Why Obama May Be Safe in Virginia

Living in currently Republican controlled Virginia one gets to experience the worse aspects of the GOP agenda which is focused on moving the state (and nation) backwards in time.  It goes without saying that under this agenda gays, minorities and women are subordinate citizens.  And special rights for Christianists and their religious beliefs are the norm for Republican elected officials who seem to take their marching orders from the hate merchants and theocrats at The Family Foundation - an affiliate of Focus on the Family and registered hate group, Family Research Council.  Thus, it would be ever so sweet to see Barack Obama carry Virginia again in November.   A piece in The Atlantic makes the case that this might indeed happen.  Here are excerpts:

HAMPTON, Virginia -- At first glance, this former Confederate stronghold might seem like one of the harder swing states for the president to hang onto in 2012.  .   .   .   .   But Obama has remained surprisingly resilient in Virginia. The last poll, conducted earlier this month by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, had him up 8 points on Mitt Romney here, 50 percent to 42 percent, and Real Clear Politics' aggregate of polls since May has the president up 3 points. That's better than Obama is averaging in Ohio, Florida, Iowa, and even Michigan -- a state John McCain gave up on months before the 2008 election, but which a series of recent polls show to be in play for Romney.

While Virginia is still likely to be competitive down to the wire, Obama may have reason to feel more confident here than other swing states, particularly in the Midwest. There are two major reasons: economics and demographics.

* Economics: The unemployment rate in Virginia is 5.6 percent, tied for the ninth lowest in the country. Republicans, starting with McDonnell, would like to take credit for the state's rosy jobs picture, but the truth is that the state is mostly insulated from economic vicissitudes by the large number of its citizens who work for the federal government and the military. In recent days, the Romney camp has rolled out a new line of attack that seeks to blame Obama for the looming defense cuts set to automatically take place at the end of the year if Congress doesn't act. But there are a couple of problems with this line: First, it's pretty easy for Obama to put the blame back on Congress, which approved the so-called sequester on a bipartisan basis to begin with, and which, you may have heard, is not popular. Second, it's essentially criticizing the president for wanting to cut government spending and reduce public-sector employment -- a criticism that conflicts with some major GOP talking points.

* Demographics: While the Rust Belt states keep getting older and whiter, and losing population overall, Virginia's population is growing, getting younger and more diverse. One plugged-in Republican I spoke to, who thinks Virginia is rapidly slipping from Romney's grasp, said that's the crucial difference between the Republican sweeps of 2009-10 and this year's election: Minorities, particularly black voters, will turn out for Obama. "An off-year election is just not representative of anything," this Republican said. "Obama got 20 percent African-American turnout in 2008, and most of the polling that has shown Romney close here assumes it will be closer to the 16 percent in 2009, which is of course ridiculous. I've had conversations with the Romney people here and they really only think they need to shift 10,000-12,000 votes to win the state, when I think it's about double that." In addition to the sizable black vote, Virginia also has growing shares of Hispanics and Asians.

At Obama's stops in the Tidewater cities of Virginia Beach and Hampton on Friday, the resilience and enthusiasm of his African-American base were evident. 

Later, in Roanoke, Obama told the crowd, "If I win Virginia, I'm going to get four more years. That I can say with some confidence." The good news for the president is that Virginia may be within his grasp.

Hopefully, the GOP's vagina and uterus obsession with a desire to control women's sexuality during the last session of the General Assembly will tip more women against Romney and the GOP in general.  LGBT Virginians certainly have no reason to support Republicans for any reason given the anti-gay bigotry exhibited both during the General Assembly session and since then.   Ditto for other minorities.

