Tag: Conservative Values

DOMA Rewind: Successful 1996 Anti-Gay Marriage Fight Was Led by GOP Adulterers

Jon Ponder

This week the Republicans who run the nation are undertaking another cynical attack on the issue of gay marriage. As a wedge issue that enflames the GOP’s homobigot base, same sex marriage has occasionally returned dividends. In fact, conventional wisdom has it that an anti-gay initiative on the Ohio ballot in 2004 tipped the state into the Bush-Cheney column, giving them another term in office they would have otherwise lost. (Others believe the votes in Ohio were stolen.)

The real threat to the institution of marriage does not come from gay people but rather from heterosexual adultery, which is the cause of most divorces.

Ten years ago, the leaders of the GOP in Congress — including Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and House Speaker Newt Gingrich — were successful in passing the Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA), a law that banned states from recognizing same-gender marriages sanctioned in other states. Timed to arrive on President Clinton’s desk just before the 1996 presidential elections, DoMA was intended to insert a wedge between the President and gay Democrats and supporters of civil rights.

The real threat to the institution of marriage does not come from gay people but rather from heterosexual adultery, which is the cause of most divorces. Now, as Republicans return once again to the well of homophobia, it is important to remember that in 1996 the men who led the fight to pass DoMA were all adulterers themselves.

The GOP adulterers of DoMA included:

  • Rep. Bob Barr (R-Georgia), the author of the bill:
    According to an affidavit filed by Barr’s second wife Gail Barr, Bob Barr paid for and did not object to her having an abortion in 1983. This is rather amusing for two reasons: first of all, Barr is a member of the pro-life caucus. The fact that Barr did not discourage her from having an abortion is rather interesting in light of his strong pro-life stance. Second of all, Barr, in divorce court in 1986, stated that the did object to the abortion. Gail Barr’s affidavit, if true, proves that he committed perjury in divorce court…Bob has been divorced twice, failed to pay child support to the children of his first two wives and while married to his third and present wife was photographed licking whipped cream off of a few chesty strippers at his inaugural party.. this guy is deciding that a whole segment of the population is less moral than him and is unfit to claim marriage benefits?
  • Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kansas), Majority Leader of the Senate:
    Sen. Dole dumped his first wife and child. Dole on his child: �Sooner or later, you have to make a decision � is the child going to become fatherless? � If you become married to politics, something else is going to suffer.�
  • Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia), Speaker of the House:
    In 1981, Newt dumped his first wife, Jackie Battley, for Marianne, wife number 2, while Jackie was in the hospital undergoing cancer treatment. Marianne and Newt divorced in December, 1999 after Marianne found out about Newt’s long-running affair with Callista Bisek, his one-time congressional aide. Gingrich asked Marianne for the divorce by phoning her on Mother’s Day, 1999. [Source: New York Post, July 18, 2000, Newt’s Ex Wife Aiming to Pen Book by Bill Sanderson, available on lexis].

Of course, DoMA was signed into law by President Clinton, who — if my calculations are correct — was in the midst of his affair with Monica Lewinsky at the time.

There is a move afoot in the Capitol to examine the married lives of all the leaders in the House and Senate who are pushing the Federal Marriage Amendment.

There’s no telling what they might find under those rocks.

Move over, Osama: Violent ‘Left Behind’ Video Game Preaches Terrorism Against Jews, Catholics and Gays

Jon Ponder

In “Left Behind: Eternal Forces,” a violent video game marketed by one of the executives at Pastor Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life business empire, Christianist children are taught that violence against non-believers is not only acceptable, it’s fun

American madrasah: It is never too early in the year to speculate about what America’s Christian Nationalists will be buying their children for Christmas this year.

One strong candidate is a gory new video game, “Left Behind: Eternal Forces.” The game is produced by the folks behind the marketing of the popular Left Behind series of fantasy novels written by Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye that depict the world after the Apocalypse — a cataclysmic biblical event in which God’s chosen are removed from earth and the rest of us experience hell on earth, literally.

