The Progressive Puppy

Sugar's Rainbow - Sunday Edition

There was a special segment on CNN Sunday Morning about all the "Hot Christian Sex" Bible-thumpers enjoy.  "Faces of Faith" host T.J. Holmes interviewed an evangelical minister from Georgia who practically drooled as he described how "fulfilling" it is to "give pleasure" to a church-sanctioned spouse.  (I presume the transcript will eventually be posted here.)  Aren't religious fundies always accusing gays and lesbians of throwing sex in their faces?  Sorry, but this is not something I need to contemplate before my juice and sticky buns.

Matt Barber of Liberty Council wrote an editorial for One News Now (a website where the only thing you won't find is news) in which he condemns corporations that support equality for LGBT citizens.  It's perfectly okay, in the biased opinion of Barber and ONN, for businesses like Chick-fil-A, Media Graphix, and Here Comes The Bride to get involved in the culture wars.  Companies willing to discriminate against Teh Gays have "right" on thier side - Religious Right wingnuts, that is.

Progressive Americans usually think of our friends in Austrailia as embracing a more live-and-let-live attitude toward gays than the United States, where an entire political party is devoted to working against equality.  But the land of cuddly koalas and those running lizards that look like Pope Benedict grows its fair share of religious extremists, too.  Garrett Bithell, who took the top right photo, writes for Back Chat:  Who knew Adelaide had its own Westboro Baptist Church spin-off?  There’s nothing I can say about this kind of cruel and unusual fundamentalist Christian group that hasn’t already been said, but I can report that the gays responded by attempting to drown out – quite effectively I might add – their mega-phoned preachings with a chorus of, somewhat appropriately, whistles. Then the dykes got on their bikes and revved their engines and the Christian loopies had no chance ...

Republican Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum predicts that if voters allow same-sex marriage "our country will fall."

Did you know that Ally Sheedy has a lesbian mom and a lesbian daughter?  (I didn't.)  The "Brat Pack" actress who shot to fame with The Breakfast Club is also a social activist working to prevent LGBTQ youth homelessness.  (Untold thousands of children end up on the streets when their conservative Christian parents disown them... "For The Bible Tells Me So.")  Says Sheedy:  "100% I do feel like I have a social responsibility. I feel that if you are a well-known person and you have a voice to bring attention to something, it's nothing but honorable to do so. I specifically have my heart in the LGBTQI cause and a lot of it is very personal. I feel obligated to do this work but, at the same time, it's a pleasure."

Legislation that would provide some benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian federal workers has been introduced to both Houses of Congress.  Trudy Ring reports:  Independent senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Republican Susan Collins of Maine introduced the bill in the Senate, as they have in previous sessions. Democrat Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who is one of the four openly gay members of the House, and Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida introduced it in that chamber.  "The federal government must set an example as an equal opportunity employer," Baldwin said in a press release.  "If we are to treat all federal employees fairly and recruit the best and the brightest to serve in government, we need this legislation."  ...The sponsors noted that nearly 60% of Fortune 500 companies now offer health benefits to employees' domestic partners, as do 18 state governments and at least 150 municipalities.  (I hereby retract all most a few of the mean things I've said about Joe Lieberman who is still a GOP tool and lapdog to greedy corporations.)

Recommended reading from the New York Times:  "Russia's War Against Rainbows" by Masha Gessen

"PolitiChicks" premieres on YouTube (Please God make them stop.)

Below you'll see the first installment of a sad online "talk show" called PolitiChicks about which one YouTube wag wrote:  "These 4 make The View look like a MENSA meeting."  In the following clip, Victoria Jackson (former Saturday Night Live alumni turned Tea Party Teletubby) acts like she's been drinking heavily and the other three come across as robotic Stepford Wives.  Jeremy Kinser reports for The Advocate:  Victoria Jackson has found another platform for her ultra-right-wing views on issues such as "gay marriage" with a new talk show with three other conservative women...  When the women are about to discuss gay marriage, Jackson interrupts to ask if they can instead start with "the Islamization of America because I wrote a song about it." (Don't ask, and keep a barf bag handy.)  At one point in the video, Jackson stumbles for the word "kosher," before reminding her fellow panelist that she's 52 and can't remember things. (She also can't remember the word "mosque" until prompted.)  Jackson goes on to say, "I've noticed that Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano have dead eyes. They look like zombies. They don't even care what they're talking about ... They could be aliens disguised as humans!"

