Year: 2007

Was Rudy’s Luxury Command Center Built at WTC So It Could be His Lovenest?

Trish

Lovebirds Rudy and Judi at the recent Pepsi 400 in Daytona

Palm Beach Post writer Frank Cerabino contrasted the sexploits of two politicians and found the one involving Rudolph Guiliani not getting nearly enough play.

Palm Beach Post: Was tragic placement of New York City’s emergency command center at ground zero because of its convenience as a cozy private love nest for a mayor-turned- presidential candidate and his mistress-turned- third-wife?

Florida State Rep. Bob Allen (R-Merritt Island) continues to dig deeper holes for himself — now requiring some of that mining equipment going unused in Utah and China. First he demonstrated that getting arrested in a public bathroom for offering $20 for homosexual sex isn’t the worse mistake a politician make. One of Allen’s many defenses for the bust was that he was afraid of the undercover officer he solicited because the man was black.

Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio piled on, criticizing Allen for injecting “a very disturbing element to an already troubling incident.” Rubio stripped him of his legislative committee posts.

Allen promptly put his foot in his mouth again by likening the actions of Rubio, who is the first Cuban-American leader of the House, to Fidel Castro’s.

“That’s a Cuba thing, something Fidel Castro does,” Allen said, before claiming to be greatly misunderstood.

I’m not sure if you have to live in Florida to understand how egregious it is to compare any Cuban-American politician with Castro. If so, then just take my word that it’s a) never been done and b) very, very bad.

But the sex story that actually matters, Cerabino says, is Rudy’s.

Wayne Barrett of The Village Voice has written about the lavish emergency command center that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani fashioned in one of the former World Trade Center buildings.

“Giuliani’s office had a humidor for cigars and mementos from City Hall, including a fire horn, police hats and fair hats, as well as monogrammed towels in his bathroom. His suite was bulletproofed and he visited it often, even on weekends, bringing his girlfriend Judi Nathan there long before the relationship surfaced,” Barrett wrote. “He had his own elevator.”

After the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, some officials had suggested that the city’s emergency command center be built in Brooklyn. But Giuliani wanted it within walking distance of city hall in Manhattan. The World Trade Center command center, which was destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks, has since been constructed at the Brooklyn site Giuliani rejected.

…if there’s even a smidgen of consideration in the tragic placement of New York City’s emergency command center at ground zero because of its convenience as a cozy private love nest for a mayor-turned-presidential candidate and his mistress-turned-third-wife, then I think it deserves far more attention than the amusing fate of an inconsequential Florida legislator.

Time Magazine Makes Billy Graham Horny

Trish

Hey, what’s with the horns on Billy Graham? If you’re a wingnut, you’ll find it’s the liberal press sending a subliminal message.

“Well, the left media continues its crusade of soft propaganda,” wrote conservative blogger John Ruskin.

“This time, the target is Rev. Billy Graham. Yeah, tell me that was an innocent mistake.”

O.K. “Hey John Ruskin, that was an innocent mistake.”

Actually, it wasn’t even a mistake, it was a layout.

Besides, everyone knows Rev. Graham wears his horns the other way, facing front, not to the side.

Excuse me but I have to go now. I just heard there was a tortilla with Elvis on it across town that I need to see.

Public Service, GOP Style: Tony Snow Will Quit White House ‘When Money Runs Out’

Jon Ponder

Tony Snow left his job as a mid-profile but extravagantly paid GOP propagandist for Fox “News” radio to take an extremely high-profile job with a salary in the measly $150,000 range as a GOP propagandist for the White House.

It is shocking to hear a top White House official say he’s quitting because the pay is lousy. It not only reveals a lack of class, it shows that the man who speaks for George Bush appears to hold a smoldering contempt for him.

Now he says he has warned his betters at the White House that he will only stay on as press secretary until his government salary no longer supports the lifestyle he became accustomed to as a media elite:

HUGH HEWITT: Your intention to go the distance, Tony Snow?

TS: No, I’m not going to be…I’ve already made it clear I’m not going to be able to go the distance, but that’s primarily for financial reasons. I’ve told people when my money runs out, then I’ve got to go.

HH: How long will that be?

TS: I’m not going to tell you.

HH: Well, come on, make some news.

TS: No.

HH: All right.

It is shocking to hear a top White House official say he’s quitting because the pay is lousy. It not only reveals a lack of class, it shows that the man who speaks for George Bush appears to hold him in contempt. Normally, a White House official making this sort of statement would hasten to add that it is an honor and a privilege to serve the president and so forth, even if he didn’t mean it. Snow didn’t bother.

Ann Coulter: With Rove Gone, We’ll Learn Who to Blame for ‘Stupid Things’ Bush Does

Jon Ponder

And she said this on Fox “News,” according to Raw Story:

“What I think is going to be fun,” she said, “is finding out how much of the architect Karl Rove actually was. I’ve gone back and forth between blaming Karl Rove for the stupid things Bush does and blaming Bush for the stupid stuff Bush does.”

And:

“Rove, they were looking at indicting for a felony [in the outing of Valerie Plame] … which suggests to me that he was not the one involved in that, that that was entirely George Bush’s idea.”

And:

“So you start thinking everything you like about Bush was Dick Cheney or Karl Rove, and the stuff you don’t like is George Bush,” Coulter concluded. “So now we’ll find out.”

