Tag: Conservative Values

Jeb Tries to Disown Nutjob Crony After Islam Slurs

Trish

Momma always said to watch who you hang around with: Jeb Bush is recoiling like a man who discovered a snake under a rock after anti-Muslim comments on a Florida radio show from his faithful Repug beard in the black community.

Jeb wasted no time yelling, “Ho-lee shee-it!”

The always-good-for-a-shocker Rev. O’Neal Dozier is at it again, this time venting his spleen not on gay people but on Muslims.

God’s man in South Florida says he doesn’t want a mosque in his neighborhood, because Those People are terrorists and their religion is a cult. But you, not being a Man or Woman of God, couldn’t be expected to know that.

”I don’t look for everyone to believe what I believe, because everyone is not as astute about religion as I am,” said Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach. ”That’s my life.”

Right ho. Still, some people feel the good rev should have devoted a little more study to the matter.

…Altaf Ali, executive director of the Florida Chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, said he has tried unsuccessfully to meet with Dozier.

”I want a chance to respond and refute these accusations,” Ali said Friday. ”It appears that he doesn’t have that much knowledge about Islam.”

Jeb, who appointed Dozier to the powerful Broward County Judicial Nominating Commission to help select county and circuit court judges, wasted no time yelling, “Ho-lee shee-it!”

On Friday, Gov. Bush’s office issued a statement distancing him from Dozier.

”Gov. Bush in no way shares Rev. Dozier’s views on Islam,” said Alia Faraj, Bush’s spokeswoman.

Of course, it suited Jeb fine until now for Dozier to be a nutcase in other areas.

In the past, Dozier has asked Gov. Bush’s appointments to the Broward circuit and county courts if they were ”God-fearing,” and inquired about their parenting abilities.

CBP Goes Hard On Limbaugh’s Viagra

Buck Banks

Stiff security: Professional prick Rush Limbaugh was detained yesterday for more than three hours after Customs and Border Protection agency staff discovered a vial of the prescription drug Viagra in his carry-on luggage as he was passing through Palm Beach International Airport, according to a report in the Miami Herald. Limbaugh admitted in 2003 that he was addicted to prescription painkillers and received barely a slap on the wrist last April by the courts for perpetrating prescription fraud.

And now everybody know that he’s a liar who can’t get it up.

Perhaps the Oxycontin makes it hard for Rush to get his little soldier to come to attention, hence the vial of little blue pills. The problem with the vial of lead in your pencil? Had a name other than Rush’s on the bottle, which is a misdemeanor. The explanation:

A doctor had prescribed the drug, but it was ”labeled as being issued to the physician rather than Mr. Limbaugh for privacy purposes,” Roy Black, Limbaugh’s attorney, said in a statement, according to The Associated Press.

Hey, that privacy thing worked out really well.

The lie on the label reminds us of how he got multiple Oxycontin prescriptions from four different doctors — by lying. Rush Limbaugh is a victim — of instant karma. By being who he is — a reprehensible rightwing blowhard who appeals to the reptilian brain stems of his mouthbreathing listeners — Limbaugh has brought bad joss on himself. And now everybody know that he’s a liar who can’t get it up.

Corrupt Christian: Report Reveals Ralph Reed’s Payoffs from Abramoff — Money Was Laundered Through Norquist’s Nonprofit

Jon Ponder
By calling it a “bipartisan Senate report,” the Times infers that the Republicans who control the Senate determined that there was no way to cover up Reed’s malfeasance and so decided to throw him to the wolves.

When there is a buck to be made, all the high-minded moralizing of Christian Nationalist leaders like Ralph Reed flies out the window:

A bipartisan Senate report released on Thursday documented more than $5.3 million in payments to Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition and a leading Republican Party strategist, from an influence-peddling operation run by the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff on behalf of Indian tribe casinos.

By calling it a “bipartisan Senate report,” the Times infers that the Republicans who control the Senate determined that there was no way to cover up Reed’s malfeasance and so decided to throw him to the wolves.

Reed’s college pal Grover Norquist, who operates an anti-government nonprofit group called Americans for Tax Reform (where “reform” means to de-fund the government so that anarchy arises), and who is a close ally of White House political boss Karl Rove, was all too willing to help his Christianist buddy launder the money:

Moving money from a casino-operating Indian tribe to Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition founder and professed gambling opponent, was a problem. Lobbyist [Jack] Abramoff turned to his longtime friend Norquist, apparently to provide a buffer for Reed.

The result, according to evidence gathered by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, was that Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform became a conduit for more than a million dollars from the Mississippi Choctaw to Reed’s operation, while Norquist, a close White House ally, took a cut.

When you hate the government, as these guys do, you entitle yourself to ignore the rules the government sets forth. See how that works?