Less obvious is the game’s association with genial Pastor Rick Warren, who is sometimes called “America’s Pastor,” and who is the guiding foce behind the corporation that produces the Purpose Driven Life self-improvement books, seminars and other media for Christians. Actual Christians among Pastor Rick’s followers might be surprised at the blood-thirsty violence depicted in the game directed at the secular world and even non-evangelical people of faith:

[You] are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy … to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state – especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is “to conduct physical and spiritual warfare…”

We should pause here to point out that “you” are a 13 year old boy:

[…]

Fed Phone Tax Give-Back A Sure Sign It’s An Election Year

Buck Banks

Much ado about not much: Republicons in Congress are crowing today about the “massive” give-back of $13 billion in federal taxes on mobile phone calls announced yesterday. But it adds up to less than it appears, and it appears to be just another election-year gimmick intended to make conservatives seem compassionate.

CongressDaily reported that Treasury Secretary Snow said yesterday the IRS will stop collecting the 3 percent federal excise tax on long-distance telephone calls on July 31, and will refund to businesses and individual taxpayers all such taxes collected during the past three years.

A sure sign that this was a cynical election-year ploy and not serious politics was Snow’s cute press conference quip: “It’s time to ‘disconnect’ this tax and put it on the permanent ‘do not call’ list.” Urp!

Treasury estimates that taxpayers will receive refunds totaling about $13 billion. They can apply for refunds on their 2006 tax returns. The decision to discontinue the tax was taken after long-distance phone customers successfully challenged the tax in several different federal appeals courts.

“It’s time to ‘disconnect’ this tax and put it on the permanent ‘do not call’ list.”

So what does this give-back mean to the estimated 214 million cell phone users in the United States? About $54 each, or less than 20 gallons of gasoline. Contrast that with the $477 billion in tax breaks the Bush administration has targeted to the richest Americans, which will average $342,000 each over the next 10 years. By 2010, when Bush’s tax cuts hit their stride, of the estimated $234 billion in tax cuts scheduled for that year, $121 billion will go to just 1.4 million taxpayers.

Makes that $54 look pretty puny, don’t it. But Bushco is counting on voters not doing the math, but instead responding like mindless zombies to headlines that tout a $13 billion tax refund on their cell phone calls. That’s a lot cheaper way to buy votes than to provide real tax relief for the middle class or decent health care for all Americans.

Wingnut Leader: Bush Fooled Us

Jon Ponder

O! the Mighty: We’re beginning to see the leadership of the rightwing begin to distance itself from their Dear Leader. Just a few years ago, President Bush was a perfect vessel of God’s holy word who was incapable of error. Now we have Richard Vigurie, a Reagan era conservative fossil, offering excuse after excuse after excuse to explain why he and his fellow fantacists fell for the Bush’s deceptions and the do-nothingness of the GOP Congress:

As a candidate in 2000, George W. Bush was a Rorschach test. Country Club Republicans saw him as another George H.W. Bush; some conservatives, thinking wishfully, saw him as another Ronald Reagan. He called himself a “compassionate conservative,” which meant whatever one wanted it to mean. Experts from across the party’s spectrum were flown to Austin to brief Bush and reported back: “He’s one of us.”

And…

[…]

Bush Guts Education, Human Services to Save a Pittance

Buck Banks

Unkind cuts: There has been a lot of discussion in the media about the budget battles over the 2007 federal budget and the ballooning supplemental spending bill that Herr Bush has threatened to veto. But there has been virtually no coverage of what Bush says he wants to cut out of the federal budget.

The Office of Management and Budget has just released its report on the spending reductions Bushco wants — surprise! — they are mostly in education and health and human services areas. The total is nearly $7.3 billion, almost half of it in education spending cuts.

Here are some of the program terminations I consider to be most egregious.

From the Department of Agriculture Bush wants to cut $511 million, including $75 million from watershed protection and flood prevention, and $10 million from the beleaguered Forest Service.

Given our current gasoline ‘crisis,’ does it make sense to also cut the $64 million Oil and Gas Research and Development program?

From Education, the “Education President” wants to cut 42 programs for a total of $3.5 billion. High school vocational training will see elimination of $1.15 billion in programs. Other education programs getting the axe include Arts in Education, Civics Education, National Writing Project, School Dropout Prevention and Vocational Rehabilitation for Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers. You can bet some children are getting left behind.

Remember, these are eliminations, not budget cuts — gone, daddy, gone.

From the Energy Department Bush is slicing $114 million in programs. Those include the University Nuclear Energy and the Geothermal Technology programs. Given our current gasoline “crisis,” does it make sense to also cut the $64 million Oil and Gas Research and Development program? It does to somebody, ‘cause it’s history.
[…]

Alphonso Jackson: Republican Like Me

Buck Banks

Minority party: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson is a strong proponent of awarding more government contracts to minority-owned businesses. Indeed, since his appointment in 2001, he has increased his agency’s percentage of minority contract awards by 23 percent — more than any other federal agency.

