Reasons for the LGBT community to worry?
There is a lead over at AMERICAblog Gay with the headline:
Did the White House really just threaten to cut off the entire gay community?
Now here’s the thing. The story talks about how Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanual and Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina are PISSED at the LGBT community for actions they have taken on trying to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. You know, actions like bringing it up in the President’s face. They are pissed that the LGBT community are not just sitting back and being quiet, towing the company line, so according to John Aravosis of AMERICAblog, the LGBT community may be cut off.
This is not a far-flung idea. After all, it was Emanuel that killed the 70%+ approval rating public option from healthcare legislation, even though we had the votes to pass it. People are saying Emanuel is a behind-the-scenes king of compromising that waters down legislation to where it becomes meaningless. You know what? They are right.
The LGBT community was thrown under the bus under President Clinton. President Obama promised to be our “fierce advocate”, but we know how that has turned out. So fine. Let Emanuel throw a temper tantrum. We can get what we want out of the Congress, and leave the dillydalliers at the White House in the dust.
Why marriage is important – gay and straight: A story of elder abuse
Reposted from sister blog BuryingTheLead.com
I cannot believe just how horrific some stories of abuse can turn out to be, especially for the elderly. All too often, cases of our elders being taken for granted and scammed are in the news, and the actual act of elder abuse is rampant. Try doubling elder abuse with that of gay elders, and you get the following story.
A gay elderly couple that had been together for quite a while named Clay and Howard lived in Sonoma County, California. Now you think of Sonoma, and think – this place is just North of San Francisco, and it is known as the wine country. It has to be progressive. Well not for Clay and Howard. You see, Howard (age 88) fell down outside his and Clay’s (age 77) home. Unable to care for him, Howard was put in a nursing home. But things took a dramatic turn for the worse. Clay was forbidden by the County to see Howard. Clay himself was put in his own nursing home. The County and the facility declared that Clay and Howard were just “roommates”, and thus Clay had no legal right to either see Howard, nor make any decisions about his care.
This is an excerpt from the article that is most horrific – though I plead with everyone to read the entire thing over at NCLRights.org:
What happened next is even more chilling: without authority, without determining the value of Clay and Harold’s possessions accumulated over the course of their 20 years together or making any effort to determine which items belonged to whom, the county took everything Harold and Clay owned and auctioned off all of their belongings. Adding further insult to grave injury, the county removed Clay from his home and confined him to a nursing home against his will. The county workers then terminated Clay and Harold’s lease and surrendered the home they had shared for many years to the landlord.
This is beyond chilling and horrific. This is some of the most disgusting treatment of gay elders that I have ever read about. And I ask you this one question: Would this have happened to a man and a woman who were married? No, not at all. So why would we allow this to occur to a gay couple?
Marriage is about love, and gay and lesbian couples have and express love just like their straight counterparts. But it is also about protection and civil rights provided by law. This is why marriage is so very important – gay and straight.
Forget educating straight people – gay people need it too!
So there is a bunch of misinformation out there about the GLBTQ community, and it members of that community that are responsible for educating people. We need to keep people in the know, clear up misconceptions, and stomp on the downright lies of the bigots and homophobes until they no longer are spread.
But this morning, I actually found myself having to educate not only the straight people around me, but my gay brethren as well. Let me explain.
They are holding a blood drive at work today, out in the open common area. People are happy and buzzing around, talking about it. One coworker turned to me and another gay man and asked, “Are we donating blood today?”. Almost in unison, I said “We can’t” while my gay coworker said, “Probably not, no.” I looked at him and said, “Um, we CAN’T donate blood.” That made the whole room stop.
At that point, I had to explain to everyone, gay and straight, that any man who has had sex with another man since 1977 is prevented from donating blood. I personally know this because I was a three gallon blood donor and have filled out the form many times. Those three gallons I donated were pre-coming out, so I was honest. And because I believe in being honest and safe, and having just had my annual physical, I would be a perfect donor. But I have had sex with another man since 1977, and am thus, disqualified.
The information about a gay-male ban on blood donation came as news to everyone in the room. No one, not even the other gay man, knew about the blood donation issue, except for one – and he was misinformed, saying the FDA recently lifted the ban. No, not according to the FDA’s website!
I am proud to call myself a 3 gallon blood donor. I was even part of the bone marrow donation part of the Red Cross, and was called in as a potential match. And even though I’m a healthy, disease-free gay man, I’m not good enough to help save lives.
This policy MUST end.
