Gov. Bob McDonnell Wants to Arm Teachers and Principals

Reagan Assassination Attempt

In an apparent attempt to prove that he's just as batshit crazy as Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, a/k/a "Governor Ultrasound," a/k/a "Taliban Bob," has indicated that he wants to consider arming teachers and school principals in the wake of the massacre last Friday in Newtown, Connecticut.  McDonnell apparently will do anything rather than offend the extremists in the GOP and its untethered from reality base by in any manner limiting the number and/or types of guns the thinly veiled white supremacists can amass.  Frankly, I've known McDonnell personally since 1994 and with this crazy statement, I am beginning to think he was taken away for a "Stepford Wife" like treatment or something equally sinister.  One reader summed up reality well - something Taliban Bob seems to have lost touch with:

When they try to claim that if everyone had a gun, there wouldn't be any more gun violence, remind them of James Brady, who was, along with Ronald Regan, shot, under the protection of some of the most heavily armed and well trained security people in the world. I've seen Secret Service Agents up close. I had an occasion some years ago to work with a couple during a dignitary visit. They are serious people who carry serious weapons, yet a shooter got through. More guns is not the answer to this kind of senseless violence.

Politico looks at Bob McDonnell's insane suggestion.  Here are highlights:

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Va.) said on Tuesday that it’s “time to have a discussion” about arming school officials, in wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn.
“If someone had been armed, there would have been a possibility to stop the person from coming into the school,” McDonnell said on Washington’s WTOP radio’s “Ask the Governor” monthly program responding to a caller’s question. “I know there is a knee-jerk reaction against that, but I think we should have a discussion about it.”

He continued: “If a person [like Sandy Hook’s principal Dawn Hochsprung] was armed and trained, could they have stopped the carnage? Perhaps.”

McDonnell’s spokesman Paul Logan told POLITICO that McDonnell announced Monday he was creating a task force to review the safety at Virginia’s schools.

It is difficult enough to attract and retain qualified teachers nowadays - especially given the GOP's jihad against teachers' unions - and requiring teachers to be trained in the use of firearms may well be the straw that makes young men and women avoid the teaching profession entirely.  If McDonnell is considered a star among today's GOP, it underscores just how low the party has fallen.  Get you head out of you ass Bob and stop prostituting yourself to the NRA and gun manufacturers!

How To Respond to Gun Rights Apologists

The next time you hear a right wing talking head blathering on about 2nd Amendment rights, recall the image above to mind and, if given the opportunity, remind the speaker of their complicity in the deaths of the individuals pictured above and the thousands of others who die each year because of America's insane and irresponsible gun laws.

Tuesday Morning Male Beauty

The GOP's Botox Solution to Its Growing Dysfunction

As a former Republican - and there do seem to be lots of us even among the LGBT blogger set - I continue to watch for any hint that the GOP has grasp the fact that it is suffering from a systemic illness than cannot be cured by "better messaging" or by using ethnic politicians as front men and women to hide the party's growing lily whiteness and white supremacist inclinations.  While a few conservatives seem to have understood what is happening, most remain in their bubble world drinking the Kool-Aid ladled out to them by the Christofascist/Tea Party operatives.  As a result, the party seems headed towards a slow form of suicide.  The bad news is that the GOP's death will not come soon enough to save the nation and states like Virginia from more batshitery and repackaging of failed GOP policies.  A piece in Mother Jones looks at the phenomenon.  Here are some excerpts:

Some Republicans—and many Democrats—now claim that the writing is on the wall: demography is destiny, which means the GOP is going the way of the Whigs and the Dodo. Across the country, they see an aging white majority shrinking as the US heads for the future as a majority-minority country and the Grand Old Party becomes the Gray Old Party. Others say: not so fast.

In the month since 51% of the electorate chose to keep Barack Obama in the White House, I've spent my time listening to GOP pundits, operators, and voters. While the Party busily analyzes the results, its leaders and factions are already out front, pushing their own long-held opinions and calling for calm in the face of onrushing problems.

Do any of their proposals exhibit a willingness to make the kind of changes the GOP will need to attract members of the growing groups that the GOP has spent years antagonizing like Hispanics, Asian Americans, unmarried women, secular whites, and others? In a word: no.

Instead, from my informal survey, it looks to this observer (and former Republican) as if the party is betting all its money on cosmetic change. Think of it as the Botox Solution. It wants to tweak its talking points slightly and put more minority and female Republicans on stage as spokespeople. Many in the GOP seem to believe that this will do the trick in 2014 and beyond. Are they deluded?

Although most Republicans see hints of future demographic challenges in the exit polls, many prefer to focus on other factors to explain Romney's loss out of a desire not to "blow up the party if there are less radical solutions." (Hence, the delusional quality of so many of their post-mortems and the lack of interest in meaningful change.)

