Saturday, February 20, 2010

CPAC: Ron Paul Wins 2012 Straw Poll

Loony tune Ron Paul won today's CPAC straw poll on potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates. CPAC's annual straw poll is a closely watched indicator of the rising or falling stars of conservative politicians, although its results aren't necessarily predictive of future electoral success.
A libertarian from Texas who has railed against spending and the Federal Reserve, Paul won the Saturday contest at the Conservative Political Action Conference with 31 percent backing. He has sought the presidential nomination in the past and attracted a following among a segment of voters frustrated with Washington. Paul spoke at the conference along with potential presidential candidates former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. Romney won second with 22 percent, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin came in third with 7 percent and Pawlenty finished with 6 percent.
The CPAC crowd booed upon the announcement of the results. Ron Paul's followers are known to pack out these types of conventions and freep event polling.

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CPAC: GOProud Vs. NOM

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CPAC: Rep. Michele Bachmann Wants To Turn Liberals Into World Net Daily Readers

Rep. Michele Bachmann spoke at CPAC yesterday, where she proudly displayed a slide of that "Miss Me Yet?" Dubya billboard. Bachmann challenged CPAC attendees to "flip liberals" to being World Net Daily readers. And then we can ALL be crazy birther, tenthers, and racists!

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Charges Dismissed For Queer Rising 4

A large group of supporters appeared at a Manhattan courthouse yesterday to hear a judge dismiss all charges against the four members of Queer Rising who were arrested last week in a marriage equality protest. Via press release:
Four members of the group Queer Rising, a group which advocates for civil rights for the LGBT community accepted pleas of ‘adjournment contemplating dismissal’ (ACD) today from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. The individuals were charged with Obstructing Government Administration as well as two charges of Disorderly Conduct for chaining themselves together in front of the New York City Marriage License Bureau on February 12, 2010, in attempt to bring attention to the fact that the office denies LGBT New Yorkers the opportunity to file for marriage certificates. Justin Elzie, Alan Bounville, Gabriel Yuri Bollag and Jake Goodman accepted the offer which would allow them to dismiss all charges after 6 months assuming they are not arrested again during this time. Ted Bohn, co-counsel for the defendants, said "As long as the State of New York maintains a policy which codifies that the love between two men or two women is inferior to the love between a man and a woman, these actions will continue. This was only the beginning. We are grateful, however, to Cy Vance for recognizing that those arrested in furtherance of civil rights should not be treated like criminals."

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On Sale At CPAC

UPDATE: Rob Tisinai has a few variations of this photo.

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Retired Gen. Alexander Haig Dies At 85

Former Nixon White House chief of staff General Alexander Haig died in a Baltimore hospital yesterday at the age of 85. Many credit/blame Haig with brokering the deal in which Nixon resigned the presidency in return for a pardon.
Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter sent the four-star general to Europe as supreme commander of NATO. Ronald Reagan made him secretary of state, resulting in a brief and stormy tenure in which he famously tried to assert command after the attempted assassination of the president. And Gen. Haig himself, a tall man with blue eyes who kept his chin-up military bearing long after he left the service, ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988. In a statement, President Obama said Gen. Haig "exemplified our finest warrior-diplomat tradition of those who dedicate their lives to public service." Gen. Haig's influence peaked in his late 40s during Nixon's last 16 months in office, when brewing developments in the Watergate scandal damaged and increasingly distracted the president. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger famously told Gen. Haig to keep the country together while he held the world together during one of the greatest constitutional crises in the nation's history. Special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, and many others, called Gen. Haig the "37 1/2 president."

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Olbermann On CPAC Day Two

Keith Olbermann recaps yesterday's crazies including Ryan Sorba's GOProud meltdown.

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Friday, February 19, 2010

CPAC Speaker Booed Off The Stage After Denouncing GOProud

Ryan Sorba of California Young Americans for Freedom got roundly booed by the CPAC audience after he denounced the organizers for allowing "GOPride" to attend. That's a rather unexpected reaction on the part of the audience to be sure, unless in some very unlikely event, GOProud had managed to pack out the large hall with their own people.

UPDATE: It turns out we've heard of Ryan Sorba before. And in another fascinating development, "Ryan Sorba" is now a trending topic on Twitter, where most with a #CPAC10 hashtag are attacking him.

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How You Get To Work

(Via - Second Avenue Sagas)

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Caption This

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Vancouver: Public Displays Of Gay

Via JMG reader BStewart23, here's a poster from a new campaign by the Vancouver Health Institute for Men called "Public Displays of Gay."
HIM has a new poster campaign that is being promoted during the Olympics. The campaign shows visitors the diverse and accepting side of Vancouver, while promoting public displays of gay affection. The posters will show images of gay couples expressing affection on various street corners in Vancouver. It is HIM's goal to put a gay couple on every street corner downtown (or at least a poster of one). Other gay guys can submit their public displays of affection on our website, so grab your camera, a friend/lover/stranger and start making out in public.
The text at the bottom of the poster reads: "Gay love has been legal in Canada since 1969, protected by the Constitution since 1992 and celebrated with marriage since 2005."

