Category: Republicans

Act NOW: Urge Your Senator to Support Hate Crimes Legislation.

Posted on by TL

The Matthew Shepard Act is before the United States Senate.  The wrong-right wing, for some insane reason, is pulling an all-out campaign to bury this bill.

We need your support now.  NOW.

Matthew Shepard, that beautiful boy from Wayoming, was murdered only because he was gay.

That’s it.

We need FEDERAL legislation to let everyone know hate crimes are wrong, no matter the reason.  For some reason, some people in the United States believe it’s okay ok to murder someone because he or she is gay.

Rubbish.

Call your senator NOW.

From the Matthew Shepard Foundation:

After 10 years of continued effort, a federal act to prevent and prosecute hate crimes committed against persons due to their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity is closer than ever to becoming law, with a key Senate roll-call about to take place.

The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which passed the U.S. House earlier this year by a sizeable margin, has been offered as an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 (S. 1391). Officially known as the Leahy/Collins/Kennedy/Snowe Amendment, it will be debated intermittently ahead of a crucial procedural vote as soon as Thursday afternoon, or as late as Monday, July 20.

The cloture motion (to end debate and force a vote on the amendment) will require 60 votes to pass. Support for the Matthew Shepard Act appears to be close to that threshold, though opponents of this common-sense legislation are reportedly deluging the Senate with calls and correspondence urging its defeat.

Yesterday, Matthew Shepard Foundation Governing Board President Judy Shepard joined Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at a Capitol press conference to urge passage of the legislation.  Sen. Reid reiterated his commitment to get the Matthew Shepard Act into law this year. The Defense Department spending bill, with or without the Shepard Act attached, will need to go to a conference committee of the House and Senate that will be charged with producing a final version in September.  House and Senate leaders and the White House have again restated their commitments to get this done—this year.

But lawmakers need to hear where you stand. Call THE SENATE SWITCHBOARD at 202-224-3121, or visit http://www.senate.gov/ and make your voice heard today!

Jason Marsden
Executive Director

Call NOW.  Democratic, Republican, no matter.  Gay, straight, no matter.   For the love of God, call to show your support for your fellow human beings.  Some of whom, are gay.

Gail Collins on Sarah Palin’s Implosion

Posted on by TL

Once again, the best I can say is I have no idea why Sarah Palin resigned as governor of Alaska.  Why show you’re not a quitter by quitting?  Why leave the highest office you’ve ever held?

Nothing about this move makes sense.

Gail Collins shares her thoughts at the New York Times.  Collins quotes from Palin’s rambling press conference:

“And a problem in our country today is apathy,” she said on Friday as she announced that she would resign as governor of Alaska at the end of the month. “It would be apathetic to just hunker down and ‘go with the flow.’ Nah, only dead fish ‘go with the flow.’ No. Productive, fulfilled people determine where to put their efforts, choosing to wisely utilize precious time … to BUILD UP.”

Basically, the point was that Palin is quitting as governor because she’s not a quitter. Or a deceased salmon.

Sarah Barracuda made her big announcement Friday afternoon on the lawn of her home to an audience that appeared to include only Todd, the kids and the next-door neighbors. Smiling manically, she looked like a parody of the woman who knocked the Republicans dead at their convention. She babbled about her parents’ refrigerator magnet, which apparently had a lot of wise advice. And she recalled her visit with the troops in Kosovo, whose dedication and determination inspired her to … resign.

“Life is about choices!” declared the nation’s most anti-choice politician.

Is this a brilliant move (as Mary Matalin asserts)  for a rising star launching her run for the White House?  Collins comments:

So if she’s starting to run, it will be as the same reporter-avoiding, generalization-spouting underachiever that she was last time around.

Now we know she not only doesn’t have the concentration to read a policy paper, she can’t focus long enough to finish the job she was hired to do.

I want to hear George Will try to spin this one.

And you betcha I’m looking forward to commentary from Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and David Letterman.

GOP Strategist Ed Rollins: Sarah Palin Looks ‘Inept,’ Timing ‘Suspicious’

Posted on by TL

GOP Strategist Ed Rollins echoes what many are already speculating: Sarah Palin’s timing is very, very suspicious.

