend was seen across the country. The number of building permits issued in 2009 fell 37 percent, according to figures released this week by the U.S. Commerce Department.
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The report also showed that less expensive new homes dominated the market. About 70 percent of the single-family detached homes sold in Hampton Roads last year cost less than $400,000.
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The Dragas Cos., which specializes in less expensive homes, led the region, selling 233 homes for $51 million in revenue. The company also led the region in sales in 2008. Helen E. Dragas, president and CEO of the builder, said in an e-mail that the market for homes costing less than $200,000 is likely to remain strong this year.
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Housing powers a huge portion of the economy and until it revives, expect the recession to continue. Also, expect home prices to fall, leaving more borrowers "upside down" and owing more than they can sell their homes for in today's market.

Perry v. Schwarzenegger - Hak-Shing William “Bill” Tam Testifies

Hak-Shing William “Bill” Tam, one of the five proponents of Proposition 8 who tried to drop out of the case, was called as a hostile witness by the plaintiffs yesterday. His testimony confirmed that he holds extremely anti-gay animus and he repeated a number of the deliberate lies so well loved by the Christianists, including the myth that gays can change their sexual orientation. Not surprisingly, he cited Christianist financed NARTH as the authority for that lie. He even admitted that he had never bothered to check on the APA's position on the unchangeable of sexual orientation. Much of the defense seems to rely on religious belief as if that justifies discrimination against others who do not hold the same religious beliefs. I'm sorry, but freedom of religion is a two way street and Christianists do NOT have the right to force their beliefs on others. Here are highlights of Tam's testimony via the Courage Campaign:
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For those of you not able to make it into the courtroom, I think that the William Tam testimony just might be the highlight of the Prop 8 Trial Renactment Series. . . from just the plain language, it is hard to argue that what Tam said was anything but some of the most salacious and offbase anti-gay propaganda that I’ve seen outside of the Klan or other similar hate groups. And Boies just shreds whatever logic or reasonable basis that Tam had for his statements:
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Boies: You said that you thought Prop. 8 would lead to legalizing prostitution. Why?
Tam: Measure K in SF. I saw some homosexuals hanging around there.
B: You know that Measure K has nothing to do with Prop. 8.
T: Yes.
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Prop K had nothing, whatsoever, to do with the LGBT community or Prop 8, and Tam acknowledges that. By the way, Prop K lost by a wide margin, even in a city that Tam said was “controlled by homosexuals.” But that line in the gay agenda that Tam thrusts upon the community pales in comparison to the offensive claim that tops off Tam’s flyer.
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B: You told people that next will be legalizing sex with children. That’s the homosexual agenda. Do you believe this?
T: Yes.
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But, of course, the problem with Tam is his rejection of logic. He uses innuendo and vague emotional statements about the welfare of children, and then depends on the website of NARTH, an ex-gay group condemned by mainstream mental health professionals, over accredited, peer-reviewed scientific studies from real professionals. This has nothing to do with what is going on in the real world, but what is going on in a few small minds.

More Thursday Male Beauty

Will the Democrat Base Abandon Hope?

It seems the more closely one follows the news, the more it seems that Obama may be finally beginning to awaken to the reality that he and the Congressional Democrats have thoroughly f*cked things up with their delusional quest for bipartisanship and their sickening lack of courage to move forward the agenda they promised to voters last year. Would that this possible realization had begun months ago. Now Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight - who is an amazing numbers cruncher and prognosticator - has a piece that suggests that if the Democrats don't act fast, the bottom may fall out for them as the Party's base gives up on them. What happened in Virginia last November and what happened this week in Massachusetts need not have happened had the national Democrats provided a reason to believe in the Party. Merely, saying that you're not the GOP is NOT enough to win. Here are some highlights from Nate's post:
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So then Barack Obama gets elected, whose very trademark is Hope, and whose very election signifies progress. He promises a lot of things, and you look over the political horizon and see large Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress, a logjam of popular, progressive initiatives, and a neutered and discredited opposition party. And you think to yourself: "Well, knock on wood, but this looks pretty fucking good!". And for a little while, things are pretty fucking good. Al Franken -- Al Franken! -- wins in Minnesota! Arlen Specter switches parties! Man, Republicans are so screwed!
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In the fall, you begin to see some of your friends on the left question the President. You remind yourself that you're the Adult in the room, and that some people are never going to be happy -- don't they remember Ralph Nader? Truth be told, you have a few questions yourself, especially about the health care bill.
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After the New Year, there are a few more signs of trouble. A bunch of Democrats retire. Polls -- not just Rasmussen -- show Obama's approval below 50 percent. Then one shows that things are closer than expected in Massachusetts, where they're having an election to replace Ted Kennedy. A Republican can't possibly win the Kennedy seat, can he? Yes. He. Can. Oh, shit. Which brings us to where we are today.
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But it would be hard to overstate just how demoralizing this particular sequence of events has been for base Democrats. And when people get demoralized, they tend to dig in and make their problems worse. That holds for voters, certainly, but unfortunately it also seems to hold for Democratic members of the Congress. What they need to remember is that while financial reform and the bank tax are the jobs bill are nice -- things that certainly ought to appeal to swing voters and which could mitigate some of the electoral damage -- they mostly fall into the category of cleaning up the mess. Financial reform isn't what gets any Democrat out of bed in the morning.
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The risk is that, when we get to November, the base looks at the fact that significant progress has not been made on any of those core, defining issues, that the political and procedural hurdles are immense, that Democratic majorities will (at best) shrink, and that the party leadership seems nonchalant in good times and panicky in bad ones. And they'll conclude that the progressive party is incapable of making progress.
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[I]f the base doesn't believe that you can actually push the country in their direction, they become less likely to donate to you, work for you, and vote for you, and that in turn makes such successes harder to achieve. I don't know if the Democrats have any good moves right now, but watching the base give up hope isn't one of them.

