The Republican Party has tried to scapegoat queers for pedophilia for years. It turns out to be a classic case of projection.

Learn more about rampant GOP pedophilia.

Here are some other explanations for the acronym “GOP” floating around the Internet:

GANG OF PEDOPHILES
GOD'S OWN PEDOPHILES
GREEDY OPPRESSIVE PEDOPHILES
GROTESQUE OLD PERVERTS

Doug Ireland has done an excellent job of reporting human rights abuses by the Muslim Right government in Iran and efforts by queer activists in the US and abroad to try to prevent the torture and killings that occur based on peoples' sexual orientations.

A listing of his Iran-related Articles from Google

As strange as it sounds, an organization that has led a smear campaign against the queer activists is the so-called “Human Rights Watch” (HRW). Scott Long, director of their alleged “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program,” has led the efforts to deny what the Iranian government is doing, dismissing what Iranian gay activists are saying and smearing anyone who protests these outrages. The supposed “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Human Rights” page on their web site barely mentions the human rights violations made on the basis of Iranians' sexual orientations. It completely neglects to condemn the infamous murder of two young Iranians because they were gay by the Iranian government.

The efforts by HRW have had serious consequences for lgbt Iranians seeking asylum in Sweden. Islamophobes in that country's government have re-started denying refuge status to Iranian queers. When so-called human rights organizations deny the fact that the Iranian government routinely tortures and kills people for being queer, it makes it so much easier for Western Islamophobes to deny refuge status to queers trying to save their lives. Legitimate human rights organizations publicly speak out against these crimes, rather than engaging in misleading revisionism.

The hateful and bigotted people at HRW should be ashamed of themselves. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people should find genuine human rights organizations to support.

Think Progress has pointed out that Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert may have known about Mark Foley's sexual harassment of a minor page as early as this spring. AmericaBlog traces it back at least a year.

Paul Rosenberg in a MyLeftWing diary has called on Hastert to resign. LGBT World Daily News is demanding Hastert's resignation as well. Crooks and Liars is asking if Hastert will be investigated.

Did Hastert protect a House Republican engaged in this kind of behavior? This would hardly be surprising. A political party that thinks it is perfectly OK to torture and rape Muslims picked up at random in Iraq would have no qualms about protecting a Republican who was sexually harassing underage employees.

If there is no immediate House Ethics Committee investigation into Hastert and other senior House Republicans, it will be a sure sign that the GOP does not take ethics even the slightest bit seriously.

One wonders how those fundamentalist “values voters” will feel about all of this.

It also should be noted that this is not the only Hastert scandal out there. There are credible allegations that Hastert took brides from Turkish nationalists to help them cover up the genocide of Armenians in Turkey.

The Bush regime is far from alone in its spying controversies. Like the GOP's leader occupying the White House, Jeanine Pirro's New York Attorney General Campaign has been hurt by revelations that she discussed with former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik wiretapping her husband's conversations.

Pirro is trying to deflect attention from the real issues by demanding an investigation of the whistleblower.

Pirro even had the nerve to demand a Special Prosecutor investigate the whistleblowing, instead of where a Special Prosecutor should be investigating: who in this highly partisan, Republican US Justice Department may have committed obstruction of justice by covering up the evidence of the Pirro-Kerik meeting. Pirro's behavior is disturbingly similar to that of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, who has threatened to prosecute newspapers that publish information about crimes committed by the Bush regime.

Ms. Pirro herself should be the subject of an immediate criminal investigation to determine if she followed through on wiretapping her spouse's conversations. Her denials are not sufficient to eliminate the need for such a probe. The inquiry must also determine whether or not her meeting with Kerik violated any laws.

Jeanine Pirro should not be treated as above the law merely because she is a Republican. This GOP obsession with wiretapping has to stop.

Information from the National Intelligence Estimate has confirmed what has been known for some time now: the Bush Regime's war in Iraq has aided and abetted Al Qaida's terrorist recruitment and training efforts.

A previous posting on this blog mentioned some of the correct liberal predictions about an Iraq war. The realization that this war was bound to create more terrorism is yet another correct aspect of liberal views on Iraq, another one that was ridiculed by the corporate media and by other conservatives.

It was not a difficult prediction to make. Invading and colonizing a country that was governed by a mortal enemy of Al Qaida in the name of 911 was bound to create a sense that the US was on an insane crusade against Muslims.

Bush himself is a militant, Christian fundamentalist, as are many in his administration and his political base. Their anti-Islamic bloodlust certainly played a role in getting us into this nutty war. However, political corruption involving corporate cronies such as Halliburton, Big Oil, Blackwater, and Bechtel played at least as great of a role as religious fanaticism.

Despite being proven correct repeatedly, liberals still have not received any apology from the rightists who attacked anyone who thought rationally and critically about the war.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has sunk to a new low, launching an irrational attack on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose only “offense” was to mockingly criticize George W. Bush. It was bad enough that she pandered to the Bush regime, but she even resorted to a racial slur, calling Chavez a “thug.”

