You Gotta love Mark Fiore....

Fear & Fundamentalism: How the GOP & FOX Made, then Lost Control of the Tea Party.

Back in the mid 1980's  there was a political cartoon that came out that depicted a map of  "The World According to Ronald Reagan".   I am not sure who the artist was, but  it was a delightful  tongue-in-cheek satire  of  the  conservative Republican world view in the late  20th Century.

Some thirty years or so later,  it  all seems  so sweetly naive in  its simplistic  humor.   The over the top nature of the joke is what made it funny.   Now in 2010,   if you were to  erase Reagan's name and put  say....  Sarah Palin, or Newt Gingrich  or  Glen Beck,  then  the cartoon is not so much funny as it  would be frighteningly accurate in how the Neo-Conservative movement of the  early 21rst Century  really does see the world .

I have often blogged  about how  the  Republican Party has lost its way.  How it  has abandoned  its core principles and  ideals  in exchange for  campaign cash from  religious social conservatives.  The GOP platform could be summed up in three words;  God, Guns and Gays.

 It was strategy that  served the GOP well in  1994,  2000 and  2004.   Yet  in  2006 and 2008  the strategy fell apart as the impact of the Republican Party's  disastrous  choices  became clear.  And in 2008  it  didn't just fail but  it  actually backfired and drove millions  of  independent voters  away from the McCain Palin ticket and straight to the  Democrats.  Creating  blue states in   Colorado,  Nevada , Iowa, Virginia  and North Carolina.. Places where once  such a thing would have been unthinkable   Like many people I was curious to see what the  Republican Party would do in the wake of  back to back  electoral wipe outs.

There was a real sense that  the GOP needed to  retool,  rethink and  adapt to a new political landscape.   And  early on, it seemed the Republicans  had figured that out too.   They appointed  Michael Steele  their new  National Chairman.  There was now, an African American at the helm of the Republican Party, the Party of Lincoln, and emancipation for the first time in its history.

Regardless of  your politics  you had to admit  that  in  principle  at least,  that was pretty amazing. Republicans talked of the need for  a "big tent". and  used words like  "inclusion" and  "diversity".   For the first time since 1994,  it looked like the GOP was going break out beyond it's  base.   But interestingly enough.   something quite different happened.   Instead of learning  from  past mistakes,  the GOP  doubled down.   They became the rabid right wing party of  "Hell No!"   But what is significant  is WHY that happened.  

The base of the GOP, which has,  for the last  15 yrs or so, dutifully sent checks to the  Republican Party, is not intellectually conservative.  It is ultra socially conservative.   These folks are not  reading  the  American Spectator  or  National Review Online.  They are older,  overwhelmingly  white  evangelicals  who in every election since  1992 have met in church basements  and were told  they needed to help fight the "Liberal attack" on America and her families.

At first social conservatives were  riled up  to show their  indignation  at  the  moral  and marital failings of  Bill Clinton.  Then in 2000 they were told told to dig deep to counter  the threat posed to our system of  free market  capitalism by  that tree-hugging  hippie Al Gore.  Who was said to be  plotting to turn our nations  very  sovereignty  over the  United Nations. (gasp!)

And,  truth be told, in 2000 it worked. but just barely.   It took  the U.S. Supreme Court to actually decide who won the Presidency.  But starting in  2000,  that same  GOP Base  started  asking what  were they going to get in return for their time, effort and money?   The holy grail to  the social conservatives  was and still remains,  the  overturn of  Roe v. Wade.    The GOP,  knowing that this  was really not "doable"  at least in a first  GW Bush Term, struggled in early 2001 with  how to  placate a now very active and  riled up GOP base.

Then of course,  in  September of 2001,   everything changed.   Like the  Germans  and Japanese  in  the  1940's ,  like the communist in the 1950's  through the 1980's.   Fundamentalist  Islam provided  a new  enemy  to  fight, and  (more importantly for  the GOP),  911 gave America something  to fear.   In 2004, the Republican Party  went into  full -throttle "be afraid" mode.

In 2004 the GOP successfully waged  a campaign based almost entirely on fear of  the Middle East.  A campaign that was able to convince a  majority of  Americans that  a  former college cheerleader who went AWOL from the Texas National Guard  loved America more than a  decorated  war hero. But, also that they needed vote  against  their own economic self interest and give massive tax breaks to the top 2% of  Americans, and massive deregulation to  Wall Street and the Energy Sector.