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I believe that Nate accurately describes what is happening currently. The question therefore is whether or not Obama and the Congressional Democrats can get off their asses, grow a back bone, and get something done. I'm not holding my breath in the hope that they can.

Perry v. Schwarzenegger - Update

Pam's House Blend has good post that updates yesterday's activities in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger trail. It is noteworthy that the supporters of Proposition 8 have decided to drastically reduced the number of witnesses they plan to call - all the way down to two (2), in fact. Indeed, it increasingly appears that the defense's witness could be more of a liability than a help to them. As a result, the defense's principal tactic will be to use cross-examination to try to impugn the testimony of witnesses for those seeking to have Proposition 8 declared unconstitutional. Obviously, as a trial posture, this is not a case of defending the lawsuit from a position of strength. I very much like the Olson-Boies approach of loading the trial record with fact matters. Should the plaintiffs succeed, the large amount of testimony and data submitted to the trial court will make it far more difficult for any appellate court reviewing the case to try to ignore the case record and decide the matter only based only on a religious based beliefs - something that will not make supreme homophobe, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, very happy. But then the decision should be based on the Constitution and not Scalia's intolerant personal religious beliefs. Here are some highlights:
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It was a phenomenal day in the courtroom, in particular testimony from Ryan Kendall about forced conversion therapy that moved many to tears. We also heard surprising revelations from experts who were supposed to support Prop 8 but whose opinions instead clearly shored up our side. After today, I wish more than ever that the public could be watching the video of this trial - I have truly never seen anything like it. Fortunately, daily transcripts of the trial are now being released with a one day delay and are available on AFER's website.

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It was immediately clear why the Prop 8 proponents had really withdrawn these two expert witnesses -- their testimony strongly supported the plaintiffs' claims, not the defense. Indeed, many in the courtroom appeared to be shocked by how much the defense's experts sounded like they should have been testifying for the plaintiffs. In particular, Dr. Young testified that: (1) homosexuality is a normal variant of human behavior; (2) there have been sub-traditions of allowing marriage between same-sex couples in a number of cultures; (3) allowing same-sex couples to marry enhances their security and well-being and is good for their children; and (4) studies show that there is no harm to children from being raised by gay parents and there is "no reason to predict harm." Dr. Nathanson testified that, in the past, religion has been used to justify discrimination against people based on race and gender in the name of "protecting the family." This testimony from the Prop 8 proponents' own witnesses powerfully refutes the defendants' claims.
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The plaintiff's next witness was Ryan Kendall, a gay man from Colorado who testified about his ordeal with family rejection and forced conversion therapy as a teenager. . . . Kendall testified that conversion therapy did not work for him -- "I knew I was gay, just like I knew that I was short and half-Hispanic." He also testified that as far as he knew, it did not work for others. In fact, Kendall recounted an incident that took place when he was in "therapy" with Niccolosi, who introduced him to a young man who allegedly had changed his sexual orientation from gay to straight. Kendall noted that when Niccolosi left the room, the man told him that he was going to a gay bar that night and that he was just pretending to be straight to please his parents.
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The rest of the day was spent on the testimony of Professor Gary Segura, a professor of political science at Stanford. . . . In some of the most dramatic evidence presented to date, Professor Segura commented upon a number of documents that provided a shocking glimpse of just how deeply the Catholic and Mormon churches were involved in supporting Prop 8 and intertwined with the official pro-Prop 8 campaign. "One document sent by executive director of the Conference of Catholic Bishops to bishops in California thanked the Catholic Conference for its "unusual" efforts in supporting Prop 8 and applauded the Mormon church for its "financial, organizational, and managerial contributions" to the campaign." Other documents detailed the Mormon Church's extensive collaboration with the campaign, including mobilizing more than 20,000 volunteers and coordinating messaging and fundraising. Professor Segura testified that this level of coordination among powerful religious groups to target a particular group was unprecedented.
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Thompson will complete his cross of Professor Segura tomorrow, and the plaintiffs will be calling Dr. Gregory Herek, an expert on sexual orientation, and William Tam, one of the official sponsors of Prop 8, as their final witnesses.
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William Tam's testimony could likewise prove damaging for the defense given his religious extremism and severely homophobic statements in the past. I hope plaintiffs' counsel eat him alive.