First, they cite the Romney factor: a weak candidate, too moderate—or too conservative—who failed to fight the Obama campaign"s early efforts to paint him as an out-of-touch plutocrat. In other words, his history (Bain Capital and Romneycare) depth-charged him before demographics could even kick in.

Second, they point to the Obama factor. In both 2008 and 2012, he attracted unprecedented levels of minority and young voters, a phenomenon that might not be repeated in 2016. Some Republican operatives are also convinced that his campaign simply had a much better "ground game" and grasp of how to employ technology to turn out voters. (Half of self-identifying Republican voters think, as they did in 2008, that Obama simply stole the election through registration fraud involving African Americans.)

Third, they emphasize the powers of incumbency.  .  .  .  .   2016, they swear, will be different. Nor do they seem to fear a reprise of the 2008 and 2012 primary circuses because the A-listers in 2016, they insist, will all have well-established conservative bona fides and won't have to bend over backwards to cultivate the conservative base.

Fourth, there is the perceived success of Republicans other than Romney, particularly in what white Republicans call the "Heartland."    .   .   .   .  they kept their majority in the House of Representatives, losing only a handful of seats. (That the GOP lost the majority of total votes cast gets less attention.)

Meanwhile, on the Bridge of the Titanic - Avoid it as they may, the long-term picture couldn't look grimmer for the Party. Demographics may well be destiny. Even a cursory look at the numbers exposes the looming threat to the Party's future prospects.

* Whites: About three-quarters of the electorate (and 88% of Romney's voters) this year were white, but their numbers are steadily sinking—by 2% since 2008.

* White Christians: The bulk of Romney's supporters (79%) were white Christians (40% of whom were evangelicals), but this is an aging and shrinking group. Three-quarters of senior voters but only a quarter of millennial voters are white Christians, and the generations in between are much less likely to consider themselves "strong" members of their religion than seniors.

 * The Young: The millennial generation (born between 1978 and 2000) has been voting overwhelmingly for Democrats (66% for Obama in 2008, 60% this year). They are projected to be 40% of the eligible voting pool by 2020. Because they are relatively diverse and secular, the GOP cannot assume that enough will emulate previous generations and swing to the right as they age.

The factions in the party that are not socially conservative see these looming threats as an opportunity to get the GOP to drop the social stuff. But movement conservatives aren't going to cede ideological ground, not when they (correctly) think it's a necessity if they are to attract their base voters. "This country doesn't need two liberal or Democratic parties," is the way Bobby Jindal puts it, typically enough.

There is much more to the piece which deserves a full read.  The point is that do not expect the GOP to change.  At least not until a significant number of Christofascists die off.  By the time that happens, the GOP itself may be dead.

James Dobson: Connecticut Shooting was God's Punishment for Abortion and Gay Marriage

The horrific tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut has once more prompted the nations leading hate merchants conservative Christians to once again show the true ugliness of their hate and fear based form of Christianity.  Right Wing Watch reports on a plethora of batshitery that has been spouted by the "godly Christian" folk.   Those whom I call the "good Christians" who parallel the silence of "good Germans" in Germany in the 1930's have been once again conspicuous by their silence thereby reinforcing the message to younger generations that Christianity in the final analysis is a toxic blight on America.  No matter what the tragedy, the hate merchants always attribute the cause to be the fact that many of us - indeed, more every single day - refuse to subscribe to their Neolithic era derived religious beliefs.   James Dobson, founder of the cancer like Focus on the Family joined the chorus of haters and blamed the carnage on abortion and gay marriage.  Here are highlights from Right Wing Watch:

James Dobson dedicated his radio program this morning to discussing Friday's tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Connecticut, which he attributed to the fact that God has "allowed judgment to fall upon us" because the nation has turned its back on him by accepting things like abortion and gay marriage:

Our country really does seem in complete disarray. I'm not talking politically, I'm not talking about the result of the November sixth election; I am saying that something has gone wrong in America and that we have turned our back on God.

I mean millions of people have decided that God doesn't exist, or he's irrelevant to me and we have killed fifty-four million babies and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition. Believe me, that is going to have consequences too.

And a lot of these things are happening around us, and somebody is going to get mad at me for saying what I am about to say right now, but I am going to give you my honest opinion: I think we have turned our back on the Scripture and on God Almighty and I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us. I think that's what's going on.

I would argue that if anyone deserves to have "God's judgment" to fall on them, it is horrible, hate filled folks like Dobson and his knuckle dragging followers.  They are the real plague on the country.