Florida's GOP Lieutenant Governor Denies Lesbian Affair

Usually it's the less than attractive GOP men who are seeking some hot same sex action on the side.  Now, in a new twist of the Republicans yearning for what they condemn on the campaign trial, Florida GOP Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll, is fighting the fallout from a lawsuit in which Carroll is accused of firing a staffer who caught her in "a compromising position" with another woman in her capitol office. News reports naturally cite that Carroll is married with children - as if that proves a damn thing.  Given straight men and their apparent fascination with lesbian sex - just look at Playboy magazines - perhaps male Republicans will overlook the sordid tale.  It is  telling, however, that like closeted male Republicans Carroll has campaigned on an anti-gay agenda.  Here are highlights from The Advocate:

Jennifer Carroll, Florida's lieutenant governor, is accused of firing a staffer who caught her in "a compromising position" with another woman in her capitol office. But Carroll is denying it ever happened in emails sent to her supporters, according to Florida media.

Reuters first reported Thursday that former staffer Carletha Cole is engaged in a lawsuit and that in a court filing earlier this month revealed she had walked in on her boss with her travel aide, Beatriz Ramos, in "a compromising position" — a phrase used by Cole's lawyer in the filing.

Carroll, who is married with children, said in an email to a supporter released by the governor's office that she "will be fighting back." In another, she blames the media for reporting the accusation.

Carroll, a Republican, is a former state legislator and became the first female elected as lieutenant governor when joining Gov. Rick Scott on his ticket in 2010. She is also the first black politician elected to any statewide office. 

She was famously critical of the media in a fiery sermon of a speech before the Faith and Freedom Coalition in September, when she called for a "righteous government."   Carroll did not talk about LGBT rights but did say, "these are very sad times when we allow the minority to poison the minds of the majority. This is exactly what dictators and socialist rulers did. When it comes to our Christianity, there is no gray area. It is either you believe or you don’t believe. And if you believe, you believe with all of your heart, all of your soul and all of your might."

Carroll, a Navy veteran, also told the conservative website Newsmax in September that she didn't agree with President Obama's decision to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. She said the military should have been left alone to decide how to proceed, without noting that the major military leaders actually supported DADT repeal.

Gary Bauer: Gays Cause Murder; Michele Bachmann Hunts Muslims

Speaking of conservative Christians driving the younger generations away from religion, two examples of the hate dripping animus that passes as religious motivated behavior, Gary Bauer - who looks like a self-loathing closet case to me (see the photo at right) - and Michele Bachmann are both on lunatic rampages that underscore the ugliness of Christianity at the hands of the far right.  First we have Bauer claiming that gays and gay marriage cause crime, especially murder in Chicago.  Right Wing Watch reports on Bauer's deranged mindset and effort to stir up violence against gay Americans.  Here are excerpts:

On Wednesday, Gary Bauer of the Campaign for Working Families attempted to tie the Obama administration’s support for gay rights…to violent crime. Bauer said that the escalating crime rate in the city of Chicago is due to children growing up in fatherless homes, which he maintained is a result of Democratic policies that have “made it comfortable for many women to not have husbands in the home” and even same-sex marriage. “Obama and the Democrats have embraced the radical idea of men marrying other men,” Bauer sneered, “How is that going to help the black family?”  

For the past fifty years, Rahm Emanuel's party, the Democratic Party, has made it comfortable for many women to not have husbands in the home. Now Obama and the Democrats have embraced the radical idea of men marrying other men! How is that going to help the black family?

When Emanuel worked in the Clinton White House, the response to gang violence, do you remember this, was midnight basketball programs. It didn't work, midnight basketball programs don't replace fathers. And, of course, it was around that time when Democrats and their media allies did their best to convince us that values really didn't matter. Even the disgusting values demonstrated in the Oval Office with a White House intern.

As if Bauer and his white supremacist leaning fellow Republicans give a rat's ass about black families!  

Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann sees a Muslim conspiracy under every bush and has embarked on more lunacy trying to ferret out Muslims infiltrating the government.   Salon has a piece that looks at Bachmann's Muslim witch hunt.  Here are highlights:

Muslim conspiracy theories have largely vanished from the political debate. But with another election looming, the tide may be rising again, and Rep. Michele Bachmann is predictably already ahead of the crowd.