Support our soldiers! Ask Obama to pardon Choi and Pietrangelo at PardonOurSoldiers.com
Our soldiers would give their lives for us, and it doesn’t matter if they are gay or straight. Yesterday, two brave men, Lt. Dan Choi and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo protested the US Military’s practice of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the discriminatory practice of throwing gay and lesbian soldiers out of the armed forces. For that, they were arrested and thrown in jail.
Now is the time for us, those of us that support the military, to ask President Obama to pardon Choi and Pietrangelo. Please go to PardonOurSoldiers.com and sign the online petition!
How to put half a million people to work, RIGHT NOW
Face it. Unemployment is insane at over 10%. We need to do something about it, and we need to do it fast, or else Sarah Palin will be telling Barack Obama in 2012, “It’s the economy, stupid”. Wow. Wouldn’t that be ironic.
In Oregon, where the ProudLiberal is, as well as in New Jersey, we have special programs. It’s called “you can’t pump your own gas”. It has to be done by someone else. An employee of a gas station. Someone who is paid, specifically to take your payments, and pump your gas. it’s not a horrible job, though the weather is not always cooperative. But it’s also a job that anyone, from a Harvard educated MBA to an 8th grade middle school drop out can do. So we got that going for us.
There are over 115,000 gas stations in the United States, according to a 2008 estimate. Most of those are going to be opened a good portion of the day – say two shifts. And good thought that you are going to have to have at least four people to cover a week, plus one more to cover for vacations. So, that is 115,000 stations times at least 5 people. That comes out to 460,000 jobs. Jobs that could be created TOMORROW if we just went mandatory full-service gas (including truck stops and commercial service stops) all across the United States.
Two caveats. First, we have to pull out Oregon and New Jersey from the 460,000. However, I think that it would probably balance out, with the mega-gas stations that exist out there, and making commercial gas stations full service as well.
Second caveat is the thought, “But that will drive up the price of gas!”. Okay – let’s look at reality here. Oregon, which is full service only, is currently at $2.867 per gallon. Washington, right next door, is currently at $2.973 per gallon. What was your argument again?
Half a million people, back at work and getting paid, will be paying into unemployment for the rest of us. They’ll be paying taxes again for our needed infrastructure. And the boon in construction jobs associated with building out-buildings at some gas stations will be that much better.
Let’s get to work!
We must be our own fierce advocate, because to everyone else, we are just props
Remember during the 2008 election, when Senator Barack Obama said that he would be a “fierce advocate” for the GLBT community? Fast forward a few months, when President Obama’s administration defended DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, and equated gay marriage to pedophilia and incest.
Remember the 1992 election, when Governor Clinton became one of the first national leaders to champion gay rights? And then remember the following years when DOMA and DADT came about? Senator Clinton caught hell for that in 2008, when rocker Melissa Etheridge said that Clinton’s husband threw the gay community “under the bus” given the first chance.
Flash forward to today in Washington, DC. There was a big buildup to a massive protest, headlined by “gay advocate” comedian Kathy Griffin. She was headlining at an HRC gala a few nights ago, and was to be part of a Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal affair with the HRC (Human Rights Campaign). Griffin made it to lobby the Senate. Then she indeed headline at a rally today, along with HRC’s leader Joe Solmonese and Lt. Dan Choi. When Lt. Choi got up to speak, he apparently offered an act of civil disobedience. He asked Griffin and Solomnese if they would go to the White House with him and Captain Jim Pietrangelo in support, which apparently they said they would.
Well that was it for Griffin and Solomnese. A photo-op is all they wanted. They didn’t dare step anywhere near Choi or Pietrangelo, especially when Choi and Pietrangelo handcuffed themselves to the White House fence. Griffin and Solomnese were nowhere to be seen.
Griffin did tweet after the rally. This is what she (@kathygriffin) wrote:
Yes, he does. We, as a community – a community of gays, lesbians, democrats, liberals, and progressives – WE need to have balls like Lt. Choi and Captain Pietrangelo. Why? Because our “fierce advocates”, from President Obama, to Kathy Griffin, to HRC President Joe Solomnese aren’t. They proved today that they could care less about what is right, and only about what is doing what is convenient for them.
What if Rosa Parks decided, “Well, I don’t want to rock the boat. I’ll move to the back of the bus”?
What if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “I have hopes for my children, but I’m not willing to make waves over it.”?
What if Susan B. Anthony decided, “Yes, women should be equal to men, but I shouldn’t speak up.”
