Friday Male Beauty

'NOM' Defector Louis Marinelli Launches the National Organization for Marriage Equality

Louis Marinelli continues to be a pain in the ass for his former bosses Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown who like Elaine Donnelly make anti-gay lies and bigotry a viable line of work. Marinelli who "saw the light" while serving as the bus driver on NOM's hateful 2010 "Summer for Marriage Tour", has been a font of information on the internal machinations at NOM. Now he has launched the National Organization for Marriage Equality to counter NOM's poisonous lies. The new organization's website describes it's mission as follows:

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[W]e aim to educate the public on the issue of civil marriage equality. Specifically, the organization is dedicated to the following objectives:
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to protect marriage equality in states where it exists;
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to educate the public about the importance of marriage equality in states where it does not exist;
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to grow support for civil marriage equality among conservatives, republicans and independents;
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to separate misinformation about the LGBT community from the facts.
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The new organization also plans to visit 17 states on a tour this summer. Marinelli has this to say about the upcoming tour:
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This summer we plan to travel the country from California to Maine to talk about my change of heart on the issue of marriage equality and talk with conservatives and republicans about why they should support the freedom to marry.

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Because it was these counter-protesters that led to my change of heart in support of same-sex marriage and my subsequent resignation from the National Organization for Marriage, this tour will serve as a testament to that change and I look forward to seeing many of the same faces and families I saw last year so that this year I can stand with them, not against them.

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Kudos to Marinelli. Let's hope he can opens some minds and change some hearts.

Elaine Donnelly's So-Called "Center for Military Readiness" Trashed in New Report

Elaine Donnelly (pictured at left) - who I mentioned in the previous post - is one who will hopefully be seeking a new line of work with the demise of DADT. A new piece on Huffington Post looks at the fraudulent nature of Donnelly's "Center for Military Readiness" which operates out of her home and provides both her and her husband a steady income from peddling hate and bigotry. Given the true nature of Donnelly's operation one can only wonder why the main stream media - not to mention members of Congress - ever gave this woman a shred of credibility. She's no better than a crazy aunt that one would like to keep hidden from the public eye. Worse yet, her supposed non-profit entity doesn't meet general standards for non-profits. Why on earth hasn't the IRS gone after the organization? It's all about enriching the Donnellys and disseminating lies and false information. It's a pattern seen over and over again with so-called "ministries" and "educational" groups run by Christianists. Here are some story highlights:
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WASHINGTON -- The leading opponent of repealing the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and a decades-long critic of expanded opportunities for military women runs a nonprofit organization that watchdog groups say has filed inaccurate and misleading reports to the IRS, lacks a credibly independent board and is operating uncomfortably close to the line that separates education from lobbying.
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The Center for Military Readiness (CMR), the tax-exempt nonprofit founded by Elaine Donnelly nearly 20 years ago, bills itself as "an independent non-partisan public policy organization that specializes in military personnel issues." But the "small think tank" headquartered out of Donnelly's suburban Detroit home and run day-to-day by her husband Terry is the single most influential conservative voice pushing back against social progress in the military.
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An examination of a decade's worth of CMR's 990 tax forms and interviews with several nonprofit experts reveal a mom-and-pop operation that has repeatedly failed to comply with standard rules required of 501(c)3 groups like CMR.
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CMR does not have a written conflict of interest policy, a whistle blower policy or an independent process to review compensation for the Donnellys and their executive director Tommy Sears, a former defense industry lobbyist based in Washington. The group also did not fill out a tax form required of nonprofit organizations that pay a family member in excess of $10,000. Donnelly's husband Terry earns more than that as CMR's administrator. Borochoff said the documents are routinely found in well-run nonprofits.
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n 2010, Donnelly earned $48,476 as CMR's president, a pay cut from the $55,674 and $54,035 she was paid in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Her husband Terry was paid $11,718 last year, better than 2009 when he made $9,812 but nearly three times less than the $31,248 he was paid in 2008. Last year, the couple claimed more than $28,000 for travel and home office expenses.
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CMR'S ability to influence far-reaching social debates is all the more remarkable considering the limits of its funding. It annually brings in around $250,000 in revenues from a network of like-minded conservative foundations. Though its website includes a page where supporters can contribute $25 to become a "member," the group has little or no revenue from membership dues in recent years. Terry Donnelly said CMR is "not a membership organization in the truest sense," though he claimed it has "well over 10,000" people on its email list.
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CMR, like similar organizations, is not required to publicly release its list of donors. A partial accounting by the liberal watchdog Media Matters reveals, unsurprisingly, that CMR's patrons include conservative and Christian groups such as Focus on the Family.
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Donnelly admits she may be out of step with the times. . . . She is already focused on "educating" lawmakers like Foxx to assure the Pentagon doesn't sidestep DOMA -- which the president this week vowed to help repeal -- and give married gay troops the same benefits as straight couples.
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It's time that the media and Congress recognize that Donnelly is pretty much a nutcase with no legitimate credentials who is funded by anti-gay organizations with one goal: denigrating and stigmatizing LGBT citizens. She deserves about the same credibility as a member of the Klu Klux Klan.

