Politics Plus has taken blogging to the next logical step: starting an online petition. The petition is to get Democrats to dump Harry Reid as Majority Leader in the Senate. The good news from this year's Nevada Senate race was that Sharon Angle lost. The bad news is that the inept, bigoted, and highly corrupt Harry Reid won. Of the three most powerful Democratic Party leaders in DC, Obama, Pelosi, and Reid, Harry Reid is the worst. He is the epitome of everything that is rightist and wrong about the Corpocrats. Here's the text of the petition.

Harry Reid has been such a weak majority leader that voters have come to think of Democratic as the party of spineless weakness. We need a majority leader who will fight for progressive values, not cower in fear at the first threat of Republican opposition. Please join us in petitioning your Democratic Senator(s) to replace Harry Reid with a Senator with the courage to stand fast against Republican assaults on our Constitution, our freedom, and our well being.

This sounds like a good way to discourage Democrats from acting like Republicans to me.

Please Sign the Petition!

Photo: talkradionews

 

In 2006 and 2008, the Democratic politicians plied queers with their usual lies about how much they would support us if they got control of Congress and the White House. It was a crock of shit, to put it mildly. Let's look at what they did.

The only good thing they did of any actual importance was passage of a watered down hate crimes bill. It took the National Equality March and a picket outside of Barack Obama's speech before the HRC to get even that to happen. Why do I say it was watered down? The legislation helps the rare local jurisdictions that want to fight hate crimes (which doesn't even include the NYPD under that vicious bigot Michael Bloomberg), but it does little or nothing to deal with jurisdictions that don't. Heterosexist hate crimes are crimes of intimidation that are intended to impact across state lines, which makes them a federal law enforcement matter. There should be strong federal penalties against them, and there should be a specific unit in the Dept. of Justice to prosecute them. The good thing about the legislation was that it included trans queers.

Sadly, that was the best thing the Democrats did the entire time. The Obama Administration, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid blocked ENDA, the most important queer civil rights legislation from even getting a vote in Congress. Unlike same sex marriage, employment discrimination is an area where the GLBT community has overwhelming public support, which presumably why they didn't want to give this popular legislation even a vote. I can not give the Democrats a good grade on LGBT issues when they wouldn't even allow a vote on the one that is, by far, the most important.

Employment discrimination legislation should have passed during the Carter administration. Yet, we can't even get a vote on it during the Obama administration.

Sadly, President Obama has had a reprehensible record on LGBT issues. He deliberately incited violence against queers, queer teen suicide, and violence against women by involving one of the nation's most notorious bigots, Rick Warren, in the inauguration. Obama had been doing pretty much the same thing by pandering to and glorifying that monster during the 2008 campaign. Obama made things worse by showing up consistently to the National Hate Breakfast, showing his support for heterosexist fundamentalism and violating the Constitution of the United States of America.

It didn't stop there. On the DOMA court challenge, the Obama administration deliberately filed court papers comparing homosexuality and bisexuality to sex with animals and sex with the dead. They didn't need to do that, even if you accept the notion that they were obligated to defend that legislation. It was completely gratuitous.

Yes, the Obama administration will occasionally throw us a tiny bone, but most of the slight good that bone might do us is negated by the condescending and heterosexist attitude they display when they do it.

Then, there is the Clinton Administration's more draconian version of the military ban which is deceptively referred to as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," even though it was deliberately designed to increase witchhunts and discharges against queers. "DADT" has even led to the military sending undercover people to gay bars in DC.

President Obama has repeatedly put queers off and fought to keep the ban in court. When queers kept pressuring the Democrats, Obama's viciously heterosexist enablers, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, came up with weird scam legislation which would maybe, just maybe lift the ban if Robert Gates wants to do it. Unfortunately, Robert Gates is a notoriously bigoted Bush crime family crony who immediately preceded to sabotage the effort by creating a highly biased survey on the views of military families on the subject.

Then, Harry Reid took his typical Mormon homophobic hatred one step further. He made sure that the legislation that included this maybe, maybe lifting of the military ban, also included other controversial provisions in order to provide cover for Scott Brown, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe to vote fillibuster against lifting the ban. Reid is so fanatical in his hatred of us, he is willing to hurt Democratic Senate candidates in Massachusetts and Maine by giving the GOP homophobes political cover for hating us and attacking us.

We also shouldn't forget the pattern of heterosexist discrimination in appointments by President Obama. So far, Obama has yet to appoint even one openly queer Cabinet member or Supreme Court Justice, not one. Considering the fact that lesbian, gay, bi, and trans people make up far more than 10% of the population and the Democratic Party is disproportionately queer, this has been a particularly blatant and stinging insult to the TBGL community. Obama's record in this area is just as bad as that of another hateful bigot: Bill Clinton.