And it worked,  for the most part.   But  the base,  while sufficiently  afraid  of  "Islamo-facists".  Was still restless and cranky, and the economy was starting  to  tank.    As it became clear that  even a giving Bush a second term wasn't going  to deliver on  eliminating  a woman's right to choose,  GOP needed a bone to throw to this now very  scared, very angry, and increasingly unemployed  group of Americans  it had worked so hard  to rile up.    The answer?   Give them  the Gays.

Then in 2008  the Democrats  nominated  Barack Hussein Obama.   and  the  GOP base  went  berserk . The  McCain-Palin Campaign  played  the  fear card  as hard as they could.  with catch phrases like; "He Pals around with terrorists",  he  has  "suspicious  associations".  "He  doesn't  love America!".   The results were as disturbing as they were  predictable.    

Towards the end of the 2008 Presidential Campaign even John McCain had to step in and correct his own supporters in the GOP base.   People who were now convinced. that the Democratic Nominee for President was nothing less than a Muslim Manchurian Candidate. Planted here over 40 years ago to eventually bring about the total destruction of America and our way of life.

On election night 2008 the GOP Base was pretty much all The Republicans had left. People who in themiddle of Senator McCain's graceful and eloquent concession couldn't hold back jeering at mention of the President Elects' name. The Republican Party entered 2009 with an angry, and impatient base, convinced they had been victims of a global conspiracy to "steal their country from them". 

As a diminished opposition party the GOP could do little more than just try to obstruct the new Administration at every turn, It was just a matter of time before this group of voters went looking for something new. Something that spoke to their world view, and affirmed their fears.

This was a job for FOX News.

Like all good Media organizations. FOX News knows who their viewers are. And where political parties have a goal of getting voters to the polls every two years, a T.V. network's goal is to get people to tune in every day. Rupert Murdoch and Company saw the door and ran through it. They would "Give the people what they want." They would throw the angry GOP base a party, and not just any party...

They would throw a Tea Party.

One of the first  rules in marketing is  not just that endorsements  create sales,  but also that sales  create endorsements.   Soon a whole flock of  "B" and "C" list  Conservatives like  Sarah Palin,  Representatives  Joe Wilson, Michelle Bachman, and Tom Tancredo.  Talk show hosts like   Glen Beck and  Michael Reagan  were  all hitching  their wagons to the  Tea Party Express.   Soon even  "A" Lister's like  Rush Limbaugh,  Sean Hanity,  and Bill O'Reilly  hopped on not daring to risk being left behind.

In 2010 we had a midterm election  where the  Republican Party was desperate to harness the anger, energy and fear of the Tea Party  in hopes of  turning that into  numbers at the polls that  November.  The GOP Created  the  Tea Party out of it's own scared  angry  social conservative base.  But  it  quickly discovered this monster  has a mind of it's own,  and can turn just as quickly on Republicans  as  it does on Democrats.  In a number of states,   incumbent  Republicans  have found them selves the target of  Tea Party  primary challengers.  Claiming the Republicans are  not  conservative enough.

The Tea Party  says  they "want their country back".   The  vision of  America  they hold  as  "their country" is one where  an  ultra-conservative religious based social agenda  is enacted into Civil Law.  Abortion, Affirmative Action,  Gay and Lesbian Rights,  Separation of (their) Church and State, the social safety nets of  Medicare/ Social Security  and Public Education   are all  abolished.

Victory for  the Tea Party means  turning the  United States of America  into  Teabagistan.

The Tea Party is the American Taliban.   Granted, their methods are not same.  The American Taliban does not use  violence like  their Afghan equivalent.  (Though the family of  Dr. George Tiller might disagree with me on that.)  Yet the American Taliban with their  "don't tread on me" and  "watering the tree of liberty  with the blood of tyrants" rhetoric,   all while brandishing side arms at  rallies, certainly carries  the implied  threat of  violence.   The American and Afghan Talibans are alike in terms of their aims. Which is to take a narrow extremely conservative, even fundamentalist ideology, codify it into law and force it on everyone else.

The GOP is completely dependent upon and beholden to a bunch of lunatics, who hate the U.S. Constitution. To win the Tea Party back, the GOP has to promise things the Tea Party wants. Things like the overturning of Roe v. Wade. A constitutional Amendment banning same sex marriage. Repeal of the 14th and 17th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

That's just for starters, we haven't even scratched the surface in terms of the every man for himself- screw the poor - to pay the rich, economic ideas the Tea Party likes to toss around. Stuff like, completely deregulate Wall Street , THEN turn Social Security into Goldman-Sachs' personal stack of casino chips.