Military to Certify End of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Today

The Washington Post is reporting that the Pentagon will certify the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell today thus setting the stage of the final end to this discriminatory policy that raised Christianist anti-gay bigotry to a national policy level. Expect more shrieking and screaming form the professional Christian hate groups as they lose one of their most special privileges and tools to depict LGBT citizens as inferior. With DADT headed for the trash heap of history some of the Christofascists - e.g., Elaine Donnelly - will be faced with the prospect of needing to find a real job as donations likely start to dwindle. In this region with its huge military presence I expect over time the number of "out" members of the LGBT community will rise as service members cease to be afraid to reveal their true selves. As that happens, I believe the trend towards openness will spread into the business world, including the many defense contractors located in Hampton Roads. Here are some highlights from the Post story:
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Top Pentagon leaders will say Friday that the military is ready to permit gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military, allowing President Obama to formally end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, according to a U.S. official and others familiar with the plans.
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In accordance with a law passed in December that set in motion the process of ending the ban, Obama first must receive notice from Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and top uniformed brass that the military is prepared to end the policy before the government stops enforcing it. The policy will end 60 days after Obama formally certifies the repeal in writing to Congress.
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If Obama signs the certification in the coming days, the ban would end in late September.
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Obama met Wednesday at the White House with Panetta, who will be formally sworn in to his new job by Vice President Biden on Friday at the Pentagon. The White House isn't planning to formally mark the end of “don't ask, don’t tell” with any type of public event until the end of the 60-day period, sources said.
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Once the almost 18-year ban ends, gays and lesbians serving in military uniform will be able to publicly reveal their sexual identity without fear of dismissal or official rebuke, openly gay men and women will be able to enlist in the military, and gay couples may be allowed to wed at military chapels or live together on military bases in states that recognize same-sex marriages.
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As the Post goes on to report, the end of DADT will not end all legalized discrimination for LGBT service members because DOMA will continue to bar military spousal benefits for gay couples, including potential housing options and survivor benefits. Thus, Christianist bigotry will not be totally removed from the nations laws and the need to repeal DOMA will become more evident than ever. Nonetheless, the end of DADT is huge - especially for areas like Hampton Roads and other parts of Virginia where the military has a huge presence.

