Cliven Bundy - Another GOP/Tea Party False Hero

Cliven Bundy - Baldfaced Liar?

I often ponder what form of mental illness plagues the GOP base and the Tea Party.  Time and time again these folks grasp someone of questionable sanity and even less honesty as a "hero" and make fools of themselves just before the "rest of the story" becomes known.  In the case of Cliven Bundy, the rest of the story appears to be that Bundy has been lying through his teeth about his family history and the validity of his "preexisting ancestral rights" that he claims trump the rights of the federal government.  Doesn't anyone on the far right ever check out their clay footed heroes to make sure that they aren't frauds and liars?  Talking Points Memo has details:

Cliven Bundy has trumpeted his "ancestral rights" in his land-use dispute with the federal government, but a report on Monday from a Nevada television station placed doubt on the defiant rancher's claims.

KLAS in Las Vegas obtained property records showing that Bundy's parents purchased the family's ranch in 1948. The Bunkerville, Nev. ranch has been the site of a tense standoff with the federal government over Bundy's use of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
Those records appear to contradict Bundy's own history of the ranch, as well as his biography.

Bundy said that his rights predate the formation of the Bureau of Land Management, and he has refused to pay more than $1 million in cattle grazing fees.

"My rights are before the BLM even existed, but my rights are created by beneficial use. Beneficial use means we created the forage and the water from the time the very first pioneers come here," Bundy said.

But court records obtained by KLAS indicated the family's cattle didn't begin grazing the land until 1954. The Bureau of Land Management was created in 1946 (the same year Cliven Bundy was born.)

From Sarah Palin on down, these so-called "heroes" of the GOP/Tea Party are without exception liars and, often, downright insane.

Has Cuccinelli Lied About His Departure From the Marine Corps?

I won't pretend that I cannot stand GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli.  Personally, Cuccinelli - like Rick Santorum - strikes me as an overly strident closet case who (i) spews anti-gay propaganda in reaction to his own self-loathing and (ii) suffers from near hysteria over the fact that even fathering seven children hasn't turned him straight (I figured it out after having 3 children).  But Cuccinelli's disqualification for being Governor of Virginia involves much more than his closeted situation,  The man is a liar and an extremists who strikes me as Virginia's equivalent to Dick Cheney when it comes from megalomania and viewing himself above the law.  A case in point is Cuccinelli's apparent dishonest in respect to his discharge from the U. S. Marine Corps Reserves.  Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

In 1993, Ken Cuccinelli entered the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves under a program to train future officers for a career as a military lawyer.

But two years later, he resigned his commission after serving just a few weeks on active duty – never having completed all of the training requirements he initially signed up for.  Since entering public life as a state senator more than a decade ago, Cuccinelli, now Virginia’s attorney general, has generally downplayed his short-lived military career.

Cuccinelli has said the U.S. Marine Corps discharged him because it had no use for him after he completed law school.

However, a document obtained by The Virginian-Pilot, which Cuccinelli’s Virginia Attorney General’s Office twice declined to release under open records requests, suggests the story may not be that simple.  In an email earlier this year, a Marine official advised a member of Cuccinelli’s staff that a campaign explanation about the premature end of his military career is inconsistent with its version of events, . . . . .

   . .. his response caught the attention of a Marine public affairs officer who recently told the attorney general’s office that while most of the statement is correct, “the second sentence may be technically accurate for the most part, but what it communicates is not.”

Anything Cuccinelli says needs to be verified.  The man is insane.  Something doesn't sound right in the context of his Marine Corps service such as it was.  But then again, maybe being a Marine was just another part of his effort to convince himself of his "manliness" and heterosexuality.   As I have said before, I continue to receive e-mails and post comments that claim Cuccinelli has played for the LGBT team in the past.  But to take him down and "out" him, I need someone willing to come forward and sign a shown affidavit and provide a corroborating storyline.  With that, I and blogger allies could make Cuccinelli's life very exciting.

Gary Bauer: Blacks Should Be Grateful "Every Major Goal of Dr. Martin Luther King Has Been Reached"

Gary Bauer

The batshitery and outright lies of the far rights seemingly knows no bounds.  We've just seen a man who deems himself "white" literally get away with murdering a black youth, black males suffer from sky high arrest rates and incarceration rates totally disproportionate with their percentage of society, blacks suffer far higher unemployment and poverty rates that whites, etc., yet former GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer - who looks like Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels in my view - just had the audacity or insanity (take your pick) to say that African Americans should be happier than every that "Every major Goal of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., has been reached."  Is the man delusional or does he simply not give a damn about black Americans?

