The Progressive Puppy

Retribution from the Right over Marriage Equality in New York

Apparently that turning-the-other-cheek thing is an alien concept to groups that claim to promote "Christian values." 

Miranda Leitsinger reports for MSNBC:  One year after New York lawmakers voted to make same-sex marriage legal in the state, opponents of gay marriage are pledging to unseat the Republicans whose support was key to the law's passage, saying they want to send a message to other legislators that there are “consequences” to their votes.  The National Organization for Marriage, which opposes gay marriage, says it is funneling $2 million into the state to oust three state senators who voted to support the legislation.  All three, Sens. Roy McDonald, Stephen Saland and Mark Grisanti, are facing primary challenges. A fourth GOP senator, Jim Alesi, already has said he won’t seek a ninth term due to local opposition over his pro-gay marriage stance...  Brian Brown, executive director of NOM, doesn't shy away from the fact his group is hoping to intimidate wavering lawmakers into opposing gay marriage.  “The message is clear, that supporting same-sex marriage is a losing issue, not a winning issue,” Brown told msnbc.com. “You could lose your career over supporting same-sex marriage.”  ("Revenge is ours!" sayeth the homophobes.)  NOM has spent $400,000 on issue ads, billboards, automated calls and direct mail as well as made direct donations through its New York PAC. It is planning to spend another $1.6 million to try to unseat McDonald, Saland and Grisanti as a result of their gay marriage votes.

It's astonishing that NOM can think of no better way to squander its members' cash donations than on what is essentially a strategy of political vengeance.  Of course, what else should we expect from religious cons who believe loving same-sex couples are unworthy of the same rights and protections enjoyed by their heterosexual counterparts.

When Marriage Equality became a reality in the Empire State last summer, Tara Siegel Bernard reported on the New York Times:  While New York had already recognized same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, that recognition didn’t extend to state income taxes. Now, couples who marry and live in New York will be able to file their state tax returns jointly. Wealthier couples may end up paying more in taxes, but families with lower incomes may owe less.  Couples who decide to marry will also be first in line to inherit their spouses’ assets, even in the absence of a will. They’ll gain an array of smaller benefits as well, down to the ability to transfer a lobstering license.  “There are hundreds of different protections and benefits under New York law,” said Susan Sommer, director of constitutional litigation at Lambda Legal, a legal advocacy organization for the gay community.  Of course, there’s still a long list of federal benefits that will remain out of reach. Since the federal Defense of Marriage Act — which defines marriage as between a man and a woman — is still being enforced, gay couples in New York will still need to file separate federal tax returns. They will not be eligible for Social Security spousal or survivor benefits. And they will continue to owe extra income taxes on their spouse’s health insurance benefits — a cost that opposite-sex married couples don’t have to pay.

One wonders if the bigots at NOM, the Family Research Council, American Family Association, NARTH, et al. ever stop hating gays and lesbians long enough to, say, volunteer at a soup kitchen?  No, I suppose two million dollars worth of petty revenge is time and money better spent.  Isn't this what Jesus would do?

Daffy Christofascists Mike Huckabee and Bill Keller

Failed Republican presidential wannabe and former Southern Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee is warning fellow wingnuts that the Obama administration "is not just indifferent to people of faith, it's hostile" - and by "people of faith" he means those who adhere to his particular brand of intolerant Christianity.  Huckabee also worries that the Environmental Protection Agency might tell Baptists that by practicing full immersion they're "using too much water."  (When I was a lad, I got fully immersed and after it was over there was there was no difference in the water level... Oh wait!  Was Huck being funny?)

It gets stranger.  Brian Tashman reports for Right Wing Watch:  Evangelist Bill Keller is telling people to write in Jesus on the ballot in November, arguing that Christians can’t support President Obama, whom he claims is a "true tool of Satan," or Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon. As of today, Keller claims over 126,000 people have committed to "write in the name of Jesus for President." 

Of course if Jesus were elected President, it wouldn't be the hateful Jesus fundies worship - so either way they're screwed.

Plumber Joe - Unevolved and Uninformed

As you know, the functionally illiterate Samuel Wurzelbacher (aka Joe the Plumber) is a hankerin' to represent Ohio's 9th Congressional District.  He's running against Democrat Marcy Kaptur, appealing to GOP "values" with the Tea Party's tired platform of Guns, Gays, and God.  In the following campaign video, Wurzelbacher claims, ludicrously, that gun control was responsible for the Holocaust.  Next to that is an amusing clip in which the Republican gets pressed about his homophobia by CNN's Zoraida Sambolin.  (He insists he wouldn't allow his kids to go anywhere near those "homoshexual" queers.  Jimmy LaSalvia of the gay conservative group GOProud, ever self-loathing, rushed to Wurzelbacher's defense.)

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The New York Observer contacted a campaign spokesperson about the politician's Holocaust remarks.  The spokesperson declared that Wurzelbacher was "a student of history."  (Snort.)  Then the plumber's helper suggested that gun control may also have caused slavery in the Deep South.  (Double snort.) 

