First Door on the Left

From the front page of rabid right-wing website Townhall.com today, a harbinger of things to come…

GOP

As you may (or may not) be aware, Texas yesterday became the 19th state in the Union to add hate, bigotry and discrimination to its consititution.

Here are a few choice quotes culled from this morning’s Dallas Morning News that illustrate how sick some people really are…

“Texas is a huge conservative state and they’ve spoken on this issue,” said Rep. Warren Chisum, the Pampa Republican who authored the amendment. “They’re very family-oriented, and given the opportunity, they’ll vote conservative. They still have a lot of moral values.”

Yes, indeed… hate, bigotry and discrimination are right up there at the top of moral values.

“Let there be no doubt that Texans, not liberal activist judges, will decide how best to keep our families and state strong,” said state Republican Party Chairwoman Tina Benkiser. “Campaigns of confusion, lies and deception will go down in blistering defeat.”

But, Chairwoman Benkiser, the campaign of confusion, lies and deception did not go down in blistering defeat. In fact, it won by a 3 to 1 margin.

When conservative activist Kelly Shackelford, who helped write the amendment and led the campaign for it, was advised that the amendment was defeated on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin by a 4 to 1 margin, he had this to say:

“That’s just a part of being young and immature,” Mr. Shackelford said. He said that as young people “gain life experience,” they’ll “realize the importance” of traditional, heterosexual marriage.

Yep.

This is the 21st century. Equal rights for all citizens of the United States of America should not even be an issue. However, when hateful bigots govern…

Whatever your political beliefs, you have to admit that it is interesting (and perhaps even fun) watching the Republican party implode upon itself…

Probe Sought in Leak About CIA-Run Secret Prisons

With pressure mounting on the administration over its detainee policies, Republican House and Senate leaders today sought a Congressional probe into who leaked information on the existence of CIA-run secret prisons abroad to the Washington Post.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) circulated a letter asking the intelligence committees to “immediately initiate a joint investigation into the possible release of classified information to the media,” about the existence of the prisons.

“As you know, if accurate, such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences,” the pair said in their letter to Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee…

Another Republican, Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, said it may have been Republican senators who leaked the information to the Post. Lott told reporters that the existence of the secret prison system was discussed last week during the Republican policy luncheon, held on Capitol Hill the day before the Post story appeared.

“Information that was said in there, given out in there, did get into the newspaper,” Lott said.

Asked whether he believed it was Republicans who had breached security, Lott said: “I don’t know where else it came from…it looked to me that at least one of those reports came right out of that room.”

Here, direct from the website of Secretary of State Roger Williams, is Proposition 2 as being voted upon by the citizens of Texas today…

Proposition 2

Pay particular attention to the wording:

“The constitutional amendment… prohibiting this state or a political subdivision of this state from creating or recognizing any legal status identical or similar to marriage.”

Should this amendment be added to the Consititution of the State of Texas, marriage will no longer be recognized in this state. Any marriage. Whatsoever.

I wonder if most of the folks voting today realize that.

Update: Proposition 2 passed tonight with approximately 75% of the vote. Marriage is no longer recognized in the State of Texas.

Just when I thought the right could not possibly get more hypocritical, they go and prove me wrong…

Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning

The Internal Revenue Service has warned one of Southern California’s largest and most liberal churches that it is at risk of losing its tax-exempt status because of an antiwar sermon two days before the 2004 presidential election.

Rector J. Edwin Bacon of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena told many congregants during morning services Sunday that a guest sermon by the church’s former rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, on Oct. 31, 2004, had prompted a letter from the IRS.

In his sermon, Regas, who from the pulpit opposed both the Vietnam War and 1991’s Gulf War, imagined Jesus participating in a political debate with then-candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. Regas said that “good people of profound faith” could vote for either man, and did not tell parishioners whom to support.

But he criticized the war in Iraq, saying that Jesus would have told Bush, “Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine. Forcibly changing the regime of an enemy that posed no imminent threat has led to disaster.”

On June 9, the church received a letter from the IRS stating that “a reasonable belief exists that you may not be tax-exempt as a church … ” The federal tax code prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from intervening in political campaigns and elections.

The emphasis on the last sentence is mine.