Goebbels

Right Wing Watch looks at at Bauer's disingenuous batshitery.  Here are highlights:

In an email to supporters of his Campaign for Working Families today, Gary Bauer wondered why African Americans are still so upset about racism and continue “falling through the cracks” when “every major goal of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been reached.”
In the email — “Will Holder Persecute George Zimmerman?” — Bauer laments that discussions on race can’t happen in America because “it inevitably degenerates into another round of bashing non-minorities and an indictment of America’s past sins.” Social services, “‘gangsta’ culture” and a lack of patriotic education, Bauer claims, are the real culprits for problems in the black community.
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bauer-african-americans-should-be-more-grateful-every-major-goal-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-ha#sthash.1obuXRx0.dpuf

In an email to supporters of his Campaign for Working Families today, Gary Bauer wondered why African Americans are still so upset about racism and continue “falling through the cracks” when “every major goal of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been reached.”
In the email — “Will Holder Persecute George Zimmerman?” — Bauer laments that discussions on race can’t happen in America because “it inevitably degenerates into another round of bashing non-minorities and an indictment of America’s past sins.” Social services, “‘gangsta’ culture” and a lack of patriotic education, Bauer claims, are the real culprits for problems in the black community.
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bauer-african-americans-should-be-more-grateful-every-major-goal-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-ha#sthash.1obuXRx0.dpuf

In an email to supporters of his Campaign for Working Families today, Gary Bauer wondered why African Americans are still so upset about racism and continue “falling through the cracks” when “every major goal of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been reached.”

In the email — “Will Holder Persecute George Zimmerman?” — Bauer laments that discussions on race can’t happen in America because “it inevitably degenerates into another round of bashing non-minorities and an indictment of America’s past sins.” Social services, “‘gangsta’ culture” and a lack of patriotic education, Bauer claims, are the real culprits for problems in the black community.

Bauer has the gall to then go on blathering about how God teaches us that all of us  are "created equal with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."  But Bauer leaves out any reference to his opposition to equal rights for gays, blacks, immigrants and basically every minority group.  The man is a nasty and disgusting weasel.

Why is Hate Group Endorsed Scott Rigell Lying to Hampton Roads Voters?

Click image to enlarge

I'll be right up front on my dislike of Congressman Scott Rigell of the Virginia 2nd Congressional District.  Mr. Rigell has (1) been endorsed by Louis Sheldon, founder of Traditions Values Coalition - perhaps one of the most dishonest and virulently anti-gay of the "family values" hate groups in America - (2) voted in lock step on woman's issues with Missouri's insane Todd Akins, and has voted for the Paul Ryan budget plan which would rape and pillage the middle class, and (3) voted for the Paul Ryan budget seven (7) times.  Now, faced with a credible challenger in the person of Paul Hirschbiel, Rigell is out right lying to local media outlets and obviously seeking to dupe voters.  His endorsers and actions in Washington tell the only story voters need to know.  Here's a sampling of the lies and bullshit being spewed by Rigell via the Daily Press: 

NEWPORT NEWS – U.S. Rep Scott Rigell, R-Virginia Beach, said Monday that while he believes federal spending needs to be cut, the economic crisis facing the nation cannot be overcome without also raising taxes.

"The American people are ready for the truth — they can handle the truth," Rigell told the Daily Press editorial board. "They can handle solutions. They want solutions and they want leadership."

And the truth, Rigell says, is that the "Bush tax cuts" coupled with Grover Norquist's "no new tax pledge" signed by the vast majority of Republicans in Congress have locked federal revenue in at a rate that is unsustainable.

Rigell said he's willing to "compromise" with Democrats and bring revenues up to 20 percent of gross domestic product while cutting spending to the same level.

Rigell pointed out that federal revenues are at an 11-year average of 16.9 percent of GDP, which he said was the lowest level since 1959.

He said federal spending stands between 23 percent and 24 percent of GDP — peaking at 25 percent of GDP at the height of stimulus spending.

Rigell said the budget plan put forward by GOP vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., lowers federal spending to 18.5 percent of GDP in 24 years.

But Rigell said the Ryan budget plan, which he has voted for, is "indefensible mathematically" without "revenue enhancements."  Ryan's austere budget plan makes deep cuts to social-safety-net programs, while protecting defense spending.

This change lead Rigell to disavow Norquist's "no new tax pledge" in February. However, he has voted to extend the Bush tax cuts for all income levels.

Steven Jones, spokesman for Rigell's Democratic opponent in the 2nd Congressional District, Paul Hirschbiel, said this is an example of Rigell "saying one thing in Hampton Roads and doing another thing in Washington."  "You can't say you are serious about a bipartisan approach when you have voted seven times to protect subsidies for big oil companies," Jones said.

In the interest of full disclosure, I used to live in the same neighborhood as Rigell and the man is a real bastard to put it mildly. He and his wife are pompous, arrogant, and just as out of touch with the reality of the circumstances as Ann "Marie Antoinette" Romney and her bumbling Louis XVI equivalent.

