GOP Counts on Dubya's Legacy for Fundraising

Not in a million years

Below, is the unedited, pasted-directly-from-the-email, money-beg from today's GOP. I present this to you, merely because I couldn't believe it. While the GOP and the tea party hate President Obama, they're also usually quick to disavow former President George W. Bush. Except for the rare (and odd) "Miss Me Yet" billboards with Dubya waving, and grinning like a loon, it's the rare conservative who will openly embrace his legacy.

Pressed to come up with the good things Bush accomplished, I have a very hard time. Extending Daylight Saving time is about the only thing I can come up with. Interestingly, I think a huge swath of the population would say that Bush "significantly diminished the United States’ standing in the world — and worse, he has made us less safe," particularly the first part of the sentence. The last part might be argued, but hell, I'd argue it in the case of Obama too. What, precisely, has President Obama done to make us less safe than Dubya?

In case you forgot, Bush ignored signs that 9/11 was coming. He started an unnecessary war against a country that did not attack us--though the administration tried damned hard to get us to make that connection. He instituted torture as policy.  He and his cohort Dick Cheney invented the "unitary executive," overusing executive orders and "signing statements," and non-transparency to unprecedented levels. Those very things--used more sparingly by the Obama administration--are now some of the primary things the GOP complains about.

[Email begins]

Like f  Share this on Facebook GOP.com Friend, Resolute and decisive. That’s what I remember when I think of the leadership of President George W. Bush. He led our nation through some of the most challenging moments of our nation’s history. He led. The President we have today thinks our country should “lead from behind” and has significantly diminished the United States’ standing in the world — and worse, he has made us less safe. I miss the leadership of President George W. Bush. And I miss him. I had the privilege of serving in his White House, and I saw the character that he and his family provided our nation. I will be forever grateful for their service. Tomorrow is President George W. Bush’s Birthday. It’s a moment that has reminded us of what leadership in the White House really looks like. And we’re working to send principled leaders to the Senate and House in 2014 and to the White House in 2016. Would you help make that possible by contributing $27 to get your official “I Miss W.” t-shirt today before his birthday? Order your official “I Miss W.” t-shirt today. Thank you, Sara Armstrong RNC Chief Operating Officer P.S. If you haven’t already, you can still sign President George W. Bush’s birthday card here. Contribute Now

[End of email]

But, by all means, get the Dubya T-shirt! Wear it in public! I think you might get some odd looks, perhaps questions about your sanity. And you may find yourself pretending that you're wearing it ironically. Maybe you'll even say you got it at a thrift shop as a joke. . .after all, that's where most of these are going to turn up.

Anti-Gay Groups Already Trying to Leverage SCOTUS Hobby Lobby Ruling

Every gay person and supporter who paid attention to the Hobby Lobby case at the Supreme Court likely predicted this. If you give corporations religious exemptions to law (and still, I can't get over that a corporation can have a religion*), it will spread to subjects far afield of the birth control argument that was the point of the case. Of course anti-gay corporate owners would try to leverage the decision into skirting public accommodation laws! And that is likely just the tip of the iceberg.

*By the way, now that corporations can have their own religious beliefs, I've got to wonder: Do corporations take communion? Do they get confirmed? Do they get circumcised? Do they have souls? Can they go to hell?

Image from source, Talking Points Memo

[Excerpt]

Post-Hobby Lobby, Religious Orgs Want Exemption From LGBT Hiring Order

The day after the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling, a group of religious leaders sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking that he exempt them from a forthcoming executive order that would prohibit federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT people. The letter, first reported by The Atlantic, was sent on Tuesday by 14 representatives, including the president of Gordon College, an Erie County, Pa., executive and the national faith vote director for Obama for America 2012, of the faith community. . .

Read more at: Talking Points Memo

Blast from the Past [Extra]: Michael J. Fox's The Iceman Hummeth

Here's another of those great Late Night with David Letterman Holiday Film Festival entries, this one from 1986. Michael J. Fox was white-hot at the time, and turns in a fun sports-vs.-nerd short film. So, for no particular reason other than the fact that I like it, here is The Iceman Hummeth.

