Yes, you saw right. That’s an attack ad on a Republican politician based around his supposedly repugnant grasp on reality. (Hat tip.) Better yet, it’s a smug attack ad. The sneering attitude towards the theory of evolution is offensive because really, you shouldn’t get to sneer like that unless you’ve earned it by devoting yourself to grasping reality. If you’re really going to embrace your idiocy to the degree that you’re a petulant brat who rejects something as solidly evidence-based as evolution in favor of a bunch of ancient writings that you probably don’t read but imagine fit your fantasies perfectly, at least have the common decency not to be smug about it. I do believe the proper pose for the willfully ignorant is the, “Aw shucks, I’m just a dumbass redneck who can’t be bothered to read those fancy books or believe those educated scientists, but I sure can spit a wad of chewing tobacco clear over my gun rack and my Bible and straight into a spitoon, and that’s gotta count for something.” Seriously, nothing is less charming than not only being willfully ignorant, but acting like anyone who actually knows something about something is an object of contempt. You may believe it, but a little faux humility about your own idiocy makes it an easier sell.
I’m beginning to think this whole “only liberals ‘believe’ in evolution” thing is a little like a fraternity or gang initiation that involves humiliation and/or violence. Denying an obvious and settled reality is a way of demonstrating loyalty by going all-in. You demonstrate that you’re so loyal to the conservative cause you don’t care what kind of jackass you look like to everyone else, or how big a shitpile of stupid you have to swallow. Of course, the only remaining question is why someone would be so eager to show their loyalty to the wingnut tribe. The rewards seem mainly centered around being an asshole, which is something you get to do for free in the real world without having to pay the price of believing some walloping load of horseshit.
You know, when I travel these days, my fibromyalgia often makes it painful and difficult to lug around my bags. When the pain is really bad I sometimes wish I had a PHB assistant to help me out (when Kate’s not able to go with me). However, I never thought about going this route…
FRC founder and NARTH board member Dr. George Rekers must have a helluva travel expense budget (and tax write off) for procuring the talents of Geo, the identity of “Lucien,” known to most as a “Travel Assistant”/“luggage carrier” through the
I wonder why it doesn’t have any stats on number of bags Geo can carry, or whether he performs therapeutic massage for his john client to ensure the post-surgery Rekers has adequate comfort for physical recovery? Wait, I found additional information that closed the deal for Rekers.
Massage, good times, Travel, escort for days, nights and weekends, My name’s Geo. 20 year old, 5’9’‘, 130 pounds, 28’’ waist size,8x6” UNCUT, VERSATILE, NICE ASS. Puerto Rican, fair/light-Skin, blond hair, blue eyes and athletic/muscular built. I’m a college guy, masculine, educated, really easy-going, great to get along with, can hold a conversation and passionate You could just say I love to have a good time. Very clean, professional, HIV and Disease FREE. For a sensual meet or companionship. Will do anything you say as long as you ask ;D Repeat encounters are always more exciting for me and make it more casual and comfortable for you as well. Call or text anytime.
Dr. Rekers, how much DOES it cost for ten days with a barely legal, blond, hung, uncut, bisexual Puerto Rican who is happy to spank you and shove it up your gelatinous vile bigoted ass?
I think it’s safe to say that if you’re LGBT, the vast majority of people in Fulton, Mississippi think you’re lower than dirt. For young Itawamba Agricultural High School student Constance McMillen, who merely wanted to take her same-sex date to the school prom, it has been a lesson in just how damn evil some of her neighbors are.
McMillen tells The Advocate that a parent-organized prom happened behind her back — she and her date were sent to a Friday night event at a country club in Fulton, Miss., that attracted only five other students. Her school principal and teachers served as chaperones, but clearly there wasn’t much to keep an eye on.
“They had two proms and I was only invited to one of them,” McMillen says. “The one that I went to had seven people there, and everyone went to the other one I wasn’t invited to.”
Last week McMillen asked one of the students organizing the prom for details about the event, and was directed to the country club. “It hurts my feelings,” McMillen says.