Thursday Thoughts

Today was a wonderful day - because the weather was gorgeous, everything seems to be under control at the office, my mom seems to be doing well post minor stroke based on my conversation with my sister, and we took a wonderful sunset cruise with a dozen or so other guys staying at the guest house (photos will be posted once the camera recharges and I can down load them - the photo above is from the boat's website). The boyfriend has gone out with some of the group to a local bar, but yours truly is feeling tired and having withdrawals from not blogging more today. The mix of couples here at the guest house is amazing and we had dinner with a couple from Austin, Texas who are actually Australians. A couple from France is still visiting and a couple from Massachusetts just checked in. I again highly recommend the Oasis and its related properties as a wonderful get away.

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The boyfriend continues to be remarkable and a true treasure. He has been such a huge positive influence on my life and he makes me happier than he will ever know. Would that the economy would turn around and I might feel like I'm once again making positive headway in my life. The thought of work next week is a bit daunting, especially since I will have several commercial closings and have to go to court in a remote neighboring county on a real estate title defense matter. My office manager and my youngest daughter have been gems and kept the office running smoothly. Each day I work on some matters and respond to e-mail, but they have made being away manageable. Both the boyfriend and I needed the get away. We sincerely hope that when we return to Hampton that the worst of the demolition in the house has been completed. The next 6 to 8 weeks living in a construction site will not be enjoyable.

Thursday Male Beauty

Lisa Miller -- Ex-Gay, Born Again, Outlaw, Kidnapper On the Run

As one who tried to deny my true sexual orientation for decades and who has seen first hand the falsity of ex-gay claims - former ex-gay poster boy Michael Johnston is a case in point - I know full well that one doesn't become ever really "ex-gay." It simply doesn't happen despite whatever brainwashing groups like Exodus International and NARTH try to impose. Sooner or later, it will all fall apart and one's innate sexual orientation will remain unchanged. Hence I am baffled at Lisa Miller's insane actions that have made her a fugitive and might well result in her losing custody of her child if the two of them are apprehended. Needless to say, I doubt she would have taken such foolish steps without the aid and comfort of far right Christians who view the law as applying to everyone but themselves. I suspect she's being aided even at this moment by such people. Change.org looks at the sad saga of what religious extremism can cause. Here are some highlights:

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Five years ago, Lisa Miller packed her bags and left her home in Vermont for the greener, less gay-friendly pastures of Virginia. She left behind her partner of six years, Janet Jenkins. She left behind their civil union. She left behind homosexuality. The only thing she didn't leave behind was their then 17 month-old daughter Isabella.
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Lisa's move to Virginia was highly calculated, a backward display of political asylum: she picked a state in which she could hide behind the anti-gay policies and hope not to be found by the inclusive homo-friendly laws of her past.
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Despite the numerous legal decrees granting Janet visitation rights, Lisa has cut Janet out of the family equation, claiming that acquiescing to the custody directive would be like "handing my daughter over to the milkman."