The Republicans and the Tea bagging monsters they have spawned are nothing less than completely and utterly anti-American. The Tea Party likes to wave around copies of the U.S, Constitution, but aside from a few selected lines from the 2nd Amendment, they don't actually believe in it. I know President Obama, as a former professor of Constitutional Law, has actually read the rest of it.

Then in 2012 we saw something really interesting. The GOP's conservative base, along with the Tea Party wrote the narrative that Republicans chose to believe. They collectively decided to believe that facts were wrong, that facts clearly had a liberal bias. All the polling data that clearly indicated re-election for President Obama simply HAD to be wrong.   Anyone who said different was a liberal plant who was trying to make conservatives "feel bad" and consequently suppress GOP/Conservative voter turnout. It made the morning after the 2012 election must- see viewing on cable news.

Now as we head in to the the 2014 midterms and the half way point in Barack Obama's second term, we see the GOP desperate to tame the monster it, along with FOX news has created. Tea Party primary challenges to well known establishment Republicans are becoming the norm, not the exception. The GOP is now faced with the reality of demographics, and the fact that gerrymandered districts, and blatently racist voting restrictions enacted in ultra-conservative states will only help so much, and won't help at all when the insurgent political threat comes from the Right, instead of the Left.

We see a Congress where Republicans will literally allow the governing of the nation to grind to halt, lest any actions they take in any way help the President to do his job, and thus enrage the Tea Party faithful to label them all "RHINOS" (Republicans In Name Only).   I was never a big fan of Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom", his follow up series to the brilliant "The West Wing", but in one episode he captures perfectly the cul-de-sac of hate fulled ignorance the GOP has been painted into by its own creation.

What started as a gimmick on FOX News now may very well  be the death knell of the  Republican Party. Transforming the  Party of  Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan into a  splintered, fragmented mob of ageing  paranoids.  With the only thing holding them together is the fact their hatred of  other Americans, (be they Liberals or  "not true"  Conservatives), outweighs  their love of their own country.

Slaggie Gillamonster's attack on families...

Rob Tisinai's brilliant posting on Maggie Gallagher's jhiad against American Families...

My 'Anthem' for Today....

This past week, I finished all the documentation and bio-metrics (fingerprints ect.) for my immigration visa application to get married, and move to the United Kingdom.

As the debate over basic civil rights for millions of Americans' right to Marriage Equality rages here in the United States, it's been hard not to feel more than a little bit like Anatoly, the Russian character from the musical "Chess".

So this morning as I finsihed putting all the documents together with my Passport and FedEx'd it the British Consulate in Los Angeles to be processed, this song seemed appropriate to have on the iPod...



My land's only borders lie around my heart...

Stephen Colbert On the Prop 8 Decision

Brilliant... of course

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
How to Ruin Same-Sex Marriages
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

When Same Sex Marriage is Finally Legal in all 50 States..

What on Earth will  Slaggie Gillamonster  (Maggie Gallagher) of the  National Organization for  (some people's) Marriage (NOM)  do  to  pass the time?  

Watching the latest  BBC Proms concert  has perhaps provided  one suggestion for Maggie's next  career move  when being a professional bigot no longer pays the bills...

Take it away boys...

Why Prop 8 Was Completely Anti-American

The celebrations  here in San Francisco  are  still going on at this hour.   The rally which began in  the Castro District soon turned in to a  celebratory march that  shut down half  of  Market Street  as it made its way to Civic Center Plaza in front of   SF City Hall.

There  were  speeches,  (lots of speeches), music, flags, banners and lots of  joy. Even though  the decision  in  Perry v. Schwarzenegger,  won't go into effect  today.  (There is a two day  time frame for the court to consider  a motion by opponents of  Marriage Equality to stay the the resumption  of  same sex marriages  in California  while  they appeal this case  to the  U.S. Supreme Court.)  Yet the sense of vindication and  victory in  the California  LGBT community  is  clear  for everyone to see.

So what does this all mean?    Does this mean  Same Sex  Marriage  will soon be  sweeping the nation?  Well,  not so much.    The ruling  simply says the State of California  can't  ban  gay marriage  here in  CA.   Which is  largely symbolic.   There still is no Federal  recognition of  same sex marriages.  Same sex  spouses  still can't  file joint  Federal  Income Tax forms,   pass on  Social Security Survivor  benefits  or  sponsor their  husband or wife  for  immigration to the  U.S.

All of those  key benefits  associated with marriage  are  regulated on  Federal level  by the  ridiculously   mis-named  "Defense of Marriage Act".  (DOMA) and  at least for now,  that law  is unchanged.    Should  the Perry case  make it to the  U.S. Supreme Court,(which it is pretty safe to say it  most likely will),   that  law could  very well change.   Should the  nine SCOTUS  Justices  uphold  the  ruling made today,  it would  in effect  nullify  all  laws  banning Marriage  Equality  in the  United States.