Two students with learning difficulties were among the seven people at the country club event, McMillen recalls. “They had the time of their lives,” McMillen says. “That’s the one good thing that come out of this, [these kids] didn’t have to worry about people making fun of them [at their prom].”
In a community that invoked the bible and Christian beliefs in condemning Constance, these homophobes clearly chucked the sacred tome when it comes to loving thy neighbor, hospitality, and general decency without a second thought. To think that Fulton not only displayed rank homophobia, it raised the bar of evil by sending learning-disabled students to the fake prom, clearly labeling them “others.” I challenge any of these “Christians” in Fulton to cite where in the bible Jesus teaches that the physically or mentally challenged deserve to be outcasts.
This social hellhole isn’t even worthy of a boycott, since no gay person or ally would want to drive through this evil place to begin with. For Constance, one can only hope for a scholarship to get the hell out of there to attend college in an environment where she can thrive. Leave the evil behind, gain strength, knowledge and, should you want to challenge the hate, return to reclaim your space with others ready to fight homophobia in the darkest of places.
Fulton, Mississippi has earned its stripes as the cruelest town in America, by treating one of its young residents as a pariah for no good reason that the God they claim to worship can imagine. I do hope there is no adultery or fornication going on in Fulton. The bible had a lot to say about that.
UPDATE: More evil in Fulton, from Firedoglake’s Lisa Derrick @ LaFiga; the proud homophobic students grin at how they pulled off their straights-only prom with photos posted on public FB and Flickr pages.
I can see some of the same dresses in these pictures posted by different students.
With the clear support for repeal of DADT in almost every demographic imaginable, and clear calls for repeal from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mullen, and the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, it’s almost incomprehensible that this Administration, through its Department of Justice, is continuing to defend the constitutionality of the law. Joe @ Americablog:
DOJ had to go the extra mile to show just how valid the DADT law is. It’s hard to miss the section titled:
Because Congress Could Rationally Have Concluded That The DADT Policy Is Necessary To Maintain Unit Cohesion, Accommodate Personal Privacy, and Reduce Sexual Tension For Military Effectiveness, LCR’s Facial Due Process Challenge Fails
They only right-wing talking point they left out is the “we’re in two wars” argument.
It’s incredible that the administration cannot even respond to questions about strategy for repeal - see Barney Frank’s statement calling for the Obama administration to come clean about its intent:
[T]he Administration has been ambiguous about it, and that ambiguity has allowed some to interpret Secretary Gates’ argument for a delay in implementation as a delay in adopting the legislation. I believe that the Administration should make clear that it supports legislative action this year, and that while implementation is being worked out, it will carry out the policy in the way it was originally intended, which would reduce the number of discharges, in my view, by over 90%.”
Joe hits the nail on the head here:
I’m sure the usual apologists will jump to the defense of the Obama administration, even as it becomes more and more clear that the Obama administration has no intention of working to repeal DADT, or enacting ENDA, or repealing DOMA. This also begs the question of what the DOJ’s LGBT liaison, Matt Nosanchuk, does all day. Didn’t this set off some warning bells? Perhaps he has as much sway as the LGBT liaison at the White House, Brian Bond—which isn’t much.
Speaking of Bond, this is what he said back in November 2009when I interviewed him at the Equality NC Annual Conference:
Again, this president has not backtracked on any of his commitments; and at some point the bloggers and the readers there I hope they will trust this president and work with him, work with us to achieve true equality. We’re working on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell…we’re working on ENDA; you’re going to see mark up in the House next week on ENDA. These are important pieces of equality legislation for our community.
...The reality is, in some situations there are going to be times when you’re going to have to trust us because there are some things that you can’t necessarily put the specific timeline out there. Again, this is a president that means what he says and does what he says.
So which part of the above makes any sense to you, given we have an administration that alternately sends out negative messages such as this brief or doesn’t even respond to queries from Barney Frank about when the President plans to push for legislative repeal? I guess it depends on what this admin defines as “means what he says and does what he says.”
Perhaps that definition has been cleared up by Obama DOJ spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler, who went to court to repeatedly cite quotes from retired Gen. Colin Powell’s 1993 statements about gays in the military—views he has since very publicly reversed. WTF?