Lisa isn't just ignoring the Vermont orders because she doesn't like them, she's ignoring them because she has her own set of rules: God's law. She felt that "God, through His word and through the ways that He shows Himself, that he wanted me to stop visitation" and so she did. This is no longer a battle between bitter exes, this has become a war of religious ideology.
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Unfortunately for those on Team Lisa (namely evangelicals), directives from God don't carry much weight in a court of law. With each consecutive missed court appearance, each canceled visit with Janet, each statement in the press of defiance and religious piety, Lisa, and Lisa alone, built the case against herself. Rule number one folks, don't piss off a judge. It never ends well.
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So last November a judge granted sole custody of the girl to Janet, citing Lisa's repeated disrespect for the court as representative of her disregard for the best interest of the child. When Lisa failed to show up for a January 1 court appearance, an arrest warrant was issued. No one has seen or heard from Lisa, or Isabella, since.
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This battle isn't over. And the messier it gets, the clearer it becomes that we need uniform laws regarding adoption and custody. Lisa is the newest darling for the traditional family army, while Janet stands in for gay parents everywhere, simply fighting for the right to love their kids.
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What is even more sad - and it may years before Lisa Miller realizes it - is that the Christianist have used Lisa and Isabella for their religious jihad with no long term concern for either of them. It's all about imposing their religious views on all.

Cindy McCain Poses for NOH8 Campaign

Photographer (and major cutie) Adam Bouska - who I interviewed once a couple of years back and posted his responses on this blog - has scored a major coup that will no doubt have the Bible beaters in the GOP base absolutely apoplectic - Cindy McCain (wife of Senator John McCain) has posed for the NOH8 campaign photo series. Tony Perkins, Don Wildmon, and James Dobson, among others have probably wet themselves. Congratulations Adam and congratulations to Cindy McCain for doing the right thing and speaking out against religious based bigotry. Here are some highlights from the Advocate:

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The NOH8 Campaign on Wednesday announced that Cindy McCain, the wife of former Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, has posed to demonstrate her support of marriage equality. NOH8’s Adam Bouska has photographed thousands of subjects since California passed Proposition 8 in 2008. All of the subjects are photographed with duct tape over their mouths to symbolize that their voices aren’t being heard on the subject of marriage equality.
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Writes the NOH8 blog: “In the year since we’ve started the NOH8 Campaign, we’ve been surprised at some of the different individuals who have approached us showing their support. Few, though, have surprised us more than Cindy McCain — the wife of Senator John McCain and mother to vocal marriage equality advocate Meghan McCain. The McCains are one of the most well-known Republican families in recent history, and for Mrs. McCain to have reached out to us to offer her support truly means a lot.
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An interview with Adam Bouska about the shoot can be found here. Way to go Adam!!!

More Wednesday Male Beauty

Who is to Blame for the Massachusetts Debacle?

E.J. Dionne has a column in today's Washington Post that looks at the shocking loss of a Senate seat in Massachusetts that has been held by the Democrats for decades. The piece looks at the poor campaign run by Democrat Martha Coakley. However, more importantly, it looks at the fault that lays at the feet of Congressional Democrats and the White House, both of which have been too timid to act or, in the case of the White House, to lead. A major shake up is needed amongst the White House advisory staff and someone needs to find Obama a backbone. I truly believe that unless (i) Obama wakes up and starts acting as a strong party leader and (ii) the Congressional Democrats get their asses in gear and start to deliver on promises, November, 2010, will be a bloodbath for the Democrats and that it will be well deserved by a party that seems bent on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Lack of money is not the issue. Rather, it is spinelessness and a total lack of leadership. I for one refuse to give money to those who have forgotten their campaign promises and seem more worried about kissing the GOP's ass than enacting legislation to benefit all Americans. Here are some column highlights:

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This race was the Democrats’ to lose, and they managed to lose it. Democrat Martha Coakley and her campaign fell asleep while Brown was hustling from one end of the state to the other in his pickup truck. The Coakley crowd woke up too late. Her campaign pollsters and strategists failed to catch the movement of voters to Brown early enough to arrest the swing. They let Brown define the campaign.
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The United States Senate should take a lot of blame for taking forever to pass a health-care bill. The Senate Finance Committee in particular delayed and delayed, failing to produce a bill before Congress’ August recess. This allowed the raucous conservative protests to dominate the late summer news and prevented Congress from passing a bill this fall, which is when it should have been sent to the president. The longer Congress took, the worse the process looked. The ugliness of the process badly tarnished the bill itself. The excessive time consumed by health care prevented Congress from acting on other issues. And having still not passed it, Democrats now have to figure out how to get it done without that 60th Senate vote.
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The Obama White House should have been keeping a watchful eye on this race, realizing the 60th Democratic vote in the Senate was at stake. More broadly, Obama also needed to create a national narrative that Democrats could proclaim with pride. The narrative has been missing, and conservatives have filled the vacuum. And, by the way, whoever sold the White House on claiming that under the stimulus bill unemployment would rise to only 8 percent last year and peak at 9 percent this year should be sent off on a long foreign trip.
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There are other culprits, including the unpopular (and, in the case of some individual members, corrupt) Massachusetts legislature. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s low standing in the polls also hurt Coakley.
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Why does the term “circular firing squad” seem to pop up after every Democratic defeat? Those Democrats whose mistakes led to this fiasco know who they are.