The Minnesota Republican, joined by Republican Reps. Trent Franks, Louie Gohmert, Thomas Rooney and Lynn Westmoreland, sent letters to the inspectors general of five government agencies responsible for national security to demand they investigate infiltration by the Muslim Brotherhood into the highest reaches of the federal government. In particular, Bachmann singled out Huma Abedin, the wife of former congressman Anthony Weiner and a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Another letter targets the Department of Defense, which Bachmann et al. accuse of failing to “characterize accurately the jihadist motivations” of Maj. Nidal Hassan, the Army psychiatrist accused in the Fort Hood shooting.

A third letter went to the Department of Homeland Security, alleging the department is covering up the Muslim Brotherhood threat by developing an official lexicon that obfuscates its danger.

Yet another letter went to the Department of Justice inspector general warning that officials there had been meeting with Muslim groups that she accused of being “fronts” for the Brotherhood.

The final letter went to the Office of Director of National Intelligence, stating, “we request that your office conduct a formal investigation or evaluation into the extent to which Muslim-Brotherhood tied individuals and entities were involved 

In an interview with the American Family Association’s Sandy Rios late last month, Bachmann explained, “It appears that there has been deep penetration in the halls of our United States government by the Muslim Brotherhood.  

So what is Bachmann’s source? Every one of her letters prominently cites Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan defense official who has become one of the country’s most prominent anti-Muslim conspiracy theorists. Gaffney heads the Center for Security Policy and has for years been preaching to anyone who will listen that the Muslim Brotherhood is secretly infiltrating every aspect of American life in a grand scheme to impose Shariah law when we least expect it.

For Gaffney, everyone is an agent of the Brotherhood, including CPAC, the big annual gathering of conservatives in Washington, D.C., and Grover Norquist, the prominent anti-tax activist who is married to a Muslim woman.

Gaffney has since been ostracized from several other key conservative groups, yet Bachmann apparently feels justified demanding official investigations based on his theories.  

It would seem that the only "deep penetration" that has occurred is the level of Bachmann's insanity.  In my opinion, the woman belongs in a mental hospital.

Is Christianity Dying?

An op-ed in the New York Times looks at the decline of liberal Protestant denominations and is critical of these churches that are trying to change with the times and society.  But the malaise isn't limited to liberal denominations - e.g., Episcopal Church, ELCA, etc. - and the Catholic Church in the USA would have recoded significant declines but for the influx of Hispanic immigrants.  With that wave of immigration slowing, the real story may begin to make itself evident.  On the conservative end of the spectrum, the Southern Baptist Convention is struggling as younger members leave once they go off to college.  Yes, some of the mega churches are growing, but having gone to some of them in the past, they seem most focused on the prosperity gospel and provide services that are more akin to a stage production than any traditional connotation of a church service.  

Personally, I believe the real problem for Christianity is that it is based on a book that is increasingly shown to be untrue -the scientific evidence of the non-existence of Adam and Eve is perhaps the most damaging example of late.  With out the fall of man as focused on Adam and Eve, the entire redemption story line leading to Christ falls apart.   Church then ultimately becomes a social outlet that people go to in order to feel better about themselves or on occasion do good works.  With more and more competing social outlets, the attraction simply is falling away.  That leaves denominations left with fear and/or instilled guilt - specialties of the Roman Catholic Church - as the only real stick to keep people coming through the door.  And with the decline of liberal denominations, the intolerant, generally hate-filled message of far right churches increasingly becomes the face of Christianity.  The result? Almost a third of the milennial generation has walked away for organized religion because of its ugly image and ugly conduct towards so many in society.  Here are some op-ed highlights:

IN 1998, John Shelby Spong, then the reliably controversial Episcopal bishop of Newark, published a book entitled “Why Christianity Must Change or Die.” Spong was a uniquely radical figure — during his career, he dismissed almost every element of traditional Christian faith as so much superstition — but most recent leaders of the Episcopal Church have shared his premise. Thus their church has spent the last several decades changing and then changing some more, from a sedate pillar of the WASP establishment into one of the most self-consciously progressive Christian bodies in the United States.

