Month: February 2009

Hate Group Leader Dobson Resigns, Once Said SpongeBob Recruited Children to Be Gay

Jon Ponder

Video: Researcher Carol Gilligan calls Dobson’s use of her research to criticize gay parenting “completely distorted and unfounded”

James Dobson, founder of the virulently anti-gay group Focus on the Family, announced late on Friday that he is stepping down.

Dobson is perhaps most famous for once claiming that the cartoon character SpongeBob Squarepants was being used to recruit children into homosexuality. As the story developed, it appeared that Dobson had confused a group that produced a video promoting post-9/11 multicultural diversity that included SpongeBob and other characters with a group that produced a video for gay youths. Dobson refused to acknowledge his mistake, however, insisting through a spokesperson, “We see the video as an insidious means by which the organization is manipulating and potentially brainwashing kids. It is a classic bait and switch.”

For years, Dobson has also been a source for vile and bizarre homophobic rantings. “Homosexuals are not monogamous,” he once declared, despite the fact that there are millions of gay couples who have been monogamous for decades. “They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth.”

“Moms and Dads, are you listening?,” he said another time. “This [gay] movement is the greatest threat to your children. It is of particular danger to your wide-eyed boys, who have no idea what demoralization is planned for them.” (There is an unintended grain of truth here. It can indeed be demoralizing for gay people to be under constant assault by professional homophobes like Dobson and the rest.)

Dobson has often been accused of distorting scientific research to support his hate agenda. In December 2006, two researchers he cited in a commentary in Time Magazine expressed outrage that he had misused the results of their studies. Dr. Kyle Pruett of Yale Medical School accused Dobson of “cherry picking” facts from his book, Fatherneed: Why Father Care Is as Essential as Mother Care for Your Child, and Dr. Carol Gilligan said that Dobson’s use of her research was “completed distorted and unfounded.” Dr. Gilligan sent a letter to Dobson requesting an apology, but never received a reply.

Last year, Dobson’s group donated $800,000 to the anti-gay Proposition 8 campaign in California, even though FOTF was in financial disarray and was forced to lay off 200 employees two weeks after Election Day. FOTF still employs 950 people, most of whom work in its headquarters in Colorado.

There’s no doubt Dobson will retire in comfort. There is money to be made fanning the flames of homophobia. In fiscal year 2006, the latest year for which numbers were available online, Focus on the Family had total revenue of $142.3 million, with net assets of $79.3 million.

Dobson will be replaced by retired Lt. Gen. Patrick P. Caruana, a move that dovetails with gowing concerns about the rise of Christian extremism in the military ranks. Now a former military officer is moving into the upper ranks of Christian right-wing political activism.

It also fits neatly with FOTF’s heritage. It was founded in 1977 by Elsa Prince, a member of a wealthy right-wing family in Pennsylvania, whose son Erik Prince owns the mercenary firm Blackwater that sent paramilitary forces into Iraq after being given hundreds of millions in no-bid contracts by the Bush administration.

Update: Added link to a source for the “greatest threat” quote, July 15, 2015.

Jindal Admits Statement in GOP Response to President’s Speech Was False

Jon Ponder

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s performance delivering the Republicans’ response to Pres. Obama’s address to Congress last week was widely panned, even in his own party. Now he has revealed that an anecdote he used to illustrate his party’s belief that government regulation is deadly was false:

Remember that story Bobby Jindal told in his big speech Tuesday night — about how during Katrina, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a local sheriff who was battling government red tape to try to rescue stranded victims?

Turns out it wasn’t actually, you know, true…

Jindal had described being in the office of Sheriff Harry Lee “during Katrina,” and hearing him yelling into the phone at a government bureaucrat who was refusing to let him send volunteer boats out to rescue stranded storm victims, because they didn’t have the necessary permits. Jindal said he told Lee, “that’s ridiculous,” prompting Lee to tell the bureaucrat that the rescue effort would go ahead and he or she could arrest both Lee and Jindal.

But now, a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone “days later.” The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.

Jindal’s story was meant to illustrate the premise that government regulation causes deadly problems — and to make himself appear to have been a hero during the crisis. As it happens, neither assertion was true.