More Thursday Male Beauty

The Bachmanns' "Ex-Lesbian" Friend Fits All The "Ex-gay" Stereotypes

I don't mean to sound mean or nasty, but Slate has a piece on Michele and Marcus Bachmann's "ex-lesbian" friend, Janet Boynes, and true to form she's a former drug addict/dealer who had by the sounds of it a totally f*cked up life - none of which was due to her being a lesbian (in fact, she sounds like a reprise of Michael Johnston who Wayne Besen and I exposed as a total fraud back in 2003). Yet true to form, she wants to blame all of her problems on her sexual orientation rather than her screwed up family circumstances and/or her own bad choices. Are there any "ex-gays" who weren't drug addicts and/or alcoholics? It seems that ALL of them are one time losers who latched on to the "ex-gay" for pay gravy train.
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Like most "ex-gays," Boynes would have us believe that because of her sexual orientation she did not have a relatively normal life (in contrast to most of us in the LGBT community). Moreover, she wants to blame her utterly screwed up prior life on her homosexuality rather than the real causes of her problems. Frankly, I am way past over having any sympathy for losers like Boynes who messed up their own lives with booze and drugs who then want to say that being gay was the cause of their problems. Let's get real - for Boynes like all the rest of the "ex-gay" for pay crowd they "became stright" only learning that there's good money to be made playing "ex-gay." And as an added bonus, they gain a modicum of respect within the Bible beater circles. . Meanwhile, I can only wonder how many lives of young LGBT individuals will be damaged because of the lies Boynes is promoting. To me, it is utterly disgusting and immoral. Boynes may be enjoying her financial freedom and new found self-respect derived from peddling lies and snake oil to the gullible, but I find her less honorable than the most tawdry whore. Here are highlights from Slate:
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If the Bachmanns still believe that being gay is a sinful lifestyle from which it's possible to be delivered, they aren't about to explain their thinking right now. In the past, however, they have pointed to the testimony of one particular friend as proof of their belief that it is possible to leave the gay "lifestyle." This friend is devoting her life to the proposition that homosexuality is not only destructive but, in some sense, contagious, and her beliefs may provide some useful context for the Bachmanns' past comments. Her name is Janet Boynes, and she calls herself an ex-lesbian.
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"I was not born homosexual," Boynes writes in her memoir. "I made a decision." In her telling, a slew of environmental factors tempted her to make that decision, the way a weakened immune system might make the body prone to infection. Boynes writes that she was born into poverty in Norristown, Pa., one of seven half-siblings by multiple fathers.
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Boynes's life as a gay woman was chaotic; she cheated on her girlfriends and was cheated on. For awhile, she was addicted to—and sold—cocaine. But from time to time, she writes, her churchgoing childhood would kick in, and she would think of God and recognize that she was on a sinful path. At last, she writes, in 1998, a chance encounter with a Christian woman in a parking lot prompted her to renounce her lesbian ways.
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Today, she says she wants to marry a man and is just waiting for the right one to come along. . . . And her emphasis on loving the sinner is often undercut by a fire-and-brimstone judgmentalism. In her book, Boynes tells the harrowing story of her gay brother's death from AIDS over a decade ago–noting that he bled out of every orifice. When I asked her what she made of his death, she said, "Sometimes sin has consequences." As she sees it, sin is trying to take over the culture: The fight for same-sex marriage is just a prelude to normalizing pedophilia and bestiality, she writes. Gay activists are "recruiting" children in schools.
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The belief that homosexuality is highly contagious is at the heart of the perspective propounded by Boynes and shared by the Bachmanns and many other conservative Christians, but it is not new.
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Boynes to suggest, as she did to me, that for many people, "if I'm out there in the homosexual community, hanging out with them on a daily basis, that's what I will become." What doesn't make sense is why, if homosexuality is so darn tempting, more of America isn't already gay.
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Boynes may feel better about herself and be enjoying the financial benefits of being "ex-gay," but I suspect that it's her, not LGBT individuals. who will be called to account on Judgment Day for the lies and untruths she willingly disseminated for the purpose of self-enrichment and to engender praise from the hate filled Bible beating set. But for the damage she is doing to others, she would represent a very sad figure. I'm sorry, but I find her - and the Bachmanns - to be contemptible.