Yet instead of attracting a younger, more open-minded demographic with these changes, the Episcopal Church’s dying has proceeded apace. Last week, while the church’s House of Bishops was approving a rite to bless same-sex unions, Episcopalian church attendance figures for 2000-10 circulated in the religion blogosphere. They showed something between a decline and a collapse.

This decline is the latest chapter in a story dating to the 1960s. The trends unleashed in that era — not only the sexual revolution, but also consumerism and materialism, multiculturalism and relativism — threw all of American Christianity into crisis, and ushered in decades of debate over how to keep the nation’s churches relevant and vital.

Traditional believers, both Protestant and Catholic, have not necessarily thrived in this environment. The most successful Christian bodies have often been politically conservative but theologically shallow, preaching a gospel of health and wealth rather than the full New Testament message. 

But if conservative Christianity has often been compromised, liberal Christianity has simply collapsed. Practically every denomination — Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian — that has tried to adapt itself to contemporary liberal values has seen an Episcopal-style plunge in church attendance.

But if liberals need to come to terms with these failures, religious conservatives should not be smug about them. The defining idea of liberal Christianity — that faith should spur social reform as well as personal conversion — has been an immensely positive force in our national life. No one should wish for its extinction, or for a world where Christianity becomes the exclusive property of the political right. 

What should be wished for, instead, is that liberal Christianity recovers a religious reason for its own existence. As the liberal Protestant scholar Gary Dorrien has pointed out, the Christianity that animated causes such as the Social Gospel and the civil rights movement was much more dogmatic than present-day liberal faith.

Frankly, I believe the decline is irreversible and will likely accelerate as the backward and reactionary conservative denominations drive even more members of the younger generations away from organized religion entirely.

Saturday Morning Male Beauty

Louisiana GOP Legislator Seeks to Kill LGBT Studies Program

GOP members of state legislatures seem to look for ways to demonstrate their bigotry and the hate and intolerance that are synonymous with the Republican Party .  Besides the Texas voter ID law addressed in the prior post, here in Virginia we have Del. Bob Marshall always seeking a way to make LGBT Virginians 4th class citizens (in fact, he's admitted that he'd like to drive all gays from Virginia).  Now Louisiana offers up another example of the batshitery and extremism that predominate the GOP.  It seems that the University of Lafayette's decision to offer a minor in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies is just too much for Congressman Jeff Landry (pictured at left) - who based on folks like Ed Schrock and Larry Craig we can probably safely assume is a self-loathing closet case secretly lusting for some hot gay sex himself.  KLFY-TV 10 looks at Landry's conniption fit over the university's new offering.  Here are highlights:

A recently added minor at the University of Lafayette is causing quite a controversy. Last semester UL became the first university in Louisiana to offer a minor in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies. Today, Congressman Jeff Landry came out in opposition towards the program. 

In a letter addressed to UL's President, Dr. Joseph Savoie, Landry request that the university eliminate the new program. As a proud alumnus, Landry says he been so grateful of the education he received at UL, but he is concerned if future graduates will be able say the same. 

In the letter Landry ask the program be dropped because quote "it fails to provide an economic benefit to the participants or financial sense for the taxpayer" end quote. 

The University of Lafayette offers around 100 different minors such as African-American studies, Cajun and Creole studies, Latin American studies, and religious studies. According to President Savoie, the LGBT minor did not require budgetary allocations or divert resources from other areas. 

We can only hope that Landry gets caught demonstrating his "wide stance" or using a Mega Phone like service so that his political career can be flushed down the toilet.  