Cardinal Timothy "Pory Pig" Dolan to Deliver Democrat Convention Benediction

Perhaps realizing that his appearance at the GOP Convention was being seen by many as a blatant political endorsement of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan - which might get the IRS on the Catholic Church's case - the ever dishonest, anti-gay and porcine Cardinal Timothy Daily has now agreed to give the closing benediction at the Democratic Party convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Part of me would have preferred to not see his face in Charlotte at all.  After all, this is the same man that helped protect child rapists and who many believe hid money while heading up the Milwaukee Diocese to avoid making payment to sex abuse victims and who has been an architect of the Catholic bishop's dishonest mantra that the Obama administration is threatening the "religious liberty" of American Catholics.  Frankly, a sleazy whore would make for a more honest speaker.  Dolan is in perfect company in Tampa, but the Democrats should not have sullied their event with this foul pig.   The Catholic News Herald is spreading Dolan's disinformation propaganda.  Here's a sampling:

CHARLOTTE — Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has accepted an invitation to deliver the closing prayer at next week's Democratic National Convention, according to a statement from Archdiocese of New York spokesman Joseph Zwilling.

He will give the concluding benediction prayer on Thursday, the final night of the GOP convention, where Mitt Romney is slated to accept the presidential nomination for his party. 

It was made clear to the Democratic National Convention organizers, as it was to the Republicans, that the cardinal was coming solely as a pastor, only to pray, not to endorse any party, platform, or candidate.

The cardinal has not endorsed either candidate in the 2012 presidential race.

However, he has been an outspoken critic of a mandate issued by the Obama administration to require employers to offer health insurance plans that covers contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, even if doing so violates their consciences.

Numerous dioceses, non-profit organizations and Catholic-owned businesses have sued the Obama administration, arguing that the mandate violates the First Amendment by forcing them to compromise their deeply-held religious convictions.

Obama has also voiced support for abortion and is the first U.S. president to openly advocate a redefinition of marriage to include homosexual couples.

 There's nothing non-partisan about Dolan.  My money is on the fact that if he publicly endorses candidates or a particular political party, the Church's tax-exempt status might go bye bye.  Hence his decision to appear at the Democrats' convention.  The man is a snake and most certainly NOT a man of God.

Prominent Antigay Evangelical Blogger Outed as Gay

Yet another anti-gay evangelical has gotten himself outed - and in my view deservedly so.  It's one thing to be in the closet suffering one's own private hell of self-loathing and self-contempt.  It's something totally different when one then proceeds to engage in anti-gay writings and activism merely because one lacks the guts  - and I would add decency - to face who one is.  Leave other gays alone and staying in the closet and be as miserable as you want.  Once you become actively anti-gay, then you've placed a bull's eye on your own back.  And that's exactly what Jonathan Merritt - who writes for USA Today and The Atlantic (in the latter, Merritt recently wrote of his support of Chick-fil-A) - did to himself.  And thankful, Merritt was outed.  Adding to the fun is that Merritt's father is the former president of the virulently anti-gay Southern Baptist Convention.   The Advocate looks at this tale of hypocrisy and just deserts.  Here are highlights: 

Jonathan Merritt, the son of famous evangelist James Merritt, has become a prominent evangelical blogger, writing for, among others, USA Today and The Atlantic (where he most recently wrote about his support of Chick-fil-A). Turns out he's, as Queerty puts it, also "a deeply conflicted gay man" who just got busted for canoodling with gay blogger Azariah Southworth.

Joe.My.God’s Joe Jervis posted a rundown of the relationship between Merritt and Southworth that occurred in 2009. Merritt says he and Southworth began emailing and sexting each other after Merritt wrote an article saying "that Christians must love people who experience sexual brokenness." The sexting led to a meet up and "as we were saying goodbye, we had physical contact that went beyond the bounds of friendship. I was overcome with guilt, knowing I had put myself in an unwise situation. We never saw each other again and we ceased contact after a period of time."

Merritt says he saw a Christian counselor to sort through his childhood and "what I believed God wanted for me. I also began to acknowledge to myself that I have sin in my past, sin for which I accept responsibility. Inappropriate texting, inappropriate actions are inappropriate no matter who the other party is. These were my decisions and no one else’s.

Southworth himself said, "Exposing this truth of Jonathan’s sexual orientation is not an easy decision for me. I take no pleasure in doing this. As I type this my stomach is turning because I know of the backlash he will receive. I have thought about what all of this will mean for him and for me. I base my reasoning in the importance of living an authentic and honest life. We must have radical honesty in the character, intentions and identities of our leaders.”

Sadly, honesty is an unknown concept among many of the far right Christians who disseminate lies and falsehood against others on virtually a daily basis.