So why did the  pro- Prop 8 forces  lose?   I will  talk about  the  legal  issues  in  a minute.  but  what  was  amazing about this  court  case  was  how  the  supporters of  Prop 8  were  completely  unable to  provide any real  evidence  backing up  their  positions.    I could  go on  and on about  how hollow and   empty  the  Yes On 8 arguments  were, but  Rachel Maddow does it so much better than  I could:



We''ll set the spectacle  of  the  Prop 8 trial,  and  the inherent silliness of  the attempt to use "Gay is Bad  because God Says So" as a legal  argument,  aside for the moment.   the biggest reason why the plaintiffs in this case won,  and  why Prop 8 is completely unconstitutional  is very simple.    So  allow me to  lay it out for you .

1)  Same Sex Marriage doesn't threaten or impact ANYONE ELSE'S  marriage  or family  in any way.
2) You cannot  put  the civil rights of  a minority  up  to  popular vote. Rights  are not subject to the whims of  the electorate  that is why they are  RIGHTS.
3)  Just because you don't like a particular minority,  doesn't mean you get to make them 2nd Class Citizens

Judge Walker,  puts it  even more clearly on page  116 of  his ruling where he writes that;

 "fundamental rights may not be submitted to a vote, they depend on the outcome of no elections"

This  is why Proposition 8 is fundamentally un-American, and  un-constitutional.

Prop 8 took  the whole idea  of   fundamental rights laid out  in  the Declaration of  Independence and  the U.S. Constitution and said  that  they were not inalienable.  But rather subject to the mood  of  at least 51% of  whoever shows up to vote in a given election.  That is not democracy, that is electorally sanctioned discrimination,   and it was an affront to everything  our country stands for, and  everything our nation's  founding fathers stood for.

Proposition 8,  denied  basic, fundamental  civil rights  to  an entire group of  Californians,  based  solely on a desire by  groups like the Mormon Church and  Conservative Evangelicals, to put into civil law their belief that  God hates Gay people.  So therefore  the law should treat them as less than everybody else.

If the  U.S.  Supreme Court fails to uphold  today's ruling,  they will have said that  the United States of America is no better than the Taliban.

WOW PROP 8 STRUCK DOWN!!

Prop 8 Ruling

Decision in the Prop 8 Federal Lawsuit will be Announced Today

The Young Turks  put things in perspective  for us...

Roy Zimmerman - Clearly this guy is the Heir to Tom Leher...

Brilliant  Stuff..

CNN Reports on Immigration Equality

The story was actually very well done,  aside from one thing.  CCN just had to let  Maggie Gallagher,  the hateful troll from the National Organization for (some people's) Marriage  weigh in.  Since  Gallagher's marriage, (by her own admission),  is "less than perfect" she is apparently determined to wreck as many other people's lives as she can.

It is just sad that this bigoted little hate-monger claims  to be a Christian, and lives her life in complete contradiction  to the  good news of the Gospels.

An Amazing Day for the Lutheran Church

Yesterday afternoon, a packed sanctuary at St. Mark's Lutheran Church here in San Francisco witnessed an amazing event.

A group of seven Lutheran Pastors, all openly Gay or Lesbian who had been denied official recognition by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) were officially rostered, as called and ordained clergy in a "Rite of Reception" service.

In her opening remarks, St. Mark's, Pastor Elisabeth Ekdale welcomed the standing room only crowd saying; "We've been expecting you ! For about twenty years now...!" 

The special service was designed by the ELCA specifically to welcome Gay and Lesbian clergy who had been ordained under what was called the Extraordinary Candidacy Process.

The seven ministers welcomed at the ceremony on Sunday were already ordained and serving at churches or other ministries in the San Francisco Bay Area, but they had not been officially recognized on the ELCA clergy roster. Until now. (From the Extraordinary Candidacy Project website:)

"In 1990 two San Francisco Lutheran Churches, St. Francis and First United, defied the policy that prevented openly GLBT individuals from serving as pastors when they ordained a gay man and a lesbian couple. As a result the two churches were expelled from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). More than 20 years later: 18 pastors have been ordained in defiance of the church, 3 pastors were removed by trial and and countless others were denied the ability to serve openly as GLBT pastors in the Lutheran Church."

The first Pastor to be officially "received and reaffirmed" was Rev. Ross D. Merkel, the current pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Oakland, CA. Merkel was first openly Gay Pastor to be removed from the ELCA roster by ecclesiastical trial in 1994.

