Uh... Ok...

America meet Sarah Palin, She wants to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency...

Whaddya think?

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NO on Proposition 8

The GOP Says this election isn’t about “issues” but rather about the personalities and “life stories” of the candidates. Ok then, courtesy of the "internets" here is what the Republican Party is saying the real choice in November is all about:

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're 'exotic & foriegn.'
* Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, you are a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real
leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America.
* If you're husband is nicknamed 'First Dude', with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

You know something? The GOP is right! The choice in November is MUCH clearer now.

Welcome New Readers!

SNL On Palin and Clinton- Brilliant

Tina Fey and Amy Pohler remind us how every once in a while, Saturday Night Live lives up to its own reputation.

Why I love the Republican National Convention...

It gives John Stewart the chance to show what BRILLIANT political analysis looks and sounds like:

Wow.... I mean.. really..., - WOW!

Hat tip to AMERICABLOG.org for this one...

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Wednesday, September 03, 2008
MUST-SEE TV: Top GOP pundits on accidental open-mic say Palin pick is 'bullsh*t,' race 'is over'
John Aravosis (DC) · 9/03/2008 05:37:00 PM ET ·

Two top Republican pundits, Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy, were just on MSNBC with Chuck Todd, and after their segment was over kept talking about McCain VP pick Sarah Palin. But their mics were still on. Oh my God. Everything we've suspected is true. The GOP is flipped out over this pick. Maybe the evangelical base is happy - maybe - but core Republicans, core conservatives, appears to be apoplectic and demoralized. Noonan was Reagan's most famous speech writer. She's no lightweight in the party, and she's no sexist. Here's the video, and the transcript is below.

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Here's the transcript, courtesy of TPM: (Talking Points Memo)

CHUCK TODD: Mike Murphy, lots of free advice, we'll see if Steve Schmidt and the boys were watching. We'll find out on your blackberry. Tonight voters will get their chance to hear from Sarah Palin and she will get the chance to show voters she's the right woman for the job Up next, one man who's already convinced and he'll us why Gov. Jon Huntsman.
(cut away)

PEGGY NOONAN: Yeah.

MIKE MURPHY: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor world: Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. I mean, these guys -- this is how you win a Texas race, just run it up. And it's not gonna work. And --

PEGGY NOONAN: It's over.

MIKE MURPHY: Still McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

CHUCK TODD: I also think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too.

PEGGY NOONAN: Saw Kay this morning.

CHUCK TODD: Yeah, she's never looked comfortable about this --

MIKE MURPHY: They're all bummed out.

CHUCK TODD: Yeah, I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

PEGGY NOONAN: The most qualified? No! I think they went for this -- excuse me-- political bullshit about narratives --

CHUCK TODD: Yeah they went to a narrative.

MIKE MURPHY: I totally agree.

PEGGY NOONAN: Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it.

MIKE MURPHY: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.

CHUCK TODD: This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky.

MIKE MURPHY: Yeah.

Not My Grandfather's Republican Party

Watching the spectacle of delusion and denial unfold at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul MN, the most striking aspect is the clear evidence that the GOP has become completely beholden to a rabidly neo-conservative evangelical base.

The GOP of 2008 bears little or no resemblance to the GOP of only twenty years ago, let alone the Party my Grandfather supported fifty years ago. Yes that's right, my Grandfather was a Republican. He believed in the ideals and values of the party that once elected Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency.

Yet I seriously doubt he, or Lincoln himself for that matter, would recognize the party meeting in St. Paul this week.

Abraham Lincoln believed in freeing the oppressed, uniting the nation, and punishing War Profiteers. John McCain's GOP ignores oppression in countries that don't have Oil or where the leaders are family friends. And ignores the fact that we have had a war profiteer as Vice President for the last 8 years.

Dwight Eisenhower viewed war is always a last desperate resort, and an unchecked military industrial complex is a threat to democracy. John McCain's GOP sees an unchecked military industrial complex is a crucial part of their "base."

Richard Nixon understood that we live in a world of interconnected global relationships. Constructive engagement and detente' are always more successful than direct conflict. John McCain's GOP blusters "You are with us or against us". To seek the cooperation of Foreign Leader or even to have respect of citizens of other nations is ridiculed as a sign of weakness.