Catholic Diocese Illegally Refuses to Sell to Gay Couple

Increasingly, the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy doesn't even try to disguise its hatred and contempt towards openly gay individuals.  Similarly, these foul individuals believe themselves to be above the law be it in the realm of protecting sexual predators and engaging in obstruction of justice or abiding by non-discrimination laws.  Now, a Catholic diocese in Massachusetts has been caught blatantly discriminating against a gay couple seeking to by church property listed on the open real estate market (one can't help but wonder if the property was being sold to pay off sex abuse victims).  One can only hope that the church officials and their realtor are sued by the gay couple and prosecuted/disciplined by the relevant authorities.  Both the Advocate and the Worcester Telegram and Gazette have details.  First these highlights from The Advocate:

Email can be tricky, as one Catholic Diocese in Massachusetts is learning.

The diocese was apparently trying to come up with some legal reason it refuses to sell a 44-bedroom mansion in Worcester to a gay couple who wanted to renovate it. But the back-and-forth over email was still appended to the bottom of the bogus explanation that eventually made its way to the couple, according to Worcester Telegram columnist Dianne Williamson.

A real estate broker for the diocese said in an email she sent to the couple, James Fairbanks and Alain Beret, that it had suddenly found "other plans" for the property.

But at the bottom of the email was this note from Monsignor Thomas Sullivan:

“I just went down the hall and discussed it with the bishop,” Sullivan wrote to the broker, according to the Telegram. “Because of the potentiality of gay marriages there, something you shared with us yesterday, we are not interested in going forward with these buyers. I think they're shaky anyway. So, just tell them that we will not accept their revised plan and the Diocese is making new plans for the property. You find the language.”

Obviously, for participating in the action, the realtor ought to lose her license.  Here's more from the Worcester Telegram and Gazette:

Fairbanks and Beret had searched for two years for the perfect renovation project, and hoped to turn the run-down estate into a banquet facility. Previously, the pair had transformed mansions in Vermont and Barre into similar businesses.  “When we saw Oakhurst, we fell in love with it,” Beret said.

The asking price of $1.4 million was negotiated to $1 million. On May 18, the pair signed an offer to purchase with a $75,000 deposit. They paid $3,000 for a home inspection. They also met with various town boards, all of which expressed enthusiasm for the project because it would save the historic building from developers seeking to raze it.

“These men had a good plan,” said Barbara Gaudette, Northbridge Planning Board chairwoman . “They have the background and experience. We would welcome that.”

“Their message was, 'These guys are gay. Get rid of them,' ” Beret said. “I don't argue with their right to stand on the pulpit and condemn. But they don't have the right to chase me down with their poison.”

Their lawyer, Sergio Carvajal, said state law prohibits discriminating against buyers based on sexual orientation, and said the potential for gay marriages would exist regardless of the sexual orientation of the buyer.

“It's outrageous in this day and age that the church would refuse to sell to someone because of their sexual orientation,” Carvajal said. “It's reprehensible.”

Speaking of reprehensible, Oakhurst is perhaps best known as the former House of Affirmation, a treatment home for pedophile priests, which closed amid scandal in the late 1980s. Ironically, Beret was willing to overlook that history; he's a devout Christian who at one time studied for the priesthood.

“I have plenty of sins,” Beret said. “But being gay isn't one of them. This is not a fight I wanted to pick. But for the sake of my dignity, I'm not walking away.”

As they saying goes, I hope they sue the bastards.

Mitt Romney's Continuing Lies

Mitt Romney's willingness to lie and pander to religious extremists knows no limits.  The image above does a great job at underscoring this reality.  In signing NOM's marriage pledge, Romney conveniently ignored not only his own family background, but also all the polygamists in the Old Testament, not to mention the regions of the world where polygamy still occurs.  I think the man would claim that black was really white if it would get him the vote of some moron.  We do not need him in the White House - or any elected office for that matter.

Romney Exposed for Anti-LGBT Bigorty While in Massachusetts

New information out of Massachusetts indicates that Mitt Romney's anti-gay bigotry isn't something new and that, if anything, his claims to being gay friendly when he ran for the U.S. Senate were just more of his typical lies. It seems that in reality, Romney could not even stand to see the terms "transgender" and "bisexual" in print and went on to kill a state anti-bullying guide for Massachusetts public schools.  It's in keeping with the GOP's desire to keep LGBT citizens inferior under the law and ideally invisible.  The Boston Globe looks at Romney's action and the lie he used to cover up his real  anti-gay motivation.Andrew Sullivan rightly notes "And we all know what Mitt would have done to them in high school" referring to Romney's assault of a fellow high school student years ago who was perceived to be gay.  Here are highlights from the Boston Globe:

Former governor Mitt Romney’s administration in 2006 blocked publication of a state antibullying guide for Massachusetts public schools because officials objected to use of the terms “bisexual’’ and “transgender’’ in passages about protecting certain students from harassment, according to state records and interviews with current and former state officials.