Voting Rights Act Under Attack from the Right

Buck Banks

Ballot blather: My fellow editors wonder sometimes how I can tolerate wingnut newsletters in my inbox. Sometimes I wonder myself. Here’s one I received yesterday that beggars understanding:

Offering foreign language ballots while at the same time emphasizing the importance of learning English sends mixed signals to those seeking to assimilate into American society.

ALERT: Our friends at Eagle Forum have notified us that this week, the House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 9, reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Within this legislation is a provision, originally added in 1975 (ten years after passage of the original VRA in 1965), which mandates the use of foreign language ballots in U.S. elections. Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has offered an amendment repealing this dangerous provision, but we have learned that House Republican leadership refuses to allow a vote on his amendment.

Foreign language ballots don’t make civic sense. You can’t vote unless you are a citizen (at least you’re not supposed to). To become a naturalized American citizen, our law requires that you demonstrate “an understanding of the English language, including an ability to read, write and speak… simple words and phrases… in ordinary usage in the English language.”

Foreign language ballots are costly to both taxpayers and local municipalities. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that Los Angeles County taxpayers spent $1.1 million to provide ballots and election materials in five languages in 1996, escalating to $3.3 million in seven languages in March 2002. In several counties, the cost of foreign-language ballots is more than half the entire election expense!

In light of the Senate recently passing a bill granting AMNESTY to 12 million illegal aliens and importing up to 66 million NEW legal immigrants, America needs linguistic unity more than ever. Offering foreign language ballots while at the same time emphasizing the importance of learning English sends mixed signals to those seeking to assimilate into American society.

Now I won’t get into the lexigraphical meaning of all caps (SHOUTING!!!), but I will argue that translating ballot blather into Spanish and Creole is a good idea, at least in Miami. Here’s why:

The Town Charter currently provides that a general election shall be on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in October of each even-numbered year. It is proposed that the Town Charter be amended to provide that if a County general election is scheduled in the first two weeks of October in an even-numbered year, the Town election shall be held on that County election date.

Shall the above described amendment be adopted?

One might know enough English to fulfill workday duties, manage grocery transactions and generally get along in society, but still not be able to understand the gobbledegook that passes as ballot language. I hardly know what the heck I’m being asked to vote on in the above ballot initiative. Is this “ordinary usage in the English language?”

Like the gay-marriage Constitutional amendment proposal, the proposal to eliminate translation of ballots into languages other than English discriminatory and not in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution. Indeed, it would be the equivalent of reinstituting a poll tax — if you can’t read and fully understand ballotese, you can’t vote. Hmmm, my guess is that might disqualify a lot of the mouth-breathing knuckle-draggers who typically vote Republican ….

Florida’s Next Republican Governor Could Be Either Pot Smoking Adulterer or Allegedly Closeted, Self-Hating Gay Guy

Trish

Florida headlines are fairly drooling over revelations that Republican candidate for governor Tom Gallagher is a jerk.

Miami Herald: Gallagher’s Family Values Take Hit With Revelations

Sarasota Herald Tribune: Divorce Records Dogging Hopeful

Bradenton Herald: Gallagher Apologizes for Affair, Marijuana Use

Palm Beach Post: Gallagher Apologizes for Misdeeds

Sun-Sentinel: Gubernatorial Candidate Gallagher Used Marijuana, Cheated on First Wife

Tampa Tribune: Gallagher Admits Fault For Failed Marriage

Any outrage is a bit misplaced. In February, when charges of insider trading while on the taxpayer dole arose, hardly a gasp was heard from Pensacola to the Keys. Lakeland Ledger:

…an allegedly intoxicated Gallagher returned to their home and tore a screen off the house, the court documents say. The next day, he returned and took the dog. Ann Louise Gallagher asked a judge for a restraining order

Tax records show Gallagher made at least 70 separate online orders to buy or sell AES Corp. stock in 2003, and 60 of those came within weeks or days of five significant federal announcements about the [government] pipeline between the Bahamas and Broward County.

…Gallagher joined Gov. Jeb Bush and other Cabinet members when they voted in 2004 to support an easement for the AES project as well as a competing company’s pipeline proposal…He didn’t declare his ownership before voting but it was included on his annual public disclosure forms.

The deals were made on his state-issued computer during office hours while Gallagher was carrying out his duties as Florida’s Chief Financial Officer. And they weren’t the first.

Gallagher’s online trading and other investments first were reported by the St. Petersburg Times…The paper noted the tax records also showed Gallagher had invested in insurance companies while he was Florida’s insurance commissioner and in an airline that had a contract with the state.