MN School District Investigated for Anti-Bullying Policy

UPDATED: The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC")and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) today filed a lawsuit today against the Anoka-Hennepin School District. The lawsuit challenges the pervasive anti-gay harassment in the district’s schools as well as a “gag policy” that prevents teachers from discussing issues related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Here's more from the SPLC website:

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of five students who have faced severe anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in school. It charges that the district’s gag policy perpetuates the abuses suffered by these students and others.

The groups filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota after the school district failed to address the persistent abuse or repeal its discriminatory policy.

“We are disappointed that the district fails to see the serious harm this policy is causing its students,” said Sam Wolfe, the SPLC’s lead attorney in the case. “School and district officials who are entrusted with the safety and education of all students continue to ignore, minimize, dismiss and even blame victims for the abusive behavior of other students.”

The lawsuit charges that LGBT students and students perceived as LGBT have been subjected to a constant torrent of slurs and have been physically threatened or attacked by peers. While many of these abuses occurred in front of teachers or were reported to school officials, school personnel almost always took insufficient action to stop the abuse.

This piece is cross posted from The Bilerico Project. The U. S. Justice Department and the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights are investigating the Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota for alleged abuse and bullying of students who do not conform to gender stereotypes. The school district has experienced a string of seven student suicides in fewer than two years (including 15-year-old Justin Aaberg, whose mother is a Facebook friend of mine and who provided the photo), yet it has refused to implement an anti-gay bullying policy that would seek to specifically protect LGBT students.

Instead, the school division - principally due the efforts of anti-gay "family values" organizations such as affiliates of Focus on the Family and the SPLC registered hate group, the American Family Association - has adopted a policy that purports to be "neutral on the issue of homosexuality."

Earlier this month the anti-gay Alliance Defense Fund sent a letter to the Anoka-Hennepin School District urging it to maintain its "neutrality policy" with regard to sexual orientation.
And the consequences of blocking any meaningful anti-gay bullying policies are deadly. Just ask Alise Williams, whose son, Christian Taylor, committed suicide on May 31, 2010, after constant bullying because he was perceived as gay by bigoted students. The York County Schools purportedly have an anti-bullying policy, but as seems to be the case time and time again, it is rarely, if ever, enforced.

Here are highlights from CNN's coverage of the Justice Department and Office of Civil Rights investigation:

Federal authorities are investigating "incidents involving harassment and bullying" in Minnesota's largest school district, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed in an e-mail to CNN.

The civil rights investigation is under way in the suburban Minneapolis school district, Anoka-Hennepin, a community already embattled in a culture war over homosexuality in the classroom.

The Justice Department together with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights are looking into "allegations of harassment and discrimination in the Anoka-Hennepin School District based on sex, including peer-on-peer harassment based on not conforming to gender stereotypes," according to a district memo provided exclusively to CNN.

The federal investigation comes after a string of seven student suicides in less than two years, which stirred public debate over the district's sexual orientation curriculum policy.

Parents and friends say four of those students were either gay, perceived to be gay or questioning their sexuality, and they say, at least two of them were bullied over their sexuality.

It's unclear whether the suicides or the policy are a significant part of the federal investigation. The controversial policy, adopted in 2009, states that staff must "remain neutral on matters regarding sexual orientation" and that "such matters are best addressed within individual family homes, churches or community organizations."

Anoka-Hennepin is the only Minnesota school district known to have such a policy. However, at least eight other states - Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Utah - have statutes specifying varying limits on classroom instruction regarding homosexuality. Tennessee considered similar legislation this year.

In May, two advocacy groups, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, threatened the school district with a federal lawsuit challenging the policy. So far, negotiations with the school district have not met their demands.