Obama also has badly underfunded AIDS, done nothing to promote needle exchange, and has done nothing the promote condom usage and condom education. The Democrats continue to fund "abstinence only" scams that are deliberately designed to promote the spread of HIV.

Even with the hate crimes legislation that did pass, the Obama administration has yet to take seriously the recent wave of heterosexist hate crimes and bullying. If there was a national outbreak of violence, bullying, and suicides among banksters, Obama and congressional Democrats would treat it like a national crisis. Queers just don't rate that kind of attention.

Queers have done so much to help the Democrats in 2006 and 2008. What did we get in return? I find it difficult to find words to articulate just how badly I have been betrayed by the Democrats as a queer. The best way for me to express it ultimately will be for me to vote party line Green this November. Vicious bigots like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama have given me absolutely no other option. They are as heinous as the Palins, Paladinos, and Pauls in the GOP on matters of substance.

Photos: jurvetson

talkradionews

 

Regardless of your position on the mosque, the misleading tactics of the right on this issue should be troubling to you. They keep acting as if all the 911 families oppose the project. That simply isn't true. Peaceful Tomorrows, a group of 911 families, has supported the project at least since May.

9/11 Families Group Announces Support for Islamic Cultural Center in Lower Manhattan
May 20th, 2010

New York – Today, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, a nationwide group founded by family members of those killed on 9/11 issued the following statement, which may be attributed to their spokesperson, Donna Marsh O’Connor:

September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows strongly supports efforts to bring an Islamic Cultural Center to lower Manhattan, near the Ground Zero site. We believe that welcoming the Center, which is intended to promote interfaith tolerance and respect, is consistent with fundamental American values of freedom and justice for all.

We believe, too, that this building will serve as an emblem for the rest of the world that Americans stand against violence, intolerance and overt acts of racism and that we recognize that the evil acts of a few must never damn the innocent.

The rightists aren't honest enough to admit the varied opinions of 911 families. Politicians like Rick Lazio, Newt Gingrich, and Harry Reid don't give a flying fuck about 911 families.They just see people who lost loved ones as props to be used to advance their own prejudices and further their careers.

The same goes for the pundits who spew this kind of BS in hopes of creating so much hysteria over a small number of Muslims that their corporate overlords might get another profitable war out of the scam.

The constant barrage of deception and dishonesty from the right is absolutely sickening. They know they can not keep or hold onto power honestly, so they just keep showing a complete lack of integrity.



Video: lejoe

 

As usual, the homophobic Democratic Party leadership in DC is determined to act in an exploitative and abusive fashion against queers. (From the Keen News Service 7/14/10 - Hat Tip: Queerty)

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is not on the agenda for Senate floor action for the next few weeks, prior to the August 9 recess.

A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate will take up work on as many as nine matters during the next month, but none of those are ENDA.

The nine include the Defense authorization bill, which incorporates language aimed at repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; and the nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. They also include Wall Street reform, energy (including oil spills), and the extension of unemployment benefits.

Let's look at two of the volcanoes that queers are being sacrificed on. The Wall St. "reform" is so incredibly weak that it primarily serves to show how much influence bankers and brokesters have over Congress and the White House. The energy bill was originally supposed to be a global warming bill, but efforts to limit CO2 have largely been replaced by massive government subsidies of the polluting corporations that were supposed to be clamped down on.

Even the repeal of Bill Clinton's draconian version of the military ban isn't all that great either. It puts the repeal off until after the November elections and puts it in the hands of ultra homophobic Bush regime holdover, Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Even worse, Gates is rigging the whole thing against ending the military ban by running a survey of military personnel that is intentionally biased against repeal and which could be used to discharge queer troops if they answer it honestly.

There is no excuse for this. ENDA already should have passed in 2009. Legislation against employment discrimination should have passed when Democrats at the White House and Congress in 1993-04 and 1977-80. ENDA is the most important and least controversial LGBT civil rights bill in existence, and vicious bigots like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama keep screwing with it.

The Democrats keep hounding me with phone calls and junk mail asking me for money. Those bigoted asswipes are not getting a penny from me, much less a vote. I am so sick of being treated as less than human by the same people who demand I support them out of some unthinking loyalty that only goes in one direction.

This year is the year I'm going all Green.

Any and all efforts that might have gone to helping Democrats should go to pressuring the party to change its position and pass ENDA. Why should we passively go along with this viciously bigoted betrayal? We are human beings and should insist on being treated as such.

Contact the White House!

Contact Speaker Pelosi!

You can also sign Change.org's petition for ENDA. Change.org is definitely in Obama's pocket, but it is good for people to visibly support ENDA there too.

Photo: afagen

 

The Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA) is by far the most important queer issue in Congress today. It would have the largest effect on the lives of the broadest segment of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. ENDA also has broader support in the general public than most queer issues.