Gerald Ford truly believed in duty, and that the interests of the nation are more important than polls or elections. He was a living example on how accepting responsibility for the actions you take in office, is a president's first obligation. John McCain's GOP sees transparency as a threat and can never under ANY circumstances admit a mistake.

Ronald Reagan saw that to achieve PEACE through strength, America's allies were the key to America's security. He knew that Big Government is never a substitute for American Ingenuity, and he understood that Faith is a private matter not a poltical platform. John McCain's GOP uses faith is political tool. America's historic allies are disposable, and big Government is great when it can make your base happy.

George HW Bush said it best in his inaugural address; "In crucial things, unity, in important things diversity, and in all things generosity. When America says something, America means it. Whether a treaty an agreement or a vow made on marble steps." He used Personal diplomacy to build a grand coalition of nations the likes of which had not been seen since World War II. John McCain's GOP thinks that the Geneva Convention is "Outdated and quaint", "public" meetings should only be open to hand picked supporters. And has given us a nation more divided than at anytime since the civil war. When we most needed strong alliances, we instead have a "Coalition of the Willing". A handful of countries with a handful of troops.

My Grandfather's Republican Party fought for smaller,less intrusive Government John McCain's GOP fights to amend the constitution to regulate the bedrooms and bodies of American Women. Along with a pledge to continue the largest and most costly expansion of the Federal Government in History.

My Grandfather's Republican Party sought to make the US the leader of Strong Global Alliances. John McCain's GOP loves to bash the UN, act unilaterally and recklessly, and trash traditional alliances calling them "Old".

My Grandfather's Republican Party understood fiscal responsibility, and that Jobs are the engine of the American Economy. John McCain's GOP, after only eight short years has given us massive Debt and deficits. Policies that tax the Lower and Middle Class to pay for tax breaks for the most wealthy, resulting in the loss of more jobs on their watch than any time since the days of Herbert Hoover.

This week in St. Paul we will hear a great deal about the GOP's "respect for life", an easily packaged label for a zealous push to eliminate reproductive rights for American women, and achieve theologically based government regulation of how life begins and ends.

"Defending families" will be the code phrase for the zealous push to deny any and all, rights, to Gay and Lesbian Americans no matter what the cost. Arabic translators who could in fact, help win the "war on terror" must be purged from the Department of Defense. Veterans who serve with honor and distinction must be demonized if they stand up and say who they are and who they love. Americans who have lost loved ones in Iraq or Afghanistan must be rendered silent and invisible. Denied any right to publicly grieve, because the soldier they mourn was their partner, and loved someone who was the same gender as they are.

John McCain's GOP easily sets aside issues like dealing the impending collapse of Medicare, the over 8 billion dollars missing from the Iraq reconstruction authority, the near 50 million Americans without health insurance, the problem of illegal immigration, massive trade and budget deficits, or the millions of cargo containers still entering our ports uninspected.

For John McCain's GOP, these and other inconvenient truths, are as easily overlooked as the record of the last eight years has been in the speeches at this weeks GOP Convention.

In an interview with Vatican television in 2003 then Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, spoke of the death penalty as one the great evils of the modern world. Religious leaders around the world have been critical of the conduct of the war on terror, American disengagement in the middle east peace process, and intense aversion to meaningful foreign development aid. Yet John McCain's GOP is not interested in hearing about Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses, or how wise stewardship of the environment is "Christian Value".

For John McCain's GOP the "culture of life" ends at the prison door. The Neo-Conservative Right, may hate abortion, but they love capital punishment. John McCain's GOP will rush to defend the lives of the unborn. Yet after you come out of the womb however, you get to join the John McCain's "ownership society" - meaning you are on your own.

For John McCain's GOP, when critics dare question, you call them traitors, you have your surrogates question their character, their motives and their very humanity. In that same inaugural address, George Bush's Father lamented a time in our nation where "not each other's ideas are questioned, but each others motives." Sixteen years later, the party John McCain now leads, has embraced the politics of personal destruction, making a new legacy of division, rancor and politically expedient hate.

