Bitchy Discussion of Prejean Sex Tape

Fran Drescher, Aisha Tyler, and Sandra Bernhard join Joy Behar to discuss Carrie Prejean's sex tape. Meanwhile, I have received no response to my e-mail to the New Jersey Family Policy Council requesting an update on whether Ms. Prejean will still be a speaker at today's "Defender of the Family" event. Something tells me that I won't be getting a response. Nothing is more satisfying that seeing phony, hypocritical, false Christians get their comeuppance. Here's a video of the girls discussing the sex tape:

How Racist Extremists Are Hijacking the GOP

I have maintained for some time now that the GOP is be coming a racist party and that the increased racial animosity is being derived from "pro-family" groups which are not only anti-gay, but also anti-black, anti-Hispanic, anti-immigrant. The list goes on and on. The toxic racist attitude of the pro-family crowd and the professional Christians is really nothing new and can be traced back to well before the 2000 election. However, the combination of the election of Barack Obama as president and increases in the recognition of gay rights seems to have pushed some of the haters over the edge. Hence the Department of Homeland Security's release of a report showing that right wing extremists groups are increasing in numbers. There are some interesting points on this whole issue on a blog called The Loop. Here are some highlights:

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In the past several years, the line between the far right and the racist fringe has blurred. These days, it is hard to distinguish between the two. Cultural conservatives are not just welcoming the wing nuts into their camp, they are making obvious overtures to mobilize them. They are intentionally alienating moderate Republicans. And they are shamelessly regurgitating hateful and dangerous propaganda, most of which originated on the fringe.

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Last week, the Department of Homeland Security released a 10-page report warning the nation’s law enforcement community about fringe groups and attempts they have made to recruit returning U.S. veterans. The report indicates that more than 200 veterans are also a member of various racist groups. DHS, along with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a progressive, nonprofit group that has monitored racist, fringe groups since 1981, say the fringe movement is growing. The number of them crept up to 926 in 2008, compared with 888 in 2007.

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“(Cultural conservatives) are injecting poison into the national dialogue, whether they mean it or not is completely besides the point,” Potok said. “This is not a debate we are having. These are just nuts on the far right, and they are being given an incredibly huge platform. And they are doing a lot to buddy up to the radical fringe.” This radical fringe has not been this active since the militia movement of the '80s and '90s. The last time there was a cultural flare-up like this, we ended up with Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing and Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph.

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“There were folks like David Duke around back then. The difference between (people like him) and people like Glenn Beck or Bachmann is that (the latter) don’t normally make explicit appeals on a racist basis,” Potok said. “Are they worse? One can definitely make the argument they are worse. With someone like David Duke, no one takes him seriously. But there are a lot of people out there taking Glenn Beck seriously.”

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A few weeks ago, it became very apparent exactly who is taking Beck seriously. In early April, 23-year-old Richard Poplawski, a huge fan of Beck and someone who had been associated with various white supremacy groups, wore a bulletproof vest as he waited for Pittsburgh police officers to enter his home. When they did, he opened fire, killing three of them.

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The conservative movement has grown so far to the right right, they are now kissing cousins with the racist fringe," [Steve] Rendall [of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting] said. Both Sean Hannity and Beck have routinely had guests who were overtly anti-Semitic and racist. And the fact that the media and the Republican Party are both in shambles right now has exacerbated the affiliation.

Homophobia Kills

Yes, homophobia kills literally. Yet, our Christianist enemies continue to disseminate lies and hate directed towards gays and pat themselves on the back as they knowing create an atmosphere where gays - or those perceived to be gay - take their own lives through suicide or end up the victims of deadly violence. Pam Spaulding has a post that looks at just how vile and hate inducing this poisonous rhetoric can be and recent murder cases demonstrate that there are those in society who believe this message gives them a license to kill. Pam correctly notes that:

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Now it's time to stop pussyfooting about what Renfroe and professional "Christian" outfits like Focus on Your Family and WND are doing by incessantly quoting Leviticus as justification for discrimination. Ye shall not lie with a man as one lies with a female. It is an abomination," he read. "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act, and they shall surely be put to death. If they believe that the Bible is the literal word of God, then they do believe gays must die. You can't pick and choose (though we all know these literalists do so all the time). I assume, then, that adulterers should be stoned for their sins.