Pelosi's race-baiting is disgusting enough, but it becomes even more reprehensible when it is done in the context of pandering to a brutal autocrat like George W. Bush. Pelosi would rather grovel to an unelected politician like Bush, rather than support, or merely leave alone, a democratically elected and widely popular leader like Hugo Chavez. While Chavez respects human rights, Bush has people arrested without charge and tortured, both at home and abroad. While Chavez has respected press freedom in Venezuela, Bush has bombed Al Jazeera and his administration has threatened to prosecute US journalists who reported on illegal NSA spying on Americans.

Democrats continually promise us that so much will change if we throw the Republicans out in the Congressional elections. But, in so many cases (e.g., Terri Schiavo, the Alito filibuster, the Roberts nomination, Bush's illegal and unAmerican war in Iraq), far too many Democrats offered the Bush regime critical support to carry out its hateful and unAmerican agenda.

The Green Party looks better and better with each passing day. It is not enough for the Democrats to be somewhat different than the Republicans. Democrats need to provide vigorous and fearless opposition to what is being done to America and the rest of the world.

Here are some entertaining video clips at the expense of Resident Bush.

I hate bush!

Stupid Bush (This one includes my favorite Bushim.)

We fuck the world

Hurcubush

Stand Up Comic Impersonates Bush

Is Bush and Idiot? (From Scarborough Country of all places. Once the talking heads start going, it gets boring.)

Letterman Top Ten List of Favorite Bush Moments

George W. Bush "Fundamentalist Prick"

Bush Drinking Game Standup Comedy Travis Simmons

Bush Threatens America in Verbal miscue

So are Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Osama bin Laden.

Everyone is godless. There is no god (or goddess for that matter).

If you want a quick laugh at the Queen of Mean's expense, check out this Crooks and Liars blog posting about Adam Carolla hanging up on her.

“Hi, this is Susan Sarandon. Hillary Clinton voted for George Bush’s war. She supports the continued occupation of Iraq . Jonathan Tasini opposed the Iraq War and is calling for the immediate safe withdrawal of our troops. Jonathan is a true progressive Democrat who is calling for Medicare for All and a New Deal for New York workers. On September 12th, please vote for Jonathan Tasini for U.S. Senate.”

- Message recorded by Susan Sarandon for the Tasini Campaign

I couldn't agree more.

www.tasinifornewyork.org

There is a lot of talk about Christian Zionists these days, but most of it is devoid of a discussion of the motivation of Israel's alleged friends.

The vast majority of Christian Zionists are on the Christian Right. This should be of concern when one considers that Christian fundamentalists in this country despise anyone who does not subscribe to their particular variety of Christianity, much less other views on the subject of religion.

For some, support for the Israeli government's policies is a temporary alliance, based on realpolitik. The followers are understandably outraged by terrorist acts carried out by Muslim religious extremists and foolishly think that all Muslims are responsible. The leaders are more concerned with the growth of Islam, which is resulting from population growth in Muslim countries, many Christians converting to Islam in Africa, and limited successes in conversion to Islam in Europe and the United States. For these supporters of Israel, they are limited in their interest to using Israel as a proxy in their conflict with Islam. Should Islam ever be conquered or even contained, they will revert to their old hostilities toward Jews.

For other Christian Zionists, supporting the expansionist policies of the Israeli government is more about trying to jump-start apocalypse. They think that an enormous war between Isreal and the world's Arabs and Muslims is predicted by the Bible. These militant, Christian fundamentalists think this will bring the rapture they are so excited about.

However, the Christian Taliban who are supporting aggressive Israeli policies are Jew-haters who see Jewish people as “Christ-killers.” The least militant of these people, such as George W. Bush, merely think that Jews will all go to hell. Others among them would prefer to take violent actions in this world against Jewish people. Their willingness to support right-wing Israeli policies is based entirely on a desperate desire to see the End of the World.

The Jewish community of the US and the Israeli government should seriously reconsider their alliance with these extremists. Yes, Israeli leaders would like more land and would like a larger water supply, but do they really want to politically empower people who despise them?

The Israeli public might also want to reconsider the policies that are attracting the support of militant, Christian fundamentalists. Is an enormous war with over a billion of the world's Muslims really in Israel's best interests? Can Israel contain the ambitions for such a war among its Christian extremist “supporters”?

For years, Disney-owned ABC News has had a pervasive right-wing bias. But, that has failed to satisfied Disney. Now they are imposing their extremely right-wing ideology on ABC's entertainment division, spending tens of millions of dollars on the mocku/crocku/propagandadrama, “The Path to 9/11.” They use massive historical distortions and omissions to try to distract attention from the Bush administration's failure to even make a serious effort to prevent the 911 attacks, despite numerous warnings.

This has gotten me to thinking, what would happen if Disney's upper-management people imposed their fringe-right politics on their cartoon universe.

THE NEW DISNEY CARTOON PANTHEON:

ANN COULTER MOUSE:
Forget the charming and cute Mickey, this new mouse has an attitude. When "Mouskateers" dare to express moderate or liberal points of view, Ann Coulter Mouse calls them harpies and accuses them of wanting their parents dead. This new Disney icon also prides herself on calling moderate and liberal children Islamofascists and telling them that their parents would like to put them up for adoption, but can't find anyone who wants them.