Voter IDs - and the GOP - on Trial

Even though all the data shows that voter fraud is rare, around the country Republican controlled state legislatures have passed voter ID laws which in the last analysis have but one goal: minimize the minority vote since it is assumed that minorities will vote for Democrats.  The demagogues in the GOP continue to nonetheless make outrageous and bombastic claims about voter fraud since for the right, truth and honest mean nothing - even as they demagogues wrap themselves in religiosity.  A lawsuit in Texas is focusing on that state's thinly veiled law aimed at keeping Hispanic voters from the polls.  An editorial in the New York Times looks at the case and the lows the GOP will stoop to in an effort to win.  Here are excerpts:

Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, the chairman of the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus in the Texas House of Representatives, flew to Washington this week to persuade a panel of federal judges to invalidate a requirement that voters must have an ID card. His trip was less arduous than the one some residents would have to endure to get a government-issued photo ID. 

“In West Texas, some people would have a 200-mile round-trip drive” to the nearest state office to get a card, he testified, according to The Dallas Morning News. More than a quarter of the state’s counties don’t even have an office to get a driver’s license or voter card. Lines at the San Antonio motor vehicles offices are often more than two hours long, he said. 

Texas is one of 10 Republican-controlled states that have imposed a government ID requirement to vote, purportedly to reduce fraud but actually to dissuade poor and minority voters who tend to vote Democratic.

 

Texas is  . . . . .  is covered by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which allows the Justice Department to disapprove of any change in voting procedures in areas with a history of discrimination.  That’s exactly what the department did in March, saying the law imposes a huge disadvantage on Hispanic voters, who lack a government ID, like a driver’s license or gun permit, at a far higher rate than the general population. Texas sued, and a trial began Monday. 

Those defending Texas’ law told the judges that “only” 168,000 eligible voters in Texas lack a government-issued ID, but federal officials said the number is actually closer to 1.4 million, mostly Hispanic and black voters. Texas, of course, was unable to demonstrate any level of voter fraud that would justify the law, pointing only to five prosecutions for voter impersonation.

The same effect is being seen in other states. In Pennsylvania, 758,000 registered voters lack ID cards and could be turned away at the polls in November. 

Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said Tuesday that 25 percent of black citizens lack an ID card, compared with 8 percent of white citizens. These requirements, he said, are the modern equivalent of a poll tax. Of course, states aren’t allowed to charge for a card, but he is correct that using this tactic to erect barriers to participation harks back to Jim Crow efforts. And the stakes are no less high because Texas is expected to ask the Supreme Court to strike down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act — the provision that allows the federal government to preapprove changes in voting procedure — if the three-judge panel rules against its voter-ID requirement.  People died to achieve that federal law, but 47 years later, the discrimination has not disappeared.

This is yet another example of why in good conscience, I can't be a Republican.  And what's striking is that as the Christofascists have come to control the GOP there is a direct correlation with the Party's dishonesty, racism and  contempt for average American, not to mention minorities.  I'm sure if they could figure out a way to do it, the Virginia GOP would seek to keep LGBT citizens from voting since we disproportionately vote Democrat.  As a discussed with a black woman yesterday at the Obama event, for a gay to vote for today's GOP would be like her voting for a candidate who was active in the KKK. 

The Bain of Romney's Exitence - Continued

Watching the news and listening to Mitt Romney dodge and weave from all the facts, including video tapes of himself saying things utterly inconsistent with his current claims of departure from Bain Capital in 1999,  the man looks incredibly sleazy and dishonest even for a politician.  Indeed, if Romney says it's raining outside, one might be wise to look out the window to double check.  Even then, if his statement was untrue, Romney would likely quibble that it was raining somewhere in the world so that he wasn't really lying.  Andrew Sullivan sums things up well here:

It was hidden in plain sight as a Bain press release in July 1999. Here's how it described Romney's position at Bain when he says he had no responsibility whatever, despite remaining CEO, Chairman and Sole Owner as far as forms filed with SEC testify:

Bain Capital CEO W. Mitt Romney, currently on a part-time leave of absence to head the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee for the 2002 Games said ...

