GOP Hyperventilating Over "Scandal"s Backfires - Obama’s Approval Ratings Go Up

As note a number of times over the last week or so, the only real motivation behind the constant shrieks of Congressional Republicans over Benghazi and the IRS scrutiny of conservative Tea Party groups seeking tax exempt status is the desire to harm Barack Obama's standing with the American public.  The secondary motivation is to harm Hillary Clinton's reputation given her likelihood as a fierce GOP opponent in 2016.  In this later regard, wingnut radio host Pete Santilli actually said that he wants to see Hillary Clinton shot in the vagina (he later tweeted that he wanted President Obama shot in the testicles).  That's how low conservatism and the Republican Party have fallen.   What's frightening is that some of the delusional GOP base might actually try to follow through on such incitement.  The irony is that despite all of these GOP efforts - which seem to be resonating only with the Neanderthals of their party base - Barack Obama's approval ratings have gone up.  Politicususa has details.  Here are highlights:

Despite the many attempts by Republicans to generate a scandal, a new CNN/ORC poll found that the president’s approval ratings have increased by two points.

The latest CNN/ORC poll reveals that President Obama’s approval rating has gone up by two points from 51% in April to 53% today, while his disapproval rating has fallen by two points from 47% to 45%. While 85% of those polled agree that the IRS targeted of political groups is very or somewhat important issue, by a margin of 61%-37% respondents believed that President Obama’s statements on the matter have been completely mostly true. (That 37% number comes up a lot in polling. It represents the higher end of the number of self-identified conservatives/Republicans in the country.)   By a margin of 54%-42% respondents think Republicans are reacting appropriately to the matter, but the vast majority (55%-37%) believe that the IRS acted alone without White House orders. 

A majority of those polled were dissatisfied with the way the Obama administration handled Benghazi (53%), but they believe that the administration was passing along the facts as they knew them to be at that time (50%-44%).

The scandals appear to be backfiring, and setting a dangerous trap for Republicans. The fundamental political dynamic of President Obama being much more popular than the Republican Party is shaping these numbers. If the unpopular congressional Republicans continue to attack Obama with scandals, they will make the president more popular and drive his poll numbers up.

These “scandals” haven’t hurt President Obama at all. The most logical reasons for this are that people aren’t paying attention, and those who are don’t believe the Republicans.

Not to sound like a broken record, but in my view, the number one reason the GOP base hates Obama boils down to one thing first and foremost: he is not white.  That being the case, the angry whites and white supremacists in the GOP base will always hate Obama no matter what he does.   One can only hope that the rest of the public will fully wake up to this reality.

Wingnut Bigot Claims Govenment is "Creating Gays With Chemicals"

The batshitery that passes a intellectual discourse in conservative circles just seems to be sliding further into a swamp of insanity.  William F. Buckley, Jr., must be spinning like a top in his grave.  Now, wingnut InfoWars radio host Alex Jones (pictured above) is claiming that the government (presumably the federal government) is creating gays with chemicals.   The batshitery takes conspiracy theories to a new absurd levels.  But this kind of insanity is now the norm among the far right and one has to wonder what it will take to break the mental illness that seems to plague the Christofascists and their political whores in the GOP.   Huffington Post looks at the feverish insanity.  Here are highlights:

We've heard a lot of ridiculous things about where LGBT people come from and what they're capable of .  .  .  .  .  , but Alex Jones' claim that the government is creating gays with chemicals takes conspiracy theories to a new level.

Jones is raising eyebrows again after a series of clips from several years ago began to recirculate on the Internet this week.   In the videos he claims the government is "encouraging homosexuality with chemicals so that people don't have children" and that he has the documentation to prove it. Upon cutting open a juice box to show the plastic membrane supposedly filled with said chemicals he concludes, "After [little boys] are done drinking your juices, [they're] ready to go out and have a baby... [they're] ready to put together a garden of roses... [they're] ready to go put lipstick on..." 

Jones is also worried about MSG in Kettle Chips and fluoride in spring water.

In another clip he states that troublesome chemicals are seeping into water ways and even turning male frogs into female frogs. Research has shown that chemicals found in common weed killers have been proven to "feminize" male frogs, but it is not clear if the same effects could take place with humans.

While we're still waiting for experts to come up with a definitive answer as to why people are gay or straight (and we may never know), we've never come across anyone -- other than Jones -- who thinks it is due to juice boxes.