MUSLIM MOUSE:
Minnie's replacement, like all believers in Islam, is a villain in the Brave New Disney World. Muslim Mouse refuses to accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God and One True Savior. Muslim Mouse also refuses to make falafels for Bill O'Reilly (documentation).

SNOW WHITE:
Disney will keep the name, but change her costume into white robes and a dunce cap, KKK style. Her dialog will be adapted to primarily include slurs involving other cartoon characters' ethnicities, sexual orientations, and gender identities.

CINDERELLA:
Once again, the name remains the same. However, Cinderella now is a conniving, social-climber who doesn't know that she shouldn't socialize with her betters. The good Prince has her beheaded after accusing her of stealing a rich girl's slippers.

TASTI:
Tasti will replace the cloying Bambi. Tasti will mock politically-correct people who object to hunting. Tasti then will be shot. Disney was considering incorporating Tasti Shooting Ranges into its theme parks, but their legal department nixed the plan on the grounds of liability concerns. Damned Lawyers!

DONALD RUMSFELD:
Who needs a cartoon duck when you have an animated version of Donald Rumsfeld? The new Donald is even more bellicose than the old, and what he says is even less intelligible.

THE GHOST OF VINCE FOSTER:
The Fantasia Ghosts will be replaced by an ethereal fictionalization of Vince Foster. This ghost will tell the kiddies all the bad, bad things the Clintons have done.

THE PERFECT KING:
The Lion King will be replaced by the Perfect King, W the First. The Perfect King will never admit to mistakes and will call anyone who misunderestimates him a terrorist.

DUMBO:
Dumbo will keep the name, but will morph into a donkey. He will keep repeating things conservatives wish Democrats would say (e.g. “I want to give welfare to terrorists.”). Republicans may not be able to win arguments with actual Democrats, but they always will have the intellectual upper-hand with Dumbo.

OLD YELLOW:
The pooch will be replaced by an aging chickenhawk who will tell other people they are cowards if they don't support the war in Iraq. The chickenhawk will be safely past draft age.

Newspapers generally blame television, radio, and the Internet for their declining circulations. These forms of competition may be playing a role, but there is a deeper problem driving away many readers: pervasive right-wing bias.

The press coverage of George W. Bush's confession in front of television cameras that he sent people to illegal secret prisons, where they have been routinely tortured in violation of US and international law, is a blatant example. This is being reported as either a policy story or a political story, when it should be reported as a crime story. The same media that will sensationalize crimes committed by middle-class people often refuses to report on crimes by the wealthy, the powerful, and the Republicans as crimes.

Of course, this is one of many examples of slanting the news to the right. Very few US papers even covered the Downing Street Memo which proves that the Bush regime provided fraudulent “intelligence” in order to lie us into their Iraq war. The corporate media still refuse to report on the theft of the 2000 and 2004 elections. I could go on for far too many paragraphs with more examples, but most people should already know that they are being propagandized to follow the right-wing line.

And, that is precisely the problem. Liberals tend to be more interested in reading newspapers, yet these same newspapers have abandoned their professionalism in order to act as corporate/GOP propagandists.

At a certain point, it just makes no sense to pay people to lie to you.

Steve Jobs, CEO
Apple Computer, Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014

Dear Mr. Jobs:

I am requesting that you resign your position on the Board of Directors of Disney/ABC in response to their decision to broadcast “The Path to 9/11” a dishonest propaganda piece which makes a mockery of the deaths of Americans and others killed in the 911 terrorist attacks.

Disney/ABC has shown itself desperate to try to deflect attention from the fact that the Bush Administration had more than enough warnings, tools, and resources to prevent the 911 attacks. Instead, Disney is distorting the facts or making them up entirely in an unpaid political ad for the GOP which is worth millions of dollars.

If you remain on the Board of Directors of such an incredibly unpatriotic company as Disney, you will severely damage Apple's corporate image, proving that Apple can be at least as evil as Microsoft.

“The Path to 9/11,” a phony “docudrama” developed by a notorious right-wing extremist, Cyrus Nowrasteh, is creating quite a stir. ABC/Disney seems determined to broadcast this unpaid GOP political advertisement, despite an outcry over its numerous inaccuracies.

The main purpose is to try to let the Bush regime off the hook for its failure to prevent the 911 attacks. The main tactics are to make the Cowardly Lion in the White House look courageous and blame to Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was responsible for some nasty conservative policies (e.g. NAFTA, supporting price gouging on AIDS drugs, welfare "reform," etc.), but his administration took its responsibility to protect the country from terrorism seriously, something the Bush regime still refuses to do.

Here is a smattering of reactions to the ABC/Disney/GOP propaganda film:

Truthout
Commentary by William Rivers Pitt

America Blog
Commentary

Down with Tyranny
Open Letter to ABC

Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY-28)
Critical Press Release

Center for American Progress
Action Alert

The Federal Elections Commission really should launch an investigation into this unpaid GOP political ad worth millions.

Everything we said about the war beforehand has turned out to be true.