“This is pretty shocking,” said Richard Socarides, the White House liaison to the gay community under President Bill Clinton. “When Powell said this 18 years ago, it was inflammatory and incendiary. ... [Powell]’s now said this stuff isn’t even true anymore.”
This is ridiculous. And if you think I’m reading too much into this pantomime BS the White House is doing, take a look at Tuesday’s White House briefing that landed in my inbox, where Robert Gibbs does yet another tap dance that proves President Barack Obama has no problem letting the LGBT community twist in the wind on this. Kerry Eleveld of The Advocate tried yet again to extract something resembling an answer from Gibbs.
Q Over successive weeks, Congressman Barney Frank has asked the White House to clarify whether it would like to see legislative action taken this year on “don’t ask, don’t tell.” He’s said that direction from the White House has been muddled, and then at one point said that you guys were actually sort of ducking whether or not you wanted to see legislation action taken on repeal. Would the President like to see that law—
MR. GIBBS: Well, Carol, I would just say this, I don’t think what Admiral Mullen and Secretary Gates have enunciated on this appears muddled to anyone. I don’t—there is a process that’s in place to move forward on the President’s commitment to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
I don’t—Admiral Mullen is the first chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to sit up in front of Congress and say that the law ought to be repealed—not somebody who is retired, not somebody who is long past their commitment of serving their country, but somebody who sat up there and said that. And Secretary Gates and the commission at the Pentagon have taken some important steps.
We’re following that process. We’ll see where the legislative road takes us as we continue to build support to keep the commitment that the President has made.
Q So the President would feel perfectly comfortable letting the next Congress take that up?
MR. GIBBS: Well, again, we’re going to follow the process and the path that are underway with the clear direction that the President has given to repeal this.
Well what is the damned process? We don’t even know where the legislative road is, let alone what direction it is going. What does the President intend to tell Congress to do, if anything, and what is the timeline, since he suggested in the State of the Union that DADT was as good as gone this year?
Does Gibbs need his lips oiled like the Tin Man to utter what the administration intends to do when asked a direct question? Mixed messages and dodges like this have generated strong responses from SLDN and HRC. They are below the fold, as well as some speculation on my part—and some fresh video—as well as a few things readers to look out for going forward.
Sarah Palin’s FOX News career was set to start with a bang:
Sarah Palin’s media domination continues this week with the debut Thursday of “Real American Stories,” a new series on Fox News hosted by the former Alaska governor about people with “real-life tales of overcoming adversity…”
The premiere episode also boasts an eclectic trio of celebrity guests. Country music star Toby Keith will discuss his song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American),” while rapper LL Cool J and former General Electric Chief Executive Jack Welch will discuss their professional successes in a segment called “In Their Own Words.”
Fox lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else & are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palins Show. WOW
At first I thought Mr. Smith simply was objecting to use of stock footage to promote his upcoming appearance, but visiting his Twitter feed showed that he was responding to any and all mentions of his appearance with a link back to the tweet, making me think that the G.O.A.T. really was denying such an appearance. So I tracked down the FOX promo in question, and something struck me:
The promo never says that Palin interviews Keith, Welch, or Uncle L - never even says she “profiles” them. Unless I miss my guess, “Real American Stories” (or at least the segment involving these famous people) is going to consist entirely of previously existing footage, cut together with America’s sweetheart giving folksy interstitials in front of a bluescreen. It’s extremely lazy television, and happens all the time - just not usually with this much fanfare.
Is it me or has the world gotten even more hyperparanoid and confused about sexual orientation and gender expression? In what is both an absurd and incomprehensible decision, GLAAD reports that Stars on Ice sponsors are so concerned about the flamboyance of Olympic ice skater Johnny Weir (or is it his costumes?), that they don’t want him on the tour.
When was the last time male figure skaters and BUTCH coexisted in your mind? Why does it matter anyway? Are Dick and Jane going to be gender confused after a 90-minute ice show? I think these people have lost their minds.