Laughably, InfoWars warns that there is a "war on for your mind."  Obviously, Jones has lost his mind and one has to wonder how many other Kool-Aid drinkers have likewise slipped into insanity.

"Christian" Hate Groups and Allies to Boycott CPAC

Purportedly because "a homosexual activist group, GOProud," has been invited to CPAC, the haters and loonies at several of the SPLC registered anti-gay hate groups and their almost equally vile anti-gay "family values" organizations are pulling out of Conservative Political Action Conference ("CPAC") to be held this coming February in Washington, D.C. While these organizations think they are punishing CPAC and in directly the GOP elected officials who typically appear to prostitute themselves to the Christianists, the argument can be made that the exodus of these groups might actually add to the legitimacy of the CPAC gathering. The reality is that the rise of the Christianists in the GOP and its allied organizations has been one direct cause for the flight of many educated and rational citizens to either the Democrats or those embracing the "independent" label. Hate and religious extremism may be a plus for the Kool-Aid drinkers, but it doesn't sell with many more voters. Here are highlights from Think Progress' take on the Uber-Christian boycott:
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The religious right has grown apoplectic over what it sees as the harbingers of its demise: gay conservatives. The emergence of the GOProud, a right-wing group of conservatives that support gay rights, is spurring a civil war between conservative bigwigs.
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Ever vigilant against “twisted and dangerous” threat of gay conservatives, right-wing groups are now repudiating any person, place, or thing that may associate with these wolves-in-sheep’s-clothing, most notably the American Conservative Union’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Despite receiving flak last year for their association with GOProud, CPAC organizers recently confirmed that GOProud will be a “participating organization,” at next year’s conference, “the second highest level of participation.
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The possible presence of gay people sparked the far-right American Principles Project to instigate a growing boycott of CPAC in November. Yesterday, WND [Wing Nut Daily] announced that the Family Research Council and the Concerned Women for America are now the most high-profile conservative groups to join the boycott.
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The far-right [hate group] Americans for Truth about Homosexuality president Peter LaBarbera, who is also boycotting CPAC, finds it “gratifying to to see FRC and CWA respond appropriately to CPAC’s moral sellout of allowing GOProud as a sponsor.” “By bringing in GOProud, CPAC was effectively saying moral opposition to homosexuality is no longer welcome in the conservative movement.”
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Frankly, CPAC ought to be thankful that a number of registered hate groups with documented histories of outright lying and/or distorting information will not be participants. But the Kool-Aid drinker set is none too happy and the spittle is flying. Here is a sampling of Wing Nut Daily's coverage of the boycott:
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Two of the nation's premier moral issues organizations, the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America, are refusing to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference in February because a homosexual activist group, GOProud, has been invited.
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FRC and CWA join the American Principles Project, American Values, Capital Research Center, the Center for Military Readiness, Liberty Counsel, and the National Organization for Marriage in withdrawing from CPAC. In November, APP organized a boycott of CPAC over the participation of GOProud.
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Liberty Counsel responded by sending a protest letter to the ACU. "We said GOProud is not a conservative organization," said Staver. "They are undermining the military" by promoting open homosexuality, and "undermining marriage" by opposing the Defense of Marriage Act, which preserves the traditional definition of marriage by limiting it to one man and one woman. "Anything that undermines marriage also undermines our freedom and economy," said Staver. "It is contrary to our fundamental values to have as a cosponsor an organization that promotes same-sex marriage."
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Both FRC and Liberty Counsel said they would direct their efforts to rival conferences that respect moral conservatism.

