May 12, 2012

A Riddle Wrapped In Hypocrisy Buried In Stupidity

I meant to blog about this last week and forgot:

When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced a $50,000 yearly fundraiser at the Star Island home of pharmaceutical kingpin Phil Frost, it didn’t take long for the liberal Think Progress website to note the glaring irony: Frost’s company makes the very type of contraception that Romney falsely bashed as an “abortive” pill.

The Concerned Women of America are very concerned. The president of CatholicVote.org is giving Romney a cautionary pass:

The DC did note, however, that Brian Burch, President of CatholicVote.org, said he understood that Romney would take money from those with whom he doesn’t entirely agree: “What matters is whether a President Romney will end all taxpayer support for abortion-inducing drugs, repeal unconstitutional mandates that force private institutions to cover such drugs, and whether he will make progress in building a culture of life. We are confident that Mitt Romney is committed to these goals.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure, keep telling yourself that, buddy.

Here’s what I don’t get. I get Romney attending fundraisers from people like this, he’s going to take money from anyone. I get that conservatives will make excuses for him. What I do not get is why someone like Phil Frost would be holding a damn fundraiser for the very candidate and the very political party throwing up roadblocks right and left to the sale of his company’s product.

What. The. Fuck?

Phil Frost is chairman of the board of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Teva makes Plan B, which conservative keep trying to pretend is an “abortion pill” and which Republicans keep trying to prevent women from using with their “conscience clauses” and crap like what the state of Alabama is trying to pass: a bill forcing women to jump through so many medically unnecessary hoops as to render the concept of emergency contraception null and void.

So why the hell are people like Phil Frost supporting Republicans who hate their product and keep spreading misinformation about what it is and what it does? Why would you do that? Why would your political activism be diametrically opposed to your business interests?

And why hasn’t anyone at Teva called him on that? The CEO? Other members of the board? Anyone?

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May 11, 2012

Things That Make You Go WTF?

[UPDATE]:

Flip and FLOP….

——————————————–


Mitt Romney now says he supports the right of gay couples to adopt children.

This after stating unequivocally that he does not support marriage equality or even civil unions.

Note: back in February he bragged about trying to allow Massachusetts adoption agencies to discriminate against gay couples.

Holy flip-flop, Batman! In what universe is it okay to let gays adopt kids but not get married? How exactly is that supposed to work, Mittens? So a couple is supposed to just make do with some bizarro gray area of legal guardianship for their kids? I can see all sorts of problems with that scenario, things related to emergency care, travel overseas, and also: what about custody when a gay couple breaks up? No one ever talks about one of the main arguments for gay marriage which is, frankly, gay divorce. If you think a property settlement when you’re not married in the eyes of the law is a mess, just wait until you throw a couple kids into the mix. Or, I know: let’s ask Florida.

I mean, really. WTF?

You know what I think? I think someone’s views are “evolving,” in the sense that someone looked at some poll numbers and stuck his finger in the air and figured out which way the wind is blowing. And now he looks like a giant dumfuck because what he’s really advocating is some strange legal limbo for the children of gay couples.

I think what he’d really like to do is go back and say, “well, maybe civil unions … ” or something — anything — to cover his ass now that he looks like an intolerant bigot, especially after that whole bullying his gay classmate at prep school incident came out. Which he doesn’t remember but he’s really sorry for anyway.

Jesus, Mittens. Just learn to shut your gob if you don’t know what you’re talking about.

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May 11, 2012

Good News Friday

What a weird week.

• Old news by now, but it’s big news: President Obama becomes the first sitting president in U.S. history to openly support marriage equality.

Not to be outdone, Rep. Steny Hoyer says, “me too!”

• Say it ain’t so, Joe! The U.S. Dept. of Justice has sued Maricopa Co. sheriff Joe Arpaio for racial profiling and systematic abuse of Latinos and immigrants.

• Germany’s Deutsche Bank has admitted wrongdoing in a mortgage fraud case and will pay a settlement of over $200 million. Bank officials admitted they lied to U.S. government officials over high-risk mortgages in order to obtain FHA insurance. The mortgages utlimately defaulted, costing Uncle Sam $386 million.

• Gas prices continue to plummet, and are down nearly 20 cents since April. I’m sure all the right wingers at Fox News who blamed President Obama for their increase will be crediting him for the price drop, right? Right?! Aw, who am I kidding.

• For the first time, an advisory committee has recommended that the FDA approve an HIV prevention drug.

• The Southern Baptist Convention’s mouthpiece Richard Land has issued a lengthy apology to President Obama and African American leaders over his insensitive comments related to the Trayvon Martin case. He accused Democrats and black leaders of exploiting the Martin case, called black leaders “race hustlers,” and said George Zimmerman had been unfairly treated by the media. It later turned out that many of his comments had been plagiarized. So he apologized for that, too.