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Quote Of The Day - Gary Cass

"The Bible declares that the mind of person given over to homosexuality becomes depraved or spiritually worthless. This was on full display when pop star Elton John declared, 'I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems.' This is an outrage and the height of blasphemy and an offence to all those who are Christians.

"Sodomy is a pernicious sin and to assert Jesus was a homosexual is to allege he engaged in a most wicked and perverted activity. It denies the Christian doctrine of the sinless life of Christ who died as an innocent man on behalf of the guilty human race. If Jesus was a sodomite then there is no atonement or forgiveness of sin. To assert that Jesus was a homosexual only serves to confirm the twisted and depraved mind of Elton John. This is an obvious case of someone projecting their own corrupt lifestyle onto Christ in an effort to justify their own unrepentant buggery. Elton John owes all Christians an apology." - Christian Anti-Defamation Commission spoke-twat Gary Cass.

RELATED: I love "unrepentant buggery"! "Dr." Cass can be reached at 866-508-2232.

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Broadway Friday

- Carrie Fisher says the producer of her just-closed hit show Wishful Drinking hasn't paid her what he owes and failed to move the show to a big enough Broadway house. The show had its entire run at the small and non-profit Studio 54.

- South Pacific will close on August 22nd.

- Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown: The Musical, begins previews at Lincoln Center on October 2nd.

- Valerie Harper opens tonight as Tallulah Bankhead in Looped. Follow her on Twitter, she's quite chatty.

- Bloomberg.com reviewer John Simon is grossed out by the Off Broadway gay play The Pride, and says mainstream audiences will be too: "Another problem is men kissing each other and even indulging in violent anal intercourse. Add to this much crudely detailed palaver about fellatio and unleashed indulgence in expletives to make David Mamet envious." GET TICKETS HERE.

- U2's Edge says that Spider-Man: The Musical will open this fall despite major production, funding, and other issues. It's the most expensive production in Broadway history, but things are looking up since Disney acquired Marvel Comics in a few months ago.

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Highlights: Sully Vs. Maggie

Via Metro Weekly, here's a highlight reel from this week's Cato Institute between Maggie Gallagher and Andrew Sullivan, including some post-debate interviews.

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Up Glenn Beck's Nose

Media Matters has some fun with the CPAC asshole who mentioned Obama's cocaine use and mixes it with a clip of Glenn Beck admitting that most of his early earnings went "up his nose."

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Nothing Is As It Seems

Even the most mundane TV and movie shots are now done with green screens.

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Alliance Defense Fund: DADT Repeal Creates New Religion

The anti-gay Alliance Defense Fund says that if President Obama allows the repeal of DADT, he will be violating the Constitution by establishing a religion for military personnel. Wait, what?
"If chaplains with beliefs that contradict the proposed policy are kept from roles that are likely to generate conflict – like preaching or counseling – then they, the faith groups the represent, and the soldiers whose religious beliefs they serve will all be marginalized," a letter today from the Alliance Defense Fund to Obama said. "The military would effectively establish preferred religions or religious beliefs," the letter said. "That is a constitutional offense that carries a very pragmatic consequence: just what will happen to recruiting efforts if Christians become second-class soldiers, sailors, airmen, or Marines." "Military chaplains who have volunteered to defend the liberties protected in our Constitution shouldn't be denied those very same liberties," said Theriot. "Forcing chaplains to deny the teachings of their faith in order to serve in the armed forces is a grave threat to the First Amendment and to the spiritual health of Marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen who depend on them."
Got that? Anything that stops religious hate speech is a religion unto its own. OK, then.

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Menya - Babies

NYC popsters Menya do a slightly dirtier version of clean tween Justin Bieber's hit Baby. Featuring a totally adorkable cub who goes by the name Good Goose. All three bandmembers are NYU undergrads.

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Four Years In Prison For Bernie Kerik

Former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who almost became Dubya's director of Homeland Security thanks to Rudy Giuliani's post-9/11 cheerleading, was sentenced yesterday to four years in federal prison for lying to the feds and accepting mob money to build his house. The judge gave Kerik twice the recommended sentence. That Rudy Giuliani, he sure knows how to pick 'em!

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Meat Beat Manifesto

Via the USDA's Food Environment Atlas. Lots more maps at the link.

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HomoQuotable - Elton John

"I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems. On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don't know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East -- you're as good as dead." - Elton John, speaking to Parade Magazine.

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Minnesota To Consider Gay Marriage

Next week the Minnesota legislature will consider several bills related to same-sex marriage.
The House Civil Justice Committee will be the first in Minnesota’s history to conduct a hearing on the possibility of legalizing same-sex marriage in the state. Three bills will be up for discussion on Monday, and all three are supportive of expanded relationship rights for Minnesota’s same-sex couples. The Marriage and Family Protection Act would make marriages in Minnesota gender neutral, a civil unions bill is also being proposed and another bill would recognize same-sex marriage performed in states where it is legal, such as neighboring Iowa. "The hearing will be historic because it is the first time a committee in our state Legislature will be looking at what enacting marriage equality means for Minnesota,” said OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBT equality group. The hearing will be held at 4:30pm on Monday, February 22 in State Office Building Room 10.
A local activist quoted in the above-linked article says the meetings will be mere "show hearings" designed to "shut up" the gay community and that the three bills have zero chance of advancing.