Newly Named Hate Groups Play the Victim Card

As Alvin McEwen notes at Pam's House Blend, Family Research Council, the American Family Association and Porno Pete's latest racket - I mean organization - are not happy to have been rightfully identified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Not only will the designation hopefully make them radioactive in the view of GOP politicians, but the designation could hurt them where it really counts - money wise. Obviously, some folks might think twice before giving money to a registered hate group. Hence the victim card that's being played out at Wingnut Daily which, like the newly designated groups, has the dissemination of lies and falsehoods as its principal stock in trade. No one knows how to perpetuate hate and discrimination under the smoke screen of religion that FRC, AFA and Porno Pete. The disingenuous headline of the Wingnut Daily piece reads "Southern Poverty Law Center smears champions of God's sexual morality." Yep, the hate merchants can dish it out but like most liars and bullies, they don't react well to being called out and confronted. From my personal dealings with Robert Knight, I can attest that the man is a deliberate and pathological liar when it comes to LGBT citizens (Robert, I still have your e-mails to back up this statement). Here are highlights from the batshitery at Wingnut Daily (Note that nowhere are SPLC's specific factors challenged or refuted):
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The Southern Poverty Law Center has placed a virtual who's who of pro-family and Christian organizations, including the Family Research Council, the American Family Association and the Traditional Values Coalition, on a list of 13 "hate groups" for opposing the homosexual political agenda.
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"No organization better defines what a hate group is all about than the Southern Poverty Law Center," said Robert Knight, Washington correspondent for Coral Ridge Ministries. "Smearing legitimate groups merely for disagreeing about homosexuality is a very hateful act."
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"Lumping Christian groups in with violent, racist gangs is a form of 'bracketing,' a political tactic described in the gay strategy manual 'After the Ball.' It's guilt by association and it's meant to intimidate," Knight told WND.
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Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify organizations for listing as hate groups." . . . . Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, contended that SPLC is more focused on advancing a radical political agenda than on combating hatred. . . . "It's the homosexual groups that have violated and invaded churches, vandalized homes and cars, that instigate death threats against people who are simply trying to uphold traditional values," Wright observed.
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I'm not sure what Kool-Aid Ms. Wright is drinking. I haven't seen a single news report on "godly Christians" being beaten and killed as a result of gay rights initiatives - something the direct opposite of what we see among the fruits of the hate fest disseminated by the groups designated by SPLC.

Christianist Cat Fight: Liberty Counsel v. Alliance Defense Fund

Nothing is more entertaining than watching the spectacle of Christianist wingnuts going at each other. In this case it is Liberty Counsel attacking Alliance Defense Fund - both are groups that seek to eliminate the Constitution's provisions barring an established religion - for losing Perry v. Schwarzenegger. The whack jobs at Liberty Counsel wanted to intervene in the case and ADF blocked that effort. The reality is that even with Liberty Counsel (which has lost consistently in the Virginia/Vermont lesbian custody saga) had been in the case, there STILL would have been no legitimate science or objective facts to support Prop 8. It is and always has been in the final analysis a legal measure aimed at punishing same sex couples for not conforming to Christianist religious beliefs. The equally theocratic Catholic news service, Life Site News, has coverage of the continuing back biting and blame game. You have to love it when one religious extremist group calls another one to "too extreme." Here are some highlights:
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In the wake of Judge Vaughn Walker’s controversial decision finding Proposition 8 (California’s constitutional amendment protecting true marriage) unconstitutional, an internal spat has broken out between two different Christian legal societies about the manner in which the defense of Prop. 8 was handled.
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[A]ccording to Liberty Counsel, the ADF kept them out of the Proposition 8 trial because they disagreed over legal strategy - a disagreement that LC says resulted in a radically weakened argument that ignored the central reasons to oppose homosexual "marriage."
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At the time, the ADF's Andrew Pugno said that Liberty Counsel should not defend the proposition. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Pugno has said that the Campaign for California Families (CCF), Liberty Counsel's client, "represents the extreme fringe and is not representative of the coalition that got [Proposition 8] passed." "The proponents believed that intervention by that group would harm, not help, our case," Pugno told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN).
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Matthew Staver, chairman of the LC , denies that that the CCF had worked against Proposition 8, and told LSN that there were two reasons the ADF opposed LC's intervention. "First was a misplaced idea of competition or domination of the case," he said. "And second, a desire to narrow the defense so as not to focus or even address the consequences of homosexuality and homosexual marriage." "We wanted to include that as part of our defense," he continued.
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According to Staver, the ADF "basically gave away the essence of the case, because they wanted to shy away from homosexuality and really were not willing to take the issue directly head on."
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Staver believes that addressing the negative aspects of homosexuality is "a very critical component to the case, as to why same-sex marriage would ultimately harm marriage." The ADF nevertheless "completely refused to put on that kind of testimony," he said.