These people were different. They were the leaders that we need today. We don’t need people like Griffin or Solomnese, who are using the GLBT community as props. Props for ratings. Props for fame. Props for money. Props for donations. We need people who stand up and do the right thing, like Lt. Dan Choi and Captain Jim Pietrangelo. They know what needs to be done, what we need to do to get the progressive movement MOVING!
I previously took the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Give” pledge because Democrats decided to stop moving forward on GLBT issues, and when the Obama White House decided to defend DOMA. Now, the HRC has shown that it wants to do what’s convenient, not what’s right, and abandoning GLBT soldiers, so that organization can go and rot, too. But you and me. We are the ones that can use Choi, and Parks, and Anthony, and King as our guides, and do what is right – not what’s convenient. We are nobody’s props. We are humans, and we all deserve civil rights.
CNN is trying to out-FOX FOX
There is an uproar brewing about CNN, and it’s just getting uglier and uglier.
Seems that CNN is trying to do something about it’s ratings. Let’s see now, who has higher ratings than CNN? Why, that would be FOX News, right? So what does CNN do? They announce proudly that they are hiring Redstate.com founder – and HATE monger – Erick Erickson.
Well, yes, that is their perogative. They are a business, and want ratings and sensationalism (see previous post about two headlines), and they are going to get it with Erickson. You know like how Erickson calls First Lady Michelle Obama a “Marxist Harpy”. Or equated gay people with pedophiles. Or that the GOP doesn’t want ANY minorities in the Senate. And don’t ask what he thinks about US Supreme Court Justice Souter. It’s too vile.
So there you have it. CNN is putting forth a right-wing blowhard with his own whacked out agenda. Oh, and what liberal did they hire when they hired Erickson? Nobody, of course. Seriously CNN; you’re not even trying anymore.
There is now a movement called “Dump CNN”. You can find the Twitter page here, and the Facebook group here. I’ve unfollowed all CNN sources within Twitter, and told them why. And now, I refuse to turn to CNN for news at all. Plus, we’re lobbying to get the CNN feed here at work (on four different TVs around the office) turned off or turned to something completely different.
So, CNN. Do what you want. I’ve made my choice, and it no longer includes watching your channel. Remember what happened when Glenn Beck said that President Obama was a racist? Yeah, dozens of sponsors left his program and/or FOX News. Welcome to the FOX-fold, CNN!
A tale of two headlines
Okay, so it’s more than two headlines. It’s the concept of two different headlines for the same basic story, with VERY different undertones. But it’s the headline that gets you going, and gets you into the story, which is all the more reason that this has been bugging me all day long.
I use Yahoo!’s “My Yahoo!” page as a news aggregate for me so I can keep up on things. One headline that I kept seeing all day long was this one:
Wow. Read the headline. I did, and THEN I clicked on the link. The link told you something VERY different. Now let’s look at some other of the “LIBERAL MEDIA”.
Here is what ABC News had to say, not only in big bold letters, but with a picture of Holder.
Wow. “NEVER APPEAR IN AN AMERICAN COURTROOM” the headline screams. Damn commie bastard Obama must be going to tell bin Laden “tsk tsk tsk” and shoo him away, right?
Now lets try CBS News:
Wow. That Eric Holder must be a DOUCHE, because this headline implies that bin Laden is going to be allowed to keep his silence forever and never have to say a word about anything. And since when is “Tiger Woods” more of a hot topic than bin Laden? I mean, Tiger may have slept with a bunch of women. Oh, I get it. Tiger has bin Laden’s 72 virgins. Well, WERE virgins.
Let’s see what FOX News has to say, shall we?
Well it was kind of buried on FOXNews.com, so I had to hunt for it. And weird. FOX didn’t call him “bin Laden”, they called him “Usama”, which sounds and looks a LOT like “Obama”. Is Obama on trial for something? Oh yeah, we were talking about bin Laden, not President Obama. My bad.
Okay then. Lets look at that “bastion of the left” MSNBC and see what they have to say, eh?
It’s kind of in small print, and not easy to find on the page. But hey! They imply that bin Laden is going to get off scott free, now don’t they? Wow.
So, like, the New York Times. They’re in the know with that leftist hippy socialist crowd, right? Hmmm…
Man. Not only does the New York Times give you the headline that bin Laden will always be free, hell with the first sentence from the article, it sounds like bin Laden will be driving a two ton Chevy truck down your street. Better lock up your kids, because the New York Times says bin Laden will roam free and use them for bait!
How about Time Magazine? Sure, they’re a weekly, but they have to have a say, right?
Yep. Time and the New York Times agree. Mothers, hide your children.