 

Georgia "Guns Everywhere" Law Leads to Altercation on First Day

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Gun lovers, I've got news for you: you're coming off like idiots. Even to people like me, who was raised around guns, learned to shoot at a young age, and until recent years, didn't really have much of an opinion on gun rights or gun control. But with the Open Carry guys in Texas and elsewhere? With all of the oopsies at "gun safety" demonstrations? With the absolutely insane, knee-jerk, instantaneously furious commentary in the blogosphere? You're impossible to take seriously, and extremely easy to come down against. You're your own worst enemies.

[Excerpt]

First day of ‘guns everywhere’ law in GA sparks convenience store showdown

On July 1, the state of Georgia enacted the Georgia Safe Carry Protection Act — also known as the “guns everywhere” law — which allows licensed gun-owners to bring their weapons to churches, bars, government buildings and other places where they were previously prohibited. The Valdosta Daily Times reported Tuesday evening that the new law had already pitted two armed citizens against each other in a standoff at a local convenience store. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

Blast from the Past [Extra]: Bette Midler's Angst on a Shoestring

I've been meaning to get back to those great Late Night with David Letterman Holiday Film Festival videos, so why not now, on an unexpected work night? This time, it's a 1985 clip by Bette Midler, a piece that she reworked for her Mud Will Be Flung Tonight comedy album. It's called "Angst on a Shoestring," but really? Why bother?
 

Guy Sings Justice Ginsburg's Hobby Lobby Dissent

There are always high profile Supreme Court cases that one side or the other will be very disappointed about. But the Hobby Lobby case still leaves me very confused. As I said earlier, contraception and abortion aren't my issues. But the Pandora's Box that has been opened by allowing religious exemptions to laws? The pitfalls just seem so obvious. The legal reasoning seems so flimsy. I feel confident enough to predict: this case will lead to many and varied cases of companies trying to duck laws they don't like, bogus religions seeing what they can get away with, and even more bizarre claims of corporate personhood. But hey, it's not all doom and gloom, right? There are even ways to make the best of it. Like this guy.
 

Rachel Maddow: Previous SCOTUS Religion Cases Went Much Differently

A history lesson you should watch, so you can realize just how radical Monday's Hobby Lobby decision really was. If you don't have time for both videos, it's the second one that relates to the story below, the first is on the same subject.

[Excerpt]

Rachel Maddow: Christian segregationists would support Hobby Lobby ruling



Segregationists like Maurice Bessinger, who used religion to justify his beliefs, would be stunned and possibly pleased by Monday’s Supreme Court ruling regarding workers’ access to reproductive health measures, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said, “His belief in slavery and segregation as divinely ordained? That was certainly sincerely held,” Maddow said. “Certainly it was based in religion. But in his case, that was not enough to deprive people of their right to protections and rights that they were afforded under law. Now though, the court today said religion is all you need. . .”

Read more at: Raw Story

Supreme Court Inexplicably Decides For Hobby Lobby

I'm a gay man, if you didn't know, and as such have very little interest in the subject of abortion, or birth control. So, the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby/Conestoga Wood case doesn't affect me directly. But as an atheist, I'm an ardent supporter of the separation of church and state (as all fans of the Constitution should be, by the way). And so, when SCOTUS does anything that bends over for religion, I've immediately got my hackles up.

Let's start with the direct problems with the case:

- It gives corporations "religious rights," furthering the fiction that corporations are people.
- It allows employers' religious beliefs to trump employees' religious beliefs.
- As such, the employer's beliefs are protected, while the employees' are disregarded.
- It allows an employers' beliefs about something (in this case that these particular birth control methods cause abortion, when in fact they don't) to be respected, regardless of how wrong it is.
- It magnifies something that was settled decades ago--birth control--into a "hot button" issue.
- Though it takes strained pains not to, it opens the door to countless other corporate religious exemptions to other laws.
- SCOTUS treats the religions of the companies involved in this case--mainstream Christianity--as a valid, acceptable religion to earn an exception to the ObamaCare law. But it dismisses other religions (Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientologists, Christian Scientists), and gives no clear reasoning as to what would qualify one over the other.