The event at St. Marks featured a sermon by Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber ,who is the founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints a Lutheran mission church in Denver Colorado. She is author of Salvation on the Small Screen? 24 Hours of Christian Television (Seabury 2008) a cultural commentary based on her experience of watching 24 consecutive hours of Trinity Broadcasting Network.   Her amazing remarks  nearly brought down the house.

The pastors were welcomed almost a year after the national assembly of the ELCA- voted to allow gay men and women, with partners, to serve as clergy members, making it the latest Protestant church to allow such ordinations. For those of us at St. Mark's it was an incredible honor to be able to host the service. Which featured clergy from all over the United States, and musical prelude featuring a wonderful performance by the Oakland Gay Men's Chorus.

There are some Lutheran churches that have decided to leave the ELCA as result of all of this. Some of the more conservative congregations feel they cannot be open and welcoming to LGBT Lutherans. While this is unfortunate, the crowd at St. Mark's didn't allow it to dampen any spirits.

The service on Sunday afternoon was a boisterous celebration of what has been a very long road for not just the seven Pastors recognized at St. Marks, but for all members of the ELCA who have worked for a more inclusive, fair and welcoming Church.

We Interrupt the Blog for a SPECTACULAR Moment of GEEK

So amazingly  cool....  can't wait to see it!

The Audacity of Hope & The Reality of Fear

This past week America was privy to one of the biggest witch hunts  since the days of  colonial Salem.  A quiet  woman  named Shirley Sherrod, working at the  U.S. Department of  Agriculture  was hounded out of her job.  The reason?  A coordinated organized  group of  liars  made it happen.  Liars,  all of them.  Bald Faced Liars.

They  took video of a speech this woman gave,  chopped it up so it would look  like something  completely  the opposite to what it was.  Then used that video in  a deliberate attempt  to level a  charge of racism at  the President of the United States.  The goal?  To scare white voters ahead of this November's midterm elections.

The right wing website  Big Government dot com,  first ran the hacked up video,  which was cobbled together to make it look like  Sherrod, was admitting,  even bragging  about  not helping a white couple save their family farm  from  foreclosure,  some  twenty four years ago.    The owner of  the  Big Government blog  Andrew Breitbart saw this story has a chance to strike back against  the NAACP,  for calling out the "Tea Party" movement for its racist  elements.

FOX News  was  very eager to get  this story out and get it out loudly.   Having had  the Tea Party movement they helped create and constantly promote, exposed as having  a very  ugly racist  element to it.  Also  having  lost their most recent  "Breaking News!" story  about the   Obama  Justice Department protecting  radical  Black militants, in a  new Black Panther Party. When that story was exposed as made up nonsense.  With the Sherrod story,   Fox News was almost  giddy with  excitement.   Here FINALLY  was the "Smoking Gun" of  reverse  racism  by The Obama Administration  they had sought for so long..

The  story was a complete  lie.  Not one of the purported  facts  in the story was even remotely true.  But that didn't matter.  Just like with the supposed "Smoking Gun"  of  voter fraud by the non-profit group ACORN,   Fox News  grabbed the talking points for THIS new smoking gun and  RAN with  it at full speed.  

In response,   the  Obama Administration's Agriculture Department  quickly  fired Sherrod,  joining the  chorus  decrying  the overt racism on display in the heavily  edited video.   But not even a day and half later,   the story and Fox News/Breitbart narrative began to unravel.  As the dust  settles from this latest instance of  race baiting by the political right in this country,  a pattern has sadly emerged.

Rachel Maddow  has  the post-mortem.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It's hard to really  know who is worse,  the fools or the fools that followed them.   In this case the fools being  the  race baiting hacks  at FOX News  and  fools who followed them being,  sadly - the  Obama Administration. It is as if  the  Obama White House was  so  scared of  a right wing talking point of  Black favoritism  they accepted a completely  false, and  easily debunked story,  (all it would have taken is one phone call to the White family in question),  and took it at  face value.   

The sad truth here is  you can't  really blame FOX News.  They were just doing their  job.  They are not a  news organization  they are  a political  media arm of the  Republican Party.  It's their job to try to make President Obama look bad, even if they have to tell blatant  lies to do it.   It's  what  the talking heads on FOX are paid to do.    No,  the  real sad truth here  is how  the  Obama Administration  has  become a gutless, spineless  quivering  pile  of  political  timidity.   The audacity  of  hope has been chucked in favor of the expedience  of  whatever  will test well  with middle of the road focus groups. 