The Far Right's Never Ending War Against Kinsey

Whenever I want to visit a fantasy world I check out sites like AFA, CWFA, Focus on the Family or Wing Nut Daily. The lunacy and fabrication of false story lines is often nearly breath taking. Today was no exception when I went to Wing Nut Daily and found the latest so-called book by (in my view, the seriously disturbed) Judith Reisman (pictured at left). Her latest diatribe on Alfred Kinsey is entitled "Sexual Sabotage: How One Mad Scientist Unleashed a Plague of Corruption and Contagion on America." Indeed, Reisman has made a full time job out of trashing Kinsey, gays and anyone who doesn't subscribe to her particular views/beliefs on sexuality. It would almost be funny except for the fact that as reported by the New Yorker, under prior Republican administrations Reisman made out like a bandit in terms of tax moneys received for bogus research (she was given seven hundred and thirty-four thousand dollars by Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department to study pornography). Reisman's latest screed allegedly:
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documents how Kinsey refused to hire Jews, blacks, Catholics or anyone with religious or ethical beliefs, forced his own research team to reveal their innermost sexual secrets, subjecting themselves to blackmail and humiliation, and manipulated and manufactured data to persuade Americans to abandon their sexual mores and commitments to marriage, family and fidelity.
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The sad truth, however, is that Reisman is nothing short of crazy and in need of some heavy meds and no small amount of mental health intervention. That she is a doyenne of the far right speaks volumes about the fantasy based world in which the theocrats live. The New Yorker describes her as follows:
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Most Americans no longer give much thought to Kinsey as a societal force, but his detractors believe that his significance can hardly be overstated. A recent newsletter of the abstinence-education group Why know? compared the publication of “The Kinsey Report,” in 1948, to the attacks of September 11th, and labelled Kinseyism “fifty years of cultural terrorism.” Judith Reisman is the founder of the modern anti-Kinsey movement.
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In one article, Reisman describes Kinsey as “a scientific and moral fraud, a certifiable sexual psychopath as well as a sadomasochistic pornography addict and a sexually harassing bully.” Though largely unknown outside social-conservative circles, Reisman has been influential within them. She has served as a consultant to the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services and was given seven hundred and thirty-four thousand dollars by Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department to study pornography. More recently, she has been active in the rise of abstinence-only education;
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To a reader of Reisman’s scholarly papers, it sometimes appears that there is little for which she does not hold Kinsey responsible. In her research on gays, for instance, she has written that the “recruitment techniques” of homosexuals rival those of the Marine Corps. The Kinsey paradigm, she holds, created the moral framework that makes such recruitment possible. Reisman also endorses a book called “The Pink Swastika,” which challenges the “myths” that gays were victimized in Nazi Germany. The Nazi Party and the Holocaust itself, she writes, were largely the creation of “the German homosexual movement.” Thanks to Alfred Kinsey, she warns, the American homosexual movement is poised to repeat those crimes. “Idealistic ‘gay youth’ groups are being formed and staffed in classrooms nationwide by recruiters too similar to those who formed the original ‘Hitler youth.’

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Once again, Wing Nut Daily has proven itself to be the platform for the seriously demented and seriously disturbed voices of the Christianist and neo-con far right.

More Virginia Wingnut Lunacy

There are truly days where it's an embarrassment to have to admit that one is a resident of Virginia. Particularly, when wingnuts in the Virginia General Assembly begin to have irrational diarrhea of the mouth. Delegate Bob Marshall from western Prince William County. It goes without saying that Marshall is a Republican and a darling of the Christo-fascists at The Family Foundation - Virginia's affiliate of Daddy Dobson's Focus on the Family. Right Wing Watch has the details on Marshall's latest rant blaming abortion for birth defects. After his anti-gay jihad - Marshall has stated that he'd like to drive gays from Virginia - anti-abortion hysteria is Marshall's favorite topic of discourse. Assuming, of course, that one sided, irrational screeds count as discourse. Here are highlights from Right Wing Watch:
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Last week we noted how Pat Robertson, Jonathan Falwell, and other right-wing activists in Virginia are targeting Gov. Bob McDonnell and other top elected officials to cut off any state funding for Planned Parenthood.
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During a press conference unveiling the effort last week, a state legislator declared that God punishes women who have had abortions by giving them disabled children later: Western Prince William Del. Bob Marshall, R-13th, says disabled children are God’s punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy. He made that statement last Thursday at a press conference to oppose state funding for Planned Parenthood.
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Marshall was among more than 20 people, mostly Christian pastors and clergy, who gathered for the press conference in the General Assembly Building ...The press conference was held by a group called Virginia Christian Action. Its members presented a petition calling on Gov. Bob McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to stop funding for Planned Parenthood. All three top officials are Republican.
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The petition was signed by a number of prominent Christian leaders, including the Rev. Jonathan Falwell of Lynchburg and the Rev. Pat Robertson of Virginia Beach.
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Like most of Virginia's self-righteous, self-anointed Uber-Christians, Marshall is one of the most unloving individuals one might encounter. The commandment to love your neighbor is obviously lost on Marshall. As is the concept of religious freedom for others.