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Daily Ungrumble

I've watched about five hours of Olympic curling and I still don't have the faintest idea what the rules are, how scoring is calculated, or even what the actual goal of the game is. Something about putting the rock in the hoose by the end. But I'm happy to keep watching, mostly for the closeups of Canadian champion curler John Morris.

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Benny Hinn Fails To Heal His Marriage

Prosperity gospel televangelist and "faith healing" scam artist Benny Hinn was unable to heal the desire of his wife to get the fuck away from him.
The wife of televangelist has filed for divorce from the high-profile pastor, whose reputation as an advocate of prosperity gospel has attracted millions of followers and criticism from lawmakers and watchdog groups over his lavish lifestyle. Suzanne Hinn filed the papers in Orange County Superior Court on Feb. 1, citing irreconcilable differences, after more than 30 years of marriage. The papers note the two separated on Jan. 26 and that Hinn has been living in Dana Point, a wealthy coastal community in southern Orange County. "Pastor Benny Hinn and his immediate family were shocked and saddened to learn of this news without any previous notice," Benny Hinn Ministries said Thursday in a statement. "Although Pastor Hinn has faithfully endeavored to bring healing to their relationship, those efforts failed and were met with the petition for divorce that was filed without notice." Hinn is one of the best known advocates of the prosperity gospel, which teaches that Christians who are right with God will be rewarded with wealth and health in this lifetime.
Hinn is presently under investigation by Congress for violating non-profit rules. He travels in his private zillion dollar jet named "Dove One" and is said to own more than a dozen luxury mansions around the world. And every day in every city, some elderly pensioner eats cat food in order to send Benny Hinn a donation.

VIDEO: Watch Benny Hinn slay thousands in the Holy Spirit. Most of the people on stage are paid accomplices, of course. Others have to pretend that they are really being "slain," less their Jeebus cred be damaged. Glory! Praise His Name! Send more money and buy your way into Heaven!

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Today In Crazy People

The 9/11 Truthers are already claiming that the plane crash in Austin was a "false flag op" by the federal government, presumably to discredit the teabaggers. According to the Crazy People, fire trucks and HazMat teams were already in place outside the IRS office prior to the crash, awaiting the arrival of the plane.

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Do Drop The Soap

The above ad for Toronto's Muddy York rugby club can currently be seen around the city's gay village.

(Tipped by JMG reader Trevor in Toronto)

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CNN Visit GOProud's CPAC Booth


(Via - Towleroad)

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The Teacher Is Watching

A class action suit has been filed against a Pennsylvania school district for distributing laptop computers to its students and then remote accessing their webcams to spy on their home lives.
According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.
Students had suspected something was going on and some had taken to covering their webcams with paper or tape. School administrators say the program was originally intended to track the computers if they were stolen.

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Family Research Council Exposed As Liars

Remember how I mentioned the Family Research Council's press release that they would be hosting Proctor & Gamble at the anti-gay Values Voters Summit in September? Proctor & Gamble doesn't know what the fuck those liars are talking about.
“Procter & Gamble has a strong, long-standing corporate commitment to diversity and inclusion—it is deeply rooted in our company’s culture,” P&G spokesman Brent Miller said in a statement to The Advocate. “P&G highly values individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures and is recognized for its diversity practices, including its efforts in GBLT diversity. P&G remains committed to developing family-friendly programming that appeals to the diversity of our consumers around the world. P&G is not planning to participate in the Values Voter Summit 2010 as suggested in the report.”
Proctor & Gamble has a 100 rating on the HRC's Corporate Equality Index. The Family Research Council has a 0 rating on the Non-Lying Christians Index.

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Rachel Maddow Goes To CPAC

She had a pretty fun time, actually, except for an encounter with one of those looney red-sashed Catholics.

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Liberty Counsel's CPAC Boycott Fail

Remember how Matt Barber, Focus On The Family, and the Liberty Counsel stomped their feet and said they would boycott CPAC if those dirty GOProud queers were allowed to attend? So much for THAT.
CPAC ignored the threat, essentially calling the evangelicals' bluff. This gave the social conservatives a choice. They could pull out of CPAC, which holds an informal poll of Republican presidential contenders. The straw poll is widely seen as an indicator of how possible candidates are playing with the conservative base. Or, they could show up and hang out with people they think are an "affront to God." As it turned out, politics trumped God. On Thursday at Washington's Marriott Wardman hotel, representatives for both Liberty Counsel and GOProud were hosting booths in the same exhibit hall. The folks staffing the Liberty Counsel booth insisted their presence didn't mean they'd compromised their values. One young woman at the booth explained that Liberty Counsel's parent organization (Falwell's Liberty University School of Law) had yanked its financial support as a CPAC co-sponsor, as this would have forced the organization to join hands with a group that contravenes its mission. Apparently, paying the organizers in order to host an exhibit space alongside GOProud at the event didn't pose the same problem.