GLAAD has learned from a source that wishes to remain anonymous that sponsors of the Stars on Ice Tour, which include Smuckers and IMG Entertainment, have refused to allow 3-time US National Champion and 2-time Olympian Johnny Weir to participate because they claim that he is “not family friendly.”
To say that Weir is “not family friendly” would be a clear jab at his perceived sexual orientation. Weir is extremely involved with his family. He is putting his younger brother through college, and supports the family financially because his father’s disability prohibits him from working. Weir’s dedication to his family can be clearly documented in the Sundance series, Be Good Johnny Weir, which follows him and his family and friends through his life and career as a championship skater.
Weir’s performance and costume style is sometimes considered flashier than those of other skaters, leading to questions about his perceived sexual orientation. While Weir has not officially announced his sexual orientation, he has garnered a significant amount of LGBT fans. He remains one of the most outspoken skaters today, and won an online poll asking fans “Who would you like to see guest star on Stars on Ice?”
Well that last point shows that the only paranoia exists in the minds of the sponsors. I’m not sure which aspect of Weir set off these alarms—is it the ornate and creative costumes? Over the years, the costumes of male figure skaters have become more free and flamboyant, regardless of the athlete’s real or perceived sexual orientation.
For instance I remember when the incredibly talented Rudy Galindo, the 1987 World Junior Champion and the 1996 U.S. National Champion—and was one of the first figure skaters that I recall coming out of the closet. Take a look at him from this short program at the ‘96 Worlds. I remember his flamboyance and oh-so-gey velvet costume were considered radical.
Now how tame was that? That costume (or his known homosexuality at the time) didn’t stop Galindo from continuing to compete, and to go on to a professional skating career, including a 10-year stint with the Tom Collins’ Champions on Ice show.
Now look at Johnny Weir’s short program at the NHK Trophy last year.
All I’m saying is that it’s all relative, and with a broader acceptance and comfort with self-expression along the gender norm lines within the sport, these sponsors and Stars on Ice need to get a flipping grip.
Now this is what I’m talking about when it comes to the crazies on the right—the fire-breathing man of manufactured tears, Glenn Beck, telling people what they need to do about their church-going habits.
On his daily radio and television shows last week, Fox News personality Glenn Beck set out to convince his audience that “social justice,” the term many Christian churches use to describe their efforts to address poverty and human rights, is a “code word” for communism and Nazism. Beck urged Christians to discuss the term with their priests and to leave their churches if leaders would not reconsider their emphasis on social justice.
“I’m begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them . . . are going to come under the ropes in the next year. If it lasts that long it will be the next year. I beg you, look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!”
So all those ministers and priests that marched for equal rights for blacks back in the day were Nazis? WTF? I know Glenn thinks his sheeple are dim, but damn, he’s lowering the bar WAY down. Politics Daily has the audio.
***
In a double-dip of insanity from the land of Beck, here is one of his advertisers, Survival Seed Bank, hawking “survival seeds” as a defense against “emerging totalitarianism.” (Protect your keyboards) Media Matters:
There’s nothing wrong with a business that serves some kind of demand in the marketplace, but it goes without saying that fearmongering about economic collapse followed by food shortages and citing World Net Daily for “strong evidence” is big time black helicopter stuff.
“I am gay. Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long. It is something that is personal, and I don’t believe I felt with my heart that being gay would affect how I do my job.”
—California State Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield)
This is the funniest and most pathetic story of the day. I think Roy forgot that the news broke last week, and a whole lot of people already knew.
That said, his official coming out on a Bakersfield radio show reveals that he’s still unapologetically politically homophobic, reassuring his Bakersfield constituents he’s not like those radical nasty gays who want civil rights, I presume. (GayPolitics):
Radio talk show host Inga Barks wanted assurances that Ashburn would continue to vote in a conservative manner on LGBT rights issues. Ashburn responded, “I believe firmly that my responsibility is to my constituents. I will take a careful look at each measure and apply that standard. How would they vote on this? How would they want me to vote on this,” adding that most people understood what that means.