Methinks the Republican party needs a refresher course in recent history.

Many of you, including those of you in my home state of Texas, will be going to the polls in a couple of days. One of things you may be voting on is an amendment to your state’s constitution to define marriage as being “between one man and one woman.”

Before casting that vote, be sure you read today’s assigment:

The Family Values Sideshow

Bush Orders Staff to Attend Ethics Briefings

President Bush has ordered White House staff to attend mandatory briefings beginning next week on ethical behavior and the handling of classified material after the indictment last week of a senior administration official in the CIA leak probe.

According to a memo sent to aides yesterday, Bush expects all White House staff to adhere to the “spirit as well as the letter” of all ethics laws and rules. As a result, “the White House counsel’s office will conduct a series of presentations next week that will provide refresher lectures on general ethics rules, including the rules of governing the protection of classified information,” according to the memo, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post by a senior White House aide.

The mandatory ethics primer is the first step Bush plans to take in coming weeks in response to the CIA leak probe that led to the indictment of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff, and which still threatens Karl Rove, the deputy White House chief of staff…

Next week’s meeting is for West Wing aides with security clearance, which allows them to view and discuss sensitive or classified material. Information about Plame was classified. Rove is among those aides who must attend.

“There will be no exceptions,” the memo states.

Yet another poll for the righties to try spinning…

Bush Approval Sagging to New Lows

An increasingly unpopular war, an ethics cloud, and broad economic discontent have pushed public opinion of the Bush administration from bad to worse, infecting not only the president’s ratings on political issues but his personal credentials for honesty and leadership as well.

George W. Bush’s approval ratings for handling his job, Iraq, terrorism and the economy are all at career-lows. Sixty percent of Americans disapprove of his work in office overall, a level of discontent unseen since recession chased his father from office.

With an indictment in the White House, just 40 percent call Bush honest and trustworthy — fewer than half for the first time — and 67 percent rate his handling of ethics in government negatively. Fewer than half call him a strong leader, another first. Two-thirds say he doesn’t understand their problems, and nearly six in 10 say he doesn’t share their values — again career-worst personal ratings on these attributes.

On Iraq, a new high — 55 percent — say the Bush administration intentionally misled the American public in making its case for war, up 12 points from last spring. Sixty percent say the war was not worth fighting, up seven points just since August to another high.

And here at home, with gasoline at $2.48 a gallon (even if down from recent price peaks), 65 percent say the economy is in bad shape, and 68 percent say the nation is on the “wrong track,” the most since 1996. The main reasons given: the economy, Iraq and Bush himself.

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

Thirty-five percent of your fellow Americans still cling to the belief that George W. Bush is doing a good job as “president.”

These are people you probably work with, go to church with, drive on the roads with. Your kids might play with their kids. There may be one of them sitting in the cubicle next to yours right now!

Just be careful, okay? These poor, misinformed creatures can be dangerous, and they will only become more so as their numbers dwindle and more and more of them come over to the bright side. Be welcoming of those who do and wary of those who don’t.

Group Holds Santorum ‘Retirement Parties’

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A national political group for gays is staging mock “retirement parties” for Sen. Rick Santorum as part of a campaign to defeat the high-ranking Republican next year.

The Washington-based National Stonewall Democrats and its local chapters have signed up hosts for about 40 parties in more than a dozen states, including six in Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania. Most of the parties are scheduled for Nov. 13.

Organizers say their main goal is to energize rank-and-file activists for next year’s campaigns and the 2008 presidential election.

Santorum, who as GOP conference chairman is the Senate’s third-ranking Republican, helped lead last year’s unsuccessful push in Congress for a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

In a 2003 interview with The Associated Press, he angered gay-rights groups by saying states should have the right to ban gay sex and by comparing homosexuality to bigamy, incest and adultery.

Santorum campaign spokeswoman Virginia Davis said the senator believes marriage should be “between one man and one woman” and that “special rights should not be granted based on sexual orientation.”

News flash for Ricky and his spokeswoman Ms. Davis: special rights already are granted based on sexual orientation. If your sexual orientation happens to be heterosexual, you have all kinds of special rights.

When are these bigots going to learn that there is a huge difference between special rights and equal rights?