Inside the Mind of Tea Party Crazies

There is nothing wrong with being skeptical of government power and wanting facts and answers to support government courses of action. It is, however, something else entirely to allow one's self to be swept up in crazy conspiracy theories and/or covens of true believers who see immigrants, blacks gays - indeed, anyone who is different - as a threat that must be defeated. Personally, I find the tea party movement frightening because it seems to embrace any wild unfounded rumor and has a strong racist undertone. Elements within the GOP have helped unleash the tea party crowd, but I worry that its paranoia will lead to violence and other dangerous trends. Any movement that is unfettered from objective reality holds potential for danger. Here are highlights from a New York Times article that looks at the tea party phenomenon:
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The Tea Party movement has become a platform for conservative populist discontent, a force in Republican politics for revival, as it was in the Massachusetts Senate election, or for division. But it is also about the profound private transformation of people like Mrs. Stout, people who not long ago were not especially interested in politics, yet now say they are bracing for tyranny.
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These people are part of a significant undercurrent within the Tea Party movement that has less in common with the Republican Party than with the Patriot movement, a brand of politics historically associated with libertarians, militia groups, anti-immigration advocates and those who argue for the abolition of the Federal Reserve.
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Urged on by conservative commentators, waves of newly minted activists are turning to once-obscure books and Web sites and discovering a set of ideas long dismissed as the preserve of conspiracy theorists, interviews conducted across the country over several months show.
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Loose alliances like Friends for Liberty are popping up in many cities, forming hybrid entities of Tea Parties and groups rooted in the Patriot ethos. These coalitions are not content with simply making the Republican Party more conservative. They have a larger goal — a political reordering that would drastically shrink the federal government and sweep away not just Mr. Obama, but much of the Republican establishment, starting with Senator John McCain.
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In many regions, including here in the inland Northwest, tense struggles have erupted over whether the Republican apparatus will co-opt these new coalitions or vice versa. Tea Party supporters are already singling out Republican candidates who they claim have “aided and abetted” what they call the slide to tyranny.
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The ebbs and flows of the Tea Party ferment are hardly uniform. It is an amorphous, factionalized uprising with no clear leadership and no centralized structure. Not everyone flocking to the Tea Party movement is worried about dictatorship. Some have a basic aversion to big government, or Mr. Obama, or progressives in general.
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They are frequently led by political neophytes who prize independence and tell strikingly similar stories of having been awakened by the recession. Their families upended by lost jobs, foreclosed homes and depleted retirement funds, they said they wanted to know why it happened and whom to blame. That is often the point when Tea Party supporters say they began listening to Glenn Beck. . . . Many describe emerging from their research as if reborn to a new reality. Some have gone so far as to stock up on ammunition, gold and survival food in anticipation of the worst.
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It is a sprawling rebellion, but running through it is a narrative of impending tyranny. This narrative permeates Tea Party Web sites, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and YouTube videos. It is a prominent theme of their favored media outlets and commentators, and it connects the disparate issues that preoccupy many Tea Party supporters — from the concern that the community organization Acorn is stealing elections to the belief that Mr. Obama is trying to control the Internet and restrict gun ownership.
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WorldNetDaily.com trumpets “exclusives” reporting that the Army is seeking “Internment/Resettlement” specialists. On ResistNet.com, bloggers warn that Mr. Obama is trying to convert Interpol, the international police organization, into his personal police force. They call on “fellow Patriots” to “grab their guns.”
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The article goes on for a number of pages. The bottom line is that many of these people are living in an alternate reality and that those who have whipped them into a frenzy have been irresponsible to say the least.