We live in a time when the Republican Party seeks to define "American" as only those people who conform to a particular limited , fearful view of the world. It is a political party that history will remember for a legacy of "fifty percent plus one." Where the key to victory is to divide people as much as you can, then prevent any who oppose you from having equal access to the political process. Be they people of color, people who don't speak English, or people who are not Conservative Evangelical Heterosexuals.

This what John McCain and Sarah Palin will ask America to vote for in November.

Thanks, but no thanks. I suggest America follow the advice of another GOP icon, Nancy Reagan...

Just Say No.

Cindy McCain thinks I am a brilliant Brain Surgeon

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Cindy McBeerBucks claims that GOP Vice Presidential pick Sarah Palin is qualified to be Commander-in-Chief because Alaska is the state geographically closest to Russia.

Ok...

If you follow Cindy's uh... Logic? Then I am qualified to perform brain surgery because I live across the street from a hospital.

Also THIS JUST IN! We have obtained a top secret video of Sarah Palin's first debate prep session to get her ready for her upcoming debates with Joe Biden.

Enjoy...

What the World woke up to this morning...

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So the GOP can rant all they want about the backdrop colums and the royal blue carpet at Ivesco Field last night. Whine all they want how accepting the nomination in front of 80,000 flag waving Americans is "arrogant". All it does is further prove the point that the GOP has nothing to offer America to vote FOR.

The Republicans slink into Minneapolis with an eight year record they are desperately hoping Americans won't remember. A Presidential Candidate who makes Bob Dole look young and vigorous, a VP candidate who makes Dan Quayle look Presidential by comparison, and who practically wears a t-shirt that says; "Hi! I'm Big Oil's Bitch!"

I imagine that the GOP party rank and file will attend their convention feeling a lot like the how the London Olympic Committee must have felt after watching the opening ceremonies in Beijing.



I truly wonder about the future of the GOP when the best they can offer for a convetion key note address is a desperate "noun-verb-9-11!" speech by Rudy Gulianni.

When the best counter punch the GOP can muster to John McCain not knowing how many homes he has, is to try play the POW angle like some sort of magic "get out of stupidity free" card. I truly have to wonder if the best thing for the Republican Party at this point wouldn't be to spend the next 4-6 years in the political wilderness.

Ok Grampy McSame... your turn

Dear Senator Obama...

Ok, This new ad is a good start. The problem is, this is August and this ad is only a good start.

I have been watching the game of poltical tetherball that the George W McCain campaign has been playing with you for the last month. What I have seen is disturbingly familiar.

The days and weeks following your incredible speech in Berlin, you had the momentum, the free world had stood up and cheered the hope that America would return to a path of sane, rational global leadership. A hope that now had a face and a name. Yours.

And then, your campaign dropped the ball.

You allowed attack after ridiculous attack to go basically unanswered. You allowed the campaign of the consummate lobbyist's pet to question your ethics. You allowed a man who has voted consistently against supporting the men and women of our military, to question your commitment to the troops. You allowed a man who employs lobbyists for foreign nations to question your love of country. You allowed a man who thinks that wide spread conflict in the Middle East would make a good Beach Boys song, to cast doubt on your willingness to defend America. In the past few weeks, you allowed a man with 10 homes, $500 loafers and a private jet to say that you were elitist and out of touch with the needs of working families.

In response? You mumbled tepid statements of disapproval of "old style politics." You frowned at the camera and said John McCain is honorable man who is running a dishonorable campaign. I have news for you. John McCain is not an honorable man, and at some point, unless you are happy with the idea of watching the McCain Inaugural from the bleachers, you are going to have to say so.

I feel like screaming at you. "HAVE YOU TALKED TO MICHAEL DUKAKIS OR JOHN KERRY LATELY???" Yes, playing defense will make you feel very noble and allow you to say how you are leading a "new kind of campaign." Sorry but there is nothing new about losing. Your campaign seems to be heading down a frighteningly similar path to 1988 and 2004.

I hate to break this to you but there is a truth to this Presidential race that you seem to be unable to grasp, so let me spell it out for you:

The Republicans will say anything and stop at nothing to win.

They will lie, they will cheat, and they will steal. They will call you a terrorist, they will call your wife a traitor, and they will criticize you for every thing you do, then turn around and criticize you for everything you don't do.