But infidelity and drug use are…so much more interesting. In this case, anyway. […]

J’Ville Church ‘Outs’ Gay-Marriage Haters

Buck Banks

Naming names: Christ Church of Peace, a nondenominational church in Jacksonville, Fla., has published on the Internet the names of 400,000 Floridians in 60 counties who signed a petition supporting a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. While publishing the names violates no privacy law, wingnut supporters of the amendment are predictably crying foul, according to the Miami Herald.

”It’s a gross invasion of people’s privacy,” said John Stemberger, president and general counsel of the Florida Family Policy Council, an offshoot of James Dobson’s national Christian conservative group Focus on the Family.

‘It’s time for another voice that is Christian to be heard.’
– Gary Debusk, pastor of Christ Church of Peace

Stemberger argued that, if Christian conservatives published the names and addresses of gay-rights activists, they would likely be condemned as hatemongers. ”A lot of people would be outraged and say it’s a hateful, un-Christian gesture,” he said.

Yes, John, it would be a hateful, un-Christian thing to do, much like the hateful, un-Christian act of signing a petition in support of a repressive, discriminatory constitutional amendment.

Gary Debusk, pastor of Christ Church of Peace, said the church began the ”Know Thy Neighbor” effort Monday to encourage dialogue and prevent voter-signature fraud. As the head of a congregation that supports same-sex marriage, Debusk said he also wanted to add a new perspective to a debate that he said has been dominated largely by religious conservatives. ”It’s time for another voice that is Christian to be heard,” he said.

The website, knowthy neighbor.org/florida, is linked to the church’s home page and contains a searchable database of names. The names on such petitions are part of the public record, according to the Florida Department of State.

I went on the site and searched for my last name, and out of four pages of names found that neither my mother nor my siblings had signed up. Checking under my mother’s maiden name, however, revealed an aunt in the town where I was born who did sign the petition. A page of folks with the same last name as Editor Trish who might or might not be related to her also signed up.

Are you a Floridian? Have relatives who live in Florida? Want to find out if they are intolerant, would-be discriminators and hatemongers? Go to the site at http://www.knowthyneighbor.org/florida/ and look them up. And then let us know what you discover.

Wrong Rights: Wingnuts Defending Coulter

Buck Banks

Ann fans: Media Matters has performed an important civic service — they’ve collected many of the instances where conservative analysts and TV mouth-breathers have come to the defense of Ann Coulter, who they say is being pilloried unfairly for inflammatory statements in her latest book. Besides being guilty of vote fraud, as Editor Trish so eloquently pointed out here, Coulter went way over the top when she attacked the widows of the 9/11 victims:

Coulter’s comment that has perhaps drawn the most attention is an attack on the widows of 9-11 victims, appearing on Page 103 of Godless: The Church of Liberalism (Crown Forum), and read by [Matt] Lauer [on the Today Show]: “These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I’ve never seen people enjoying their husbands’ deaths so much.”

Now her co-dependent neocon neighbors on the far right are riding their slime trails to her rescue. Media Matters has a detailed run-down on these reprehensible defenses of Coulter’s even-more reprehensible statements. My favorite, though, is Bill O’Reilly actually seeming to NOT defend Coulter. Maybe even Bill has a bottom past which he will not go. Nah, he’s just being argumentative.

From the June 7 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor:

O’REILLY: Now for the top story tonight, another view of this, joining us from Chicago, Fox News contributor Sandy Rios, a conservative analyst. Where am I going wrong here Sandy?

RIOS: Well, Bill, I think, I don’t disagree with your basic premise. I mean, it is certainly not my choice to attack people. However, we are living in strange times. And I think while everybody else is making nice, Ann’s words are laser-focused on truth. She says things that no one else dares say and it kind of made me think about, for instance, holocaust pictures. Do we have to see pictures of emaciated bodies to understand what happened? It’s kind of offensive. But, you know what? Yes, we do.

Sometimes I think Ann’s words, yes, as harsh as they are, they are like a clarion wake-up call, like cold water, like, “Stop it!” Because women have lost their husbands in an accidental bombing, which is tragic, and we have great sympathy for them, does not give them license to then criticize the commander in chief, to work against —

O’REILLY: Whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa. Hold it. They’re American citizens. They can criticize the commander in chief all day long.

I do think we’re living in a time where a lot of people enjoy the death of their loved ones.
— Sandy Rios

RIOS: And they can be criticized in return.

O’REILLY: You can criticize their criticism, absolutely. Look, there’s nobody who did more damage to Cindy Sheehan in this country than I did, but I did it by exposing her agenda.

RIOS: Yes you did, Bill. I agree.

O’REILLY: Telling people who was behind her movement, who was paying the bills, who was running her. I did not, I did not, I did not call the woman any names, disparage her as an American citizen or do any of that. And if I had, I would have lost the debate instead of Cindy Sheehan losing credibility in my opinion.