Romney aides said publicly at the time that publication of the guide had been delayed because it was a lengthy document that required further review. But an e-mail authored in May of that year by a high-ranking Department of Public Health official - and obtained last week by the Globe through a public records request - reflected a different reason.

“Because this is using the terms ‘bisexual’ and ‘transgendered,’ DPH’s name may not be used in this publication,’’ wrote the official, Alda Rego-Weathers, then the deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Rego-Weathers said in the e-mail that she had been consulting with Romney’s office on the issue.

Stifling the guide’s publication was among steps that Romney and his aides took during his last year in office to distance the Republican governor from state programs designed to specifically support gays, lesbians, and bisexual and transgender people. His critics said it was part of an effort to court social conservatives as he prepared for his first campaign for president in 2008.

“Romney put his own political interests ahead of the safety of vulnerable youth,’’ said Don Gorton, a gay-rights advocate and author of the 120-page antibullying report, which was not printed and distributed until after Romney left office.

About 10,000 copies of the 120-page “Guide to Bullying Prevention’’ were ultimately published in 2008, during Democrat Deval Patrick’s first term in office. It contains advice for school administrators and teachers on how to curb bullying, cyberbullying, and hazing. A two-page section describes how gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth are frequent targets of bullying, and it offers contact information to find help.

The 2006 e-mail objecting to the “bisexual’’ and “transgender’’ language offers some of the clearest evidence of how some of Romney’s actions in office aligned with the goals of socially conservative activists, a key constituency in Republican presidential primary elections.

Many of the nation’s largest conservative, evangelical, and profamily organizations-such as the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, and Concerned Women for America - have opposed suicide prevention and anti-bullying programs intended to protect gay teens
In July 2006, Romney vetoed a $158,000 budget line item that was earmarked for counseling violence victims in the “LGBT community.’’ The appropriation was intended to prevent sexual violence and rape, and also for suicide prevention.The move to block the bullying report immediately followed Romney’s threat to shut down the Gay and Lesbian Youth Commission.

The question of Romney’s sensitivity to antigay bullying was raised anew recently after the Washington Post published an account of Romney’s days in prep school in 1965 when Romney allegedly held a fellow student down against his will and, along with classmates and to the cheers of others, forcibly cut off his long, bleached-blond hair. The student was gay, although not openly, and it was unclear to some whether Romney knew the boy’s sexual orientation at the time. Romney said he could not recall the incident . . . . 

Let's face reality: Romney is a bully, a liar, a bigot and a flaming asshole.  And, if elected, he'll be a puppet of the Christofascist hate merchants.  The nation does not need this type of "leadership."

Traditional Marriage: One Man, Many Women, Some Girls, Some Slaves

With Barack Obama's recent endorsement of same sex marriage and the vote for bigotry in North Carolina, there are fortunately more and more stories hitting the news media that look at the real model of "traditional marriage," and it is NOT a model based on "one man and one woman."  As the title to this post, the real millennial old model of marriage was one man and many women, some of who were mere children and some were slaves.   Would that the simple minded cows like Maggie Gallagher would learn some accurate history.  Or even bother to read their Old Testaments beyond limited passages in Leviticus.  As seems to always be the case, ignorance, gullibility and intellectual laziness are the three pillars of fundamentalist religion.  A piece in Religion Dispatches looks at the real history of marriage and it's not the image the Bible beaters and Neanderthals ignorantly embrace:

Well, it’s been quite a whirlwind week for same-sex marriage, from North Carolina to Obama to Colorado—and, of course, to the many outraged conservatives concerned with preserving traditional marriage, i.e., the time-honored sacred bond between one man and one woman. Why, just last week, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council said that marriage has meant just that for over five thousand years.  Huh?

Time to break out your Bible, Mr. Perkins! Abraham had two wives, Sarah and her handmaiden Hagar. King Solomon had 700 wives, plus 300 concubines and slaves. Jacob, the patriarch who gives Israel its name, had two wives and two concubines. In a humanist vein, Exodus 21:10 warns that when men take additional wives, they must still provide for their previous one.

But that’s not all. In biblical society, when you conquered another city, tribe, or nation, the victorious men would “win” their defeated foes’ wives as part of the spoils. It also commanded levirate marriage, the system wherein, if a man died, his younger brother would have to marry his widow and produce heirs with her who would be considered the older brother’s descendants. Now that’s traditional marriage!

Later Islamic and Jewish sources, unclear on these parameters (the prophet Muhammad, of course, had several wives), debated whether it is permissible for a man to marry a three- or four-year-old girl.

And of course, even until the present day, traditional marriage has meant arranged marriage. The notion that two adults would enter into a marriage on their own volition is a radical innovation in the institution of marriage, at most two hundred years old.