Real heath care reform. was  abandoned in hopes of  gaining one or two GOP votes, that never came  for what ended up being  mild insurance reform.   Real financial reform as been abandoned in the hope of  getting one or two  non existent GOP votes to extend unemployment benefits  to millions of Americans.    Who lost their jobs under the economic train wreck of the Bush Administration.   Real  advancement of civil rights in  America has been abandoned  out of  fear  of losing  midterm elections  by being painted as  "too pro gay" by bigots,  who are on their  third  and fourth  marriages. 

Now the latest  casualty of  cowardice  is nothing less than the truth.  Nobody in the Obama Adminstration  even thought  to  question  the accusations  against  Shirley Sherrod.  No one  in the White House thought to consider the source,  and maybe,  just maybe,  take a day,  one day  to  check and see if the story was even remotely  credible.  

There is a great scene in the movie  "The American President"  where  President  Andrew Shepherd , played  by Michael Douglas  finally  stands up to  the constant barrage of  right wing  attacks on  his  character.  Realizing  that  he had been   more focused on keeping his job as President , than doing  his job as President.  

We  truly do have  serious problems to solve, and  the  Republican Party and it's  noise machine over at FOX is not even remotely interested in solving them.   And the sad truth is they have successfully cowed  President Barack Obama into being too scared of losing his job,  to be able to effectively do his job.  The millions of Americans who voted  for hope and change  are left wondering  where the man they voted for has gone.  How many steps backward will  this administration allow itself  to be  bullied into,  before they have their  American President moment?   In tonight's  brilliant  special comment,  MNSBC's  Keith Oblermann  asks  the same question.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Tea Party racists like  to say they "want their country back".   I'd settle for getting back the President I voted for.  

Happy Birthday to well... Me !

NOM's Tour Bus for Bigotry Hits Snags Along its Way...

The "impressive clergyman" in the movie "The Princess Bride" put it best when he said "Marwiage is what bwings us togewer ... today!" The irony is, that in the early days of the twenty-first century, marriage and all the issues that surround it, are exactly what is tearing many of us apart.    


The self-proclaimed "National Organization for Marriage" (NOM) is a group founded by evangelical nutjob Maggie Gallagher.

Her partner in bigotry, Brian Brown has embarked an a "National Tour" taking the NOM-mobile to various cities to rally "tens of thousands" in support of  "traditional marriage."

The tour has managed in fact, to attract  tens of  people, not quite thousands. Our good friends over at JoeMyGod have been covering the massive non-crowds that have greeted the hate-mobile at its various stops.  Most recently the folks over at NOM, have been somewhat distressed that at most every stop they make, protesters in favor of marriage equality outnumber the NOM supporters by nearly 2 to 1. As a result they have been tweeting furiously about how militant gays are trying to deny them their first amendment rights.

This past week in Rhode Island,  the good people of Providence decided they were tired of hearing Brown attack their lives, their loves and their families. So the people there in Providence exercised their own first amemendment rights in telling NOM to pack up their hate and get it out of their state. Brian Brown at NOM apparently thinks the first Amendment only applies to him,  and is still stomping his widdle feet about it on twitter, facebook and on NOM's own website. Apparently NOM isn't happy that freedom of speech goes both ways.


In their fundraising email blasts leading up to this Tour-de-Farce, NOM pleaded for money citing the need to "Defend Traditional Marriage". First, let's debunk the idea that banning same sex marriage is "defending marriage." How is the fact that two people are allowed to live in a stable, monogamous legally protected and, I might add, legally binding relationship in ANY way a threat to society? How is anyone's marriage harmed or even threatened by this?


It isn't. You know that, I know that, everyone knows that. 


Saying that letting two people of the same gender get married would in anyway "redefine" the marriages of heterosexuals, is the same thing as saying that equal rights for racial minorities would "redefine" being white. That argument is a smoke screen and a scare tactic and not even the real issue.

Second, the idea that "activist judges" are rewriting our laws circumventing the democratic process. This also is nonsense, very easily packaged nonsense, soundbyte-ready nonsense, but still nonsense. If in 1860 you had put emancipation to a popular vote, it would have failed. If in 1960 you had but integration to a popular vote it would have failed. For that matter if in 1776 you had but independence to a popular vote it would have failed.

The reason we have a judicial branch is balance of powers, remember that one from social studies? It's funny how those who are so upset about judicial usurping of democracy, don't consider someone who wants to bring religion in the courtroom with the Ten Commandments to be an "activist judge." 

And as far as these judges being "un-elected" who appointed them? Elected officials did. So the idea that judges striking down discrimination is undemocratic just doesn't wash. But this also is not really the issue. So what is the real issue here? It's truth. Or more the lack of it, in this debate over marriage.