Tammy Aaberg - whose 15-year-old son, Justin, committed suicide last July - has become an outspoken critic of the neutrality policy. "He came to me and said, 'Mom, a kid at school says I'm going to go to hell because I'm gay,'" said Aaberg. The neutrality policy, she said, contributed to a school environment harmful to her son, who was outed in the eighth grade by another student. "I believe that the climate that they have in the school, the way that kids are allowed to treat other kids - they say 'fag' all the time," Aaberg said. "If you're even questioning who you are and you're not seeing anybody who's like you, you don't see anything positive about who you are, then you start wondering, 'What's wrong with me?'"

Sam Wolfe, the Southern Poverty Law Center attorney handling the advocacy group's case, calls the curriculum policy a "gag policy." In May, Wolfe wrote a letter to Carlson stating that students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and those perceived to be LGBT "remain in jeopardy in a hostile and alienating environment."

"The gag policy singles out LGBT students by denying them and them alone any affirmation of their identity," Wolfe wrote in the May 24 letter. He also said the policy "categorically preclud(es) any meaningful classroom discussion about history, literature, current events or any other relevant lessons involving LGBT people."

A similar federal investigation in Tehachapi, California, led to federally mandated revisions of the Tehachapi Unified School District's policies. After investigating a complaint surrounding the suicide of a 13-year-old student, the departments of Justice and Education concluded the eighth grader "suffered sexual and gender-based harassment by his peers, including harassment based on his nonconformity to gender stereotypes" and the school district "did not adequately investigate or respond appropriately as it is required to do by federal law," according to the resolution agreement reached this month between the Tehachapi Unified School District and the federal agencies. Tehachapi district officials disagreed with the investigation's findings.

One can only hope that similar changes will be forced on the Anoka-Hennepin School District.

Thursday Male Beauty

Irsh Parliament Blames Vatican For Sex Abuse Cover Ups

UPDATED: The Irish Times has an even more damning article on Parliament's finger pointing at the Vatican. My favorite part of the article which focuses in part on the Vatican's belief that it is above the law, is as follows:
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The revelations of the Cloyne report have brought the Government, Irish Catholics and the Vatican to an unprecedented juncture," the Taoiseach said. "It’s fair to say that after the Ryan and Murphy reports Ireland is, perhaps, unshockable when it comes to the abuse of children. But Cloyne has proved to be of a different order.
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"Because for the first time in Ireland, a report into child sexual-abuse exposes an attempt by the Holy See, to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic . . . as little as three years ago, not three decades ago. And in doing so, the Cloyne Report excavates the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism . . . the narcissism . . . that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day."
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Things continue to go from bad to worse for the Roman Catholic Church where the Irish Parliament has laid blame for the cover up of sexual crimes against children and youths directly at the feet of the Vatican. Church attendance has plummeted and with this new development, it may plunge further. It's beyond obvious that the Church hierarchy cannot be trusted and one again has to wonder why anyone who hasn't had a lobotomy listens to anything issuing from the Vatican and bishoprics around the world. The Church hierarchy has engaged in nothing less than a world wide criminal conspiracy. It's a truth that rank and file Catholics do not want to admit, but continuing to finance the Church - even its good aspects - sends the message to Rome that nothing need change. Here are highlights from the New York Times on this new development in Ireland:
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Ireland’s lawmakers on Wednesday accused the Vatican of encouraging Roman Catholic bishops not to tell the police about priests who were suspected of being pedophiles and of flouting Irish law. The rare denunciation of the Holy See’s influence in this predominantly Catholic country came just a week after the government issued a report accusing the Vatican of sabotaging Irish bishops’ 1996 decision to begin reporting suspected cases of child abuse to the police.
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The report gave details of a confidential letter sent in 1997 by the Vatican’s nuncio, or ambassador, in Ireland to Irish bishops, warning them that their child-protection policies violated canon law, which states that priests accused of abuse should be able to appeal their cases to the Vatican. “This is not Rome. This is the Republic of Ireland 2011, a republic of laws,” Prime Minister Enda Kenny told lawmakers on Wednesday. He said the church’s leaders had repeatedly sought to defend their institutions at the expense of children. It was the first time that Ireland’s Parliament had criticized the Vatican, rather than local church leaders, over the 17 years of pedophile-priest scandals in Ireland.
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The sad reality is that Pope Benedict XVI and most of the bishops and cardinals belong behind bars. The Catholic laity needs to face this fact and vote with their feet. Here in the USA, the Episcopal Church and ELCA are two options that ought to be pursued by Catholics who do not want to be accessories to sexual abuse of children and youths.