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Louisiana Court Ruling: Both Adoptive Dads Get Their Names On Birth Certificate

The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that both adoptive fathers in a Louisiana gay adoption case may have their names put on the child's birth certificate.
A three-judge panel unanimously upheld a district judge's ruling, ordering the state registrar to quickly issue a new certificate for the boy identified as "Infant J," and "J.C. A.-S." "Even our opponents have said this is landmark case and we're pleased the court agrees that it's wrong to punish children just because the registrar doesn't like their parents," said Kenneth Upton, the attorney for Lambda Legal who represented the couple, Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith of San Diego. Upton said he called Adar with news of the ruling and was told, "Can you imagine the coincidence? Right now I'm enrolling the child in school and they just asked me for a birth certificate." "You talk about great timing," Upton said. "They were just delighted."
The child was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. The adoptive fathers live in New York, where they legally adopted the child. As New York permits the birth certificate change, the Court ruled that Louisiana had to abide by the Full Faith & Credit clause of the U.S. Constitution.

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Crown Of Roses

To avoid spoilers, don't read the comments on this post, please.

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Thursday, February 18, 2010

CPAC: Anti-Gay DADT Press Conference

Elaine Donnelly, Tony Perkins, and other assorted bigots gathered at CPAC today to slam the DADT repeal attempt. Retired Admiral James Lyons, who is in his early 100s, recalls that homos were once so rife in the Navy, that mothers refused to allow their sons to join. Fortunately, the Navy is no longer gay. At all. For realz.

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CPAC: Gay Familes = Hitler Youth

Right Wing Watch:
Janice Shaw Crouse of The Beverly LaHaye Institute joined the EagleForum's Phyllis Schafly and Tim Goeglein of Focus on the Family for a CPAC panel entitled "Saving Freedom from The Enemies of Our Values." While Schlafly spent most of her speech rambling on about the internal enemies of the conservative movement, namely RINOs and Rockefeller Republicans, and Goeglein spent most of his time quoting other people, Crouse got right down to business, explaining that the those who are undermining our families, our morals, and our values are making today's children susceptible to becoming the next Hitler Youth.

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Utah Considers Renaming MLK Day After Rifle Manufacturer

Utah state Senators are considering a plan to rename Martin Luther King Day to include mention of rifle manufacturer John Browning.
A plan is circulating under the radar in the Utah State Senate to share the holiday honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., shot to death in 1968, with one of the country's most famous gun makers. The plan is to rename the holiday, which falls on the third Monday of January, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr./John M. Browning Day, adding the gun manufacturer whose birthday also falls in January. A bill titled "John M. Browning State Holiday" was submitted at the deadline for filings, Feb. 5, sponsored by Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi. The bill, SB247, has no text, following a common practice in which legislators file a title, get a bill number and fill in details later. Those are called boxcar bills.

But a draft has been circulating in the Senate that would combine the current King holiday with a celebration of Browning, an Ogden native and one of the most significant pioneers in firearms manufacturing. Supporters of the idea say Browning's inventions, which included the most sophisticated automatic and semi-automatic weaponry of the early 20th Century, were instrumental in U.S. wars against tyranny and partially responsible for the continued freedom that allowed King to do his work. The Utah Legislature has a contentious history with the holiday honoring King. After President Ronald Reagan signed the legislation creating the federal holiday, bitter debates resulted in a compromise, calling the holiday "Human Rights Day." Utah changed the name to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 2000, becoming the last state to do so.
MLK was killed with a Remington, not a Browning, something that probably disappoints the asshats behind the bill.

(Via - AmericaBlog)

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Photo Of The Day

This is how the HBO series Hung is being advertised in New Zealand.

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SUICIDE MISSION: Pilot Crashes Plane Into IRS Building In Austin, Texas


A private plane has crashed into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, killing the pilot and his passenger. It appears that the pilot burned his own house down prior to boarding the plane and left a long rambling manifesto decrying the U.S. goverment's bailout of General Motors, among other things.
Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.
Some sites are already calling this the action of a deranged teabagger, but there's not clear evidence of that yet.

UPDATE: Teabaggers have created a tribute page to the pilot on Facebook.

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CPAC-ers Explode In Joy As Dick Cheney Makes Surprise Appearance

Horrifying. Terrifying. War criminal sends vacant-eyed zombies into frenzy over hint of 2012 presidential run.

RELATED: Ben Smith at Politico today notes that "conservative activist" Chris Barron is behind the Draft Cheney movement. Smith doesn't appear to know that Barron is the head of GOProud. Here's his official Draft Cheney site. That's right folks, a gay man is spearheading the drive to make the second-most detested politician of the 21st century our next president.