First we need to say to those who claim we need to "defend marriage." Fine, let's talk about divorce then. Let's talk about adultery, let's talk about illegitimacy. Any group that claims to be defending marriage that doesn't address these issues is a sham,  they are bigots solely interested in denying equal rights to gay and lesbian Americans. Nothing more.


If opponents to gay marriage are serious about defending this sacred institution, then Divorce, a far greater threat to marriage needs to be much harder to get and easier to prevent. Adultery, a far greater threat to marriage needs to punishable by criminal prosecution. Fines and perhaps even jail time. Anyone who has a child out of wedlock should then by law be forced to marry the other parent. Or if they are already married legally adopt the child. (Strom Thurmond has never been so lucky to be dead.)

It is time that we call the self-proclaimed defenders of marriage what they are.

There is no difference between those who say marriage is sacred and must be defended agains "gay attack", and those who said racial integration was a threat to America . Wearing a cross necklace and going on TV to say Gays and Lesbians are unfit to raise children is no different from wearing a white hood, and standing in front of a burning cross and saying "the darkies are coming for your daughters."

Saying America must be defended against a radical gay agenda, saying books and movies that portray gay and lesbians in a positive light are dangerous, saying the media is controlled by a "gay Mafia". This is no different from those who 70 years ago posted signs saying "Deutshe! Wach Auf! Kauf nicht bei Juden!" (Germans wake up! Don't buy from Jews!)

Government saying an entire group of people are a threat to our families, government saying who can and cannot get married or raise children. This is no different from a Senator's list of names of people who couldn't teach, or make movies or write books, or work in science, medicine or law. 

Attempts to legally create a second class citizen are not new. We have seem them before. They had different names though. The inquisition, Jim Crow, States Rights, Reich Racial Purity Laws, the blacklist.

It is time we call the people who are trying to do  this again, but to gays and lesbians what they really are. They are the inquisitors, they are the nazi brownshirts of Krystalnacht, they are the Klansmen of Mississippi burning, they are the dogs on the Edmund Pettus Bridge , they are Joe Mcarthy's committee.

They are an affront to everything our nation has ever stood for. They are completely un-American.

The the 'crusaders' of NOM are the modern day elders of Salem. This small group of people who would seek to take their religious beliefs and codify them into civil law, then force them on the rest of us.

They are the American Taliban.

And it is long past time we said so.

I don't know where Joe finds this stuff....

But it's brilliant!  (via JoeMyGod)

That Pretty Much Sums it Up....

Hat tip to  Joe My God

Independence Day Thoughts from London....

This is the second year in a row that I have celebrated the Fourth of July from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in London. The city doesn't do much to mark the occasion. A few pubs will hang American flags out front in hopes of attracting wandering tourists. 


The American Military Memorial Chapel in Westminster Abbey gets a slightly larger number of visitors than usual. Other than that, it was just another Summer Sunday here in London.   



The day before on other hand was a different story, there were tens of thousands of people massed on the streets of central London Trafalgar Square was standing room only as various music acts and celebrities appeared on a stage and huge video monitors. As Eric and I made our way through the crowd I overheard one elderly American tourist ask her companion; "is all this for the Fourth of July?" Her friend replied she thought it must be. I didn't have the heart to tell them they had wandered into the middle of London's LGBT (Lesbian, Gay Bi-Sexual and Trans-gender) Pride celebration.

I will confess a certain ambivalence toward Pride celebrations in the U.S. this year. Part of it stems from the fact that I am in London partially by choice, and mostly by necessity. As travelling to the UK is far easier for me, than travelling to the US is for Eric. When I get asked at Heathrow Airport; "What is the purpose of your visit the UK?" I smile and say I am here to visit my Fiancé who is a UK Permanent Resident. At this point the UK Immigration officer invariably smiles and says; "that's nice, how long have you been engaged to her or him?"

Yes you read that correctly, they say "her or him". I smile and say how long I have known Eric and how long I will be staying in the UK on this visit. Often times I will get "congratulations", and once the immigration official who actually remembered me from my numerous other trips through Heathrow Passport Control, said; "tell Eric hello from us!"

It's amazing how the addition of that one little word "him", didn't cause the sky to fall on to the United Kingdom. Frogs didn't fall from the sky, the Earth didn't open up and spew lava all over Central London. At UK Border & Customs control, recognition of the dignity and equality of same sex couples is as ordinary as asking if you have any taxable good to declare.