Yet, the Democrats have refused to even vote on it in this Congress. Well, it may be even worse than we thought, according to Jackie Speier. (Bay Area Reporter 7/1/10)

Addressing the crowd of gay and straight political and community leaders at Sunday's Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club Pride breakfast, Speier said, "Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi is doing all she can to ensure a majority for next year so we can pass ENDA."

Asked later in a brief interview if that meant the House would not vote on ENDA this year, Speier told the B.A.R. , "The rest of the year is in question."

"There's no question 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' will be history this year," she said. "ENDA, we will have that law for sure within the next five years."

The Democrats are holding ENDA hostage until after the next election (and the next, and the next). Yet, if they don't do much better on queer issues, many queers will stay home this year and some others will vote Green. Homophobic policy turns out to be incredibly bad political strategy. Remember what happened in 1994 after Bill Clinton and the Democrats went out of their way to be homophobic?

Equality California's Executive Director Geoff Kors pointed out:

"I'm worried LGBT people won't vote in the midterms" if Pelosi's promise is not kept, he said. "That would be disastrous for LGBT rights but it's understandable. People felt they did work, gave money, and lobbied members only to see once again being pushed to the back of the line."

The general strategy among Democrats has been to provide the minimal level of support for queers to keep us quiet. ENDA also has specific obstacles that other queer issues do not. Laws against employment discrimination regulate the behavior of corporations, and the Democrats are incredibly financially dependent on corporations, their owners, and their executives. Democrats have been studiously avoiding doing anything that even slightly offends these big money donors. That's why they have done precious little to stop Global Warming and Wall St. corruption. It's also why they passed a wealthcare bill for corporations instead of an actual healthcare reform bill.

Also, don't forget that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a vicious homophobe who gay baited her way into Congress in 1986. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid belongs to the notorously racist, misogynist, and heterosexist hate group: the Mormon Church.

We are getting screwed over big time and have every right to be furious.

Photo: afagen

 

Deep inside a Death Star orbiting the Mormon spiritual home star Kolob, Capt. Harry Reid prepares for all out war.

Capt. Reid: Mr. Spock! What is our battle status?

Spock: Logic dictates that my presence here may be the result of plagiarism.

Starbuck: Like that's any different than the rest of Mormonism!

Capt. Reid: Logan, will there be any hot babes for me to marry on The Channel after we win the battle?

Logan: Well, if you like them under thirty....

The Robot: Danger Will Robinson! Intelligence reports confirm that the Scientologists are preparing to mount an attack!

Capt. Reid: Don't worry! Our magic underpants will save us!

On her Flying Teabag Fortress, Admiral Sharron Angle of the Scientologists is plotting strategy.

Ad. Angle: Are our intelligence reports accurate? Are the Mormon forces going back in time to get Xenu?

Flunkie 1: (adjusting tinfoil hat) Reid is too spineless to try it.

Flunkie 2: But, we have determined that President Obama is a liberal, communist, fascist, atheist Muslim from the Maui province of Kenya.

Ad. Angle: We'll have to worry about that later! Has everyone been cleared so we can take off?

Flunkie 2: 32 crew members are still being cleared by crack Elronoid professionals.

Ad. Angle: Dammit! We are in a hurry! I knew I should have paid more to the Church!

Flunkie 1: We have pamphlets we could pass out to people while we wait.

Flunkie 2: I also can contact Sarah Palin so she can send a twit of encouragement to our teabag squadrons.

Ad. Angle: It would be expensive to pay her off, but it would be worth it!

Flunkie 1: (holding a tin can with a string connected to nothing) I have an urgent message. The teabag pilots are refusing to fly their missions until they see your birth certificate!

Ad. Angle: (fuming) I showed it to them last week. Where's Tom Cruise when I need him? He would know how to handle this situation!

 

Ted Rall's syndicated column on Obama out Republicaning the Goppers is one of the best summaries of what has been wrong with this administration to date. The entire column is worth a read, but the comments on the wealthcare bill are of special interest.

Obama's revamp of healthcare, on the other hand, goes too far, perverting the liberal desire to provide healthcare for all Americans into a transfer of wealth from poor to rich that the hard right never dreamed of.

Buying into the classic, flawed, American assumption that a bad system can't get worse (ask the Iraqis and Afghans), ObamaCare entrusts 30 million new customers, to the tune of roughly ten grand a year each, to the tender mercies of private insurance companies.

ObamaCare pours hundreds of billions of dollars, some from taxpayers, the rest from poor people, into the gaping coffers of giant corporations. Once people find themselves paying even more for visits to the same crappy doctors and hospitals they can't afford now, they'll hold the Dems responsible at the polls. If Republicans stopped to think, they'd love it.

And if Democrats stopped to think, they'd hate it.