More Monday Male Beauty

American Pastor Advocates Killing Gay Ugandans

The sickness of the far right and the Christofascists seems to me metastasizing at a quickening pace as evidenced by the unbelievable excuses given in support of gun rights and rejection of sane limits on assault weapons and the open advocacy by supposed Christians for the murder and imprisonment of LGBT individuals in Uganda and other parts of Africa.  The ugly toxicity of the right and its Christofascist base is nothing less than chilling.  A piece in Box Turtle Bulletin discusses the actions of American pastor David Dykes (pictured at left) of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas, who has traveled to to Uganda to offer his apparently unqualified support for the "Kill the Gays Bill."  Here are some excerpts:

[Dykes] appears on NTV, Uganda’s largest independent television station to denounce the State Department’s efforts to avert a human rights catastrophe and says that American churches will come together to fully back Uganda if the U.S. withdraws aid:

Dykes: I’m extremely upset that our state department is putting pressure on Uganda to recognize homosexual behavior. And I’m praying that Uganda will say, “We don’t want your money, America. It is blood money. It is sin money.” I hope that you will continue to stand strong on what the Bible defines as the definition of a real marriage.


… In America, Christians are going to put as much pressure as we can on our government not to cut the aid to Uganda over this issue. But if they do decide to do that, we’ll let our displeasure be known, but we’ll try to step in as the Church in America to try to make up sending resources over here, especially to the churches. We hope to stand alongside the believers of Uganda during this time of crisis.

It is worth remembering exactly what it is that David Dykes is so eager to support. The full text of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is available online here (PDF: 847KB/16 pages). Our examination of the bill’s nineteen clauses are available below:

Clauses 1 and 2: Anybody Can Be Gay Under the Law. The definition of what constitutes “homosexual act” is so broad that just about anyone can be convicted.
Clause 3: Anyone Can Be “Liable To Suffer Death”. And you don’t even have to be gay to be sent to the gallows. There has been talk of removing the death penalty — which has not happened yet; it’s just talk — and replacing it with a life sentence. But can anyone seriously imaging that spending a lifetime in Uganda’s notorious Luzira prison is any better? Especially once your fellow prisoners learn that you were sent there for “aggravated homosexuality”?
Clause 4: Anyone Can “Attempt to Commit Homosexuality”. All you have to do is “attempt” to “touch” “any part of of the body” “with anything else” “through anything” in an act that does “not necessarily culminate in intercourse.” 

Clauses 7, 11, and 14: Straight People In The Crosshairs. Did you think they only wanted to jail gay people? They’re also targeting family members, doctors, lawyers, and even landlords.

Clause 13: The Silencing of the Lambs. All advocacy — including suggesting that the law might be repealed — will land you in jail. With this clause, there will be no one left to defend anyone.

Dykes isn’t just some random Southern Baptist preacher. Jeff Sharlet, author of C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy, sends this update:

Andrew Sullivan has an apt commentary on what Dykes' actions signify and just how horrible modern conservative Christianists have become.  Here are highlights:

Many evangelicals loathe my use of the word Christianism, rather than Christianity, to describe the fusion of political power and religion to police the moral lives of others. They recoil at the echo of Islamism - although we know many Islamist parties, as in Turkey or Indonesia, that do not engage in terrorism, but merely believe in the fusion of church and state as emphatically as older American evangelicals do.

That's why it's revealing to see a major figure in the American Christianist movement, Pastor David Dykes - he opened the 2008 Congress with a prayer - openly advocate the execution of gays, and criminal penalties for exercise of free speech in defense of gays, in Uganda. If these people could, they would do the same here. The constitution protects us - especially our right to speech. But what these theocrats want is as undeniable as it is repellent in a free or humane society.

More to the point, here is an alleged Christian demanding that those on the margins of society not be embraced, as Jesus practised, but be executed, as Jesus' Roman executioners did. It doesn't get more anti-Christian than that. To even associate the word Christianity with these sentiments is an attack on Jesus Christ.

I cannot say it any more eloquently than Andrew.  Today's Christofascists are a danger to freedom of religion and a threat to constitutional government.  The sooner far right conservative Christianity is extinguished the better off America and the world will be.

Joe Scarborough Rethinks Gun Support in Wake of Newtown Massacre

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While I do not hold out much hope for the GOP's Christofascist/Tea Party base that seems to worship and revel in guns and deadly weaponry, some of the few relatively sane conservatives who continue to call themselves Republicans seem to be waking up in the wake of the mass murders in Connecticut last week.  One such sane conservative - not that I agree with him on numerous issues - who now recognizes that the nation's gun laws must change is former congressman   and TV commentator Joe Scarborough.  A piece in Huffington Post looks at Scarborough's belated conversion.  Here are highlights (a video clip is above):

Joe Scarborough said on Monday that the massacre in Newtown had forced him to rethink his "long-held" belief about gun rights.