“I don’t know how else to ask this, but are you going to live this lifestyle now in the district?” Barks asked. Ashburn, who announced he is not running for public office again, said, “I pray to God I can find peace. I want to go back to the senate and work hard for the people of my district…Now you know everything about me.”
This, my friends, is the definition of a self-loathing man. I suppose if his constituents wanted to round up TEH HOMOSEXUALS, he’d vote for that too. Sick.
I realize this story about a Louisiana sheriff using parish resources to start a militia movement to fight “terrorism” is a serious story. “Fighting terrorism” is obviously a code, and these homegrown militia movements are better at encouraging real terrorism. But I couldn’t help but laugh my ass off at their training routines.
I defy you to find anything funnier than a bunch of middle aged rednecks fantasizing about being fighting machines while trying vainly to get their underused legs to rise to the level of their impressive beer guts to weakly kick whatever you call that kick-boxing padding thingie. In their minds, they’re Matt Damon playing Jason Bourne, but to the rest of us, they’re Homer Simpson with fewer wiles.
What immediately came to mind was watching a bunch of LARPers screw around in the park.
But really, the comparison is unfair. LARPers are guilty of nothing more than dorkitude. But unlike the rednecks in the first video, they don’t actually believe their playtime is real. And they’re harmless; they make their weapons out of cardboard, but the rednecks buy real ones that they can actually hurt people with. LARPers fight against imaginary governments, but these guys aren’t hiding that they mean that President Obama and his supporters are basically “homegrown terrorism”. Rachel Maddow had Frank Schaeffer on, and it was obvious after listening to him why this militia is called “Operation Exodus”.
In sum, the sheriff who started this has cited the book of Exodus as the reason. Of course, the point of the book of Exodus is that the Hebrews chafed under the unjust pharaoh and had to separate from Egypt. Not as subtle as this guy thinks. But again, point LARPers, who at least have the imagination to draw inspiration from a whole host of fantasy materials, instead of just sticking to that one, albeit entertaining, work of fantasy fiction known as the Bible.
We haven’t seen a new batch of Republican Sexual Hypocrites so far in 2010, but in slides anti-gay California State Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield), who manages a triple play.
After being pulled over for driving erratically in downtown Sacramento at 2AM on Wed., he earned a DUI, reeking of alcohol, with bloodshot eyes, and blew over a .08.
He was driving a state vehicle, owned by the taxpayers at the time. Ashburn immediately won’t be allowed to drive any vehicle for 30 days.
And the conservative “family values” pol, who fought marriage equality, did this after leaving a gay nightclub, Faces,with an unidentified man in the state vehicle.
Let’s go to the video…
Ashburn, a father of four, is a Republican Senator representing parts of Kern, Tulare and San Bernardino Counties with a history of opposing gay rights.
Ashburn issued a statement on the arrest Wednesday afternoon:
“I am deeply sorry for my actions and offer no excuse for my poor judgment. I accept complete responsibility for my conduct and am prepared to accept the consequences for what I did. I am also truly sorry for the impact this incident will have on those who support and trust me – my family, my constituents, my friends, and my colleagues in the Senate.”
As Joe Jervis notes, Roy easily meets the Larry Craig gold standard of Republican Sexual Hypocrite:
He also has a 100% rating from the anti-gay Capitol Resource Family Impact group for voting against every LGBT rights bill during his tenure.
Don’t you wonder whether the “unidentified man” in the car knew he was cruising off with a self-loathing homo-hater? If he didn’t, he certainly knows now…
A well-heeled Philadelphia school district gave out laptops to students—then used the webcams attached to covertly spy on them, both at school and at home, according to a class-action lawsuit. The case, Blake J. Robbins v. Lower Merion School District, was filed after one of the school’s vice principals disciplined Robbins’ son for “improper behavior in his home,” using a photo taken from the camera as evidence, according to the filing.
The laptops were issued to 1,800 students at three high schools in the district, each with a built-in webcam that, according to the lawsuit, administrators can activate remotely and covertly. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all the students and their parents. They’re seeking damages for invasion of privacy, theft of private information, and unlawful interception and access of electronic information.