Wall Street Makes Fallback Plans for Debt Crisis

As extremists in the know nothing elements of the Republican Party push the nation closer to potential financial disaster, Wall Street is devising ways to deal with the fall out of U.S. Treasury bonds defaulting. Personally, I have zero holdings in such bonds, but nonetheless fear for what could happen. For those heavily invested in U.S. treasuries or in funds holding treasury bonds, the prospect of default ought to be most disconcerting. Indeed, they need to be calling and writing GOP members of Congress and promising revenge if the GOP members of the House f*ck over the country simply to appease the Tea Party loons. Better yet, they ought to be ready to fund campaigns of candidates who will challenge people like douche bag Eric Cantor. The New York Times looks at what Wall Street is doing to lessen potential adverse effects. Here are highlights:
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[O]n Wall Street, financial players are devising doomsday plans in case the clock runs out. These companies are taking steps to reduce the risk of holding Treasury bonds or angling for ways to make profits from any possible upheaval. And even if a deal is reached in Washington, some in the industry fear that the dickering has already harmed the country’s market credibility.
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On Wall Street, Treasuries function like a currency, and investors often use these bonds, which are supposed to be virtually fail-proof, as security deposits in their trading in the markets. Now, banks are sifting through their holdings and their customers’ holdings to determine if these security deposits will retain their value. In addition, mutual funds — which own billions of dollars in Treasuries — are working on presentations to persuade their boards that they can hold the bonds even if the government debt is downgraded. And hedge funds are stockpiling cash so they can buy up United States debt if other investors flee.
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The rating agencies . . . are surveying other entities that would be affected by a United States default — like insurance companies and states — and issuing warnings that a United States downgrade could result in several other ratings cuts. States that might be downgraded, in turn, are trying to reassure the market that they could still pay their bills on time.
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If lawmakers do not act before then [August 2], it will be difficult for the Treasury to meet coming interest payments as well as obligations to government employees, vendors and programs like Social Security and Medicare.
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In the Treasury market, investors are starting to sell, fearing that the government will not make good on some interest payments that will be due next month. And complex financial instruments that will pay out if the United States defaults have become twice as expensive to buy as they were at the start of the year. Analysts say the signs of panic are small for now.
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Deterioration of investor confidence in the United States could also hurt the value of the dollar, according to William H. Gross, co-chief investment officer of Pimco, a bond fund based in California. Mr. Gross said he believed that the dollar would become weaker because of the country’s inability to deal with its rising deficit. Instead, he favors currencies in China, Canada, Brazil and Mexico. Compared with the balance sheet of the United States, he said, “their dirty shirts are much cleaner.”
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One of the worst possibilities that people in the financial industry, like Mr. Lengsfield, have been discussing is that scores of insurance companies, pension funds and mutual funds might be forced to dump their Treasury holdings. Some investors have rules that they cannot hold assets that are rated below AAA. It was this sort of rule that drove the forced selling of mortgage bonds during the financial crisis.
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[I]t is unclear whether other investors might stampede for the exits. “The question I think investors are going to face is, Where do they go?” asked Ms. Cunningham. “Do they go to foreign banks? U.S. commercial paper issuers? U.S. agencies? Is there a safer haven than Treasury securities?”
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If a default occurs, I hope that voters will remember that the GOP caused the disaster and will vote the party out of office in 2012 and elections this fall in states like Virginia.