10/25/2010
@JudgeBus Day 1: Aggressive, willful ignorance as substitute for fact
- "The people" vs the "arrogant, rogue judges"
- Ensuring that the law passes the constitutional smell test (i.e. the very role of a judge) is somehow "making law" for the first time in U.S. civil rights history.
- "The people" have somehow earned the right to vote on a minority population's freedoms.
- Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX) acting like he's an Iowa expert.
- Generalized contempt (oftentimes accompanied with actual groans) for the independent judiciary, California, Connecticut, and, oh yeah -- freedom.
It was a busy day of pushing deliberately unsophisticated talking points into the Hawkeye State, in hopes of firing three learned, accomplished people who did nothing more than their jobs:
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*SEE ALSO: Our complete Iowa For Freedom archive
*SEE ALSO: “Judge Bus” kickoff turns into #NOMturnoutFAIL embarrassment in Iowa: Equality supporters 98, NOM 42 [Courage Campaign]
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*UPDATE: And now for something completely different:
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10/25/2010
Right, NOM: Paladino's so 'pro-marriage', his love exceeded even his own nuptial bond
-He's sent around a bevy of racist, sexist and pornographic emails.
-He had an extramarital affair that resulted in a daughter.
-He's threatened to "take out" reporters who ask too man questions.
-He says he doesn't want children "brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option--it isn't."
-He's accused opponent Andrew Cuomo of having an affair, with absolutely no evidence to support the deceit.
Or as the National Organization For Marriage describes New York's Republican nominee for governor, Carl Paladino:
The NOM group says it supports "strong pro-family, pro-child" candidates, including Paladino, but also says it is not "under the control" of any particular candidate. [Buffalo News]
...
"Kids have enough to deal with already, without pushing gay marriage on them," the narrator says. The New York version [of the NOM radio ad] urges listeners to vote for Paladino, who polls show is trailing Democrat Andrew Cuomo. [WaPo]
Yup, that's correct: In NY's gubernatorial matchup, NOM is seriously referring to Paladino as the "values" candidate. You know, because Carl opposes gays' ring fingers, so therefore he's a moral stalwart in need of unquestioned public support from social conservatives, one and all.
Stay myopic, "traditional marriage" warriors!
Chuck Hurley: 'Healing' openly gay students before they become openly fair-minded judges
Back in the spring of '08, Iowa's Chuck Hurley raised eyebrows when, instead of working to actually combat the clear and demonstrable problem that is anti-LGBT bullying in America's schools, he made the feeble/dangerous/offensive choice to write a letter asking straight kids to "pray throughout the day for the salvation and healing of openly gay students":
Now fast forward two years and change. Even as we speak, Hurley is on board the so-called "Judge Bus," motoring around the Hawkeye State as part of the National Organization For Marriage/Family Research Council/Iowa For Freedom effort to remove pro-equality Supreme Court justices:
Because what better authority on judging than a man who looks the most vulnerable student population directly in the eye and determines that they, and not the youthful stone-casters, are the ones in need of "values"?
Judge Bus Day 1: Weird football metaphors are King
On the road with the National Organization For Marriage, Family Research COuncil, Iowa For Freedom, and Congressman Steve King (Very Far R-IA):
More to come.
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**EARLIER: The big purple bus they're all riding around in: NOM/FRC/IFF sure have a funny way of honoring Spirit Day [G-A-Y]
Bryan Fischer: All gays end up 'diseased, lonely, and dead'
"People argue that some folks have a genetic, hereditary predisposition to alcoholism. We would never say to such individuals, “Hey, in most cases, we tell people not to drink themselves into a stupor - it will destroy your life, your marriage, your family, your career - but hey, go ahead, you’re born that way, you can’t help it, knock yourself out, wreck your life,don’t worry about it.”
Of course not. We’d, say, hey the road may be a little tougher for you than others, but you have got to get control of these dark impulses before they wreak utter and total havoc in your life. I’m here to help, what can I do?
That’s the same message we have for homosexuals: sexual behavior is a choice, homosexual behavior will leave you diseased, lonely, and dead, you’ve got to learn to resist homosexual impulses, I’m here to help.
If homosexuals resist the offer of such help, well, I guess that’s a choice too, isn’t it?"
-The American Family Association's Bryan Fischer
In other parts of his spiel, Fischer asserts that a gay gene would lead to mass abortions of gay babies and compares gays' "sexual impulses" to Tiger Woods' extramarital actions. So essentially, in Fischer's world, LGBT people are condemned from birth to afterlife, with little more transient, STD-laden affairs to fill the days in between.
It Gets Better? Not if Fischer and the bitter, battering far-right can help it.
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**EARLIER: This is the guy who Baptist Press columnist Penna Dexter says should advise us all on politics and religion: Just ask yourself where you'd stand in a Penna Dexter/Bryan Fischer world [G-A-Y]
**EARLIER FISCHER: He's the guy who's said that "homosexuals in the military gave us...six million dead Jews," who's said "homosexuals should be disqualified from public office," who has called on Christian conservatives to breed gays and progressives out of existence, has called gay sex a "form of domestic terrorism," who's said only gays were savage enough for Hitler, has compared gays to heroin abusers, has directly compared laws against gay soldiers to those that apply to bank robbers, who once invoked a Biblical story about stabbing "sexually immoral" people with spears, saying we need this kind of action in modern day, and who has spoken out against gays serving as public school teachers, and who has blamed gay activists for dead gay kids, saying that: "If we want to see fewer students commit suicide, we want fewer homosexual students."