The lengths they went to in order to spy on the kids is really the first thing that jumps out at the average reader here, but I can’t get past the fact that they wanted to spy badly enough to go to those lengths. Why on earth do they give a fuck what kids do in their spare time? Personally, I can’t think of anything more boring than watching some teenage kid take stupid and possibly naughty pictures to send to their friends over email. I don’t understand this obsession in the slightest. I imagine being a school teacher is a lot like any other job, and the people you work with hold no particular fascination. I always have mild, polite curiosity about the people I work with—-what their families are like, what they do in their spare time—-but on the whole, I’m not burning with deep curiosity about their private life. And yet, there is a rash of school administrators out there whose interest in what their students do in their spare time is obsessive and sick.
This is far from the only example. Take, for instance, this ACLU lawsuit. Two girls took some pictures of themselves doing naughty stuff at a slumber party and put the pictures on MySpace. Normal, healthy people’s reaction is, “And?” But not the school administrators! No, they suspended the girls from extracurricular activities, and to make it worse, told them they could get their spots on their athletic teams back if they apologized to the all-male coaches’ board.
Apologize? Why are these grown-ass men acting all butt hurt because some girls took pictures of themselves for their friends? How on earth is that about the coaches and their feelings?
What is this all about? My memories of high school were about teachers who were by and large indifferent to how we spent our time after school. For instance, I remember passing a note back and forth in class with a girlfriend who was telling me some sexual adventure of hers, and the teacher confiscated it. Her punishment for note-passing was usually to read it aloud to embarrass the disruptive students, but she quickly scanned it, and realized that would be over the line in this case. Instead, she just quietly tossed it in the trash. And that was the end of it. We weren’t hauled off to tell her all the dirty details. No one got in trouble for what we did when we weren’t in school. The beginning and end of the infraction was the passing of the note. This was the norm at my school. Sure, we had creepy teachers and administrators who took too much interest in youth culture and high school hierarchies, but it was mostly in service of reinforcing the stupid power structures amongst the students and alienating the geeks and weirdos. But even then, they could not care less if even their loathed students went home and did sexy stuff. That was our parents’ business, not theirs.
So, is this some new thing that’s developed? Or was I just lucky? Does anyone understand this phenomenon? Can you fill me in on what the fuck is going on here?
With Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council going on Hardball to declare that homosexuality needs to be recriminalized (overturning Lawrence v. Texas) in the wake of getting the bad news that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen (and now General Colin Powell and even a tepid Orrin Hatch) said Don’t Ask Don’t Tell needs to go, you knew there would be a Freeper explosion.
And yes, the gloves come off in a primal scream of terror as these knuckledraggers cover their privates, worrying about dropping soap in the shower. Where were all these Freepers when heterosexual enlisted men were raping their female peers? Oh wait, they don’t want women in there either…
WHY DO FREEPERS HATE AMERICA AND ITS MILITARY COMMANDERS?!?! OH NOES!1101
I’ve linked to the Google cache just in case the thread “disappears.” See the misogyny and paranoia run wild. It’s beyond laughable. They know their side is going down in the long run, no pun intended.
Easy to say General Mullen when you don’t have to bunk or shower with these individuals.
”... it is wrong to force people to “lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.”
So - Mike Mullen agrees with Congressman Joe Sestak. Who knew?
you cannot defend your fellow citizens when you are preoccupied with having swordfights in the showers. Eww, I just grossed myself out. This article reeks of leftist politics. No military man in his rigfht mind would approve of gutting the military, which is exactly what this amounts to.
What happened to the rights of “straights” to privacy?
I urge everyone to call their Senator and Congressional Representative TODAY!! Everyone I know in the military is outraged at Obama’s attempt to inject active homosexuality into the barracks and showers of the armed forces. Here we go again with another Dem idiot trying to social engineer the military.
But forcing people to accept this societal abomination is just honky dory? The military has lost its bearings. It is adopting self destructive polices and behaviors.
“Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse,” Casey said
I fear too many of our higher-ranking officers appear to have been selected for their PC-compatibility rather than for their military competence. . .