Some of us have stopped to think, and we do hate it.

The rightist policies of the Obama administration are going to cause some Democrats to vote Green at least some of the time for years. However, that won't be the biggest impact on the party. Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and their minions are doing a really effective job in persuading Democratic core constituencies that it doesn't matter much who you vote for. This means lower Democratic turnout and less volunteer time. The couch is a more effective rival than third parties, at least so far, and the DINOs in power are giving the couch a huge electoral advantage.

The Democrats are digging themselves in deeper and deeper, and they are too foolish and too bought to see it.

 

The Massachusetts Senate race shows the problem with Democrats governing like Republicans. Let's look at a key aspect of the race: turnout. Corporate media outlets focused mostly on high turnout among older, white, heterosexual males in the suburbs, who are the only people that the corporate media really think count. But, they glossed over the low turnout among Democratic voters.

Corporate outlets repeated stated that turnout was high, without saying what that turnout actually was. That immediately should make one suspicious. The few that mentioned any specifics, chose preelection estimates that were highly vague. The lack of actual facts shows that we are being lied to.

The reality is that Republicans are angry because there is a man who is half black in the White House. That will energize them to vote against Democrats no matter how much Obama, Reid, Schumer, Gillibrand, etc govern as conservatives. Independents who are not ideological are angry about the lack of jobs and will vote for whatever party is out of power for the moment, though the improving economy should change that by the time November arrives.

The big problem is that liberals are disgusted, angry, and demoralized by the Republican style governing by the Democrats. There was no Green Party candidate on the ballot, so I wouldn't have bothered to vote in the Massachusetts Senate race. Instead, I would have used my time more productively by contacting Democrats and letting them know why I didn't vote for the Democrat in the race.

I have been betrayed by the Democrats in so many ways. I have been screwed over as:

- A gay man

- An atheist

- A liberal

- A union member

- A middle class American

- An opponent of the Iraq War

- Someone who was denied needed care by a health insurer

- A gun crime victim

- Someone who opposes Christian religious extremism

If the Democrats want to win back my support and the support of many from their core constituencies who they have utterly betrayed, they better start acting like Democrats. I prefer to vote for Democrats, but I will gladly vote for Greens over Republicans pretending to be Democrats. Nobody owns my vote except me. I'm not going to be cheap and easy for corrupt, heterosexist, misogynist, war mongering, racist politicians.

Photo: See-ming Lee 李思明 SML

 

I am so sick of Harry Reid and the so called "Democrats" lying to us and saying that they need 60 votes to pass healthcare reform when they could easily use budget reconciliation and only need a simple majority. This obviously insults the intelligence of grassroots Democrats, and it hides some sinister agendas.

With only a simple majority, there wouldn't be any need to put in misogynistic and racist restrictions on abortion in order to pander to drooling knucklewalkers like Ben Nelson and Bob KKKasey. Part of the reason that Harry Reid is going the regular legislative route instead of doing budget reconciliation is that he is part of a sexist, racist, and heterosexist hate group, the Mormon Church, and is abusing his position as Majority Leader in order to promote his church's vicious and bigoted political agenda.

Then, there is the whole issue of the public option. By avoiding budget reconciliation, Reid can use other far right "Democrats" and Joe Lieberbush as the front people for killing real healthcare reform while pretending he supports it.

Is the bill worth passing without a strong public option and full funding for abortion?

Absolutely not!

Let's look at what this scandalous legislation actually does.

1) Medicare: This bill makes draconian cuts in Medicare for two reasons. First, they want to take healthcare money away from middle class and poor seniors so they can give it to big corporations. Second, they want to destroy Medicare so nobody will want Medicare for All.

2) Fining the Poor and the Shrinking Middle Class: Another big aspect of this bill is to enact fines for people who don't make enough money to pay for astronomically expensive private health insurance. This is what they are calling "expanding coverage."

3) Abortion: Under a "compromise" pushed by Nelson, KKKasey, and Reid, this bill would make it more difficult for insurance to cover abortion.

4) More Money to the HMOs and Health Insurers: For what those fuckers are getting now, a single payer healthcare program for everyone could be enacted and there still would be money left over. These greedy bastards already get way too much of our nation's GDP, and the "Democrats" want to shovel more money at them.

What about "reforms" like getting rid of preexisting conditions?

None of these will ever be enforced. Just look at the track record. For decades HMO executives and their counterparts in health insurance companies have run massive campaigns of fraud in order to deny life saving medical care to people who have "coverage." Instead of admitting that people need the care and just saying they won't cover it, they pressure doctors into lying and saying the care isn't medically necessary. This isn't just fraud. It's premeditated murder across interstate lines too.

Has even one HMO or health insurance executive ever been prosecuted for fraud or murder because of this? Think about it.