This is one of those cases that is bound to make one side happy, and the other unhappy. But it also goes further, by tarnishing the already dingy reputation of the court, by not having much in the way of legal reasoning at all. Hobby Lobby is not a person. It is not a church. It is not a doctor or in the medical profession. It is a craft store. And yet, they put themselves in the position of dictating their religious beliefs about a medical decision to their employees, regardless of the employee's beliefs, or lack of them.

I want to ask supporters of this decision some simple questions: do you honestly think that it will end here, with a "Christian" corporation, on the issue of birth control only? Did you consider that this law will eventually apply to other religions, from Mormons to Hindus to Islam? Did you consider that a corporation could devise a whole new religion, and make any sort of "sincerely held beliefs" to get out of other laws? This was Pandora's Box. It's open now.

[Excerpt]

Supreme Court exempts Hobby Lobby from Obamacare contraception mandate

 

Attempting to expand religious expression protections to small business owners without significantly disrupting the rules that govern for-profit corporations, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the Obama administration must exempt closely-held firms like Hobby Lobby from a rule requiring large companies to help pay for their employees' birth control. . .

Read more at: CBS News

Over Time with Bill Maher, June 27, 2014

Overtime: June 27, 2014

Blast from the Past: Gay Anthems, Part III

This marks the end of Gay Pride Month, so I thought I'd play us out with some more gay anthems!



There are plenty to go, as you shall see. I had to do a superpack this time, 12 tunes in all.

1. I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred (1991) - Instantly an embarrassing novelty hit nobody will claim, this one was briefly insanely popular.
2. Macho Man by The Village People (1977) - Single-handedly responsible for injecting the word "macho" into American vernacular, and also for introducing America to The Village People.



3. I'm Coming Out by Diana Ross (1980) - Obviously.
4. Why by Bronski Beat (1984) - Another one that got by me at the time, but certainly no one else did.



5. Let's Have a Kiki by Scissor Sisters (2012) - Much newer than the rest, but essential.
6. Take Your Mama Out by Scissor Sisters (2004) - Because I love them. And this one is actually about a gay guy coming out, so there you go.



7. Dancing Queen by ABBA (1976) - Can you believe I didn't slot in ABBA in Part I or II? I mean really.
8. Last Dance by Donna Summer (1979) - All of Donna Summer's hits qualify, truly.



9. Supermodel by RuPaul Charles (1992) - Another novelty tune, but again, huge briefly. And it launched the Drag Race star into the mainstream.
10. A Little Respect by Erasure (1988) - Again, all of Erasure's catalogue could qualify for this list, but this gets a spot for the lyric, "What religion or reason could drive a man to forsake his lover?"



11. Chains of Love by Erasure (1988) - Okay, one more. This one is clearly about trying to express love for someone when society is against you. Fancy that.
12. Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room) by Paul Lekakis (1987) - Unambiguously about doing it with Paul Lekakis in his room. Okay then!



And now that you're tuckered out from dancing, take your disco shoes off, and shuffle off to bed. It's a new week, and you have to work. Happy Monday!

Russell Brand Declares FOX "News" Dangerous Propaganda

I have very little affinity for Russell Brand. I feel like he's one of those people that The Powers That Be insist is a gifted, brilliant, comedic genius, but isn't. A product that I'm supposed to buy, but that I want no part of. My brother--whose pop culture tastes often intersect with mine, but other times diverge to the point of infinity--either bought the hype, or recognizes it where I do not.

But I have to hand it to Brand. This time, I recognize his genius.