If the ban is lifted homosexuals will flock to the military and overrun it and have the full force of military law behind them, the military will be theirs.
Didn’t Mullen say like 6 months ago that the policy shouldn’t be changed? Oh, that was before Obama said he wanted to change it. Now it’s good. Man, this guy is such a suck up it’s disgusting. Between him and Gates I don’t see who has the stones to defend the military from the “I loathe the military” democrat powers that be.
Wonder what he would think if he has to share a shower room and toilet room with those people ? He has his nice private shower and toilet. The rank and file don’t.
It ought to be intresting keeping up with HIV exposure in the ranks.
No Navy admiral (or Air Force general) should ever be made head of the JCS. That responsibility should be left to the Army or the Marines. Or barring that, to the Coast Guard.
Please note that Mullen said he was speaking for himself not for the other service chiefs. The CNO hasn’t come out either way yet. Mullen is the CJCS not the CNO.
Except that the Marines are a Department of the Navy. There are whack jobs in all branches. Clearly this Admiral has no clue what it’s like to be a an enlisted on a combatant vessel. I do.
The Marines are older than the Navy, think in the spirit of Hope and Change that we can the Dept of Navy and replace it with the Dept of the Marine Corps.
Except that the Marines are a Department of the Navy. A bumper sticker for sale at a local gun show reads: The Marine Corps is a department of the Navy. The men’s department. It amused me, but I didn’t bring it home. My dad retired as a Commander in the Navy. My son served in the USMC.
OK Admiral Mikey Mullen. IF we do away with the old fashioned ways then lets quit SEGREGATION in WOMENS’ quarters from MENS’ quarters Let the straights have the same perspective as the gays.I doubt women will enjoy being leered at in the showers as well as straight men will be by gays And Face it, the Homo’s will eventually pair up and have sex in the foxholes(or bunks in the navy)while the straight men will be denied such companionship. How’s that for creating Esprit De Corps
Is there anyone in the 5th district of NC willing and able to run and unseat this horrible embarrassment of a Congresswoman? I’m sorry there just are not any kind words to bestow against the vile, homobigoted politician, who claimed on the floor of the House that Matthew Shepard’s gruesome death was a hate crime hoax, and battled with Michelle Bachmann to put her hands all over GWB at a SOTU?
Now, true to form, even as she complains about the current President’s “lecturing” of her party, she’s got her priorities in line—she brags that she nabbed his autograph.
Flame-throwing conservative Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) was not a big fan of President Barack Obama’s appearance before the House Republican caucus retreat on Friday.
The North Carolina Republican categorized it as “another lecture” from Obama. She suggested that “independent fact checkers” were needed to confirm the veracity of “his comments.” She insisted, against some countervailing evidence, that her Republican colleagues “asked great questions.”
But she also seemed delighted by the fact that she got the president’s autograph. Foxx tweeted that she secured Obama’s signature and a White House official confirmed her account.
***
Speaking of wingnuts, in Hawaii, the RNC is meeting to figure out how to improve its image with voters (good luck with that), and have mostly been cranky with one another over how to distinguish itself from the Dems. You may have heard about the extremist wing’s “Purity Test” proposal by Indiana’s James Bopp which would mandate that required a GOP candidate had to support 10 specific positions in order to receive backing and funding from the party.
(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;
(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run health care;
(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;
(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;
(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;
(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;
(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;
(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;
(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and
(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership
The new rule will not prevent support for moderate Republican candidates but will bar funding for those judged to be too far to the left, Crocker said.
“No more Scozzafavas, please. No more Specters, please. No more Chafees, please,” Crocker said, referring to Dede Scozzafava, a GOP candidate for a U.S. House seat in New York whom conservatives opposed; U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, who switched his party registration from Republican to Democrat last year, and former U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, a liberal Republican.
Crocker urged the party to “present candidates who will be attractive” to the people who, like those in the Tea Party movement, “are really dissatisfied with our political conduct over the past several years.