The only way we can save people from this deadly criminality is to give them a chance for public healthcare, which has proven cheaper and better in every developed country that has tried it. The Democrats should have been pushing for single payer from the beginning (and for criminal prosecutions of the guilty too). Yet, these bought politicians won't even give people the option to save their lives from the HMOs and insurance companies.

Do these "Democrats" really think they will get a decent turnout of Democratic voters in 2010 if they pass a Republican wealthcare bill like this instead of a Democratic healthcare bill? How is Obama possibly going to win in 2012 if he signs a wealthcare bill like this instead of signing a healthcare reform bill, which is what he promised the voters in 2008?

 

One of the biggest signs of the intellectual and moral decay of the Democratic Party is that no one in Nevada has stepped forward to challenge Harry Reid in the primary. Reid is a racist, misogynistic, heterosexist Mormon extremist who has failed to govern as a Democrat in any meaningful way.

Let's look at healthcare. Reid continues to lie and say that he needs 60 votes to pass healthcare as an excuse to try to block a strong public option. He hopes that Democrats won't know that he can easily pass it through budget reconciliation. Yes, the Goppers will whine, but they will attack, attack, attack everything the Democrats do anyway. It would be smarter politics to help boost 2010 turnout among understandably disillusioned Democrats and Democratic leaning independents by actually getting something done than worrying about the tantrums of Republicans. But, Reid is bought and paid for by the HMOs, so he doesn't care.

More on Budget Reconciliation from Think Progress:

...Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), who said any use of budget reconciliation by President Obama would be “regarded as an act of violence” against Republicans, and likened it to “running over the minority, putting them in cement and throwing them in the Chicago River.” Other GOP senators have chimed in against reconciliation, with Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) calling it a “purely partisan exercise” and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) saying it “would be a mess.”

Despite their howls against Obama, Republicans employed the same procedure to pass major Bush agenda items (which were supported by all four aforementioned Senators):

– The 2001 Bush Tax Cuts [HR 1836, 3/26/01]
– The 2003 Bush Tax Cuts [HR 2, 3/23/03]
– Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 [HR 4297, 5/11/06]
– The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 [H. Con Res. 95, 12/21/05]

As ThinkProgress has noted, Gregg defended using the reconciliation procedure to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for domestic drilling in 2005, arguing, “The president asked for it, and we’re trying to do what the president asked for.” Evidently, Gregg has lost the same sense of patriotic duty.

Reid has been acting like a Bush Republican for some time now. In the last Congress, Reid blocked efforts to defund the Iraq War, and he still won't support cutting funds off now. Reid even supported the efforts of Hillary Clinton, Joseph Lieberbush,and Dick Cheney to get us into a war with Iran. While Bush was in office, Reid offered only token opposition to any of Bush's initiatives.

Returning to this Congress, Reid, an anti choice misogynist, has refused to push for any legislation to curb the terrorist activities of his fellow abortion opponents. He's done nothing to crack down on the banksters. The antitrust division of the Justice Department is still horribly understaffed, which is just how Reid would like to keep it. ENDA and legislation to lift the military ban are going nowhere. Reid has done nothing to block the Hate Based initiatives that were started under Bush and have been expanded under Obama.

The least the Democrats could do would be to remove this de facto Republican as Senate Majority leader. His sniveling and dishonest behavior puts a terrible public face on the Democratic Party in the Senate. Yet, no public calls have been made by Democratic Senators to remove him from this position.

The fact that Reid is Senate Majority Leader and the fact that he has yet to face a primary challenger show how weak, corrupt, and spineless the Democratic Party has become.

Photo: talkradionews

 

Jonathon Tasini is running a primary challenge against gun nut Phonycrat Kirsten Gillibrand. In addition to giving us a Real Democrat to vote for in the primary, he also is using his candidacy as a platform to support a lot of important issues, including abortion rights.

As you may know, the House passed a misogynist amendment forbidding abortion coverage in healthcare available from employers and through private insurance companies covered in the healthcare plan. Although Viagra and Cialis are covered, abortion is not covered even though it is a perfectly legitimate medical procedure. This sex discrimination is unacceptable.

Tasini is doing something about it. Please sign his petition to Harry Reid demanding that this hate be stripped out of the final healthcare bill. From the petition text:

The health care legislation passed by the House of Representatives contains an unacceptable and immoral attack on the rights of women. We, the undersigned, call on Democrats in the U.S. Senate to block any attempt to include language that undermines a woman’s right to privacy and a right to health coverage. We also call on Senate Democrats to commit to removing the Stupak-Pitts amendment in any conference committee negotiations over the final health care legislation.

I couldn't agree more.

Please Sign the Petition!