So Bain now contradicts Romney.
 
So this much is now obvious.

1. Romney didn't quit Bain in 1999 for good, as he claims. He remained the CEO throughout, as SEC files show, and as the Boston Globe reported back in 2002.

2. He stayed active in Bain, but at a much reduced level, the entire time.

3. In any case, everything that occurred at Bain up to 2002 is completely fair game for criticism, since he was the formal CEO at the time and therefore responsible for the whole company. The SEC filings are dispositive. He has been lying about this in order to deflect some very dangerous stories about Bain in that period which shows it is knee deep in outsourcing and off-shoring, and because his signature is on a filing with respect to a company that Bain owned that disposed of aborted babies.

Romney basically said what was the most convenient for his self-interest at every juncture - and finally all the contradictions and changing stories caught up with him. When you have it both ways on policy matters - we'll increase defense spending, lower taxes even further, and cut the debt! - you only look shifty. When you have it both ways on the simple facts about your life, you look like an opportunistic liar.

That term seems to describe Romney in sum: an opportunistic liar.  The irony, of course, is like most in the GOP and far right, Romney claims to be religious and pious.  His actions and dishonest show how little he actually cares about his religion's condemnation of lying.  Like so much that this blog seeks to expose and skewer, it's all about the hypocrisy.  Ultimately the question becomes whether there's anything Romney will not lie about? 

More Friday Male Beauty

President Obama Speaks in Virginia - Personal Reflections

Underscoring Virginia's status as a battleground state in the coming presidential election in November, President Barack Obama made a campaign stop in Virginia Beach this morning, a stop in Hampton this afternoon and will visit Roanoke tomorrow.  In 2008, Obama carried Virginia by winning the so-called "urban crescent" that runs southward from Northern Virginia down through the greater Richmond area and then southeasterly to Hampton Roads.  It's an area that holds enough votes to outweigh the Republican strongholds in rural Virginia if one motivates the turnout.  Obviously, Obama wants to repeat what worked in 2008 and so far polls show him continuing to lead Mitt "Pinocchio" Romney.  Thanks to VIP tickets from Hampton Mayor Molly Ward, the boyfriend and I decided that we would attend the Hampton event which as things turned out was not without its logistical problems. 

Thanks to me getting back to Hampton from the office later than planned, we arrived late and ended up in the "overflow" crowd (I was late because the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel - which the GOP controlled Virginia General Assembly refuses to upgrade since the gasoline tax would have to be raised for the first time in 25 years to pay for upgrades - was in total clusterf*ck mode.)   Yours truly was NOT a happy camper to put it mildly.  This curse, however, turned out to have a silver lining and our group of perhaps 100 or so had our own short private address by President Obama before he addressed the jam packed main auditorium.  The boyfriend snapped the images above with his phone (yes, we were very close to him when he went around greeting people).  Much of Obama's address focused on the economy with an emphasis on the differences between his priorities and those of Mitt Romney and the 1% crowd.  The reaction of the crowd was very positive from what we saw and experienced.

President Obama also stressed to the crowd the importance of his winning Virginia (a broadcast this evening stated that if he holds the states he is winning so far in the polls and carries Virginia, he crosses the magic number of electoral votes needed to win).  That, of course, means another four months of incessant political ads.

Two things struck me. One is the charisma that Obama has in person.  The other thing is how Obama electrified the black members of the crowd and those in their yards along the route of his motorcade (we had to hike in to the event since we arrived so late).  The sad truth is that in 2012, being black in Virginia is in many ways as bad or worse than being gay.   True, black Virginians don't have the laws aimed deliberately at them to keep them less than equal or the legalized discrimination that LGBT Virginians face, but racism and bigotry are still the norm in many areas of society that they encounter. Particularly, among the "godly Christian" set and the hate merchants at The Family Foundation.  Just by his presence Obama sends a message of hope to these Virginians.  And with his new support of same sex marriage, he gives me hope.