• Bipartisanship! The House voted to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank through 2014. I honestly have no fucking clue what the Export-Import Bank is or does, beyond what this article says. But if the Club For Growth is against it and both Democrats and Republicans were able to come together over it, that’s good enough for me.

• The U.S. power sector met the greenhouse gas emissions target it had set for 2020 in January of this year. It didn’t keep it, but still … baby steps.

• An Australian homeowner spotted an extremely rare tiger quoll pooping on his back deck. The Tiger Quoll is Australia’s largest remaining carnivorous marsupial, but one has not been seen in the wild in over 10 years.

• A hero pit bull saved its owner from an oncoming train, sacrificed its leg in the process, but survived. The money quote:

Lanteigne says the misconception is that pit bulls are ferocious, because the only thing fierce about Lilly is her devotion.

Damn straight.

• Archeologists excavating Mayan ruins in Guatemala have found the oldest known Mayan calendar in the “studio for the royal scribes”, where calendar priests and scribes worked on their astrological calculations. Bonus: they found nothing that portends the end of the world on Dec. 21, 2012.

• Three former Iowa Supreme Court Justices who voted to legalize same-sex marriage and subsequently were voted out of office have received the 2012 John F. Kennedy Profile In Courage award.

• London-based drinks company Diageo, parent company to such brands as Guinness, Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, and Moët & Chandon, has announced it will no longer fund the right-wing Heartland Institute. Diageo was offended by a Heartland-sponsored billboard campaign equating climate change realists with terrorists like Osama bin Laden and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

• Finally, tomorrow is my five-year blogiversary. I started this blog in May 2007 after blogging at the now-defunct Music Row Democrats. I thought it would just be a place to vent or post the occasional “can you believe this crap” link but it has become so much more.

My corner of the internet is still fairly obscure but I never thought I’d have a group of regular readers who actually care what I think about something. That’s quite an honor and privilege. I’m grateful to each and every one of you.

Reading some of those early posts is a bit depressing, also a tad amusing. For example, here are proud grandparents Lynn and Dick Cheney with their new grandbaby; the lesbian mommies were conveniently unavailable for the photo ops. But yeah, that’s some “leadership” on gay issues for ya, right Log Cabin Republicans?

Or, what about the time Ann Coulter got her FBI Special Agent ex-boyfriend to help her dodge third degree felony voter fraud charges? This was the pre-James O’Keefe era. If only he’d had a cell phone camera to capture it all. Oh wait, IOKIYAR.

Anyway, I could spend hours digging through the memory hole. I won’t bore you with that. But I did want to say thank you for reading.

[UPDATE]: I want to thank everyone for the kind words in comments. I really wasn’t trolling for complements when I mentioned the blogiversary but boy they sure are nice!

Good News, Tennessee Edition:

• Cookeville, TN hosted its first-ever gay pride event last weekend. The event drew more than 300 people and no protestors, thanks to an unexpected ally: the pastor of a local church:

The father of one of the event’s attendees was a pastor within that organization, Cravens explained. When the topic of Pride came up during one of the group’s regular meetings and met some very negative opposition from one member, the pastor stood up and defended Upper Cumberland Pride.

“Within that organization, a very conservative, religious organization, we had an ally,” Cravens said, “who stood up and said, ‘If you want to know about Pride, ask me because that’s my family.’”

Reading that quote just made me tear up, it really did.

• Tennessee’s film production incentive fund got an extra $2 million thanks to changes in a state law governing incentive programs.

Have a great weekend!

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May 10, 2012

*POP*

It’s a gorgeous day in Nashville today. The sun is shining, the humidity is low, the temperatures are mild. The birds are singing and rabbits are hopping through the yard.

So, we survived the first sitting president of the United States coming out in support of marriage equality. The earth has not swallowed America and the skies have not been darkened by an army of Sodomite angels.

Heh.

But the response from right-wingers has been more like this:

Dramatic Frog Is Ready For His Close-Up

People, I do not have the patience for another round of right-wing hysteria over being on the wrong side of the culture wars. I do not have the stomach for another “national conversation” over this shit. I’m so over it. I don’t want to hear the half-truths, exaggerations and outright lies, where Fox News pundits outline the extreme, fact-free position (“Obama will force churches to perform gay weddings!”) and the “mainstream media” soberly muses that they may have a point!

I am not sure I can handle another round of commentary from the likes of Jim “Dim” Hoft, the dumbest man on the internet, who writes:

I don’t have a problem with gay unions. I do have a problem with a president pushing a law on the people with the specific intent of punishing the Church and Christian Americans.