Another unusual aspect to Jindal’s story was that at the time of the disaster, all three branches of the government were under control of his party, including the Congress, where Jindal served in the House of Representatives.

Study: Utah Leads Nation in Online Porn Purchases, Sales Higher Nationwide in Religious Areas

Jon Ponder

A study of the online porn purchases nationwide by Harvard Business School uncovered something surprising (or maybe not). Residents of right-wing religious areas purchase more porn than those in liberal areas:

States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage,” bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed.

Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.

“Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by,” [Benjamin Edelman of Harvard Business School] says.

For example, the study found that porn purchases in churchgoing areas declined dramatically on Sundays. And guess which religion appears to be the most porn-obsessed? Yup, Mormons:

The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000. “The differences here are not so stark,” Edelman says.

Number 10 on the list was West Virginia at 2.94 subscriptions per 1000, while number 41, Michigan, averaged 2.32.

Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year’s presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.

Wait, there’s more:

Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11 percent more porn subscribers than states that don’t explicitly restrict gay marriage.

To get a better handle on other associations between social attitudes and pornography consumption, Edelman melded his data with a previous study on public attitudes toward religion.

States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage,” bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed. A similar difference emerged for the statement “AIDS might be God’s punishment for immoral sexual behavior.”

The study was based on analysis of the ZIP codes of customers of a large online porn emporium.

Bearden Found Guilty in Murder of Ryan Skipper

Jon Ponder

Joe “Smiley” Bearden, one of two men accused of killing Ryan Skipper, a gay student, was found guilty of second degree murder today in a courtroom in Bartow, Florida. After deliberating for two days, the jury also found him guilty of grand theft of an automobille, tampering with evidence, receiving stolen property and accessory to robbery after the fact.

The second defendant, William “Bill Bill” Brown, faces trial on similar charges. His trial is expected to take place in the fall of 2009.

Coverage of the verdict:

  • Lakeland Ledger: Bearden Sentenced to Life in Prison
  • Towleroad: Killer of Florida Gay Man Ryan Skipper Found Guilty on All Counts
  • Equality Florida: Ryan Skipper’s Killer Found Guilty
  • 365 GAy: Life Sentence for murder of Ryan Skipper

Five States Whose GOP Govs May Refuse Stimulus Are Among Most Dependent on Federal Dole

Jon Ponder

In the annals of political hypocrisy, it’s hard to imagine examples more egregious than the sight these days of Republicans in Congress racing to the cameras to kvetch about government spending. Now they’re for fiscal responsibility? Now?

Interestingly, the five state that pay the most in taxes while receiving the least in federal spending are more dominated by Democrats than the bottom feeders.

It’s true that Americans have famously short memories, but these Republicans are crazy if they think we’ve all forgotten that they rubber-stamped George Bush’s reckless spending and the other failed Bush policies that led to the current calamity.

GOP political hypocrisy on spending is not confined to Washington, however. It is also on full display in the states, where a handful of GOP governors — many of whom are said to have presidential ambitions — have been hinting that they might refuse their states’ shares of the $787 billion stimulus package. While they purport to be making principled stands to demonstrate their conservative ideological purity, a more cynical view is that they’re putting their political ambitions above the health and well-being of their constituents.

The hypocrisy here is that these moralizing pols — governors Rick Perry of Texas, Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Sarah Palin of Alaska, Mark Sanford of South Carolina and C.L. “Butch” Otter of Idaho — represent states whose citizens are among the neediest in the nation. In fact, of these six states, five are among the states that take in more federal revenue than they pay into the Treasury, according to the Tax Foundation, and based on fiscal year 2004 figures, which appear to be the most recent numbers available online:

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OC GOP Mayor Caught Sending Racist Email about Obama

Jon Ponder

Despite its reputation for liberal politics and embracing diversity, California is also home to bastions of ignorance and racism. Not coincidentally, these so-called “red counties” are invariably dominated by the Republican Party.

For example, during the election last year, Diane Fedele, the president of Chaffey Community Republican Women Federated in inland Riverside County, sent an email blast that contained a graphic showing “Obama Bucks,” which depicted Barack Obama’s face on a food stamps certificate, along with a bucket of fried chicken, ribs, Kool-Aid and a slice of watermelon.