Oh, and let’s not forget that in Europe and North America, marriage was considered a commercial proposition first and foremost—not a romantic one. Princes married princesses not because of fairy tales, but because their parents had political alliances to consider. Further down the economic ladder, people married for a variety of biological, commercial, and genealogical reasons—but rarely for love.

Oh, and that’s right, I almost forgot about interracial marriage, which in some parts of America was seen as a crime against nature and God up until the 1960s. (Of course, Moses himself was in an interracial marriage, but the anti-miscegenation crowd overlooked that inconvenient fact.)   .   .   .   .   let’s remember that a century ago, African Americans were not considered fully human by religious conservatives.

Traditional marriage is one man with multiple wives, multiple concubines, wives conquered in war and wives acquired in levirate marriage, possibly including girls under the age of ten, but definitely not including anyone of a different ethnic group, in an arranged marriage with disposition of property as its purpose. That seems very different from “one man, one woman,” does it not?

Perhaps this is why the Tony Perkinses of the world simply ignore the Bible when it doesn’t suit their purposes  .   .   .   .   The Bible’s truths are just too inconvenient.

Throckmorton Demolishes NARTH's Anti-Gay Honoree

If you want to listen to liars if listening to Herman Cain's endless denials isn't more than enough for you, then you might check out the faux scientific organization NARTH (National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) where lies, falsehoods and deliberate distortions of research is the norm. In fact, dishonesty - and claimed religiosity - seems to be a prerequisite for involvement in NARTH. As Warren Throckmorton points out at its recent conference NARTH honored not only a non-scientist but an individual that has a track record of distorting the research of others or hanging his hat on bogus research. While the topic is not titillating, it's important to understand the tactics used by NARTH and its allies in the Christian Right in order to e able to respond to and demolish their fake research on sexual orientation. Warren provides a great blue print on how to do this. Here are some highlights:

During the recent NARTH (National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) conference in Phoenix, organization President Julie Hamilton gave an award to Michel Lizotte, a Canadian journalist. The award was given because Lizotte has been “clearly presenting the research and providing hope and help to those who are seeking such help” in Canada.

[W]hat says a lot about NARTH is the type of “education” Mr. Lizotte has been presenting. A look at Lizotte’s website (translated from the French via Google translation) indicates that he promotes the reparative drive theory of homosexuality. On this page, Lizotte posted videos of Joseph Nicolosi explaining the reparative theory. Lizotte claims research on homosexuality supports his views . . .

Examining the footnotes tells you a lot about his efforts and NARTH’s decision to promote Lizotte’s work. . . . . Stekel, Bieber, Rubenstein* and Ovesey were psychoanalysts who developed their theories about homosexuality, not from studies, but from a limited number of psychoanalytic cases. Bieber’s study has recently been compromised by revelations that one co-author, Cornelia Wilbur, conspired with a journalist to distort at least two case reports, including the famous case of Sybil. Bieber’s methods had been discredited because he relied on psychoanalysts who already believed homosexuality derived from deficient parenting.

Van Den Aardweg’s 1986 book reports the results of his cases treated with “Anticomplaining therapy.” He reports lots of successes but essentially these are his claims with no independent verification or peer review. Birk’s 1974 report comes the closest to a credible report of change but adds no new information about the “origins of homosexuality.” If anything, however, behavioral psychotherapist Birk would disagree with most of what is on Lizotte’s website about causes. In 1980, Birk reported that those who wanted to gain heterosexual capacity had some success but they were not free of homosexual behavior or feelings.

In short, Lizotte makes claims about homosexuality, supports the claims with old, poorly designed and/or irrelevant citations, fails to cite conflicting and/or newer research and then says that “the latest research” supports his position. No wonder NARTH gave him an award.

NARTH's award yet again underscores that there are few people less honest and deceitful that the "godly Christian" set and their gay hating allies. When all is said and done, they continue to demonize gays and disseminate fraudulent information to make a buck and to aid the political agenda of the hate groups that stand behind a good chunk of NARTH's funding.

Carrie Prejean Sex Tape Triggers Settlement

UPDATED: Jeremy Hooper at Good As You has a hysterical take on Carrie Prejean's upcoming appearance in New Jersey tomorrow as part of a "Defenders of the Family" freak show. Given the new details on her porn video - which Jeremy mentions - it will be interesting to see if she suddenly has a scheduling problem or some other lame excuse for not showing up.