 

One of the few decent things that President Obama has done since getting in the White House has been to support funding to close the illegal gulag in Guantanamo. (It's illegal because the only thing our treaty with Cuba allows us to do there is refuel ships and because of human rights violations there that violate international law.) So, what do the vast majority of so-called Democrats in Congress do?

They join with Republicans to block this funding.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has not been alone in his disturbing desire to keep Gitmo open. However, he has pursued this with a missionary zeal, a Mormon missionary zeal, to be more specific. Reid's actions are in concert with the fanatical racism of Mormonism.

Mormons certainly have no monopoly on racism, but Mormonism is the only major church in this country to explicitly endorse white supremacy in its teachings. Mormons believe that non white people are being punished for their ancestors refusing to fight with Jesus against Lucifer before humans lived on this planet. Yes, this is crazy, but so much of religion is crazy that it shouldn't surprise you.

Ex-Mormons and other critics of that hateful cult accurately point out that Mormonism is based on plagiarized science fiction. What often gets left out is when Joseph Smith plagiarized the Book of Mormon, the late 1820s and early 1830s.

If you think that racism is bad now, the white supremacy of that era would make your hair stand on end. People of African origins were considered completely subhuman and all non white people were openly claimed to be inferior, without hesitation or apology. A major motive for this disgusting ideology was to justify slavery and trade arrangements that impoverished non-white people.

Under these circumstances, it should be no surprise that Mormon ideology is like a KKK sci fi fantasy. Equally unsurprising is that discussion of this is taboo, given the pro religion bias in our society and the corporate media. However, if you want to understand Mormonism, you have to acknowledge that it is as racist, sexist, and heterosexist as the Ku Klux Klan.

When you know that Harry Reid subscribes to this hateful ideological system, it should surprise no one that he is obsessed with continuing a gulag whose prisoners primarily suffer there based on racial profiling. One would also expect that Reid would work behind the scenes to sabotage lgbt civil rights legislation, which he has. It would be typical for a Mormon to oppose the inalienable right of women to have abortions, based on misogynistic gender role expectations. Reid does just that too.

If you wonder why Reid has been so rabid in his opposition to doing what any decent, moral human being would do on the Gitmo gulag, just look at his religious beliefs. Comprehension requires breaking the taboo of looking at religion to explain political behavior.

When anyone speaks out against a hateful and bigoted church, the conditioned reaction among so many of our society is to claim that it is bigoted or intolerant to do so. This is based on a rhetorical ploy invented by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s and picked up by Christian Right hate groups in the 80s. (The Mormons adopted it during the controversy over Prop. 8.) The claim is:

It is "intolerant" to speak out against intolerance.

Given the similar values between the Mormon Church and the Klan, it isn't exactly shocking that they use the same rhetorical ploys to defend themselves.

The privileged status of religion is so great in our society that it is considered hateful to hold churches to the same standards that any other organizations or institutions. This religious privilege harms real debate. Any privileged status for religion is inherently discriminatory against atheists as well.

Prop. 8 is hardly the only reason why people should boycott Utah and boycott Mormon businesses. There are lots of reasons for this and why the Sundance Festival should be moved out of Utah. The Mormon cult is one of the worst outgrowths of the prejudices of 19th Century America. Mormonism is a cancer on our society.

 

From Progressive Democrats of America 5/12/09:

Baucus Arrests Five More Doctors, Nurses, Activists
By David Swanson
May 12, 2009, Washington, DC

Dr. Margaret Flowers, who was arrested along with seven others at the first Senate Finance Committee hearing on healthcare, just phoned me from the second one. As Chairman Max Baucus called the hearing to order, about 20 members of the California Nurses Association (CNA) stood and turned their backs on the committee. Pasted on their backs were signs reading: "Nurses Say: Patients First," "Stop AHIP," (referring to health insurance lobbyists), "Pass Single Payer."

This was the second hearing at which, despite majority support for single-payer in polls, not a single advocate for single-payer was permitted to participate. The nurses were asked to leave and did so. But five people spoke up for single-payer and were arrested: Dr. Judy Desovich; DeAnn McEwen, a nurse from Longbeach Memorial Medical Center ICU; Sue Cannon, a nurse from UC-Irvine; Dr. Steven Fenichel from New York; and Jerry Call from Maine.

That's right. Ultra corrupt Senator Baucus not only won't include single payer advocates in his hearings on healthcare reform, but he also is arresting single payer advocates in the audience who are rejecting his fraudulent media circus.

Baucus has major conflicts of interest, to put it mildly. OpenSecrets.org 1/23/09:

Campaigns Donors: Despite having no serious opponent in the 2008 election cycle, Baucus raised $11.6 million for his campaign, nearly twice the amount ($6.7 million) he raised for his previous re-election bid in which he faced a challenger with some real financial clout. Most of Baucus's top 10 contributors have remained the same since the 2002 election--predominantly health and finance-related industries--but nearly all ramped up their contributions this cycle, in the midst of an economic crisis and in preparation for impending health care reform. Absent a threat to his elected office, Baucus's surge in contributions is most likely a reflection of his rise to chair of the Finance Committee, a position that many industries will need to push in order to see their desired policy changes implemented.