Now Dean Grose, the Republican mayor of Los Alamitos in Orange County is under fire for sending an email that shows the White House lawn planted with watermelons, with the headline, “No Easter egg hunt this year”:

Local businesswoman and city volunteer Keyanus Price, who is black, said Tuesday that she received the e-mail from Mayor Dean Grose’s personal account Sunday and wants a public apology.

“I have had plenty of my share of chicken and watermelon and all those kinds of jokes,” Price said. “I honestly don’t even understand where he was coming from, sending this to me. As a black person receiving something like this from the city freakin’ mayor — come on.”

…Grose confirmed to the Associated Press that he sent the e-mail to Price and said he didn’t mean to offend her. He said he was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons.

He said he and Price are friends and serve together on a community youth board.

“Bottom line is, we laugh at things and I didn’t see this in the same light that she did,” Grose said. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t sent to offend her personally — or anyone — from the standpoint of the African American race.”

Grose, who became mayor in December, said he sent an apology e-mail to Price and her boss and also left her a voice-mail apology.

Regardless, Price said it will be difficult for the two to work together.

“Now I am like — wow, is this really how he feels?” Price said.

Both Mayor Grose and Diane Fedele claimed ignorance about food-related African-American stereotyping. While it’s true that there are very few black residents in either Riverside County (which is 6.24 percent African American) or Orange County (where less than 2 percent of residents are blacks), this prompts the question: If they weren’t amused by the racial stereotyping, what was it about these graphics that compelled them to send them to their friends and co-workers.

When Our Elected Twits Twitter …

Buck Banks

twitter_logo.jpg

Hotline has a new publication called Word on the Tweet that gathers the Twitter musings of elected officials and reproduces them, misspellings and all. What better time to start this new “service” than on the night of President Obama’s address to Congress? Read ’em and tweep.

Last night’s speech by Pres. Obama may have been the first in which a president addressed a joint session of Congress while distinguished members of his audience shared their inner ADD/HD with their constituents and the world. Though at least one Cong. twitterer thought better of it, most tweeted a constant stream of reactions to the speech. Apparently part of the job responsibilities of the nation’s highest office holders is to tweet the days away.

Generally speaking, Republicans vastly outnumber Democrats when it comes to Twitter, so it’s no surprise that the majority of tweeting last night came from the GOP side of the aisle.

On Call Aside: Tweets are reproduced exactly as they were written. Spelling mistakes and all.

We’re Everywhere You Want To Be
Congressional tweets before the speech centered around one topic: how awesome it was to be a member of Congress last night. Members were tweeting a kind of stream of conciousness about the social order on Capitol Hill:

Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY): “Sitting in my seat on House Floor. Had to arm wrestle for it. Colleagues get very possesive about where they sit. Bruises and welts.” – 2/24, 8:24 PM

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR): “Location! Presiding today I delivered message no more reserving seat by taping your name. Have to be there. And they are, early.” – 2/24, 8:28 PM

Rep. Cathy McMorris (R-WA): “On the House floor for Pres Obama’s historic speech to Congress. I have the honor of escorting him. If you’re watching, I’m wearing white.” – 2/24, 8:30 PM

Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO): “we cant take pics on the floor, and it would be impollite to livetweet” – 2/24, 8:30 PM

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX): “Somehow the best seats are reserved for the Senators.” – 2/24, 8:33 PM

Let’s Get This Party Started
The view from the inside as pre-speech excitement reached its zenith:

Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC): “Speaker just gaveled to order. Senate entering now. It’s crowded on Democratic side. Not so much on R side. Something about 255 D to 178R!” – 2/24, 8:51 PM

Rep. John Culberson (R-TX): “Cabinet officers arrive – the applause allows us to visit and kibbitz – a sense of humor is an essential part of this job” – 2/24, 9:08 PM

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO): “Quite an ovation.The warm greeting between Pres Obama & Sec Clinton makes me proud of our democracy. What a difference a year makes.” 2/24, 9:20 PM

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