Censorship Alive in Virginia School System

In yet another case where one wingnut parent has complained about a book "not being appropriate," the Culpeper County Public Schools (Culpeper is about 45miles north of Charlottesville) have banned the use of a newer version of the Diary of Anne Frank. The irony is that on any given day on the afternoon soap operas one can likely watch even more sexually charged fair. I am amazed at parents that believe that keeping their children ignorant of the real world somehow helps their children be prepared to venture out into the world. It has been my experience that the children of the most restrictive parents are the ones that go wild and run amok when they leave home for college. The forbidden fruit is always made to look that much more desirable. Here are highlights from the Washington Post on this latest idiocy in Virginia:

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Culpeper County public school officials have decided to stop assigning a version of Anne Frank's diary, one of the most enduring symbols of the atrocities of the Nazi regime, after a parent complained that the book includes sexually explicit material and homosexual themes.
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"The Diary of a Young Girl: the Definitive Edition," which was published on the 50th anniversary of Frank's death in a concentration camp, will not be used in the future, said James Allen, director of instruction for the 7,600-student system. The school system did not follow its own policy for handling complaints about instructional materials, Allen said.
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The diary documents the daily life of a Jewish girl in Amsterdam during World War II. Frank started writing on her 13th birthday, shortly before her family went into hiding in an annex of an office building. The version of the diary in question includes passages previously excluded from the widely read original edition, first published in Dutch in 1947. That book was arranged by her father, the only survivor in her immediate family. Some of the extra passages detail her emerging sexual desires; others include unflattering descriptions of her mother and other people living together.
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Culpeper's policy on "public complaints about learning resources" calls for complaints to be submitted in writing and for a review committee to research the materials and deliberate, Allen said. In this case, the policy was not followed. Allen said the parent registered the complaint orally, no review committee was created and a decision was made quickly by at least one school administrator. He said he is uncertain about the details because he was out of town.
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Hasty decisions to restrict access to some books do "a disservice to students," said Angela Maycock, assistant director of the office for intellectual freedom at the American Library Association[ALA]. "Something that one individual finds controversial or offensive or objectionable may be really valuable to other learners in that community," she said. The ALA has documented only six challenges to "The Diary of Anne Frank" since it began monitoring formal written complaints to remove or restrict books in 1990.
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Not to sound overly mean, but it'd be great Divine justice if this bigoted parent turns out to have a gay child and children that run wild in later life.

Are “Undercover Gay Reporters” Causing Media Bias in Gay Marriage Stories?

The question in the title of this post may seem crazy, yet that's the allegation being made by one wingnut. In her online “The Barras Report” column this week, Jonetta Rose Barras (pictured at left)accused “undercover gay reporters” of undisclosed bias in their coverage of the D.C. same-sex marriage bill. The Washington City Paper looks at Barras' batsh*tery and one can only wonder why people listen to those who are so obviously untethered from objective reality. I guess it has never crossed Barras' mind that some people believe in religious freedom and equality under the civil laws for ALL citizens. As for being cast as backward, homophobic, discriminatory, if the shoe fits, do something about it rather than blame others for fairly depicting the truth. Here are some story highlights:

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“Some opponents of same-sex marriage wonder why they couldn’t get coverage in the press similar to proponents,” Barras wrote. “Stand4Marriage coalition members . . . have been cast as backward, homophobic, discriminatory crew.” Well this crew of forward-thinking non-homophobes need wonder no further! According to Barras, “undercover” gay reporters engaged in a gay media conspiracy to unfairly characterize people who oppose civil rights for gay people as homophobes.
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Opponents [of gay marriage] believe they have received the raw deal in the media because the deck was stacked against them. Several of the individuals who reported on the legislation are themselves gay. None revealed their status in the gay community, which surely created in TBR’s mind a bias. TBR doesn’t want to out anyone. They know who they are.
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So if you’re a gay reporter who has failed to out yourself as gay in every story you write that concerns gay people, Barras thinks you’re a “disgrace” to the profession . . .
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If gay reporters are expected to publicly announce on television that they’re gay whenever they’re involved in reporting out a story that concerns gay marriage in D.C., I’d hope that Barras would pepper every absurd column she writes about undercover gay media conspiracies with unneccessary disclaimers concerning her sexual orientation, and any other possible conflict of interest.
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The story then goes on to parody Barras' column with with the necessary modifiers to reflect her own bias and hypocrisy on the sanctity of marriage - including the fact that's she's been divorced and remarried.