That number probably could have been more, but Jackson has a policy that could be summed up as, “It ain’t the color of your skin, but whether you’re Republican.”

‘Why should I reward someone who doesn’t like the president?’

At least that’s what it seemed like when he addressed a forum sponsored by the Real Estate Executive Council, a national minority real estate consortium, in Dallas recently, as reported by the Dallas Business Journal. During his address, Jackson told his audience a cautionary tale about a conversation he had with a prospective minority advertising contractor.

“He had made every effort to get a contract with HUD for 10 years,” Jackson said of the prospective contractor. “He made a heck of a proposal and was on the (General Services Administration) list, so we selected him. He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something … he said, ‘I have a problem with your president.’

“I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘I don’t like President Bush.’ I thought to myself, ‘Brother, you have a disconnect — the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn’t be getting the contract unless I was sitting here. If you have a problem with the president, don’t tell the secretary.’

“He didn’t get the contract,” Jackson continued. “Why should I reward someone who doesn’t like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don’t get the contract. That’s the way I believe.”

Okay, so both these bozos deserve dope slaps. Jackson for placing politics and political loyalty over competency in awarding contracts and the prospective contractor for saying something dumb that blows his chances. Come to think of it, though, if the guy is in advertising and he doesn’t know that you don’t tell the client that his baby is ugly and he has bad breath, maybe he wasn’t competent after all.

But Jackson’s approach does reflect that of the man who appointed him: Why pick somebody who’d do a good job when you can pick an incompetent crony who shares your politics and values?

Cheney’s Gay Daughter Is ‘Surprised’ People Think Her Homophobic Parents Are ‘Loving’

Jon Ponder

The Drudge Report (available on the Internets) has been privy to a yet-to-be-published article on Vice President Dick Cheney’s family from Vanity Fair:

It is surprising they don’t hate you, Mary. It’s even more surprising that you don’t hate them.

In her new memoir, “Now It’s My Turn,” Mary Cheney writes that when she told her parents she was gay, the first words out of her father’s mouth “were exactly the ones that I wanted to hear: ‘You’re my daughter, and I love you, and I just want you to be happy.’”

“…Unfortunately, however, it is in my political interests to crush the hopes of all your kind.”

Vanity Fair editor Todd Purdum reports that Mary Cheney tells her story in a voice very much like her father’s, and that she came out to her parents when she was a junior in high school, on a day when, after breaking up with her first girlfriend, she skipped school, ran a red light, and crashed the family car. Cheney writes that her mother hugged her, but then burst into tears, worried that she would face a life of pain and prejudice…

Riiiggght, Mary. That’s why she was crying. She wasn’t dying inside at the humiliating prospect of facing her Republican friends when they learned that her daughter had chosen to be gay. No, I’m sure it was all about you.

[Mary] also says that one common reaction from people who have read the manuscript of her book is “‘Wow, you guys really have this close-knit, loving family,’ and it always strikes me as ‘Yeah, of course we do.’ It was very surprising to me that people would think we didn’t.”

I’m surprised you’re surprised, Mary. Your parents have a predilection for homophobia that normal loving parents would not have. Your mother has been a shrill opponent of gay rights. Your father would not be vice president today without the votes of homophobes in Ohio who turned out in droves to vote for a ban on gay marriage that was placed on the ballot in a cynical move by your father’s supporters to gin up support among the bigots and yahoos.

It is surprising they don’t hate you, Mary. It’s even more surprising that you don’t hate them.

Rush Gets Off

Jon Ponder

Radio comedian Rush Limbaugh got his money’s worth by hiring attorney Roy Black. After a three year investigation into Limbaugh’s addiction to barbituates, Black struck a plea bargain with Palm Beach, Florida, authorities. Limbaugh essentially gets off with a slap on the wrist. He has to pay a fine and go to rehab for 18 months and then his record will be cleared.

This would have never happened to a regular person, of course — mainly because most people wouldn’t be able to afford to buy downers at the volume Limbaugh did.

Update: There’s a web poll up at the Palm Beach Post that asks, “Did Rush Limbaugh get off too easily?” The poll is being freeped so that “No” is leading handily. If you have a moment for anti-freeping, go there and vote “yes.”