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CPAC M4M

And the CPAC hookups commence:
If you're attending the CPAC conference, and need a break to lay back, and get drained, drop me a note. Be white, or latin, in your 20's to mid-30's, d/d free, and hiv neg. I'm white, d/d free, hiv neg, 50's, very oral, and very discreet, so you'll get sucked dry in a discreet way. Hosting at my place in NW DC.
But all the real action will be at the GOProud table.

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CPAC 2010 Speaker Makes "Obama Does Cocaine" Joke


And in this clip, he mocks gays and feminists.

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HRC Issues Plan For DADT Repeal

Probably in response to Tuesday's blog swarm, the Human Rights Campaign today issued a five point plan regarding the repeal of DADT.
Guiding our work over the next months will be a number of key principles:

* Continued Presidential
Leadership
We have -
and will continue to — call on the White House to include DADT repeal language in the 2011 Department of Defense authorization bill. HRC Legislative Director Allison Herwitt made that clear in this story by the DC Agenda on Jan. 11.

* Congressional Action in 2010
We believe that legislative action must run on a parallel track with the work of the DOD implementation review. We have — and will continue to — press the Senate to include repeal language in the final mark up of this year’s DOD authorization bill.

* Gates/Mullen review
While the testimony of Gates and Mullen marked a historic and extraordinary move towards final repeal of DADT, HRC is advocating that the announced review is comprehensive and expeditious, and includes input from lesbian and gay service members and veterans. We will work to ensure the Working Group established by Secretary Gates will have all the data and information necessary to address any and all implementation issues.

* Strategic Partnerships
HRC will continue to partner with key groups and Congressional allies working toward repeal including the Center for American Progress, Servicemembers United and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. By continuing to pool our resources, contacts and intelligence, we can meet the opposition head on and build even greater momentum for repeal.

* Voices of Veterans
HRC’s “Voices of Honor” campaign is organizing veterans across the country to generate media, grassroots and grass tops pressure in key states that will be critical to the final votes in the House and Senate. The campaign builds on the work of the national “Voices of Honor Tour” last summer which led to 30 new Congressional co-sponsors and garnered national media attention to this discriminatory law.

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The Superions (Feat. Fred Schneider)
Who Threw That Ham At Me?

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HomoQuotable - Guillermo Diaz

"I’ve been getting some flack from people saying that Angel is kind of queeny, and I’m like, ‘Well, that’s just me.' I’m both. Sometimes I’m butch, and sometimes when I’m with my friends, I queen out. It’s all good. I’m just trying to keep it honest." - Guillermo Diaz, talking to Out Magazine about his character on NBC's new hospital drama, Mercy.

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Tweet Of The Day

Via GOProud, who supports the Draft Cheney movement.

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Friday: Blowoff NYC @ The Canal Room

Booze, bears, and mayhem. After a three month absence, Blowoff returns to NYC tomorrow night at the Canal Room in Tribeca. Doors open at 11:30pm, advance tickets $15. Get tickets here. Subway: A/C/E/1 to Canal Station, one block from the venue.

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Tired Old Queen At The Movies #19

I love Black Narcissus!

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Olympics Medal Ranking

RELATED: Flavor Flav did a great job designing this year's medals.

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CPAC 2010 Live Stream

Here's the live stream for CPAC 2010, which begins today and will be a wall-to-wall cavalcade of crazy and hate. It looks like the signal will go live at 9:45am with opening remarks from the American Conservative Union, followed by SC Sen. Jim DeMint introducing Marco Rubio, who is running against Charlie Crist for the Senate. Don't look for GOProud here, they are not permitted to speak (about gay issues, that is.)

UPDATE: Live stream concluded.

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Admiral Mike Mullen: Little Resistance To DADT Repeal Among Troops

Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen says he is finding little resistance among the troops to the idea of repealing DADT.
Mullen was nearing the end of a 25-minute question-and-answer session with troops serving here when he raised a topic of his own: "No one's asked me about 'don't ask, don't tell,' " he said. As it turned out, none of the two dozen or so men or women who met with Mullen at Marine House in the Jordanian capital Tuesday had any questions on the 17-year-old policy that bars gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military - or Mullen's public advocacy of its repeal. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Darryl E. Robinson, who's the operations coordinator for defense attache's office at the U.S. Embassy here, explained why after the session. "The U.S. military was always at the forefront of social change," he said. "We didn't wait for laws to change." Some Republicans in Congress have expressed outrage at repealing the ban in wartime and the Pentagon has embarked on a yearlong study on what impact the repeal might have. At a Senate hearing earlier this month, Sen. John McCain R-Ariz., urged Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to "keep the impact it will have on our forces firmly in mind." Yet those gathered at Marine House made it clear they've already accepted the idea of gays and lesbians serving among them.
Next week the head of each branch of the armed services will testify before Congress about the repeal attempt. The Commandant of the Marine Corps has said that he is strongly opposed, the Army Chief of Staff opposes the repeal taking place during wartime.