GOP Surrogates will spew the most insane nonsense about you with impunity on Fox News, which will then be repeated in the rest of the media as "covering the campaign". You CANNOT play defense. You will LOSE.

Not only that - you have yet to get your OWN house in order. This lunacy of having Senator Clinton's name put in nomination is a prime example. You WON the nomination, will you please ACT like it! Senator Clinton's campaign was historic yes. But it is OVER. The time has come for the Democratic Party to say to every Clinton supporter who is still whining about the need for "healing" a simple question. "Why do you want John McCain to win?"

You need to state in clear terms the choice in 2008 is this; "If you believe the right of a woman to control her own body is a bad thing then by all means support John McCain".

You need to state clear terms the choice in 2008 is this; "If you believe our economic and national security, and the lives of thousands of American soldiers should be sacrificed for Oil Company profits, then by all means vote for John McCain."

You need to state in clear terms the choice in 2008 is this; "If you believe the Executive Branch of the Government has a greater right to privacy than the citizens who elected it, then by all means vote for John McCain."

You need to state in clear terms the choice in 2008 is this; "John McCain has no plan to repair any of the damage done to our economy, national security, global standing or environment over then last eight years. John McCain's only plan is to continue doing more damage. To do that the Republican Party can't offer America anything to vote FOR, they can only try desperately to scare enough of us to vote against anything different."

You must be willing to stand up and say out loud that John McCain has nothing to offer this nation but exactly what we have had for the last eight years. Economic disaster, loss of American lives in wars with no end, and a philosophy of Government that sees the constitution at best, as a nuisance, and at worst, a threat to its power.

Unless you are willing forcefully articulate the choice between the two of you. A choice that is, in fact crystal clear. You will allow the GOP to once again cloud that choice with mud, flung without conscience or restraint. The time has come to stop lying to yourself by thinking that deep down the Republicans want the same things as you do.

They don't. They want you to lose, that's it.

The time has come to call liars what they are. Time has come to call cowards what they are. The time Senator has come for you to stand up and say you are a better man, a better leader and the better choice to lead this nation.

Please Senator Obama, stop being the tethered ball on the GOP playground

Jack Cafferty Gets it Right!

Note: Jack Cafferty is the author of the best-seller "It's Getting Ugly Out There: The Frauds, Bunglers, Liars, and Losers Who Are Hurting America." He provides commentary on CNN's "The Situation Room" daily from 4 p.m.-7 p.m. You can also visit Jack's Cafferty File blog at www.cnn.com.

Commentary: Is McCain another George W. Bush?
By Jack Cafferty

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Russia invades Georgia and President Bush goes on vacation. Our president has spent one-third of his entire two terms in office either at Camp David, Maryland, or at Crawford, Texas, on vacation.

His time away from the Oval Office included the month leading up to 9/11, when there were signs Osama bin Laden was planning to attack America, and the time Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans.

Sen. John McCain takes weekends off and limits his campaign events to one a day. He made an exception for the religious forum on Saturday at Saddleback Church in Southern California.

I think he made a big mistake. When he was invited last spring to attend a discussion of the role of faith in his life with Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, McCain didn't bother to show up. Now I know why.

It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven." Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. McCain then retold a story we've all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand.

Asked about his greatest moral failure, he cited his first marriage, which ended in divorce. While saying it was his greatest moral failing, he offered nothing in the way of explanation. Why not?

Throughout the evening, McCain chose to recite portions of his stump speech as answers to the questions he was being asked. Why? He has lived 71 years. Surely he has some thoughts on what it all means that go beyond canned answers culled from the same speech he delivers every day. He was asked "if evil exists." His response was to repeat for the umpteenth time that Osama bin Laden is a bad man and he will pursue him to "the gates of hell." That was it.

He was asked to define rich. After trying to dodge the question -- his wife is worth a reported $100 million -- he finally said he thought an income of $5 million was rich. One after another, McCain's answers were shallow, simplistic, and trite. He showed the same intellectual curiosity that George Bush has -- virtually none.

Where are John McCain's writings exploring the vexing moral issues of our time? Where are his position papers setting forth his careful consideration of foreign policy, the welfare state, education, America's moral responsibility in the world, etc., etc., etc.?

John McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. His father and grandfather were four star admirals in the Navy. Some have suggested that might have played a role in McCain being admitted. His academic record was awful. And it shows over and over again whenever McCain is called upon to think on his feet.

He no longer allows reporters unfettered access to him aboard the "Straight Talk Express" for a reason. He simply makes too many mistakes. Unless he's reciting talking points or reading from notes or a TelePrompTer, John McCain is lost. He can drop bon mots at a bowling alley or diner -- short glib responses that get a chuckle, but beyond that McCain gets in over his head very quickly.

I am sick and tired of the president of the United States embarrassing me. The world we live in is too complex to entrust it to someone else whose idea of intellectual curiosity and grasp of foreign policy issues is to tell us he can look into Vladimir Putin's eyes and see into his soul.

George Bush's record as a student, military man, businessman and leader of the free world is one of constant failure. And the part that troubles me most is he seems content with himself.

He will leave office with the country $10 trillion in debt, fighting two wars, our international reputation in shambles, our government cloaked in secrecy and suspicion that his entire presidency has been a litany of broken laws and promises, our citizens' faith in our own country ripped to shreds. Yet Bush goes bumbling along, grinning and spewing moronic one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has been.

I fear to the depth of my being that John McCain is just like him.

"The Drowsy Chapperone" - Pure Fun...

I went with friends and saw the touring production of "The Drowsy Chapperone" tonight at the Orpheum Theater. When it first premiered on Broadway in 2006 the show won 5 Tony Awards but was eclipsed for the Best Musical award by "Jersey Boys". Still it was great to finally get to see it.

The show isn't terribly deep, but who says all musicals have to have a message?

Once in a while it's nice to have show that is just lots of fun...

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Coming Soon to an Economy Near You ...

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My Thoughts on John Edwards...

Over the past day or so I have had numerous emails from friends asking for my reaction to former Senator JOhn Edwards' admission on ABC's Nightline, that he did in fact have an extramarital affair in 2006. Contrary to all his public statements in the days prior to his appearance on ABC.

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Ok, then...

Yes I am disappointed in Senator Edwards. Would I still vote for him if he was running for president? Yes I would. Does adultery disqualify you from running for President? Obviously not since John McCain is still running and is guilty of the exact same thing. Yet that is neither here nor there, as John Edwards is not any party's presidential nominee, nor is going to be anyone's running mate.

I will confess to finding Edwards' "concern" about legalized marriages for same-sex couples vs. civil unions to be a tad hyprcritical now. Just as Newt Gingrich's or Bill O'Rielly's pontifications on family values have been revealed to be stark contrasts to their own personal lives. Yet again, to say that somehow disqualifies any of them from participation in the public discourse is frankly, ridiculous and disturbing.

The idea that John Edwards adultury somehow has anything to do with Barak Obama's candicacy is like saying John McCain's adultury is relevant to George Bush's Presidency. John Edwards' adultury like John McCain's is an issue between those men and their families. A position that I am sure Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich would both agree with.

Let the Games Begin...

Having grown up in Wisconsin I will admit to being more of a Winter Olympics fan than I am of the Summer Games. Yet watching the opening ceremonies from Bejing this Morning you have to admit, China puts on one helluva show.



As I was heading home from work last night I passed a large anti-China / pro free-Tibet rally going on in United Nations Plaza. It is true that the human rights discussion is one that needs to happen in tandem with China's debut on the Olympic stage. Yet it is also important to remember that the athletes competing in Bejing are not the ones responsible for the oppression in Tibet.

I am not sure trying to make these Summer Games about those other issues is the best way to move China towards change.

Paris Hilton - Policy Wonk!?

I am amazed... I can't make fun of her any more.

I dont know if this was her idea, but in any case it's brilliant.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

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Uh.. Ok, um... Wow.

The McCain Meltdown continues...

Grampy McCranky needs to get a funnel horn for his ear apparently..

again... Wow.

Supporting the Troops vs. Saying you do....

Keith and Rachel get it right...