Audio: 'I'm not interested in finding middle ground with those folks', says @iowaforfreedom supporter
Here's Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson, a big supporter of the Iowa For Freedom campaign, speaking with Alabama's former high court judge Roy Moore about the upcoming retention vote, DADT repeal, and LGBT rights in general:
(click to play audio clip)
*AUDIO SOURCE: Jan Mickelson Show --10/22/10 [WHO Radio]
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*EARLIER:
-Bob Vander Plaats recent interview mutual appreciation society powwow with Mickleson: Freedom '10: ♫ All we have to do is take these lies and make them true somehow ♫ [G-A-Y]
-Mickelson's 5/10 interview with Maggie Gallagher, where he told the state Supreme Court to "go play in the highway" before comparing gay couples to castrated domestic cocks (much to Mags' delight): Audio: 'You can't raise a civilization with capons' [cue Maggie Gallagher laughter] [G-A-Y]
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*UPDATE: Cornerstone Church's Pastor Cary Gordon was on this same program alongside Roy Moore. Here's Mediaite with why Gordon's involvement should concern all freedom fans: Iowa Church Introduces Voting During Services, Raising Church And State Concerns [Mediaite]
Dancing with ourselves: NOM's Ruth Institute compares gay unions to self-love
Over at the Ruth Institute (an official National Organization For Marriage affiliate), site blogger "Ari" has posed the following question:
You know what makes about as much sense as same sex “marriage”? [Ruth blog]
And the answer Ari pairs with the question comes in the form of this article:
Chen Wei-yih has posed for a set of photos in a flowing white dress, enlisted a wedding planner and rented a banquet hall for a marriage celebration with 30 friends.
But there is no groom. Chen will marry herself.
Uninspired by the men she's met but facing social pressure to get married, the 30-year-old Taipei office worker will hold the reception next month in honor of just one person.
Bride-to-be set to say 'I do' — to herself [Reuters via MSNBC]
Yes, that's right: The Ruth Institute is now comparing equal marriage rights for same-sex couples to an absurd kicker story about a bride holding a non-binding ceremony with herself. because that's exactly how these "pro-family" folks tend to view us: As oddities. As stories fit for the "news of the weird" section. As anomalies. As people whose wedding photos deserve to be slurred with "perversion" labels. As citizens whose civil marriage rights are as binding as weddings between me & I.
Bullies don't always age out of the system.
Snooki costumes out of stock, Bob Vander Plaats opts for scary activist judge mask instead
Iowa for Freedom's Bob Vander Plaats continues to scare state voters into believing that marriage equality for same-sex couples is just step one on a road that will lead to repossession, empty gun racks, and death panels. This from The Sioux City Journal's Politically Speaking blog:
Vander Plaats grew impassioned as he told the crowd of 200 that the three justices must be removed to send a message, to essentially chill the judiciary.
“They don’t get to evolve our Constitution, only we the people get to amend the Constitution,” Vander Plaats. “If they do this to marriage — make law, execute law, amend the Constitution, hand out rights that our Founders could never have imagined — they won’t even blink an eye as they take your private property. They won’t even blink an eye as they take away your Second Amendment rights, they won’t even blink an eye while telling you how you have to educate your children. They won’t even blink an eye when they get to determine who gets to live and who gets to die, in regards to which life is valuable and which one is not.”
Vander Plaats says activist court heading down slippery slope will decide who lives, dies[Sioux City Journal]
Okay, well...
"Make Law"? The state Supremes did nothing of the sort. The unanimous panel of judges determined that the state's laws barring same-sex marriage did not hold constitutional muster. You know: They did THE VERY FLIPPING THING THAT COURTS ARE SUPPOSED TO DO!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Execute law"? No, the courts didn't execute anything -- that would instead be the state and local officials who, after seeing what the court had determined, proceeded to comply. Because while the social conservatives might think that court rulings should be placed in a three-month holding pattern that allows for evangelicals to say whether or not they'll allow freedom to prevail forward, a fortunate reality is that American justice is far more even-handed than that. When a high court casts a unanimous opinion determining that a certain policy is unlawfully out-of-line and therefore should've never been put into place, compliance is not a suggestion: It's a must!
"Amend the constitution"? Uhm, actually: IT'S THE "PROTECT MARRIAGE" SIDE THAT IS TRYING TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION! The Supreme Court didn't amend anything. The Iowa state constitution does not speak to marriage: Not now, not before (although it says plenty about equal protection). So how astoundingly hypocritical for Bob Vander Plaats to claim that the seven Iowa jurists amended the state's most precious governing document when he and his cohorts are trying to do THAT VERY THING, hoping to turn that same state doc into their personal, heterosexist handbook!
"Hand out rights that our Founders could have never imagined"? Oh, you mean like the slavery's elimination, interracial marriage, women's voting rights, refrigeration, or a myriad of other now-commonplace, now-no-brainer, now-thank-god-the-courts-stepped-in-and-stewarded concepts that the Founding Fathers lacked the foresight to have imagined? Because let's be grown ups here for a minute and actually think critically about our 18th century forefathers: While the powdered wigs and capri pants were both sensible and lovely, some of the other social mores of their day were much less fully realized. That's why we refer to them as founders (as in the country catalysts to whom we are grateful and indebted) and not foundations (as in hardened concrete that is fully formed and immovable).
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*Our complete Iowa For Freedom Archive