Carrie Prejean - the Gift that Keeps on Giving

Carrie Prejean is truly the gift that keeps on giving and in the process she makes the folks at the National Organization for Marriage and similar Christo-fascist organizations that leap to her defense look like total imbeciles to the larger public (which, of course, these haters are in reality anyways). Each time I think I have posted for the last time about her, some new and damaging information comes out. It now seems that Ms. Prejean lied yet again to her supporters, and instead of "one mistake" she made a number of mistakes: in fact eight porn videos that are reportedly now in the possession of a porn distributor. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing a flaming hypocrite hoisted on her own petard. The fact that she has made Maggie Gallagher and her fellow money grubbing homophobes at NOM look like jack asses is just a nectar sweet bonus. The Gawker has the latest revelations on Ms. Prejean's tawdry past:

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If only the biggest mistake (or eight) of your life was worth "millions of dollars." Porn distributor Vivid Entertainment is making a play to distribute the former Miss California's sex tapes—which it allegedly has in its possession, already.
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Our sister site Fleshbot reports (link NSFW) [as did the Insider TV show this eveninthat Vivid has announced that it has the tapes in its possession, and TMZ has published a letter from Vivid chair Steve Hirsch to Prejean's lawyers seeking the right to distribute "erotic footage that Carrie Prejean, former Miss California, produced for her boyfriend following their four (4) day rendezvous in February 2007." Here's where everyone purses their lips, nods slowly, and says "Four days? Nice..."
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Unfortunately for Vivid (and fans of teen masturbation) Carrie's mother—who is also her rep—has already said "No, not at any price" to the proposal. If Hirsch's date is right, then Carrie didn't lie about her age in the video(s). She was nineteen, the "teenager" she repeatedly described herself as in her "worst mistake of my life" monologue—and above the age of consent.
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For those who do not recall how the folks at NOM breathlessly embraced Ms. Prejean and spoke about her as a woman wronged, Joe at Joe.By.God has a great reminder that is worth revisiting. Here are some highlights:

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This cover story about a contract dispute doesn’t pass the smell test. Americans aren’t fooled that easily. God knows, and we know, the truth about Carrie: She’s a young woman of great beauty who chose truth over the glittering tiara that Hollywood offers," said Brian Brown, Executive Director for NOM. "Of course they will try to punish her, but we know she will be fine in the end, because her values fingers are in the right place." "Hollywood will dance its tribal war dance over her body--the hatred generated against her has been extraordinary--but Carrie will be free to define her own mission and message [finger herself] from now on. Congratulations," stated Maggie Gallagher, President for NOM.
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Miss Ladyfingers USA has been disappeared from pretty much all of the wingnut sites that once championed her. SHE NEVER EXISTED, PEOPLE!

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Ms. Prejean has provided a win-win situation. She has discredited both herself and the wingnut crazies who embraced her as a new Joan of Arc. There is a God it would seem. :)

Companies Growing More GLBT friendly

The lunatics over at WingNutDaily are bleating once again over the fact that the number of large corporations in the USA that are gay accepting and/or provide domestic partner benefits, etc., continues to grow steadily. The theocrats forget that companies are in business to MAKE MONEY and PROFITS for their shareholders as opposed to furthering a religious based jihad against GLBT citizens. Given the current economy, companies have all the more motivation to market to all market niches that contain potential purchasers/customers, including the GLBT community. While it is a common sense business approach, the wingnuts continue to get their panties in a wad over businesses doing what makes good business sense and in the process not treating GLBT citizens as garbage as the Christianists desire. Here are some highlights from the WND rant (Note how we are considered a "lifestyle" choice as opposed to merely being who God made us to be):
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Despite an economy languishing in high unemployment and low consumer confidence, more American companies are jumping on the bandwagon to provide support for homosexual and transgender employees. More than 300 firms have now received perfect 100 percent scores in this fall's Corporate Equality Index, produced annually by the Human Rights Campaign which ranks businesses on their "treatment" of employees who have chosen homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgender lifestyles. The list, which saw a 20 percent increase this year in the number of perfect scores, includes newcomers such as theater giant AMC Entertainment, Costco, Delta Air Lines, Food Lion and General Mills.
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Interestingly, that attitude is from the same company whose head, casino mogul Steve Wynn, recently complained the left-leaning policies of President Obama are not just wrong, they're also dangerous. "They are trying to change the basic fabric of American life without preparation, homework or experience. And they're trying to intimidate everybody," Wynn told the Las Vegas Sun. Other well-known companies which are new to the perfect-score list this year include Alcoa, JetBlue Airways, LexisNexis, Monsanto, Pacific Life Insurance, Procter & Gamble and UnitedHealth Group. The report claims "impressive gains" in policies and protections across the board, but especially for transgender workers.