Osteen In-Law Preacher Who Canceled Gay Vet’s Funeral Aligns with Notorious AFA Hate Group

Jon Ponder

Under fire because he canceled the funeral of Navy Gulf War veteran after learning that the vet was gay, Gary Simons, the megachurch preacher whose brother-in-law is Joel Osteen, head of the powerful, uber-wealthy evangelical family that operates the 30,000-member Lakeview Church in Houston, is receiving support from the American Family Association (AF), a multimillion dollar non-profit Mississippi-based hate group operated by the professional homophobe, Donald Wildmon.

On Simons’ behalf, the AFA published a statement on its website in which he continues to deny what is self-evidently true: that he was motivated by decidedly un-Christian hatred and bigotry toward Cecil Howard Sinclair, the deceased Navy veteran, when he canceled the funeral:

The decision had nothing to do with the fact that Mr. Sinclair was a veteran. High Point does now, and has always, supported our men and women in the military. This decision was not based on hate, or discrimination, but upon principle and policy.

No one has suggested the funeral was canceled because Sinclair was a veteran. And more falsehoods follow:

The decision was made to retract the offer to host the memorial service based on the fact that the service requested would be an openly homosexual service celebrating the homosexual lifestyle. It is important to emphasize that this was not a funeral service with a body to be buried, but a memorial service. The family was informed of the decision.

There is no such thing as a “homosexual service,” open or otherwise. The relationship between the deceased veteran and his longtime life partner was going to be acknowledged, which is verboten to groups like AFA and High Point Church because if their followers were to learn that millions of gay couples live happy, regular lives it would dampen fundraising.

Joel Osteen was not involved in the decision to cancel the Navy veteran’s funeral. But even though his Tony Robbins-esque “prosperity ministry” message is generally positive, he has not condemned the hate-filled actions by his brother-in-law at the High Point Church.

Simons, who is married to Osteen’s sister, is rumored to have become estranged from his powerful in-laws in the wake of the death in 1999 of John Osteen, the patriarch and founder of the Lakeview enterprise. Simons had been serving as his father-in-law’s youth minister and felt he was being groomed to assume the pulpit — and control of the millions of dollars in annual revenues — at the megachurch.

However, within months of the patriarch’s death Simons was shunted aside by John Osteen’s widow in favor of her son, Joel. Further rumors allege that as a consolation prize the Osteens gave Simons upwards of a purported $13 million to start his own church business, which was to become the High Point Church near Dallas.

Baptist Preacher Models His Style on George W. Bush: Autocracy Rules

Buck Banks

What happens when a Southern Baptist megachurch congregation starts to question the iron-fisted rule of its preacher? Things get nasty in a hurry.

Rev. Jerry Sutton, is facing complaints that he spent church money on his daughter’s wedding. Oh, and he watched pørn on his church computer and had an affair with a female member of the congregation.

Anyone who voiced opposition to leadership was alienated and lost any ministries they may have had in the church.

Sutton has served as leader of Nashville’s Two Rivers Baptist Church for 21 years. The megachurch is located just across the highway from the Grand Ole Opry. In 2005 the church hosted the “Justice Sunday II” rally, where then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and others criticized judicial activism to a national audience of evangelical Christians. Of course, that was before the Supremes got down to rewriting the Bill of Rights, etc.

Sutton’s people deny the pørn and affair, which were investigated by the congregation’s human resources staff and found — surprise — to be baseless. As to maintaining secrecy about the church budget and spending church dough on his daughter’s wedding, Sutton’s tools are unrepentant:

The church’s executive pastor, Scott Hutchings defended the church budget and acknowledged that the church paid about $4,300 for a reception for Sutton’s daughter that was open to all church members. He said Sutton personally paid for another separate reception outside the church.

“When you’re pastor, we feel like you have to invite the whole church,” to avoid the appearance of favoritism, Hutchings said.

But what it really seems to be about is that Sutton wants to wield absolute power and brooks no dissent (sound familiar?) among his congregants:

Church trustee Frank Harris has been leading the campaign against Sutton. Two Rivers “appears to have been manipulated from a people-led church to a staff-run church,” Harris said.

“Anyone who voiced opposition to leadership was alienated and lost any ministries they may have had in the church,” Harris said.

Sounds kind of like the United States gubmint. Hutchings put Sutton’s position succinctly: “There has to be submission and authority.”

“Submission and authority” — could be George Bush’s mantra. Maybe if the church thing doesn’t work out for him, Sutton can probably find something in the administration, say in the Department of Justice ….

Carville: The Precipitous Drop in GOP Young Voters Is Rove’s Fault

Jon Ponder

Writing in Financial Times today, James Carville says that while Karl Rove’s strategy of coddling the GOP’s Christian nationalist base paid off for George Bush, it has alienated young voters, a factor that could cripple the Republican Party in the long term:

Pew Poll: 50 per cent of Americans identify as Democrats while only 35 per cent say they are Republican.

A late July poll for Democracy Corps, a non-profit polling company, shows that a generic Democratic presidential candidate now wins voters under 30 years old by 32 percentage points.The Republican lead among younger white non-college-educated men, who supported President George W. Bush by a margin of 19 percentage points three years ago, has shrunk to 2 percentage points. Ideological divisions between the Republican party and young voters are growing. Young voters generally favour larger government providing more services, 68 per cent to 28 per cent. On every issue, from the budget to national security, young voters responded overwhelmingly that Democrats would do a better job in government.

It is not just Democracy Corps that has found this. A host of new polls and surveys over the course of the past few months has served as a harbinger of a rocky 2008 election for Republicans.

The March poll from the Pew Research Center showed that 50 per cent of Americans identify as Democrats while only 35 per cent say they are Republican. The June NBC-Wall Street Journal poll showed 52 per cent of Americans would prefer a Democratic president while only 31 per cent would support a Republican, the largest gap in the 20-year history of the survey.