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Walk The Dinosaur

From a Texas Tribune poll:
Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. The differences in beliefs about evolution and the length of time that living things have existed on earth are reflected in the political and religious preference of our respondents, who were asked four questions about biological history and God.
(Tipped by JMG reader Spiky)

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UK: Glenn Beck Loses 103 Sponsors

Think Progress reports that Glenn Beck's UK radio show is in serious trouble.
Today, Color of Change and StopBeck.com announced that the United Kingdom has forcefully rejected Fox News host Glenn Beck. In fact, the UK broadcast of his show “was forced to run without any advertisements” for five days in a row as of yesterday. Additionally, 103 companies have agreed to stop their ads from appearing on his program. Some of the latest defections include Allstate Insurance, Anheuser-Busch, Idaho Potato Commission, Marriott International, Volkswagen, and Western Union.
Five days in a row without a single commercial! Don't hold your breath for the same success here in the states.

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Maddow Reviews The Hurt Locker

Best Picture nominee The Hurt Locker is a favorite to win.

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Gay Seniors Program Gets Federal Grant

The Chicago chapter of SAGE has been awarded $475K for program services by the federal government.
The program, Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders, or SAGE, is part of the Center on Halsted, a gay and lesbian community center in Lakeview, and was profiled by the Tribune last June. Its director, Serena Worthington, said the $475,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services marks only the third time that federal money has gone to a program focusing on GLBT seniors. "It's an affirmation of the work the center does for people of all ages, and especially for seniors," Worthington said. "The projects it funds will be designed to enhance the lives of seniors here and, hopefully, across the country." Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., announced the award Tuesday at the Center on Halsted. The grant was part of Quigley's appropriations request for the 2010 fiscal year.
The money will be used for computer equipment, a study of HIV-related cognitive dysfunction in gay seniors, and to produce an HIV awareness film.

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World Net Daily Columnist: Homosexuals Should Be Put To Death

World Net Daily columnist Molotov Mitchell says that Uganda has it right, the Bible clearly calls for homosexuals to put to death. If gay Ugandans don't like that, they can just leave. And that America's Founding Fathers had it right too, because was a death penalty for gays in the original colonies. Mitchell says that by being willing to kill homosexuals, Ugandans are now "more American that Americans" and he closes by quoting Martin Luther King: "The moral arm of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

NOTE: This piece first appeared to little notice on WND several weeks ago, but has just been posted to YouTube. Mitchell's ranting is yet another another example of the recent ramping up of violently anti-gay rhetoric from the Christianist right. The American Family Association thinks gays should all be imprisoned and forcibly subjected to "reparative therapy." The Family Research Council says that gays are inherent rapists who can't be trusted around soldiers. Mission America says that protecting gay kids from beatings in school is a fascist idea. And now a columnist from the most widely read Christian site in the nation is calling for us to be put to death.

(Via - Good As You)

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Open Thread Thursday

Tuesday's blog swarm prompted many of you to suggest that calling one's own representatives personally would be more effective than "lobbying readers to lobby the HRC to lobby the president to lobby Congress about DADT," as one reader put it. I don't disagree, but participated mostly because I was so curious as to how the HRC would react to such an unprecedented push. But I was also reminded how extraordinarily lucky I am to live somewhere where every single one of my elected representatives, at all levels of government, supports virtually every item on the LGBT wish list.* Tell us about your own reps, at any level, and how your interactions with them on LGBT issues have gone. Do you think you've positively affected their positions and decisions?

*That's not to suggest we're completely satisfied with how they go about seeking the changes we are calling for.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

NH Rejects Gay Marriage Ballot Push

Moments ago, the New Hampshire House resoundingly rejected an attempt to place a vote to repeal same-sex marriage on the November ballot.
CACR 28 defined marriage in this state by saying it can only be between a man and a woman. It was rejected by a wide margin, 201-135, short of a simple majority and far below the three-fifths majority -- 238 votes -- it needed to advance to the Senate. Sponsors tried to delay a vote on the bill until March 17, so local voters could weigh in on petitions at town meeting that ask for a popular vote on the amendment. "All we're trying to do here is put this on the ballot," Rep. David Bates, R-Windham, arguing voters should have their say.
Cheers to New Hampshire! We are wriggling with pleasure.

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DC Catholic Archdiocese Kills Foster Care Program Over Same-Sex Marriage

Citing the coming legality of same-sex marriage, Washington DC's Catholic Charities today announced the end of its foster care program rather than be forced to license gay couples to care for desperate children in need.
Catholic Charities, which receives $20 million from the city, had sounded alarms in the run-up to the council vote, saying programs serving tens of thousands of people were in danger. Being forced to recognize same-sex marriage, church officials said, could make it impossible for the church to be a city contractor because Catholic teaching opposes same-sex marriage. The church and some experts said the city's measure has narrower exemptions for religious groups than other same-sex marriage laws across the country, particularly when it comes to requiring benefits for the same-sex partners of employees. City officials knew of no other faith-based groups that said their city contracts were in jeopardy.
Their foster care program in DC had been running for 80 years.