Last Sunday's Church Shooting in Knoxville, TN

As usual when something like this happens, I am never sure exactly how to blog about it... I think the best way to start is with the facts...
---------------------------------------------
From KNOXNEWS.COM:



Police: Accused shooter hated liberals, expected to be killed

The shotgun-wielding suspect in Sunday’s mass shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was motivated by a hatred of “the liberal movement,” and he planned to shoot until police shot him, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV said this morning.

Jim D. Adkisson, 58, of Powell wrote a four-page letter in which he stated his “hatred of the liberal movement,” Owen said. “Liberals in general, as well as gays.”

Owen said Adkisson specifically targeted the church for its beliefs, rather than a particular member of the congregation.

“It appears that church had received some publicity regarding its liberal stance,” the chief said. The church has a “gays welcome” sign and regularly runs announcements in the News Sentinel about meetings of the Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays meetings at the church.

The church’s Web site states that it has worked for “desegregation, racial harmony, fair wages, women’s rights and gay rights” since the 1950s. Current ministries involve emergency aid for the needy, school tutoring and support for the homeless, as well as a cafe that provides a gathering place for gay and lesbian high-schoolers.

----------------------------------------

As I sit and write this here in "liberal" San Francisco, my thoughts are turning to people I know who continue to make excuses for the Anti Gay rhetoric of the GOP.

As a collective entity, the Republican Party and it's bankrollers in the Conservative Evangelical movement, have spent massive amounts of time and energy and money demonizing a LGBT Americans. Saying from the both the podium and the pulpit that Gay and Lesbian Americans are a "threat" who are "attacking" families and children. Calling for their followers to “fight" some phantom’ gay agenda’ and to "defend traditional values".

The Repubilcan Party and their conservative surrogates on the Religous Right like to paint a simplistic picture of the world where you are either in favor of "freedom" or you are supporting the "terrorist killers". Likewise the GOP has said loud and clear from the podium of their last four national conventions that if you believe that all American citizens deserve equal rights then you are "anti family".

The same people who criticize public dissent of the Bush Administration as "Motivating terrorists to attack us", continue to verbally attack LGBT people and will dismiss the hate crimes that follow as the "lone acts of disturbed individuals". The hypocrisy exhibited on the right is beyond belief.

Conservatives will say with great indignation, that I cant possibly blame them for the actions of one individual Yet to think that the flood of anti-gay rhetoric coming for people in power, people in authority, (both political and religious) has no effect, means you are either willfully blind, or deliberately dishonest.

Do I blame Karl Rove, Ralph Reed, Bill O'Riley, James Dobson and their like for the actions of Jim D. Adkisson in Knoxville TN last Sunday? No, conservatives cannot be blamed for his actions, but their rhetoric IS partly responsible for his motivation.

In Germany in the 1930's Hitler and his National Socialist Party, ranted against the "Jewish threat", and mobs of young men then took to the streets of Berlin, smashed windows, burned stores and homes and beat up men and women. THIS IS NO DIFFERENT.

To my conservative friends, (and yes I do mean friends) who continue to excuse the the bigotry and politically expedient HATE spewed by conservative mouthpieces on behalf of the Republican party , you either really do hate Americans who are different from you , or you don't mind profiting poltically from that hate.

This is no longer about Right or Left, it's about right and wrong. This isn’t about are you for tax cuts or gun ownership, it's about do you agree with people who believe that one group of Americans are lesser human beings than others.

This debate is no longer about public policy. This is about whether it is ok for our government to vilify an entire group of people for political gain, and then not be held accountable for the consequences of that vilification.

Are we a nation that truly seeks to "crown they good with brotherhood"? Or have become that nation that Martin Niemöller warned of in his speech on January 6, 1946, to the representatives of the Confessing Church in Frankfurt...

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

We see this on a much smaller scale, as John McCain gives in the temptation to demonize some Americans, in order to scare others into supporting him. Last week in an effort to divert media attention from his rival, John McCain accused Barack Obama of being more interested winning a political campaign, than winning the war in Iraq.

When talking about the "War on Terror", conservatives love to ask - "whose side are you on?" That is indeed the question we need to ask.

It's time to ask do you truly believe that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."?

Or will you stand with the Republican Party as it continues to seek political victory through social and religious division?

How many dead Americans are an acceptable number if it helps you win the White House?