Now I realize any fool can run for public office -  but do Ohioans really want Joe/Samuel speaking for them?

Elephants DO Forget - Reagan Devotees and GOP Amnesty

President Obama has announced that the government will no longer deport some children of some undocumented workers under some conditions, and Republican politicians, predictably, are sputtering with outrage - their usual modus operandi for winning votes in red meat states.  Needless to mention, Obama's policy shift has brought into sharp focus the GOP's barely-concealed distaste for Hispanic-Americans in general and Mexican-Americans in particular.  Tea Party activists have been hollering like Klan members at a lynching, accusing our Commander-in-Chief of every conceivable evil.  (But then, aren't they always doing that?)  Steven Thrasher at the Village Voice reminds us of the bald hypocrisy of conservatives who continue to place former President Ronald Reagan on a shopworn pedestal:

Whatever happened to the three million people Reagan granted amnesty to a quarter century ago? Did they succeed in ripping the nation to shreds, destroying American industry, and murdering gringos left and right, much as Reagan’s disciples predict would happen if such a bill would become law (or even Obama’s much more tepid stopgap executive order) today?  Actually, quite the opposite.  Those immigrants, like most who get legal status, bought homes, sent their kids to school, and participated in a record period of economic expansion and growth. In 2010, back in those halcyon days when Arizona was first debating S.B. 1070, the Voice profiled three of those immigrants and talked to them about how legal status affected (and, largely, improved) their lives, their family’s lives, and the lives of their communities. 

Just imagine Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio reading that, drooling and gnashing his teeth like a cartoon bulldog.  (The Grand Canyon State is facing multiple legal battles over its cruel and unconstitutional anti-immigration laws.)  In fact, picture the entire Republican Party base frantically ripping pages from history books - a routine occurrence here in Texas.

Yesterday, Romney dodged questions about the President's stance on immigration.  He's been getting mixed signals from his handlers, and he's sending mixed signals to Latinos, an impressive voting bloc not to be trifled with.

According to a public opinion poll released on Sunday, Hispanic voters are beginning to realize that they will find no succor inside the GOP's ever-shrinking circus tent.  Elise Foley reports for the Huffington Post:  Polling firm Latino Decisions and advocacy group America's Voice found that 49 percent of Latino voters in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Virginia are more enthusiastic about the president after his directive, which will grant two years of reprieve from deportation to some undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children if they meet certain requirements, such as being college students or members of the military.  Mitt Romney said he opposed the decision...  A majority, 59 percent, of Latino voters polled said Romney's statements made them less enthusiastic about him. 

No surprise there.  Unless he pulls a conservative Christian/Cuban out of his magic underwear when it's time to choose a running mate - such as Florida's anti-gay senator Marco Rubio - Rich Mittens can kiss the Hispanic vote goodbye.

Society Embracing Equality - But Haters Gotta Hate

On the Chicago Sun-Times, Rummana Hussain reports that Illinois State Attorney Anita Alvarez believes barring committed same-sex couples from civil marriage is discriminatory and unconstitutional.  Writes Hussain: 

Cook County Clerk David Orr discriminates against gay couples by refusing to grant them marriage licenses, two recent lawsuits contend.  But instead of defending himself, Orr - and his attorney Anita Alvarez - on Thursday said the gay couples that took him to court are right.  “As the defendant I totally agree with the plaintiffs,” said Orr. “We are clearly admitting that people are being discriminated against.”  As Cook County State’s Attorney, Alvarez represents Orr in court. She admitted in legal filings Thursday that Orr, by enforcing a state law prohibiting gay marriage, is violating the equal-protection clause in the state constitution...  The twin lawsuits, filed by the ACLU and Lambda Legal on behalf of gay couples late last month, argue that the state constitution, more than the constitution of any other state, guarantees a right for people of the same gender to get married, despite laws the Illinois Legislature passed in 1996 prohibiting same-sex marriage. State law does, however, allow for civil unions.  Alvarez said that if the courts agree, the ban would be thrown out - and gay marriage would be legal without additional legislation.

Our battle for marriage rights is hardly finished, especially with the enemies of equality eager to malign an entire subset of American citizens - enemies like the oleaginous Bryan Fischer with the hate group American Family Association.  Writing for the New Yorker, Jane Mayer offers an in-depth look at Bryan Fischer, who receives an amazing amount of exposure in the mainstream media.  Curiously, when he appears on national television promoting his ugly "values" agenda, the activist often comes across as reasonable, practically benign.  It's unfortunate that reporters and interviewers never ask Fischer about his more inflammatory position statements.   (The evangelical fanatic insists Hitler surrounded himself with gay storm troopers because "he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders."  He also calls adoption by committed same-sex partners "sexual abuse" and commonly compares gays to pedophiles and cannibals.  He is a truly twisted individual.)  From Mayer's exhaustive exposé: 