What law is Obama pushing here? Anyone? Bueller?

Ah, the irony of Rush Limbaugh bloviating about the president launching a “war on traditional marriage”! It has been lost on no one:

Shut Yer Pie-Hole You Hypocritical Oaf

Time for a news fast. The world is just too lovely to wade into the cesspool of right wing hysteria today.

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May 9, 2012

Dear Log Cabin Republicans: STFU

Oh fer fuck’s sake. Someone needs to explain to me why the Log Cabin Republicans even exist. Within minutes of President Obama telling an interviewer that ..

“…for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married…”

… the Log Cabin Republicans responded thusly:

“That the president has chosen today, when LGBT Americans are mourning the passage of Amendment One, to finally speak up for marriage equality is offensive and callous,” said R. Clarke Cooper, Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director. “Log Cabin Republicans appreciate that President Obama has finally come in line with leaders like Vice President Dick Cheney on this issue, but LGBT Americans are right to be angry that this calculated announcement comes too late to be of any use to the people of North Carolina, or any of the other states that have addressed this issue on his watch. This administration has manipulated LGBT families for political gain as much as anybody, and after his campaign’s ridiculous contortions to deny support for marriage equality this week he does not deserve praise for an announcement that comes a day late and a dollar short.”

Oh really? And which party has brought shit like Amendment One into existence? Would it be the Republican Party? Why yes it would. Here’s an idea: stop supporting Republicans who hate you! Idiots.

Here’s another idea: stop blaming the Democratic president for shit that’s more your fault than his.

And here’s a final thought: maybe you should rethink your reason for existence. Really. I don’t get you people, in the same way I didn’t get the black Confederate dude marching through Dixie a few years ago.

Seems like if your interest is free market lollipops and a muscular national defense, you’d have a better chance of achieving those goals with the party that lets you have a seat at the table, not the party who tells the presidential candidate’s gay spokesman to “shut up” in a media conference call before he’s sent packing. Just sayin’ guys.

And you dare reference “leaders” like former Vice President Dick Cheney? How many public statements supporting marriage equality did he make in his eight years as vice president? That would be zip. Nope, he never showed any “leadership” in support of his gay daughter’s civil rights, but whoo boy the Cheneys sure called for the fainting couches when John Kerry mentioned Mary’s orientation at a debate. Then it was all, “how dare you!” What a hideous bag of hypocrisy.

I mean, seriously. If you want all of those bipartisan unicorns and a “divided government” where right and left are forced to come together to hash out a happy compromise, well by all means, ignore the Republicans. They’ve established their position, and it ain’t budging a whit. The Republicans wear cement shoes with soles of super glue. If you want give and take, compromise, I’ll-accept-some-of-what-you–want-if-you-accept-some-of-what-I-want, then what you want is to ditch the Republicans. Because the Democrats have a big tent and they’re undisciplined and loyalty is not synonymous with a life sentence for them. Progressives have been thrown under the bus so many times we have tire tracks permanently tattooed on our asses.

But no. The Log Cabin Republicans care more about the “Republican” part than the Log Cabin part. They are either completely divorced from reality, believing they can somehow change the ossified GOP, or else they really don’t give a shit about gay issues.

You will never, ever change the Republican Party, folks. This is the party still fighting birth control, fer crissakes. You think they’re going to welcome you with open arms?

Please.

And this is somehow Obama’s fault? Get a clue, folks.

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May 8, 2012

Swiss Miss

Weeks after dropping out of the presidential race, Michele Bachmann took her marbles and went home. To Switzerland:

Arthur Honegger, a reporter for public broadcaster Schweizer Fernsehen, told POLITICO the Swiss consulate in Chicago has confirmed that the former Republican presidential candidate became a citizen March 19.

The Swiss consulate in Chicago covers the state of Minnesota, which Bachmann represents.

Marcus Bachmann, the congresswoman’s husband since 1978, reportedly was eligible for Swiss citizenship due to his parents’ nationality — but only registered it with the Swiss government Feb. 15. Once the process was finalized on March 19, Michele automatically became a citizen as well, according to Honegger.

[...]

Asked if she would run for office in Switzerland — as she is now eligible to do — Bachmann joked that the competition “would be very stiff because they are very good,” referring to the parliamentarians behind her.

I’m speechless. The same woman who hounded everyone who didn’t agree with her for being “anti-American”, then claimed she never said it, then said it again, decided she wants dual citizenshp. Apparently she did it for the children:

Bachmann’s three youngest children are also now Swiss citizens, and her two older children are eligible to apply for a fast-track citizenship process, according to an email from the consulate provided and translated by Honegger.