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Well, well, well. I cannot say that I am surprised - the self-anointed and self absorbed gay-hating Christianists always seem to be the ones with the weird kinky sex history - but it certainly is a case of sweet divine justice that former Miss California USA has a secret sex video that has recently surfaced. Yes, the very same Carrie Prejean who claimed to be a persecuted Christian because her anti-gay views and was embraced by the professional haters at NOM. I wonder what Maggie Gallagher has to say about the less than pure Ms. Prejean. In my estimation Pejean - and Gallagher as well - are opportunistic self-worshippers who in reality are amoral and are for sale for whatever cause they believe will allow them to rake in money. Who gets harmed in the process is irrelevant to them. It is very sweet to see Prejean deservedly slammed. Here are highlights from TMZ:

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Carrie Prejean demanded more than a million dollars during her settlement negotiations with Miss California USA Pageant officials -- that is, until the lawyer for the Pageant showed Carrie an XXX home video of her handiwork. The video the lawyer showed Carrie is extremely graphic and has never been released publicly. We know that, because TMZ obtained the video months ago but decided not to post it because it was so racy. Let's just say, Carrie has a promising solo career.
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We're told it took about 15 seconds for Carrie to jettison her demand and essentially walk away with nothing. As we first reported, the Pageant is paying around $100,000 to her lawyers and publicist -- a fraction of her bills. She pockets nothing in the settlement.

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There is nothing more fun than to watch liars and hypocrites self-destruct. One can only hope that Prejean's 15 seconds of fame are finally over - and her "career" as well.

John McCain's Baldfaced Lie

Barack Obama was in Norfolk this morning and spoke at Granby High School a few miles from my house. One of the issues that came up was the lie being spread by the McSenile/Palin campaign that Obama had referred to Palin as a pig. The truth is Obama never called Palin a pig - although I'd be happy to call her things far worse - and now local Congresswoman, Thelma Drake is jumping on the band wagon. Of course Thelma is terrified that she may lose her re-election contest against Glenn Nye and apparently is willing to lie as well to try to remain in power. Worse yet, Thelma Drake is is one of the 19 national members of the “Palin Truth Squad.” Sara Palin and the truth, now there's an oxymoron from everything we've seen to date. Shame on you Thelma!!

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Andrew Sullivan has a good analysis of this manufactured lie based controversy. With each passing day, McCain is proving himself ever more unworthy to be president. Here's Andrew's thoughts: The full context of Barack Obama's quote is as follows:

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“John McCain says he’s about change, too — except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics. That’s just calling the same thing something different.”

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With a laugh, he added: “You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change; it’s still going to stink after eight years.”

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We are being asked to believe that he called Sarah Palin a pig. If the people making that accusation have half a brain they know it's not true. This is not a question of interpretation. It is a fact. So we now find out again that John McCain is prepared to tell an absolute lie - in public, verifiable, uncontestable. He does not have the minimal public integrity to be president of the United States.

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This claim is absurd on its face, like the Palin nomination to begin with. Absurd. And you can now tell who on the right has even a scintilla of intellectual honesty. That's all this episode is about: another tail-spin in the death throes of the Republican party.

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My only advice to Obama: stay calm; stay cool; focus on the issues; behave like the president you want to be. They are trying to get into your head. But you are so much smarter and more decent than they are.

Today's GOP: Running From Reality

As a former Republican (and now ardent Democrat, as are all the members of my extended family who have likewise fled the GOP), I am disgusted with what the Party has become and how patently dishonest the Party has become. The first principle of the Party seems to be that of NEVER TELL THE TRUTH and like naughty children pretend someone else created the mess and is responsible for discovered misdeeds. The ultimate question in the November elections is whether or not enough Americans are stupid - yes, I said stupid - enough to buy the bull shit being spun by the GOP. Listening to MSNBC as I am blogging, I am near nauseated by the GOP talking heads making statements they know are down right untrue. They claim to be the Party of God, yet constantly disregard the Commandment against lying and bearing false witness. Bob Herbert at the New York Times has a column today that looks at this phenomenon. Here are some highlights:

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If there was one pre-eminent characteristic of the Republican convention this week, it was the quality of deception. Words completely lost their meaning. Reality was turned upside down. From the faux populist gibberish mouthed by speaker after speaker, you would never have known that the Republicans have been in power over the past several years and used that titanic power to lead the country to its present sorry state.

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If there were any good ideas at this convention of mostly rich and mostly right-wing delegates about how to haul the country out of this mess that the G.O.P. has gotten it into, they were kept well hidden. Perhaps they were tucked away behind the more prominently displayed creationism and “just-say-no to global warming” documents.

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It stretches the mind almost to the breaking point to think of John McCain as an agent of substantive change. He once believed that Phil Gramm was the most qualified person in the United States to be president. And he now believes that Sarah Palin is the most qualified to be vice president. That is not the fault of Mr. Gramm or Ms. Palin. But it sure tells us a lot about the judgment of John McCain.

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For most voters, the No. 1 issue in this campaign is the financial struggle facing working families that are trying to cope with job losses, declining wages, the high cost of health care, home foreclosures, bankruptcies and the like. To a great extent these problems are the result of national policies, forged under Republican rule, that overwhelmingly favored the interests of the very wealthy over working people.