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Extreme-Right Groups Launch Joint Call To Return The GOP To "True Conservatism"

Doubtlessly inspired by the anti-gay Manhattan Declaration, today a coalition of extreme-right and Christianist groups launched the Mount Vernon Statement, a call for a "return to Constitutionally-based conservatism."
A Constitutional conservatism unites all conservatives through the natural fusion provided by American principles. It reminds economic conservatives that morality is essential to limited government, social conservatives that unlimited government is a threat to moral self-government, and national security conservatives that energetic but responsible government is the key to America’s safety and leadership role in the world. A Constitutional conservatism based on first principles provides the framework for a consistent and meaningful policy agenda.
The statement was unveiled in Washington DC today in a pre-CPAC ceremony that was a Who's Who In Crazytown.
On hand to unveil the Mount Vernon Statement include former Attorney General Ed Meese, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist, Concerned Women for America president Wendy Wright, Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness, and David Keene, who heads up the American Conservative Union, which is sponsoring this week's Conservative Political Action Conference in the nation's capital.
The Mount Vernon Statement is part of the Tea Party movement to "reclaim" the GOP in the name of the people who really, really, know how to hate. Note how the signers' names appear in Declaration Of Independence font.

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Google Chrome Issue For Macs

If you are a Mac owner using Google's Chrome browser, a recent update is causing some Wordpress and Blogger sites to crash, this one included. I'm told a fix is coming "soon."

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Palm Center: DADT Repeal In Grave Peril

The Palm Center's Nathaniel Frank today says that the repeal of DADT is in "grave peril" and that LGBT rights groups must step up the pressure on the president.
Bloggers this week called for the President to take the lead, but also focused their attention on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the most powerful gay rights group in the world, which has been accused of championing repeal publicly, while privately assuring the White House that it can continue to go slow. Some feel that HRC would rather fundraise for several years on the illusion of momentum than actually help to achieve repeal. If HRC wants to disabuse the community of that suspicion, it will need to ensure that its prized access to Washington power is used to have a real impact, rather than to enjoy that access for its own sake. One reasonable option would be to publicly tell the President that it will not endorse him for re-election if he does not secure repeal in his first term, a promise that Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he believed the President would keep.

The problem is that professed proponents of repeal keep muttering that we will get repeal this year, without saying how. "There is a clear path to repeal," said an HRC spokesman this week, "and that's the one we're on." Many of us would like to know what that path is if it does not include demanding the President put it in the base bill. Because legislative repeal will only become harder after the 2010 midterm elections. If President Obama is serious about lifting the ban in his first term, he should put repeal into the 2011 Defense Authorization bill. If the military brass can call for an end to the ban, and if Republicans Dick Cheney and Colin Powell can join them in supporting this step, surely Democrats and gay groups should be on the frontlines of pressing for real action.
RELATED: The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network has joined yesterday's blog swarm.

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God Hates World Net Daily

Today God smote the online sales division of World Net Daily when He crashed a small plane into their power supply.
The crash of a small airplane today in a residential neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay Area that killed three people also took out a local power distribution facility, shutting down the online operations for the WND Superstore. While technicians arrange a backup or repair, estimated to take a number of hours, orders can be placed by calling 1-800-4WND.COM. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the plane crashed early this morning in East Palo Alto, Calif., south of San Francisco.
WND readers were left scrambling for vital supplies of books about the End Times, colonic irrigation therapy, and how to grow a survival garden.

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Tonight: Homocon Happy Hour In DC

If any of our JMG peeps in DC want to swing by the former Jury's Hotel in Dupont Circle tonight, we'd love to get some photographs of tonight's GOProud Homocon Happy Hour. Then we can sell the photos to World Weekly News for their "Space Aliens Walk Among Us" file.

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SC State Rep. Mike Pitts: Abolish Federal Currency, Replace It Gold & Silver Coins

South Carolina state Rep. Mike Pitts (R) has filed a bill to ban the use of federal currency in his state and replace it with silver and gold coins.
Pitts, a fourth-term Republican from Laurens, introduced legislation earlier this month that would ban what he calls “the unconstitutional substitution of Federal Reserve Notes for silver and gold coin” in South Carolina. If the bill were to become law, South Carolina would no longer accept or use anything other than silver and gold coins as a form of payment for any debt, meaning paper money would be out in the Palmetto State. Pitts said the intent of the bill is to give South Carolina the ability to “function through gold and silver coinage” and give the state a “base of currency” in the event of a complete implosion of the U.S. economic system. “I’m not one to cry ‘chicken little,’ but if our federal government keeps spending at the rate we’re spending I don’t see any other outcome than the collapse of the economic system,” Pitts said. But one legal expert told The Palmetto Scoop that, even if it were passed, Pitts’ bill would quickly be ruled unconstitutional.
Pitts fails to understand that the value of gold and silver fluctuates by the hour, meaning that prices would have to do likewise. But Pitts is a Tenther and doesn't want the federal government usurping his state's right to go completely crazy. Ah, South Carolina, the blogger's friend.