RIOS: You know, I know that that’s true. Bill, I like the way you did that and I thank goodness you did. But I would say that Ann is a unique person. I don’t believe Ann does this stuff for theatrics. I think she really believes what she is saying and she has certainly a gift of words and imagery.

O’REILLY: If you’re going to stand by that Sandy, then Ann Coulter writes in her book that these people are enjoying their husband’s deaths. Now, come on, you know that’s not true. That’s brutal to say something like that.

RIOS: It is brutal. But Bill, I would say this, I do think we’re living in a time where a lot of people enjoy the death of their loved ones. I know that sounds terrible.

O’REILLY: It sounds awful. In order to say that to specific people, you’re going to have to prove it.

RIOS: No, I know that. Personally, I would not say it, but I am telling you that I think it’s true that people are making a lot of money off the death of their loved ones in a lot of different cases.

[…]

Coulter Vote Fraud: Hateful Skank Wants Law Exemption, Based on Making Enemies as a Hateful Skank

Trish

Killer editorial in the Sunday Palm Beach Post. The Post is the Florida paper that broke the story about Ann Coulter joining the ranks of Republicans who can’t vote straight.

It was only last year that Bush puppetmaster Karl Rove was discovered cheating on his voter registration in order to cheat on his taxes in Texas.

Rather than admit her error, correct her registration and move on, Ms. Coulter has hired former U.S. Attorney Marco Jimenez to defend her from the indignity of having to follow the law…

…the self-appointed defender of American democracy and values is fighting allegations, which The Post’s Jose Lambiet first exposed in February, that rather than correct her address, she voted in the wrong precinct during the Feb. 7 Palm Beach election. Rather than admit her error, correct her registration and move on, Ms. Coulter has hired former U.S. Attorney Marco Jimenez to defend her from the indignity of having to follow the law…

During her Tuesday spewfest on Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes, Ms. Coulter made clear that she doesn’t want her home address to grace a public record, even if it is required for voting… “Should we get my stalkers on the line with my address and apartment number?”

Works for me.

But what I really want to know is why the hateful skank is allowed to pedal her wares on a book tour, instead of every interview being about the felony of which she stands accused.

Ann Coulter Trashes 9/11 Victims

Jon Ponder

Imagine if a liberal said something like this:

“These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husband’s death so much.”

Rightwingers like Ann Coulter get away with everything, no matter how heinous. Her book will probably be at the top of the best-seller list within two weeks.

Brad and Angelina: World’s Stupidest Attractive Straight People Turn Up Their Nose at Marriage

Trish

So these two defective-in-every-
way-except-looks people would have Pres. 30% Approval and Sinking’s blessings but none of my gay friends are fit?

Let’s get this straight, so to speak. Pres. Sanctity is Only for Straight People won’t allow my cousin and his partner of more than 20 years or my friends Joe and Julio, who have been together almost 10 years, to marry. But he wants these two clueless idiots to be able to have at it.

They’re too stupid to so much as spell the word matrimony if you put them together in a room with a dictionary open to the page that starts with marshmallow and ends with matzo. Read this and see if I’m wrong:

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt denied Wednesday that wedding bells are in the air, saying they want to concentrate for now on their newborn daughter and Jolie’s two adopted children.

“There is nothing in the air. The focus is the kids, and we are obviously extremely committed to the children and as parents together,” Jolie [said]. “So that kind of says it for us, and to have a ceremony on top of it is nothing.”

If only. If only a ceremony between you two could be ignored. So…Brad’s adopted the kids you adopted and changed their last names to Jolie-Pitt, plus now you’ve had another child together. But you don’t want to like, be committed or anything.

Pitt and Jolie sold rights to images of Shiloh Nouvel through Getty Images photo agency, saying proceeds would be donated to a charity, not yet named.

People magazine paid a reported US$4 million for the right to release the pictures in North America, while Hello! obtained British rights.

Quick, somebody hand me a loaded firearm.

Brad and Angelina began their affair while he was still married to Jennifer Anniston. If he and the Beautiful One wed, it will be his second marriage. But he is 42, after all.

She, of course, is only 30 and was previously married to Billy Bob Thorton, whose name is presumably still tatooed on her person, although the vial of his blood she used to wear around her neck is no doubt bobbing in the waves somewhere. She was also married to the less famous Jonny Lee Miller. With Brad having only two names and the fact that their marriage will be her third, I can see why he’d be a little hesitant. If he had a brain.

So these two defective-in-every-way-except-looks people would have Pres. 30% Approval and Sinking’s blessings but none of my gay friends are fit? If I weren’t already divorced, I might get one just to protest.