“Everyone’s goint to assume there’s another story,” Rollins told CNN.  “You don’t just quit with a year-and-a-half to go as governor.  You certainly don’t do this as a stepping stone to run for president. You finish the job that you’re in, and obviously she’s not doing that.  I think people are going to be very suspicious because of the timing.  You don’t quit on a Friday of a three-day holiday.

“If you’re going to do this, you think it through, you give  a good speech.  You basically have an audience.  I think, to a certain extent, this has just made her look totatlly inept.”

If you’re accessing this via one of our affiliates, please click through for a video of Rollins’ remarks on CNN.

Very suspicious indeed.

Sarah Palin Gives Alaskans 4th of July Gift: Resigns as Governer

Posted on by TL

The nod goes to ABC for this one:

ABC News’ Kate Barrett Reports: Sarah Palin announced Friday that she will step down from her post as Alaska governor at the end of the month, and will not run for reelection. 

In a press conference from her Wasilla home, the Alaska governor said “this decision has been in the works for awhile,” and said, “I’m not wired to operate under the same old politics as usual.”

There’s been speculation that Palin has had her eye on the 2012 presidential race, but it’s unclear why she’s leaving before the end of her term. Her current run as governor ends in 2010.

So she’s “not wired” to be governor.  As chief executive of the state of Alaska, she was in a premium position to define politics any way she wanted, and to walk right into a presidential campaign.

I don’t see how this helps. Quitting on the job? Saying she’s “not wired” for this kind of work, “not wired” to be chief executive?

And how does this help someone desperate to stay in the news?

I don’t see how that helps her at all.

Do you sense that there might be more to the story?

Happy 4th of July, America!

Buchanan And White Nationalist Brimelow Argue For English-Only Initiatives at ‘Conferenece’

Posted on by TL

Hats off to Think Progress for finding this one:

On Saturday, Pat Buchanan hosted a conference to discuss how Republicans can regain a majority in America. During one discussion, panelists suggested supporting English-only initiatives as a prime way of attracting “working class white Democrats.” The discussion ridiculed Judge Sotomayor for the fact that she studied children’s classics to improve her grammar while attending college. The panelists also suggested that, without English as the official language, President Obama would force Americans to speak Spanish.

One salient feature of the event was the banner hanging over the English-only advocates. The word conference was spelled “Conferenece.”

buchanan-2009-conferenece

Pat must be thinking, “Oy,” about now.  Right, Pat?

Please visit Think Progress and thank them.

Republicans Can’t Even Build a Web Site

Posted on by TL

In some of my other endeavors, I really would like to give the Repbulicans a voice.  Really.  But it’s very difficult to find out what the GOP has to say on anything when they can’t even coordinate a web site.

I went to the GOP web site, GOP.COM, in search of this week’s response to the president.  President Obama began giving weekly video addresses, beyond print and beyond the radio.  Obama has the Internet down, and Democrats have responded.

The RNC’s web site is a mess.  There seems to be a project underway to update it, but the last update is almost a month ago.

This is from May 15 (emphasis original to the post):

5/15/09 Update: What you see here is a placeholder between what was and what is to come for GOP.com. Don’t get too used to this page–the complete rebuild is around the corner. Soon we’ll have a new look and a more enjoyable, modern, open and participatory way to share our ideals with the Country.

On Friday of last week, we chose a vendor to rebuild our website and digital presence; the two are not the same and the distinction matters—a lot. It matters especially so for us.

The website you see today is difficult to update, hard to use, and locked in a Web 1.0 environment. It is also stale. It is in need of a massive spring clean. To be fair, my predecessor and good friend, Cyrus Krohn, and his team were on the way to changing all of this. Then, we elected a new Chairman, re-grouped, re-staffed and then, finally, we locked & loaded.

The project is underway.

There appears to be a (presumably) wonderful Web 2.0 design project underway.  But if the GOP builds it, will anyone come?

Another quote from the same post (emphasis original to the post):

Pew recently released a study about politics and technology. I quote (the emphasis is mine): “Despite the Dem’s recent success in using the internet, Republicans as a whole (68%) are actually more likely to be online political users then Dem’s (53%). 84% of Republicans go online and of that group 79% are online political users. Only 40% of Republicans engage in online activism. (Online activism is defined by three components; 1) going online for political news and information 2) communicating with others about politics online and 3) using social media tools (FBOOK, Twitter, Email) to interact with other voters/campaigns.)”