When I visited his office, I asked him if he could name anyone who had more conservative social beliefs. “Well, Thomas Jefferson,” he said. “He wanted to castrate homosexuals... ”  (This is actually true.  In 1770, when pastors used the Bible to justify the buying and selling of human beings and slavery was an integral part of the economy, Jefferson proposed a law that would mandate castration for gay men and face mutilation for lesbians.  In his day, Jefferson was considered a liberal.)  Fischer does, however, want to change homosexuals. "We’re not animals in heat that have a biological compulsion to yield to every sexual impulse." Fischer said...  Patrick Mahoney, the director of the conservative Christian Defense Coalition, in Washington, D.C., told me, “Bryan is definitely ascending. His influence is growing because he says publicly, in an unfiltered way, what many evangelical leaders think privately.  (In point of fact, there are countless fundamentalist Christian leaders spitting venom from the pulpit.  More and more right-wing pastors are calling for the extermination of gays.)

Fischer expresses delight in (and takes credit for) the departure of Romney's openly-gay foreign policy spokesman Richard Grenell.  The fear-mongerer had previously fretted:  "What if he’s travelling for Mitt Romney on government business?  He’s overseas somewhere and he’s got top-secret information in his hotel room, and he just can’t help himself?  He’s gotta have an anonymous tryst with some homosexual?"  (In a sane world, this sort of craziness would totally discredit Fischer, but Fox News and CNN still give him a platform for his shameless propaganda.) 

Like a possum drawn to a steaming pile of shit, Fischer returns to his favorite talking point - that being gay is “always, always, always a matter of choice.”  He drags that dead horse around for awhile:  He told his listeners that a scientific study had shown the concordance of homosexuality between identical twins to be only six per cent. “If one of them is gay and it’s genetically caused, the other one ought to be gay one hundred per cent of the time!” he said.  Fischer cites such evidence with ease; he has impressive recall for everything from Bible quotations to academic articles.  (If I had a quarter for each time a fundie Christian gasbag misrepresented a scientific study or relied on flawed research by non-academics with an anti-gay agenda, I would be as wealthy as Mitt Romney.)

While Republicans continue to curry favor with the GOP's intolerant base, fair-minded lawmakers in the Democratic Party are making a difference in people's lives.  On The Stranger, Washington Senator Patty Murray discusses civil rights for gay and lesbian Americans:  As Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, I am particularly proud of the progress we’ve made on behalf of the LGBT men and women in our Armed Forces and our nation’s veterans with the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” But while repeal is an important victory in the fight for equality, there are still many challenges ahead as we work to ensure each of our veterans receives the same quality care and services once they leave the military...  I have been so proud to work with the LGBT community on issues affecting veterans and on many other issues important to the cause of equality. But while we have seen some important victories these past few years, we know Pride Month isn’t just a time to celebrate these accomplishments. It is also a time to recommit and recharge for the fight that’s ahead.  When Governor Gregoire signed the same-sex marriage bill into law this February, it was a day of joy for all of the loving, committed gay and lesbian couples of Washington—and for all who love, respect and support them. This law takes us one important step closer towards true equality for gay and lesbian families across Washington state. Unfortunately, there are those who are now trying to turn back the clock. This is wrong and we’re going to fight to prevent this from happening.

Blowhards like Bryan Fischer may find sympathy with ultraconservative voters in today's political climate, but you can rest assured that future generations will view him and his ilk as depraved, loathsome, and desperate villains in the culture war. 

Change is in the wind, and the sanctimonious bigots are suffocating from their own lack of compassion.

ACLU versus North Carolina over Adoption Cruelty

Although voters in North Carolina recently amended their constitution to disallow ANY recognition of same-sex partners, second parent adoption in the Tar Heel State has been forbidden for straight unmarried couples as well as gays and lesbians since 2010.  The American Civil Liberties Union (or those nigra-loving, Christ-killing Jews, as Baptist pastors called the organization when I was a wee lad) is now heading to federal court in an attempt to remedy this cruel discrimination.  Fair-minded citizens will wish the ACLU every success.

The following videos illustrate how children are harmed when lawmakers play the "values" game.

From ABC affiliate KERO23:  The lawsuit filed Wednesday argues that it is unfair that the state considers adoption petitions made by heterosexual stepparents on the merits of each case but will not do the same for same-sex couples because they cannot be legally married.  "Second-parent adoptions should be made on a case-by-case basis," said Chris Brooks, legal director of the ACLU in North Carolina. ... Same-sex marriage has long been outlawed in North Carolina, and in May, voters approved a referendum that made the ban a constitutional amendment.  In some cases in the state, a child could be taken out of the only home he or she has known if the legal parent dies, Brooks said. 

Right-wing Christian soldiers won't be satisfied until non-traditional families are as miserable as they are.  Evangelicals have been trashing the "sanctity" of their own marriages for years.  They don't need us to ...

Quo vadis?  Finish your kibble.  We're not going to the fish pond until that bowl is empty.