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Pet Shop Boys Play Concert In Fan's Home

In a Brit Awards and Mastercard joint promotion, a viewer won a home concert by Pet Shop Boys. In the clip below, they are appropriately playing their classic Suburbia in the delighted Lorraine's living room.

(Tipped by JMG reader Iain in the UK)

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Wingnut Group Smears Openly Gay Mayoral Candidate In Gainseville, Florida

The Concerned Citizens of Gainesville are smearing openly gay mayoral candidate Craig Lowe by posting placards claiming that his support for the city's recently passed transgender rights ordinance means he is pro-pedophilia. Via Equality Florida:
Last year, when anti-LGBT forces tried to repeal Gainesville's Human Rights ordinance, Craig Lowe served as Chair of the successful campaign to stop the repeal of these hard won legal protections. Now Craig is poised to become the first gay mayor of Gainesville and the anti-gay forces are targeting him with outrageous attacks. Craig is the most experienced candidate, having served on the Gainesville Commission since 2003. During his time on the commission Craig led the way in passing a Domestic Partnership Registry and an inclusive non-discrimination ordinance. Craig is running a strong grassroots campaign and he's going to need our help to emerge as the winner in a crowded election.
Support Craig Lowe's campaign here.

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Catholic Group: Openly Gay Soldiers Will Give You AIDS & STDs

The American Society for the Preservation of Tradition, Family, and Property, whom you may recall as the red-sashed wingnut Catholic group that stands on corners waving anti-gay signs, has issued a lengthy condemnation of the attempt to repeal DADT, saying that the "homosexual deathstyle" will result in gay soldiers spreading AIDS and STDs to others in their units.
During wartime, men are in continual contact with each other’s blood. Therefore, the well documented increased disease rates of homosexuals would cause them to be perceived as a risk rather than an asset to unit survival. This increased disease rate should not be underestimated. As Colonel Ronald Ray pointed out: “Despite the fact that they account for less than 2 percent of the total American population, a compilation of recent health studies shows that homosexuals account for 80 percent of America’s most serious sexually transmitted diseases.” This increased disease rate has led some to refer to the homosexual lifestyle as a “deathstyle.” Inclusion of this deathstyle in our Armed Forces is a dangerous proposition, indeed. With these factors in mind, it is simply impossible to suggest that openly serving homosexuals would not damage unit cohesion. Current law and many officers corroborate this affirmation.
RELATED: HIV rates in the U.S. Navy were revealed last last year to have doubled in the last ten years, an increase attributed in part to a mere 50% condom usage rate among unmarried sailors, many of whom employ female prostitutes in foreign ports. The Navy is also investigating a possible correlation between alcohol abuse and the rise in HIV.

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Photo Of The Day

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WATCH: Sully Vs. Maggie Debate

Today's marriage equality debate between Andrew Sullivan and Maggie Gallagher is just beginning at the Cato Institute in DC. Their live video stream is not embeddable, watch it here.


UPDATE:
Oh fucking brother. Sullivan has ash on his forehead.

(Screencap via Andres Duque)

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Ass Wednesday

American Apparel is looking for the best bottom in the world. Make your own jokes, this is too easy.

(Tipped by JMG reader Martin)

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Tony Perkins Warns The GOP: Return To True Conservativism Or Die

Family Research Council fuckweasel-in-chief Tony Perkins is warning the GOP to return to "true conservative values" if it wants to survive.

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PhoboQuotable - Cardinal Carlo Caffarra

"It's impossible to consider oneself a Catholic if that person in one way or another recognizes same-sex marriage as a right. Politicians have a serious duty to make sure their beliefs, thoughts and proposals concerning the common good are consistent. It's impossible for the Catholic faith and support for putting homosexual unions on equal footing with marriage to coexist in one's conscience -- the two contradict each other. The state's legal order must not be neutral on marriage and homosexual unions just as it can't be (neutral) on the common good: society owes its survival to families founded on marriage, not homosexual unions." -Italian Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, who threatens to excommunicate any politician who votes in favor of same-sex marriage.

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Walgreens To Buy Duane Reade

Today Walgreens will announce its purchase of Duane Reade, the massive NYC-based drugstore chain with hundreds of outlets in the five boroughs.
Walgreen, one of the nation's biggest drugstore operators, said it would pay about $623 million for Duane Reade Holdings Inc. Including $457 million in debt held by Duane Reade, the transaction is valued at $1.08 billion. Duane Reade, which has been operating in the New York area for 50 years, is owned by a group that includes affiliates of the buyout firm Oak Hill Capital Partners. The deal, which requires regulatory approval, would include all 257 Duane Reade stores in the New York City metropolitan area, along with the corporate office and two distribution centers. Most of those stores are in Manhattan. Walgreen, based in Deerfield, Ill., operates 70 stores in the New York area and had 7,162 stores overall as of Jan. 31. The company opened a new store in Times Square in 2008.
Walgreens says that the Duane Reade stores will keep their name for now. Duane Reade was founded fifty years ago and got its name from the location of its original warehouse, which was in downtown Manhattan between Duane and Reade streets.

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