Okay, so now that you’re all enraged because Osama bin Laden is not only invading your neighborhood, but he’s probably planning on poisoning your kids Halloween candy, deflowering your oldest daughter, call you during dinner to sell you a time share, and talk during the BEST parts of whatever movie you’re seeing this weekend. But then again, what if you looked at a different news source? What if you just per chance, stumbled upon a news source that not every mainstream person in the US would go to on a regular basis?
Let’s try NPR. They’re some sort of government socialist plot news story service, right? What do they have to say?
WHAT WHAT WHAT?!?!?!? What in the hell is this “won’t be captured alive” bullcrap? We’ve all been led to believe bin Laden is being protected by Holder and Obama, and was probably bowling with the first family every alternate Tuesday night.
Now for the real test. Let’s look at the Huffington Post, ’cause we know they’re just downright wrong, right?
Not captured alive? Wow. That makes Holder sound a little butch.
You see what is going on here? Hype and confusion may stir up a mess, get you higher ratings for a bit, and more clicks and webads, but people realize – when they take the time – that you are fucking with their heads. You, the “main stream media” are doing a number on them, frightening them out of their skins, just to turn a profit. A true journalist would not allow a line like CBS, MSNBC, CNN, Time, or the like to put out. And if you look at each of their stories on each website, it says in the first few sentences what Holder REALLY said and REALLY meant.
So mainstream media? You can bite it. Because we’re not as dumb as you want us to be. We can hit back, and we can do the news ourselves – and do a better job at it.
Unemployement benefits and the big “FU!”
Like many Americans, I have been watching the Senate wrangle with the issue of unemployment benefits, and the detestable act that Kentucky Senator Bunning has committed in denying benefits be continued. Then I watched as Senator John Kyl of Arizona, the number two Republican in the Senate, call people that got unemployment benefits “lazy”. This was pretty much a horrible situation for the American people.
But the big “FU” was not just Bunning flipping the bird to the American public. It came in the form of an accusation from CNN reporter Christine Roman this morning. Did you see it? Roman, in explaining that the benefits finally passed last night, said, “Why did Democrats let this go for so long?” Yes, she blamed DEMOCRATS for the fiasco. I’m sorry, but when did Senator Bunning cross the aisle and become a Democrat? Which top Democratic Party Official in the Senate asked Senator Bunning to object to the unanimous consent on the continuation of unemployment benefits? NONE! What CNN’s Roman did was subtle, but nonetheless, a jab at Democrats instead of the real culprit, Senator Bunning and his supporters. I’ll post the transcript when it comes out.
CNN, you not only got it wrong this morning, you got it FOX NEWS wrong!
UPDATED: TRANSCRIPT FROM CNN:
ROBERTS: You got a Numeral for us this morning, a Romans Numeral?
ROMANS: I do, and this has do to with broken government, everybody — a 11.5 million people. Eleven and a half million people who for five days have been watching as the Democrats let the situation marinade and as Jim Bunning continued to talk about how we have to talk about — 11.5 million people are the number of people who get unemployment checks.
Many of the (ph) people couldn’t feed their families without them and I just think that — and what I’ve been getting — the feedback that I’ve been getting from our viewers and the like and on Facebook and on Twitter is that a lot of people have been watching this, quote- unquote, “Bunning bashing” but have been saying, wait a minute, why did the Democrats let this go on so long?
Couldn’t they have fixed this last Friday? Did they — is this — is this also political maneuvering on both sides? And 11.5 –
CHETRY: And the answer is yes.
Homophobia seems to be making a comeback (image technically NSFW)
It seems that there is more and more homophobia, calls for violence, and all-out crappy treatment of the LGBT community that either being reported, or just becoming more fashionable to do. I’m not sure which one if is, but it’s disturbing, especially given that hate crimes against the LGBT community seem to be going up.
So the first big one was the Notre Dame cartoon. Second was John Mayer’s comments. Now, it’s another gay-bashing T-Shirt making the rounds.
Perusing through Facebook, I found an update from T-Shirt Hell. Normally their stuff is edgy but fun. Then I saw they were promoting this shirt to bring back (the top image):
Go check it out for yourself. Yeah, the “Holy Fucking Shit” is gross, but hell, to each his own. But “Nothing runs like a queere”, with a person being chased by people with baseball bats? That’s crossing the line. If you want to see for yourself, sign into Facebook and check T-Shirt Hell’s page at: http://www.facebook.com/tshirthell. They think it’s so funny, that’s their company’s avatar.