Wednesday Reflections

Today the weather was absolutely perfect and we went out to Sunset Key - which is a short launch ride from Key West proper - for lunch at Latitudes which is part of the Westin Resort based in Old Town Key West near the cruise liner docks. The photo above is of the view we had from our outdoor table looking towards the Gulf of Mexico. After the drama of 2009, I very much needed to recharge (as did the boyfriend) and the trip is much appreciated. I am so fortunate to have someone in my life who loves me enough to give me this trip as such a wonderful gift.

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Overall, the vacation has been great so far even if I have to be in daily contact with the office and have done a fair amount of document drafting while away - not to mention responding to e-mails forwarded from my office e-mail. If nothing else, it reminds me that there is a big beautiful world out there and that I need not allow the backwardness of Virginia or my depression to blind me to that reality. The Oasis, the guest house where we are staying, is interesting because it is very laid back and has a clientel from all over the USA and the world. Currently, we have had British, Australians, Canadian and French guests as well as couples from New York, Tulsa, Denver, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. The photo below shows a few of the other guys that we've had the chance to meet and socialize with (yours truly is at far right). I recommend Key West highly and the Oasis is a great home base.

Meanwhile, at home the demolition started on Monday morning and sheet rock is being removed from the floor level up to a height of four feet. After the old insulation is replaced with foam non-absorbent insulation, concrete board will be installed in lieu of sheet rock and covered with a skim coat before PVC bead board wainscoting is installed to create a fully water proof seal. Once the repainting is done, marble floors will be installed throughout the first floor. Money over and above the insurance payment is being applied to guarantee that should the house ever flood again, no tear out will be required and the place can be literally hosed out.

Wednesday Male Beauty

Hampton Roads Military Playing Role In Haiti Aftermath

The earthquake disaster has moved hearts around the globe as photos stream in of unbelievable horrors. For many families in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia the disaster is taking on personal overtones as thousands of military personnel have been sent to aid with the recovery and to provide medical assistance - our receptionist's husband is among Navy personnel now in Haiti. Among the vessels dispatched are the hospital ship Comfort (pictured at right). The Comfort - a 900 foot long floating hospital - left Baltimore on Saturday, carrying about 550 medical staff and about 60 civilian mariners. Lt. Cmdr. Heidi Lenzini of the U.S. Southern Command says another 225 medical staff and 125 support staff will join them in Haiti. After the latest aftershock this morning, all Hampton Roads personnel are fine. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot:
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No Norfolk-based ships suffered major damage, and no personnel were seriously hurt, during a massive aftershock felt across Haiti early this morning, officials aboard the ships reported. It's not yet known how Haitians and others onshore fared.
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The amphibious assault ship Bataan, the largest vessel with the Norfolk-based group, suffered minimal damage, Capt. Sam Howard told crew members over loudspeakers about 30 minutes after the quake. The ship shook so violently that Howard initially thought it might have run aground, he said.
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Officials aboard the Bataan said no serious injuries have been reported among the crews of three dock landing ships traveling with the Bataan. At least 140 Navy personnel who spent last night on the ground in Haiti also were believed to be OK, a Bataan spokesman said.

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My thoughts and prayers go out to all suffering in Haiti and those who are there to render aid.

Liberal Bloggers to Obama and Dems: We Told You So

Yesterday, Massachusetts turned into another debacle for the Democrats as Ted Kennedy's former Senate seat went to a Republican. It's a case of deja vu of what went down in Virginia last November - a defeat that I had been months earlier - and results not from the Democrats trending too liberal, but instead from their failure to deliver the change that the country so desperately wanted. The result: anger and a desire to punish the Democrats. Some are now saying that the Massachusetts defeat is a repudiation of Obama - and I believe that it is indeed - for all of his broken campaign promises. He's tried to please everyone and as a result has pleased no one. No one that is other than the banks that took the nation into recession, the health insurance industry and the drug manufactures. The average American has received nothing. Just last night as I walked down Duval Street, I saw a shop that had a sign "Where is my bailout?" in a prominent place in the front window. If Obama doesn't wake the Hell up, I see things as only getting worse as disappointed Democrats stay home this coming November or cast protest votes for Republican candidates. And Obama and the Congressional Democrats will have no one to blame but themselves. Here are highlights from a Huffington Post column that mirrors my view:

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It took more than half a decade, countless American and Iraqi deaths in a war based on lies, a sinking economy and the drowning of an American city to finally kill Bush-Cheney-Rove's dream of a conservative realignment. Democrats, controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, have managed to kill their own dream of dominance in 12 months. How did it happen?
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Theories abound, but two diametrically opposed narratives have taken hold: The first, promulgated by conservatives, is that the new administration has moved too far to the left and alienated a large swath of independent and moderate voters. The second, pushed by progressive activists and bloggers, is that the administration hasn't been true enough to fundamental Democratic principles, has embraced some of Bush's worst excesses on civil liberties, and has ditched popular ideas (like the public option) in favor of watered down centrist policies, thus looking weak and ineffectual.
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With a military surge in Afghanistan, a denuded health insurance bill limping through Congress, Bush-era detainee policies reinforced, a deflated climate summit, and a windfall year for bankers, among other things, it's almost ludicrous to claim that the new administration is run by a gang of lefties.
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The case by progressives that Democrats are undermining themselves with faux-bipartisanship and tepid policies gets much closer to the heart of the problem.
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But I'd like to suggest an additional explanation for the demise of Democratic fortunes, namely, that Democratic leaders made two crucial miscalculations in early 2009. A quick glance at the news a year ago today offers clues. On January 19th, 2009, CBS published the "Obama-Lincoln parallel." The Washington Post wrote about a "bear market for Republicans leaving the Hill or the administration." The same day, techPresident discussed "How the Obama Transition is Using Tech to Innovate." Elsewhere that day, LGBT bloggers were complaining that gay Bishop Gene Robinson's prayer was left out of HBO's live broadcast of the inaugural concert.
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In that small selection of stories, key themes emerge: a) Obama is the next Lincoln; b) The Obama online revolution continues; c) Republicans are finished; d) a handful of progressives aren't buying it.
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Looking back, it's not that difficult to see how the seeds of today's Republican resurgence were planted in those early days:

1. Democratic leaders and strategists, high on victory and awed by the Obama campaign's online prowess, underestimated the dormant power of the old rightwing message machine.
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2. Democratic leaders and strategists, privately disdainful of the netroots, underestimated the influence of progressive bloggers. Nothing should have been a bigger red flag to the new administration than the growing complaints by established progressive bloggers that Democrats were veering off track on the stimulus, the health care bill, civil liberties, gay rights, and more. But scoffing at the netroots is second nature in many quarters of the political establishment
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Progressive bloggers have been jumping up and down, yelling at their Democratic leaders that the path of compromise and pragmatism only goes so far. The limit is when you start compromising away your core values. I sincerely hope that's the lesson learned today.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

The Culture Wars Outline

Click image to enlarge

University Can Reject High School Christian Courses

A federal court ruling in California has struck a blow for scientific knowledge and rational thought by finding that the University of California does NOT have to accept high school course credits for courses taught at Christian schools. No doubt, the Christianists will cry that they are being victimized and subjected to religious discrimination. Of course, the claims will be false (like most else this folks peddle) and the schools will remain free to teach whatever fairy tales they want. Just don't expect legitimate institutions of higher education to recognize religious indoctrination as substantive course work. If parents want to squander their money and send their children to the Christianist equivalent of a madrasas, that's their option (and their stupidity). But just maybe, some of them will wake up to reality and strive to get their children educated as opposed to indoctrinated. Here are some highlights from the Pew Forum:

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The University of California has the right to reject courses taught at Christian high schools, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday (Jan. 12). Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, Calif., and the Association of Christian Schools International claimed the university's review policy was unconstitutional because it refused to certify courses that taught creationism and other beliefs.
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"The district court correctly determined that UC's rejections of the Calvary courses were reasonable and did not constitute viewpoint discrimination," the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. Students from private schools must meet certain high-school requirements before they are eligible to apply to an undergraduate campus of the University of California.
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The court ruled that evidence in the case failed to show that the university was discriminating on the basis of religion. "UC's policy and its individual course decisions are not based on religion, but on whether a high school course is college preparatory," the three-judge panel ruled.
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In my personal view, subjecting children to religious based propaganda and indoctrination which has no basis in object reality and which is directly contrary to legitimate scientific knowledge borders on a form of child abuse.