Throughout the "program" Jackson babbles incoherently.  She insists that she doesn't understand why liberals "love Islam" since everybody knows that all Muslims want "to kill the gays."  (She and her amazingly lifelike cohorts believe LGBT Americans should forever remain second-class citizens, like their Heavenly Father intended.) 

This is, to say the least, an embarrassing endeavor ...

OK Pastor Tom Vineyard Blames Half of Urban Murders on Gays

Although Oklahoma City Council members should be congratulated for passing an employment non-discrimination policy (applicable to municipal workers only), it doesn't alter the fact that Sooner territory still rivals Tennessee for the official designation of America's Hate State.  Not surprisingly, all this regional fear and loathing is generally being spat by "men of the cloth," holy hypocrites with enough skeletons in their closets to populate several episodes of The Walking Dead.

Michael Kimball reports for NewsOK:  The number of speakers for and against the measure was about even, though it seemed the majority of the people in attendance were against the measure. Some speakers were applauded when they finished their comments, and the applause was loudest and longest for those who spoke against it.  (Anti-gay bigotry always brings a crowd of religious conservatives to its feet.)  ... Pastor Tom Vineyard of Windsor Hills Baptist Church cited a New York judge in saying more than half of murders in large cities are committed by gay people.  Vineyard received the longest standing ovation of the day after his remarks. 

Pastor Tom neglected to clarify which "New York judge" made such a ridiculous statement, leading non-Bible thumpers to presume that he - gasp! - told a bald-faced lie.  The Southern Baptist minister didn't stop there, spreading even more of his fundamentalist filth by proclaiming:  "Many homosexuals openly admit that they are pedophiles because they cannot actually reproduce. They resort to recruiting children."

I wonder if Preacher Vineyard has been picking dingleberries from Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern's bounteous bush.  I hear her vines have tender grapes.  (Pictured: Pastor Tom Vineyard Who Breaks The 8th Commandment - and probably others as well.)

Occupy New York - A Judicial Reprieve

The brains of Tea Party activists were blank slates for greedy bankers, industrialists, and corporate executives to inscribe their "Your Misery Is Due To Government Regulation" and "Democrats Are Taxing You To Death" propaganda.  It was only a matter of time before the teabaggers (a substantial number of them, anyway) began to figure out they'd been used by the Powers That Be and understand that some branches of the U.S. Government are trying to reign in capitalistic excesses.  Of course wingnuts will never publicly admit their error - but it eventually became apparent to every thinking person as the right-wing partisan cabal collapsed and in its stead rose The 99% Movement whose members are smart enough to know where the problem actually lies.  Check out their official website.

Wag of the Week - Editorial Cartoonist Daryl Cagle

Here's a promising development:  As reported by the Associated Press:  The National Lawyers Guild says it has obtained a court order that allows Occupy Wall Street protesters to return with tents to a New York City park.  The guild says the injunction prevents the city from enforcing park rules on Occupy Wall Street protesters.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city knew about the court order but has not seen it. He says the city plans to go court immediately.  Zuccotti Park was cleared overnight so that crews could clean it. Bloomberg says that was done "to reduce the risk of confrontation."

Tea Partiers brandished their guns to threaten political opponents, waved their flags and Bibles, and blamed Obama for all the nation's ills.  99% protesters fight oppression with intellect and rigorous civil disobedience, which gives them a considerable advantage over the "Keep yer guv'ment outta my Medy-care!" crowd.

Pooh-blicity: Logo's "Gay Conservative" Embraces Victimhood

Taylor Garrett Gets a Taste of What His Religious Conservatism Has Wrought

The Logo Channel's A-List Dallas presents gay and lesbian culture as a calorie-free confection of counter-stereotypes (which are of course stereotypes in themselves), with the reality-show starlettes expressing their compassion by labeling AIDS patients as "poor, sad, old people."  Fortunately for the LGBT community and indeed most fair-minded Americans, this practically unwatchable program is only considered groundbreaking by its participants, one of whom keeps claiming he's being "attacked" because of his girl-friendly relationship with Ann Coulter.  Alex Pappas reports for The Daily Caller:  A cast member of the gay reality TV show “A-List Dallas” tells The Daily Caller that he was punched to the ground and bloodied Friday night by someone vandalizing his car because he’s a gay conservative associated with commentator Ann Coulter.  (You're no doubt familiar with Ms. Coulter's antics.  She's the anorexic, anti-Semitic, right-wing bigot who spouts words like "fag" and "homo" with every toss of those tortured blond tresses.)  Taylor Garrett, a Republican consultant in Texas who stars in the reality series on the channel LOGO TV, said in an interview that he was attacked outside a birthday party in Dallas after finding a vandal scratching “F–k Coulter” on the side of his car.  Garrett said the incident reflects a troubling mindset.  “The Democrats want me to live on their plantation as their slave, because I’m a gay person,” he said. “And I refuse to do that.”  (Yes, the irony is sweet.)