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Am I [and Pam] too tough on the Christianists? I don't believe so. Murders of gays and those thought to be gay have shown that there ARE those who take this "Christian" message literally and as a result people die. One recent case is that of the December killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant in Brooklyn, New York, who was beaten with a bottle and a baseball bat by men who yelled anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs at him. In point of fact, the victim wasn't even gay but had been seen holding the arm of his brother as they walked home from a party. As the New York Times is reporting, now an arrest has been made in that case. Here are some highlights:

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The attack occurred about 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 7 when Mr. Sucuzhanay was walking arm in arm with his brother, Romel Sucuzhanay, along Bushwick Avenue and Kossuth Place, in the Bushwick neighborhood, after attending a church party. About a half-block from Mr. Sucuzhanay’s home, Mr. Scott and Mr. Phoenix appeared in a sport utility vehicle and, believing the brothers were gay, shouted what witnesses described as vulgarisms against Hispanics and gay men, officials said.

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Mr. Scott approached Jose Sucuzhanay and smashed a beer bottle over the back of his head, the police said, and then chased Romel Sucuzhanay. Mr. Phoenix then took an aluminum baseball bat from the rear of the vehicle and struck Jose repeatedly on his shoulder, ribs and back until he fell, the police said. “At that point Phoenix struck Jose several more times, full force, with crushing blows to his head,” said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, . . .

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“The sad part of this case for me is that these two brothers were apparently caressing each other because they were cold on the way home and the cretins that were charged with the attack mistook them for gay people,”

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And yet despite such fruits of their tirades of hate, the professional Christians continue to issue a never ending stream of anti-gay lies and hatred - even in the halls of state legislatures - and go unrebuked by and large. They certainly are never challenged by the mainstream media as the should be. Another sad case, this time from the UK shows that the Christianist induced violence is not limited to the USA. In this case, Michael Causer, an 18-year-old hairdresser, was battered to death while he slept upstairs at a party. The teenager accused of his homophobic murder has has been acquitted and belatedly sparked a campaign in Liverpool for justice. Here are some highlights from the Independent:

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Michael Causer had never even considered concealing his sexuality: he was proud to be gay. He grew up in a tight-knit family in a working-class suburb of Liverpool, and friends would describe the trainee hairdresser as a “little sweetheart”. He was a gentle young man on the cusp of adulthood who “wouldn’t hurt a fly”; someone who loved his many friends and adored life.

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But last July, as the 18-year-old lay in an upstairs bedroom at an after-pub party, sleeping off the effects of a night’s drinking, he was viciously assaulted and his bleeding body dumped outside in the street. The attack took place at the home of a friend’s grandmother, in the Liverpool suburb of Huyton.

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On Friday however, Mr Causer’s family and friends who had packed into the public gallery at Liverpool Crown Court to hear a jury decide on Gavin Alker, a 19-year-old man accused of carrying out his homophobic murder, were left in tears as the defendant was acquitted at the end of a three-week trial. Last Sunday, 100 friends and relatives returned to the court precincts to express their sense of shock and outrage at the verdict and to demonstrate for what they see as justice in the case. They said they are now hoping to launch a private prosecution.

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According to evidence put before the jury, the trigger-point for the violence came when sexually explicit images of the trainee hairdresser were found on his mobile phone, prompting a “sustained and brutal” attack on his naked sleeping form and leaving him with a fractured skull and a swollen brain. . . . It was alleged that Mr Alker, who had never met Mr Causer, screamed “You little queer faggot” adding, “He’s a little queer, he deserves it.” During the trial it was also claimed that a cigarette lighter was used to burn the hair on Mr Causer’s legs, and that threats were made to rip out his body piercings with a knife. But the jury accepted Mr Alker’s evidence that he had been acting in self-defence after he denied making homophobic comments, blaming the attack on O’Connor.

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When will society - including our weak kneed president and gutless Congressional Democrats - say enough is enough and enact strong non-discrimination laws to protect LGBT citizens from brutality based upon religious discrimination? Will I live long enough to see i happen?