Since 1989, Baucus's top donors have been American International Group (AIG), Goldman Sachs and New York Life Insurance--in the 2008 election cycle alone, these companies' employees and PACs contributed $148,550 to his campaign chest. After law firms, securities and investment companies and insurance companies, the most generous industries to Baucus's campaigns have been health professionals and pharmaceuticals. The health sector has given Baucus at least $2.8 million during his career, more than any other sector with the exception of finance, insurance and real estate companies, which have given him $4.6 million.

This year Baucus is looking to spearhead some major changes in health care, including expanding both the State Children's Health Insurance Program and Medicaid to cover more individuals. He also supports requiring all Americans to obtain health insurance coverage, departing from President-elect Barack Obama's plan, which requires that only children be covered. In November of last year, Baucus released a 98-page "call to action," outlining his visions for a new health care system. Baucus's committee is charged with determining if such an overhaul is fiscally possible.

Industry Favors: "Amgen's political action committee contributes on a bi-partisan basis to federal and select state candidates. The members of Congress and candidates chosen for these contributions are generally supportive of important issues such as patient access to existing and future innovative products, and innovation preservation," said Kelley Davenport, director of corporate communications for Amgen, which has given Baucus $50,750 through its PAC and employees, putting the biotechnology company among his 20 most generous donors.

In other words, Baucus is bought and paid for by the same corporations in the healthcare field that are ripping off and literally killing Americans. No wonder he is doing their bidding by fighting single payer healthcare which would provide real healthcare for all Americans for less cost than the current system which provides partial healthcare to many Americans and no healthcare outside of emergency rooms for others.

The Democratic Senate caucus should be ashamed to have put a Phonycrat opponent of real healthcare reform in charge of the healthcare reform push. It makes about much sense as it would for a restaurant to put Rush Limbaugh in charge of an all you can eat buffet.

Is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid dishonest or senile?

Baucus' blatant political corruption is hardly limited to sabotaging healthcare reform. Paul Craig Roberts (Information Clearing House 5/14/09 - Hat Tip Dandelion Salad) points out the role that corruption played in Baucus' opposition to a bill to help people facing foreclosure (bolding mine).

It is not difficult to understand why. Among those who defeated the homeowners bill are senators Jon Tester (Mont), Max Baucus (Mont), Blanche Lincoln (Ark), Ben Nelson (Neb), Many Landrieu (La), Tim Johnson (SD), and Arlan Specter (Pa). According to reports, the banksters have poured a half million dollars into Tester’s campaign funds. Baucus has received $3.5 million; Lincoln $1.3 million; Nelson $1.4 million; Landrieu $2 million; Johnson $2.5 million; Specter $4.5 million.

Baucus never met a bankster he didn't like.

His activities don't just threaten people who already have been screwed over by the corporations. Opposition to healthcare reform means longer lines for everyone at emergency rooms and more hospitals being forced to close down trauma centers. More foreclosures equals lower property values for all American homeowners. Besides, you never know if you will be the next person who is laid off while Baucus's AIG executive buddies get bonuses paid for with government funds.

How much more crap are people going to take from Baucus before there is a major grassroots campaign for him to resign from the Senate? He is corrupt to the core.

 

62 Senators voted Thursday to launch a massive terrorist attack against the innocent civilians who live in our nation's capital. They voted support the NRA, the nation's largest terrorist group, by voting for the Thune amendment to the DC voting rights legislation which would flood Washington, DC with guns. This action was taken knowing full well that the result of the amendment becoming law would be the senseless killings, rapes, and robberies of District residents.

Here's the Roll Call Vote:

Grouped By Vote Position

YEAs ---62
Alexander (R-TN) · · · Barrasso (R-WY) · · · Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN) · · · Begich (D-AK) · · · Bennet (D-CO)
Bennett (R-UT) · · · Bond (R-MO) · · · Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY) · · · Burr (R-NC) · · · Byrd (D-WV)
Casey (D-PA) · · · Chambliss (R-GA) · · · Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS) · · · Collins (R-ME) · · · Conrad (D-ND)
Corker (R-TN) · · · Cornyn (R-TX) · · · Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC) · · · Dorgan (D-ND) · · · Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY) · · · Feingold (D-WI) · · · Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA) · · · Gregg (R-NH) · · · Hagan (D-NC)
Hatch (R-UT) · · · Hutchison (R-TX) · · · Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA) · · · Johanns (R-NE) · · · Johnson (D-SD)
Kyl (R-AZ) · · · Landrieu (D-LA) · · · Lincoln (D-AR)
Martinez (R-FL) · · · McCain (R-AZ) · · · McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY) · · · Murkowski (R-AK) · · · Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR) · · · Reid (D-NV) · · · Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS) · · · Sessions (R-AL) · · · Shelby (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME) · · · Specter (R-PA) · · · Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD) · · · Udall (D-CO) · · · Udall (D-NM)
Vitter (R-LA) · · · Voinovich (R-OH) · · · Warner (D-VA)
Webb (D-VA) · · · Wicker (R-MS)