As I and many others have noted, there exists within the LGBT community an insignificant but vocal subset of wealthy, self-serving, self-loathing, and overwhelmingly white male queers who are so horrified at the thought of paying higher taxes that they're willing - anxious, even - to throw your civil rights and mine under the campaign bus of whichever Republican politician rolls through town.  Like the Nastyass Honey Badger, gay GOPers just don't give a shit.  They're in The Game for themselves.  And why not?  They have all the equality money can buy.

From HuffPo:  Garrett, who has done work with groups run by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, says he has been subject to harassment and threats for being a gay conservative since news broke that he was having lunch with Coulter in Los Angeles for his show. Garrett found a rock, with a threatening note attached that was anti-conservative, last month thrown through his living room window, he said.  (Perhaps the rock was hurled by a New Yorker.  Listen to Garrett chirp at the 5:01 mark on this video:  "We're definitely gonna have a better show than, you know, New York, because we're younger, cuter, and have less wrinkles.")  On Friday night after the incident with the vandal, Garrett said his friends called an ambulance, but paramedics did not take him to the hospital.  Garrett said he begged the police not to put his name on the police report, because “I didn’t want to be in the press again about this,” but his friends convinced him otherwise.  ("Oh please Brer Fox, whatever you do, please don't throw me into the briar patch."  I suspect it took little convincing since Garrett makes hay out of any brush with the Goddess of Publicity.  And who do you suppose took that press-worthy middle photo with his iPhone?)

Each time Garrett and other so-called "gay Republicans" open their mouths to defend conservative "principles" they are spitting on the graves of children who have been bullied to death by anti-gay cretins that feast on those principles.  While no true progressive would feel joy at Garrett's minor injuries or the fact that his expensive vehicle was damaged, there's a curiously karmic aspect to this incident.  (The GOP and its Religious Right base fought tirelessly to keep the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act from becoming law.)  You'll excuse me if I save my tears for youngsters who commit suicide due to the homophobia promoted by those pundits and pols Taylor so eagerly, "cute-ly" supports.

Why We Need That Third Agency (video)

That oh-so-elusive third federal agency Governor Rick Perry has vowed to dismantle is of course the Department of Energy.  Rachel Maddow explains why killing the DoE might be a bad idea.  Maddow's guest, Dr. Ed Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, discusses Ohio's Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station where a thirty-foot crack in the plant's exterior wall was discovered, thanks to inspectors working at one of Perry's three targets for elimination:

Money Quote from Dr. Lyman:  "The larger context is that the Department of Energy oversees a complex of facilities, many of which are aging, they're Cold War-era facilities.  They were used for decades to process radioactive materials in the production of nuclear weapons - and the cleanup of those facilities, and the maintenance of that legacy is one of the huge burdens that the Department of Energy has.  This is one good reason why we can't abolish the Department of energy...  This is a problem.  We do have a wide variety of radioactive materials and aging facilities that need to be managed."  (Show of hands - Who thinks greedy industrialists are going to step up to the plate and clean up their own mess?)

On an marginally related side note, Rick Perry's campaign strategists have just purchased almost a million dollars in air-time on Faux News, where America's wingnuts go to get their information... and whatdya know?  Almost immediately, the network's resident ass-kisser (and Sarah Palin devotee) Greta Van Susteren snags the Texas Guv for a highly promoted softball interview.  The name of this cozy segment is - cover your keyboards - Rick Perry On The Rebound And Ready To Put America Back To Work.  (Million dollar title, no?)

(Damn, damn, damn.  When I typed "cover your keyboards" I neglected to cover my own and now there's a spray of coffee across the laptop.  It was an involuntary reaction to viewing that screenshot for a second time. )