In a lengthy monologue, Scarborough talked about how shaken up he had been by the killing of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday. He noted that his children's ages averaged that of some of the murdered victims.

"From this day forward, nothing can ever be the same again," he said. "... Let this be our true landmark ... politicians can no longer be allowed to defend the status quo.

He said that he was a "conservative Republican" who had been solidly aligned with the NRA during his time in Congress, and had previously held libertarian views on the Second Amendment. But he added that Friday "changed everything":

"I knew that day that the ideologies of my past career were no longer relevant to the future that I want, that I demand for my children. Friday changed everything. It must change everything. We all must begin anew and demand that Washington's old way of doing business is no longer acceptable. Entertainment moguls don't have an absolute right to glorify murder while spreading mayhem in young minds across America. And our Bill of Rights does not guarantee gun manufacturers the absolute right to sell military-style, high-caliber, semi-automatic combat assault rifles with high-capacity magazines to whoever the hell they want.

It is time for Congress to put children before deadly dogmas. It's time for politicians to start focusing more on protecting our schoolyards than putting together their next fundraiser. It's time for Washington to stop trying to win endless wars overseas when we're losing the war at home ... For the sake of my four children and yours, I choose life and I choose change."

Powerful words.  Words that make more sense than the insane suggestions by the GOP far right that want to arm teachers and principals with deadly weapons rather than embrace commonsense and ban assault weapons and high volume ammunition clips.  Common sense - and simply decency - something that has pretty much been lost completely in today's GOP.

Ken Cuccinelli Opposes All Meaningful Gun Control

This blog - and my December column in VEER Magazine (click on the images below to enlarge)  - has made the case that Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli poses a clear and present danger to the rights and freedoms of all Virginians other than perhaps angry white evangelical Christians who want to keep Virginia dominated by white conservative Christian.  Gays, women, blacks, Hispanics, non-Christians and others are all targeted by Kookinelli's toxic policies and his religious extremism.  But in the wake of the massacre of school children in Newtown, Connecticut, last Friday there is another way in which Kookinelli constitutes a danger to Virginians that needs to be called to the attention of Virginia voters he opposes any restrictions on gun ownership.  Don't believe me?  Here is what Kookinelli is disseminating on his campaign website:  

The 2nd Amendment is one of those key issues that define the differences between conservatives and liberals. Some (especially those on the left) believe that no one — with the exception of law enforcement and the military — should have the ability to possess firearms. While this seems unrealistic, the left has for years followed through with a "legislative war of attrition" on the 2nd Amendment — seeking to ban incrementally, specific types of firearms, ammunition and sales.
Ken has:

• Worked for the repeal of unreasonable restrictions on law-abiding concealed carry permit holders and worked with other states for reciprocity between states that issue concealed carry permits (for example, a concealed carry holder in Virginia would be allowed to carry and conceal in any other state with similar laws).
• Drafted and successfully passed legislation that stopped some liberal county governments from requiring duplicate background checks via the U.S. Mail when purchasing a firearm, resulting — as they intended — in a waiting period. While Ken supports the current process of instant background checks at the point of sale, his legislation eliminated local governments' attempts to impose waiting periods with the additional, duplicative check.
• Worked to expand locations where law abiding citizens with concealed carry permits can carry, including state parks.

Ken Cuccinelli's support of our rights are not born from politics, but rather from a deeply held belief that Constitutional rights as preserved by our Founding Fathers are sacrosanct — and we should fight on all levels to protect those fundamental rights guaranteed under the US Constitution.

As your next Governor, Ken will continue the fight to protect the 2nd Amendment rights of law abiding citizens and any attempts from liberals in Washington, or in Virginia, to restrict those rights.

 There you have it.  Cuccinelli supports the Wild West atmosphere that gun manufacturers, high capacity ammunition clip manufacturers and their minions in the National Rifle Association ("NRA") lobby for on a daily basis.   In keeping with this dangerous mindset, Cuccinelli has opposed the efforts of universities to limit concealed weapons on college and university campuses.   In addition, both in the Virginia General Assembly and as Attorney General Cuccinelli supported the repeal of Virginia's 17 year ban on multiple gun purchases in any given month.   For such advocacy Cuccinelli at the February 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in D.C., NRA President David Keene presented right-wing Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli with the NRA’s “Defender of Freedom Award” on behalf of the NRA.  And in 2009 during his campaign for attorney general Cuccinelli was endorsed as the darling of the NRA.

Any Virginian concerned about the proliferation of gun violence needs to understand that Ken Cuccinelli cannot be allowed to win the governorship of Virginia in 2013.  I can think of few things on the Virginia level more frightening than Ken Cuccinelli in the Governor's Mansion. 

Monday Morning Male Beauty