Bachmann’s office confirmed that the congresswoman had received Swiss citizenship, and attributed the decision to her children.

The children? Because …. ? What, the favorable tax laws? The mandatory gun ownership? The socialized healthcare? The aid to Nazis? Seriously, what is it? What does Switzerland have for the Bachmann children that we don’t? Just curious.

Can’t wait to see the right wing nut jobs’ take on this one. There’s lots of filth out there on the internet about “dual citizens” in Congress — I think that’s a euphemism for “Jews” among some of the militia wackos, from what I could glean.

Trying to imagine the shrieks and hollers about being America haters if a prominent Democrat did this. Nah, don’t even go there.

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May 8, 2012

Today’s Post

.. is over at First Draft. Some old photos of New York City got me musing that we used to be great and now we suck. Original, I know. Enjoy.

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May 7, 2012

They Took All The Pennies & Put ‘em In A Penny Museum

Canada is ditching its penny, and the last one minted is headed to a currency museum.

There’s been a good bit of talk about the U.S. doing likewise, since each penny costs 2.4 cents to make. Nickels also cost more to make than they are worth — about six cents above their face value. I wrote about this back in 2010 when I saw this “I hate pennies” video in which we’re told the only people benefitting from pennies is Jarden Zinc of Greeneville, Tennessee. I thought that was funny. There’s always a Tennessee connection! Naturally, Jarden Zinc is lobbying to keep the penny.

I don’t think we’ll ever see U.S. pennies go the way of the Canadian ones, if for no other reason than they are culturally ingrained. I cannot imagine shopping without every pricetag ending in a “9″ — apparently Americans really hate to round up.

But if anyone wonders why we’re still making money-wasting pennies, they can blame Tennessee. If we’re serious about saving a hundred million or so dollars a year, we’ll ditch the penny.

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May 5, 2012

Den Of Robbers

It’s the oldest story in the book: the creepy televangelists who enjoy a life of indulgence while fleecing the faithful. Ah, greed masked by religious piety! Even Jesus walked among such con artists, and he was not amused:

“It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’” — Matthew 21:13

Today’s New York Times has an expose on the latest Christian charlatans, the obscenely wealthy Crouch family. You’ve probably seen them while flipping through the channels late at night: the perennially weepy Janice Crouch with her cotton-candy pink hair and Paul Crouch, who alway set my creep-o-meter into overdrive. Paul and Janice Crouch sit at the helm of Trinity Broadcasting Network, a global religious empire that might even rival Pat Robertson’s. They own the former Twitty City here Middle Tennessee and The Holy Land Experience Bible theme park in Orlando. The Crouches are the poster children for wringing all meaning and sincerity from Scripture, packaging this empty religion in a neat little box, and selling it like a bag of potato chips.

The Crouch family story is unfolding in the expected way, with family infighting, lawsuits, allegations of impropriety and fraud. What makes this story so juicy is that the person spilling the beans is the Crouch’s granddaughter Brittany Koper, who was TBN’s finance director. In return, the Crouches accuse Koper of embezzlement. Ain’t no feud like a family feud ‘cuz a family feud won’t quit, amiright?

Do head over to the Times to read this story. It needs to be turned into a Hollywood movie except I bet some critics would carp it’s too cliche. His-and-hers-mansions in California and Florida? A $49 million corporate jet? Nobody would believe such excess! Oh, but it gets better:

In 2008 and 2009, as Mrs. Crouch began remodeling Holy Land Experience, she rented adjacent rooms in the deluxe Loews Portofino Bay Hotel in Orlando — one for herself and one for her two beloved Maltese dogs and clothes, according to Mr. Clements and Ms. Koper. Mrs. Crouch rented the rooms for close to two years, they said.

Anyone who tries to buy a ticket to heaven by giving these people their money is an idiot. This is perhaps the only time you will see me agree with the arch-conservative Albert Mohler of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary:

“TBN has been a huge embarrassment to evangelical Christianity for decades.”

And I loved this part:

“Others may do things differently, and may criticize TBN for how it operates, its look, its doctrine and belief,” Mr. May said. “But what is absolutely clear is that TBN, with God’s grace, has succeeded where most others have failed.”

Really? I guess that depends on what your definition of “success” is.

These things are hard to predict but I expect this story will end much as they all do: with someone going to jail.

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May 5, 2012

Spread Your Legs & Let The Government In

I tried to post this last night but WordPress is finicky where video embeds are concerned and for some reason it messed up my homepage. Guess you’ll just have to go to the link.

This video is hilarious! It premiered on Bill Maher last night.

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