[Excerpt]

Russell Brand: Fox News is ‘fanatical, terrorist, propagandist’ and ‘more dangerous than ISIS’

Comedian Russell Brand on Tuesday blasted Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro for taking a position on bombing Iraq that he said was even “worse” than the militant group ISIS which has taken over a large portion of the country. In what BuzzFeed called “the craziest rant a Fox News host has ever done,” Pirro over the weekend lashed out at the president for not ordering sustained air strikes on Iraq. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

The Gay Thing: Twin Victories in Marriage Equality

And the hits, they keep on coming. Both the Indiana and Utah cases came up roses for the marriage equality movement, within about ten minutes of each other. In Indiana, a stay was not issued immediately, and so, marriages commenced! In Utah (and the rest of the 10th circuit) there was an immediate stay, but hey, they already had a spate of marriages there this winter. Frankly, I find the stays that have happened irritating, just more roadblocks on the path to equality. But it's all exciting, nonetheless. The marriage map is flowing in from the edges of the country, West Coast, Northeast, Great Lakes, Southwest. It's all going to meet in the middle, and probably sooner, rather than later.

[Excerpt]

U.S. appeals court backs gay marriage in conservative Utah

Image from source, Yahoo!

DENVER (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court ruled on Wednesday that conservative Utah may not ban gay couples from marrying, a decision that capped a day of victories for same-sex nuptials and nudges the issue closer to the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Denver-based 10th Circuit marked the first time that a regional appeals court has made such a decision in the year since the Supreme Court ordered the federal government to extend benefits to legally married same-sex couples. . .

Read more (with video) at: Yahoo! News

Working Again!

Sorry folks. In anticipation of a short little vacation, I had a work night. Not sure that much if any blogging will get done til sometime Wednesday. And that's packing day! So, I'll see you all when I see you.

Back to work!

The Rude Pundit on the Re-naming of the Washington Redskins

Lee Papa, The Rude Pundit

As with everything else in this country, the controversy over the Washington Redskins name seems to have become a right versus left issue. And though I'd usually side with the left anyway, I can safely say that in this case, I'm unequivocally, absolutely, indubitably, unapologetically correct. There is no other justifiable answer but that the Redskins should change their name. Period.

I could go on at length as to why--though really, it shouldn't be necessary--but I don't need to. Because, The Rude Pundit, one of my favorite writers, has written a piece so brilliant (and of course, rude), that it simply can't be improved upon. If you doubt me, read it, and leave me a comment that refutes it. Dare ya.

I'm guessing die-hard Redskins supporters would
think this old GE ad is okay too? Image from source.

[Excerpt]
 
Regarding Racism and Redskins

. . .Casual, quotidian racism was everywhere; it was a part of the American cultural landscape as much as it was part of the American sociopolitical landscape. Advertising was filled with unsubtle racist caricatures. Tom and Jerry cartoons, into the 1950s, featured a Mammy who was constantly reacting to Tom's behavior. Aunt Jemima? Uncle Ben? Rastus, the Cream of Wheat chef? This shit was America, inescapable, insidious, and ubiquitous. . .

Read more at: The Rude Pundit

Cheney! (A Rocky Mountain Mike Song Parody)

Another very funny song parody by Rocky Mountain Mike about Darth Dick Cheney, to the tune of Lady by Styx. Enjoy!

 

Over Time with Bill Maher, June 20, 2014

Overtime: June 20, 2014

The Gay Thing: NOM's Anti-gay Marriage March Goes Bust

What if you threw a rally, and nobody came? What if you spent a better part of the year on an image-making, national, relentlessly publicized event, and it blew up in your face? That's pretty much what happened to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) this past Thursday. The whole thing was so un-newsworthy, that even outlets like The Rachel Maddow Show and All in with Chris Hayes--which would ordinarily revel in NOM's failure--instead ignored it altogether.

Oh, but it was a failure. Even though NOM is wont to crop and Photoshop crowd pictures to give an illusion of success, and even though they claim "thousands" of participants attended, the truth is much more grim for them. News from on the ground was that a sizable chunk of the small crowd--likely closer to 500 than thousands, or even one thousand--were Spanish speaking tourists, there at the rally because they were given a free excursion to Washington DC, to see the sights.

The handwriting has been on the wall for a while that NOM is in decline. Their Twitter and Facebook pages have more gay supporters than NOM supporters. Their money begging emails and blog posts are becoming more and more desperate. And the rally is evidence that those appeals are falling on deaf ears. As the marriage equality movement continues to expand, and given the likelihood that nationwide same-sex marriage legality is on the horizon, how long can NOM stay in the game? How long can their leaders, notably Brian Brown, continue to draw enormous salaries? And how long can they continue to get name politicians to speak for them, even if they are punchlines like Rick

I've seen more people at a small, shopping center
carnival. Image from DailyKos

Santorum and Mike Huckabee?