Meanwhile over on the other side of the Atlantic the very idea that Same Sex couples might deserve the same BASIC civil rights and protections as everyone else is a subject of more debate than proposal to declare independence from Great Britain provoked back in 1776.

Fast forward to 2010, for the Republican Party and the "Tea Party Movement" they have manufactured,  the idea that Gay and Lesbian Americans (who pay the same taxes as everyone else yet are denied the same basic civil rights) might be allowed to get married, is tantamount to the world coming to an end.

So the GOP demands that the United States continue to cling to a law that prevents any recognition of Same Sex couples by the Federal Government. Of course I am talking about the ridiculously mis-named "Defense of Marriage Act." (DOMA) It provides the legal excuse for the United States to discriminate against us and over 40,000 bi-national same sex couples just like us.

The Republican "tea baggers" have a problem with me wanting to get married. It is the fact that the person I love has the audacity to be the same gender as I am. Now if Eric was female then Uncle Sam would give us his blessing no questions asked. I would be able to sponsor my fiancé for permanent residency in the U.S. and my government ( that I support through my taxes), would beam it's approval down upon us both. But the fact that Eric is a man just as I am, means that as far as my government is concerned , our relationship doesn't even exist.

All this despite the clear promises my President has made to the contrary.

So on this  Independence  Day  weekend,  as I  look back  across the Atlantic, I see an  irrational  fixation  by  Conservatives  to deny me and  millions of Americans  like me  the same basic  right  to  the  "pursuit  of happiness " they  claim to hold so  dear.  

Here in London I see  the  Armed Forces  of  Great Britain marching  proudly in London's  LBGT Pride parade  and instead of  the hysterical cries of  lunatic  homophobes,  I heard the  boisterous  cheers of  pride and support from tens of  thousands of  Londoners.

Now,  I really don't  want to leave my country.   Unlike  Sarah Palin and the scared gullible bigots that  hang on her every sad pathetic twitter posting,  I  really do  believe  that the  greatness of  the Unites States lies in our diversity.  "E Pluribus  Unum" - Out of Many , One.    Yet  for me to do something as basic as get married to the person I love,  I have to do just that.   Leave my country.

So I am moving to the United Kingdom.  Because unlike in 1776, in 2010 it is the people of Great Britain who have more civil rights and greater freedom than Americans do.  Unlike in 1776, in 2010 it is the American Government, not the British Crown,  that subjects its people to unfair taxation without representation.  Unlike in 1776, it is The United States of America that has politicians  seeking to preserve a status quo of inequality and treats groups of its own citizens unfairly.

In 2010,  the only quote by Thomas Jefferson  the  Republicans like to remember is the one about  'watering  the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants.'  Everything else Jefferson said on human rights, and the innate dignity of every person,  they like to forget.

In 2010  the  Republican Party and  "tea bagger" monster it has created  have abandoned John Adams' vision of America  as  the beacon of freedom for the world.  Instead,  they have a  scared, narrow vision of  America as  a place of freedom  only for some.  Everyone else, (especially if your skin happens to be a darker hue,  or worse, you  don't worship their idea of God in the way they prescribe ),  is suspect and therefore "un-American".

I look across the Atlantic  and I see  a country  which remains  determined  to treat me and the person I love  as something less than equal.   A country  that  gives credence to lunatics who claim that granting me the same basic civil rights as everyone else would bring about  nothing less than the destruction of the country and possibly even the world.  

How do you respond to that kind of  irrational hatred?

I can't help but wonder  what  John Adams would now think of  the nation he helped start .  He probably  would still be asking the question he asked back in  1776.  The same question I am asking as I look across the Atlantic and see  the Republican Party, a  party I once supported, allow itself  to become the standard bearer for  hatred, racism, xenophobia  and  bigotry;  Is anybody there?   Does  anybody care?.  Does anybody see,  what  I see?



When I hear clueless ignorant wingnuts, in their opposition to marriage equality say; "Same sex couples can draft contracts that give them the same rights as everybody else. We don't need to repeal DOMA, it's hard not to throw things at the t.v. Same sex couples in the U.S. are anything BUT equal.

So unless President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party suddenly grow a spine and decide to keep all those wonderful promises about equality they made back in 2008, I am am stuck choosing between love or country. After years of a trying to make a long distance relationship work, the choice has been made very clear.   So  as I waved my American Flag in Central London yesterday,  I  was all the while  acutely  aware  of  what  I must do to have those inalienable rights to  "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."   Country must lose.

Happy Independence Day everyone.

Dave & Eric.

HAPPY 4th of JULY

Or as they refer to  here in London  "Good Riddance Day"