I wouldn’t float those stats too much.  If only 40% of Republicans engage in online activism, then what’s the point?  The fact is, Republicans are following the Dems on this one, and, with the party lacking any clear focus or message at this point, building a Web 2.0 web site seems to be the last thing that should be on the agenda.  Besides, by the time Republicans catch up and begin working the system with Facebook, Twitter, and [gasp] Email, the Dems will have already be riding the next wave.  They already are.

Innovation is on the blue side of the table, both in political thought, critical thinking, and the Internet.  A new web page won’t change that.

Republicans Have 19 Times More Sex Scandals than Dems

Posted on by TL

Did you know that Republicans have 19 times more sex scandals than Democrats?

Carnal Nation tells the tale:

Using the highly unscientific (but fun) method of who has the most google hits Carnal Nation has determined that Republicans lead by far.  In fact no group we googled except the generic “us sex scandal” beat the Republicans whose total of 5.1 million hits was more than 19 times that of Democrats.

Click here for their complete results.

And I love the picture.

Newt Gingrich Hates the Constitution and America

Posted on by TL

Newt Gingrich was never a successful politician.  As a talking head, he gets by.  After his failed Contract with America, Gingrich continued to point fingers, cough up empty theoretical neo-con rhetoric, and a bizarre plan to save America called American Solutions for Winning the Future (ASWF, or ass whiff, for short).

This morning, I watched Gingrich attempt to debate Sen. Dick Durbin on NBC’s Meet the Press.  David Gregory left every false claim by Gingrich go unchallenged.  We’ll leave that to our friends at Media Matters.

Here’s what I notice about Gingrich: the man hates the United States Constitution.

This week I started singing the Preamble to the Constitution, a la School House Rock.  Remember this?

Here it is:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Justice: the first value established.  Justice.

Gingrich wants to toss out justice, keep Gitmo, hold Prisoners of War forever, without trial, without charges. Gingrich wants the United States to continue to run gulags. The United States Constitution is too much for Gingrich, too fair.

Make no mistake, Newt Gingrich hates the United States Constition and the United States of America.  Newt Gingrich wants to continue the Bush-Cheney doctring of shredding the Constitution.

The Founding Fathers were not fools.  Gingrich is.

OUTRAGE Targets Closeted Pols Who Campaign, Vote Against Gay Community

Posted on by TL

From Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Kirby Dick (This Film Is Not Yet Rated) comes OUTRAGE, a searing indictment of the hypocrisy of closeted politicians with appalling gay rights voting records who actively campaign against the LGBT community they covertly belong to. Boldly revealing the hidden lives of some of the United States’ most powerful policymakers, OUTRAGE takes a comprehensive look at the harm they’ve inflicted on millions of Americans, and examines the media’s complicity in keeping their secrets.

With analysis from prominent members of the gay community such as Congressman Barney Frank, former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey, activist Larry Kramer, radio personality Michelangelo Signorile, and openly gay congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (Representative, Wisconsin 2nd district), OUTRAGE probes deeply into the psychology of this double lifestyle, the ethics of outing closeted politicians, the double standards that the media upholds in its coverage of the sex lives of gay public figures, and much more.

Source: http://www.outragethemovie.com/

Learn more about OUTRAGE on Facebook.

Kim Hendren Apologizes After Calling Sen. Schumer “That Jew”

Posted on by TL

From the Huffington Post:

A Republican candidate for Senate from Arkansas reportedly referred to Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer as “that Jew” during a recent appearance before a Republican group.

State Sen. Kim Hendren told The Associated Press on Thursday that he was wrong to refer to Schumer’s religious affiliation during a Pulaski County Republican Committee meeting last week. Hendren said he doesn’t remember the exact wording of his comment, but he was quoted by conservative blogger Jason Tolbert as calling Schumer “that Jew.”

“I ought not to have referred to it at all,” Hendren told the AP. “When I referred to him as Jewish, it wasn’t because I don’t like Jewish people.”

And some of my best friends are Jewish.

Amazing the things we’ll say sometimes when we think we’re safe, isn’t it?