Conservative Religious Cult Leader Reveals Right’s Hatred of Sex

Jon Ponder

If you follow the money that has created the rightwing movement that dominates the political culture of the United States, one place the funding trail will lead you is to the upper reaches of one of the most notorious cults in American history, the Unification Church.

Women who don’t procreate should have their breasts and sex organs removed. For men, Moon prescribes daily genital self-mutilation.

The cult leader, Rev. Sun Yung Moon, controls the Republican newspaper, the Washington Times, as well as the once vaunted United Press International. He has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to President Bush’s political campaigns and doubtless millions to other conservative causes.

Rev. Moon has some very peculiar ideas about how human sexual behavior that cross the line firmly into the psychotic — and that provide a window into the self-hatred that propels today’s religious conservativism:

“After the act of love,” read the instructions from the Rev. Moon’s conservative Family Federation, “both spouses should wipe their sexual areas with the Holy Handkerchief. Hang the handkerchief[s] to dry naturally and keep them eternally. They must be kept individually labeled and should never be laundered and mixed up.”

His advice for the ladies:

“The women are the problem in history,” he said in 2004. “Women who don’t want to have children should cut away their breasts, bottoms and love organ because the purpose for those was first for the children. If they don’t fulfill that purpose, then they are not needed.”

“Woman’s sexual organ is like the open mouth of a snake filled with poison,” he said in 1996.

For men, daily genital self-mutilation is prescribed:

Keep pliers in your pocket, he says, “and when you go to the bathroom, once a day, pinch your love organ. Cut the skin a little bit as a warning.”

Gay men — into the burning fires of hell for ye:

Moon told an audience he’d like to see them removed in a “purge on God’s orders…. Gays will be eliminated, the three Israels will unite. If not, then they will be burned. We do not know what kind of world God will bring, but this is what happens. It will be greater than the Communist purge but at God’s orders.”

Christians Sue for the Right to Hate

Jon Ponder

If I were a Christian, I don’t know if I could stand the mud that Christ’s message is being dragged through:

There is a growing campaign among Christians to force public schools, state colleges and private workplaces to eliminate policies protecting gays and lesbians from harassment.

Ruth Malhotra went to court last month for the right to be intolerant.

Malhotra says her Christian faith compels her to speak out against homosexuality. But the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she’s a senior, bans speech that puts down others because of their sexual orientation.

Malhotra sees that as an unacceptable infringement on her right to religious expression. So she’s demanding that Georgia Tech revoke its tolerance policy.

With her lawsuit, the 22-year-old student joins a growing campaign to force public schools, state colleges and private workplaces to eliminate policies protecting gays and lesbians from harassment. The religious right aims to overturn a broad range of common tolerance programs: diversity training that promotes acceptance of gays and lesbians, speech codes that ban harsh words against homosexuality, anti-discrimination policies that require college clubs to open their membership to all.

The Rev. Rick Scarborough, a leading evangelical, frames the movement as the civil rights struggle of the 21st century. “Christians,” he said, “are going to have to take a stand for the right to be Christian.”

In that spirit, the Christian Legal Society, an association of judges and lawyers, has formed a national group to challenge tolerance policies in federal court. Several nonprofit law firms — backed by major ministries such as Focus on the Family and Campus Crusade for Christ — already take on such cases for free.

If you’re a Christian reading this, you’re probably thinking, “Well, these are extremist Christians. They’ve got nothing to do with me.

As an outsider looking in, I see them as part of your group that is besmirching you all. Fundamentalist Christians are making your religion synonymous with hatred, just as fundamentalist Muslims are making Islam synonymous with terror.

Moderate and liberal Muslims have been just as silent about the disgracing of Islam as moderate and liberal Christians have been silent on the degradation of Christ’s message of love, tolerance and avoiding judging the sins of others.

Christianity has a martyrdom ethos that is bred to bone from the birth — it was part of the training of 1st Century Christians to prepare for death in the Roman arenas. Today, 1900 years later, when an outside group tries to pressure a Christian group, it fulfills the Christian group’s need to be persecuted. The only way these modern-day Pharisees can be stopped is by saner voices from within their religion.

Something like 80 percent of Americans (250,000,000) claim to be Christians, but evangelicals only make up 10 percent of the country or 30,000,000. That’s about eight non-evangelicals to one.

Why the silence? If fundamentalists are so outnumbered by “real” Christians, why is it that we only hear from the taliban wing?

It boils down to this, as trite as it may sound: What would Jesus do?