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Senator McCain’s economic guru through all of this was Mr. Gramm, a former Republican senator from Texas and chairman of the banking committee. . . . Phil Gramm was one of the lead architects of the breathtakingly irresponsible policies (No more restraints! No more regulation!) that led to the subprime mortgage meltdown and the current credit disaster.

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To Senator McCain’s great embarrassment, Mr. Gramm dismissed the economic downturn as a “mental recession” and complained that the U.S. had become a “nation of whiners.” That may have been a political no-no, but it was an accurate expression of the slavish devotion of the G.O.P. to the rich and powerful among us, and of the party’s contempt for the interests of working families and the poor. Senator McCain, it should be noted, fully shared Mr. Gramm’s anti-regulatory zeal.

Sarah Palin: Underwhelming and a Liar

The boyfriend and I watched most of Sarah Palin's speech last night and, to be fully candid, I don't know where all the GOP representations that she's a fabulous speaker came from. Her delivery was so-so and the substance was certainly lacking when not downright untruthful. Not as bad as the Chimperator, but close in my view. I found the snide remarks made by both Palin and Rudy about "community organizing" little less than non-subtle racist comments. But then, the GOP has become a Christianist/racist party plain and simple. Finally, she made me so nauseated that we turned off the last few minutes. Yahoo News has a good article that looks at Palin's less than honest statements. Of course, Palin was not the only liar of the evening. Here are some highlights:

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In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth. Some examples:

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PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

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THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

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PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

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THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded. Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families. He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

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MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.

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THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where McCain called Alaska the largest state in America, he could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.

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FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

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THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

Ugly Americans - Update

Here's a couple highlights from the Washington Post that shows the posion Hillary's campaign and supporters are sowing. Never mind that the facts recited are all 100% untrue. Perhaps Hillary needs to change parties - she'd fit in perfectly with the disingenuous, deliberately lying Christianists that hold sway in the GOP. These people sicken me. Here's the quotes:

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In a letter to the editor published in a local paper, Tunkhannock Borough Mayor Norm Ball explained his support of Hillary Clinton this way: "Barack Hussein Obama and all of his talk will do nothing for our country. There is so much that people don't know about his upbringing in the Muslim world. His stepfather was a radical Muslim and the ranting of his minister against the white America, you can't convince me that some of that didn't rub off on him.

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Karen Seifert, a volunteer from New York, was outside of the largest polling location in Lackawanna County, Pa., on primary day when she was pressed by a Clinton volunteer to explain her backing of Obama. "I trust him," Seifert replied. According to Seifert, the woman pointed to Obama's face on Seifert's T-shirt and said: "He's a half-breed and he's a Muslim. How can you trust that?"

American Family Association Targets McDonald's

The disingenuous liars and windbags over at American Family Association - yes, I do mean you Don Wildmon - who knowingly promote "ex-gay" fraud, Michael Johnston, are now out to harrass McDonald's because a senior McDonald's executive has joined the Board of Directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce ("NGLCC"), of which HRBOR is an affiliate. Since McDonald's is in the business of making money, what rational businessowner would blow off an $800 billion market segment?

Wildmon and his crowd have to be among the worse false Christians - after perhaps Fred Phelps and clan - because rather than teach love of God and love of neighbor, AFA specializes in teaching hate against gays, immigrants, Muslims, etc. In short anyone who does not subscribe to AFA's hate based Christianist agenda. AFA's ongoing marketing of DVD's featuring Michael Johnston is a per se example of how AFA cares nothing about the truth. Hopefully, McDonald's will tell Wildmon to go to Hell. In my opinion, God already has a special place in Hell reserved for Mr. Wildmon. Here are highlights from PageOneQ (http://pageoneq.com/news/2008/American_Family_Association_takes_aim_at_McD_0403.html):

Upset over the election of a senior executive of the fast food giant McDonald's to the Board of Directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association is calling upon his organization's members to take action. Wildmon is asking his ranks to call their local McDonald's franchises to ask why the company is "using its size and resources to promote the homosexual agenda" and to use the AFA's online action center to send company Chairman Andrew J. McKenna an email.

Last month, Richard Ellis, VP of Communications for McDonald's USA, was elected to the NGLCC board and said he was "thrilled to join the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce team and ready to get to work." McDonald's is also listed as a Chamber corporate partner.

Brent Childers, executive director of Faith In America, an organization devoted to fighting religious based bigotry and homophobia, said that "for the American Family Association to cast dispersion on McDonald's efforts to promote businesses owned by gay and lesbian citizens under a banner of so-called religious values, is perhaps the most hypocritical position yet by this group and it is a disgrace to all the genuine efforts on the part of business who truly value their employees and their families."