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In 2002, the year it was first published, the CEI noted just 5 percent of businesses banned discrimination based on gender identity or expression. The 2010 report shows that figure has increased exponentially, now standing at 72 percent. See this year's full list of companies scoring 100 percent.
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Slowly but surely, businesses are waking up to the fact that bigotry and intolerance are bad for the bottom line. Hopefully, our legislator will open their eyes and follow the lead of the leaders of the business community who are figuring out that religious based bigotry needs to be removed from the workplace. In the meanwhile, expect the shrillness of the homophobes and Christianists to intensify as they slide into the waste heap of history.

Christianist Paranoia

I often read some of the wingnut news sites and web pages for the purpose of knowing what out enemies are up to. Unlike Jeremy Hooper at Good As You, I do not typically write to them or attempt to leave comment - largely because they respond only in their standard BS or never publish dissenting comment. Last week I was checking out OneNewsNow - a Christianist news site - and came across a story where the author discusses how the ever delusional Matt Staver at Liberty Counsel (who is also dean of the wingnut law school at the late Jerry Falwell's Liberty University) is convinced that President Obama is behind the lawsuits challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act ("Doma"). Yes, that's the same President Obama that I and many LGBT bloggers and activists have taken to task for his failure to deliver to date on any of his campaign promises to LGBT Americans. In the alternate universe of the wingnut Christianists objective reality never matters, only their delusions and paranoia. Here are some highlights from the foaming at the mouth found at OneNewsNow:

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Attorney Mat Staver is convinced the Obama administration is behind a federal lawsuit filed yesterday in Boston challenging the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
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"The first state to legalize homosexual "marriage" has filed suit against the federal government to overturn DOMA -- the Defense of Marriage Act -- which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. On Wednesday, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed the lawsuit in federal court in Boston. The suit claims DOMA interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define marriage as it sees fit.

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"That's [Obama's] political preference [that DOMA be overturned]," Staver says. "There's no doubt in my mind, absolutely no question at all, that he and some of those in the Department of Justice are coordinating with individuals -- and perhaps even the attorney general in Massachusetts -- to literally bring these lawsuits and have a very weak defense so that the courts will ultimately overturn it without having the politicians and the president go on record showing that they are in favor of same-sex marriage."

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Staver goes on to say that Liberty Counsel is not going to allow the Obama administration to tear down the nation's moral values, which he argues it seems intent on doing. He vows that Liberty Counsel will vigorously fight this latest challenge to marriage, just as it has a lawsuit in California targeting DOMA.

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In my opinion, Staver is another extreme self-hating closet case who desperately yearns for gay sex but who is too conflicted by his religious brainwashing to ever accept gays or being gay. No one is so hysterically anti-gay and anti-gay rights unless some other issues are involved in the mix. Like Robert Knight, I wish Staver would get himself a rent boy and just get over it.

Wing Nuts Berate The GOP "Gutless Wonders"

I love it when the fundies and hard right GOP start bashing each other. One can only hope that in 2008 the wingnuts will be sufficiently disillusioned by gay baiting politicians that they stay home on election day. Here's a portion of a rant by Joseph Farah (pictured at left) from World Net Daily (which clearly has an alternate view of the Universe) focused on GOP presidential candidates who passed up on attending the "Value Voters Debate":

Would you elect a man president of the United States who was afraid of tough questioning from Phyllis Schlafly or Star Parker? Would you consider voting for a man who had better things to do than to talk to an audience of millions concerned about the assault on family values? What would you say to front-running GOP presidential candidates who take your vote for granted because they think you have nowhere to go?

These are some of the questions you should be pondering today as we get ready for a Republican presidential debate next Monday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – a debate in which four major contenders will be conspicuously absent. They are: Willard "Mitt" Romney, Rudolph Giuliani, John McCain and Fred Thompson. Isn't it amazing how scheduling conflicts and other business kept all four of these so-called front-runners from talking directly to people like Isn't it amazing how scheduling conflicts and other business kept all four of these so-called front-runners from talking directly to people like Donald Wildmon and James Dobson and Paul Weyrich and Rick Scarborough? ?

What I find amazing (and frightening) is that Isn't it amazing how scheduling conflicts and other business kept all four of these so-called front-runners from talking directly to people like Donald Wildmon, James Dobson, Paul Weyrich and Rick Scarborough think they should get to anoint the GOP nominee.