Something is dreadfully wrong with Michael Steele. His gaffe meter is so off the charts. We learn yet again that it is painfully difficult for Republicans to avoid heinous, hoary, ethnical/racial slurs on camera. The ignorant, it burns…(Media Matters):
On Fox News last night, Sean Hannity hosted RNC Chairman Michael Steele to promote the release of Steele’s new book, Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda. During the interview, Steele emphatically denied that the GOP needs “more modern” ideas, calling the party’s platform “one of the best political documents” produced in the last quarter-century. “Honest Injun on that,” he added.
HANNITY: There are those that are saying for the Republican Party to be successful, they’ve gotta quote be more modern.
STEELE: No, no! But that’s what’s gotten us into trouble, when we walked away from principle. Our platform is one of the best political documents that’s been written in the last 25 years. Honest Injun on that.
If you’re a stunner with washboard abs but haven’t shed those holiday pounds you put on because of grandma’s apple pie, your friends at BeautifulPeople.com are giving you the boot.
Dating and social network site BeautifulPeople.com has axed some 5,000 members following complaints that they had gained weight.
The members were singled out after posting pictures of themselves that reportedly showed they had put on pounds over the holiday period.
Of course if you were chubby beforehand, you were never welcome on the exclusive site, which filters out the “fatties” to be able to market itself as “the largest network of attractive people in the world.”
Beauty standard proprietor and founder Robert Hintze sais that “As a business, we mourn the loss of any member, but the fact remains that our members demand the high standard of beauty be upheld.” Of course you can’t ignore this blunt money quote:
“Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded.”
Wow, it sounds like garden-variety people of more ample proportions to Hintze are drooling, slovenly, portly pervs in trench coats trolling his digital island of slender hedonism. It’s a strange tack to take, to say the least, when the site itself has an interesting message for those surfing with a zero chance of joining if they are perceived as not only porky, but “ugly” in general (boy, that’s a grand broad stroke).
No worries, Mr. Hintze, your “hottie” laser-focused membership is safe; “fat” green dollars can be better spent in the dating pursuit of, um, character. Of course to each their own in dating preferences, but this level of cruel, shallow PR asshattery of Hintze (I’m sure he would label it “blunt) is just another sign of the cultural acceptance of sh*tting on the less-than-svelte.
Question for Pandas: Leaving aside the outlandish statements of Hintze in defense of his site’s actions, is this any different than any dating site that self-identifies a preference and does it matter?
It’s worthy of discussion because of the rampant level of eating disorders and other behaviors, particularly in young women (and I’m sure a lot of gay men out there can speak about pressures as well), related to self-image issues that ramp all the way up to severe body dysmorphic disorder.
You know, when I travel these days, my fibromyalgia often makes it painful and difficult to lug around my bags. When the pain is really bad I sometimes wish I had a PHB assistant to help me out (when Kate’s not able to go with me). However, I never thought about going this route…
FRC founder and NARTH board member Dr. George Rekers must have a helluva travel expense budget (and tax write off) for procuring the talents of Geo, the identity of “Lucien,” known to most as a “Travel Assistant”/“luggage carrier” through the 
I think it’s safe to say that if you’re LGBT, the vast majority of people in 
these pics from two different FB pages. Hmmmm….guess there was a prom after all. Constance and seven others were not invited.
Again, this president has not backtracked on any of his commitments; and at some point the bloggers and the readers there I hope they will trust this president and work with him, work with us to achieve true equality. We’re working on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell…we’re working on ENDA; you’re going to see mark up in the House next week on ENDA. These are important pieces of equality legislation for our community.
Q Over successive weeks, Congressman Barney Frank has asked the White House to clarify whether it would like to see legislative action taken this year on “don’t ask, don’t tell.” He’s said that direction from the White House has been muddled, and then at one point said that you guys were actually sort of ducking whether or not you wanted to see legislation action taken on repeal. Would the President like to see that law—
Now this is what I’m talking about when it comes to the crazies on the right—the fire-breathing man of manufactured tears, Glenn Beck, telling people what they need to do about their church-going habits.
Top of the list of things I don’t understand: 
Is there anyone in the 5th district of NC willing and able to run and 