[Excerpt]

NOM's Rally Crashed, Burned, Flopped, Failed, Fizzled, Disintegrated And Imploded All At Once

I will admit that before NOM's March for Straight Marriage yesterday, I was a little worried that it could do harm to our cause. I was worried that it might begin to roll back public opinion, possibly leading to a reluctance among judges to invalidate marriage discrimination laws. But the rally has not only invalidated my worries, it's actually made me more confident of winning than ever before. . .

Read more at: DailyKos


[Excerpt]

Inside NOM's Second Failed "March For Marriage"
 
On June 19, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) held its second March for Marriage - an event that proved to be largely a repeat of last year's march, with dismal attendance, bussed-in supporters, and examples of anti-gay animus on display. An estimated 2,000 attendees convened at the U.S. Capitol for a rally culminating in a march to the U.S. Supreme Court. As he did for last year's event, anti-equality State Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-NY) bussed in a large group of mostly Spanish-speaking evangelicals from the New York area, after promising rally-goers an expense-free trip to Washington to "visit the monuments." Equality Matters approached several attendees to ask about their reasons for attending the rally and their means of getting there, only to be told that they spoke little English. . .

Read more at: Media Matters

 

Blast from the Past: Classic Bloopers!

Some weeks in my Blast from the Past columns, I pick a subject, find my video clips, and then do descriptions of each, in brief or at length. Other weeks, the videos kind of speak for themselves. The latter weeks are easier! So, while combing my brain for ideas, I hit upon one that requires very little commentary from me: bloopers from classic shows of the distant and more recent past. I'm going into this not knowing how much I'll find, so let's discover together.

1. Happy Days, 1974-1984
 

2. Laverne & Shirley, 1976-1983
 

3. Mork & Mindy, 1978-1982
4. The Brady Bunch, 1969-1974
 

5. The Carol Burnett Show, 1967-1978
6. The Golden Girls, 1985-1992
 

7. Family Ties, 1982-1989
8. Friends, 1994-2004
 

And that's it for the weekend. See how easy it was? Heh. Happy Monday, everybody.

In Case You Missed It: Megyn Kelly Calls Cheney on His Iraq Blunders

This was an extraordinary thing to happen on FOX "News," a primetime anchor of their opinion programming (separate and apart from their "hard news" stuff, naturally), throwing down with former Vice-President Darth Dick Cheney. She basically asks him why we should take his advice on Iraq now, when he was wrong about a whole host of things with the original invasion and war. She kindly doesn't level charges of lying us into war, but we can only hope for so much. Almost as remarkably, Cheney doesn't deny what she says, he doesn't back-pedal, apologize, or attempt to reframe it. He simply disagrees with her. Disagrees with facts, mind you. Hey, only a demon can live in multiple realities at the same time, right? Maybe we should ask his demon-spawn, since all of this publicity is to give the poor thing something to do.

[Excerpt]
 
Megyn Kelly to Cheney: "History has Proven" You Were Wrong in Iraq




". . .In your op-ed, you write as follows: "Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many." But time and time again, history has proven that you got it wrong as well in Iraq, sir. You said there was no doubt Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. You said we would be greeted as liberators. You said the Iraq insurgency was in the last throes back in 2005. And you said that after our intervention, extremists would have to "rethink their strategy" of jihad. Now, with almost a trillion dollars spent there, with 4,500 American lives lost there, what do you say to those who say you were so wrong about so much at the expense of so many?. . ."

Read more at: Gawker

What is That in the Picture with Ted Cruz?

Image from RawStory

I'd just like to point out that this man--the conservative great hope for 2016--is using a TelePrompTer. Isn't that supposed to be the height of disingenuousness, or. . .something? And might I just ask, is there a single picture of Ted Cruz where he doesn't look evil, or at the very least, creepy?