NAYs ---36
Akaka (D-HI) · · · Bingaman (D-NM) · · · Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH) · · · Burris (D-IL) · · ·Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD) · · · Carper (D-DE) · · · Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL) · · · Feinstein (D-CA) · · · Gillibrand (D-NY)
Harkin (D-IA) · · · Inouye (D-HI) · · · Kaufman (D-DE)
Kerry (D-MA) · · · Klobuchar (D-MN) · · · Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ) · · · Leahy (D-VT) · · · Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT) · · · Lugar (R-IN) · · · Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR) · · · Mikulski (D-MD) · · · Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL) · · · Reed (D-RI) · · · Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT) · · · Schumer (D-NY) · · · Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI) · · · Whitehouse (D-RI) · · · Wyden (D-OR)

Not Voting - 1
Kennedy (D-MA)

None of these gun nut Senators are going to get a dime from me in campaign contributions. Strong gun control is my inalienable right as a gun crime victim. America needs to reject the terrorist propaganda saying that the Second Amendment applies to private gun ownership.

Sen. Harry Reid (Phonycrat - NV) has played a truly shameful and unAmerican leadership role in getting this terrorist attack through the Senate. America's only hope is that the Amendment will be wiped out in Conference committee.

It's bad enough that a Phonycrat like Harry Reid regularly abuses his position as Senate Majority Leader to push the heterosexist, misogynistic, and racist agenda of his Mormon cult. He always has been in bed with the gun extremists, showing a complete lack of regard for victims of gun crimes such as gay bashings, robberies, rapes, and murders. Reid is a sleazy Bush Republican who went along slavishly with the Bush agenda for eight years. He desperately deserves a primary challenge for so many reasons. If he wins the Democratic nomination, I look forward to the hope that I can give money to a Green Party opponent of his.

I did notice that our new New York Senator Gillibrand voted against this. I guess she is starting to realize just how outraged gun crime victims are at her past support of gun terrorism. One vote won't be enough to get her our support. She needs to get the guns out of her house for good, and she needs to work to get guns out of our streets, parks, and peoples' homes.

Another aspect of this that is so offensive is the racism. These rightist nutjobs think it is perfectly OK to meddle in DC's affairs merely because a majority of the population is black. This is a long tradition in the Senate, and Harry Reid is displaying his Mormon racism by taking such a leading role in this action.

 

We need to act on our responsibility to fight for real change. We cannot trust or rely on politicians and pundits to fight for us. We need to fight for ourselves.

Tell President Obama to Start Withdrawing US Troops from Iraq:
Ending the war in Iraq was the most important campaign promise Barack Obama made. Ending that war is urgent in terms of the loss of lives and the devastating effects it is having on the US and Iraqi economies. There is no excuse for any further delays. If Obama is serious about dealing with our economic crises, he must take immediate steps to end a war that is diverting hundreds of billions of dollars from building the US economy to destroying the Iraqi economy. Stopping the war in Iraq would do far more to help the US economy than the stimulus plan, which includes far too many economy slowing tax cuts.

Tell the President to Start Troop Withdrawals Without Any Further Delay

You also can contact the White House comments line: 202-456-1111

---

Support the Inclusion of LGBT People in the Civil Rights Act:
Hat tip to Queers United.

There is an online petition requesting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid do the following:

Expand the Civil Rights Act to declare it the public policy of the United States that discrimination based on LGBT status is prohibited.

The organizers plan on delivering the petitions on June 1, 2009.

Please Read and Sign the Petition

You also can publicize the issue by Digging the Queers United blog posting.

---

Support the Confirmation of Rep. Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor:
As you know, the Goppers are trying to block the confirmation of Rep. Hilda Solis. The excuse they are using is a small amount of taxes that her husband got behind on, but which were paid before Ms. Solis' was nominated. The real reasons the Greedy Oily Pedophiles are going after her are as follows.

1) Ms. Solis is a strong supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act, and bought Republican politicians are doing the bidding of their corporate masters who don't want a level playing field for union organizing.

2) This is a chance to appeal to the GOP's anti-Latino base, which hates people of color and which hates Catholics (even though they are happy to work with rightist Catholics to oppress women, atheists, and queers).

The United Farm Workers is supporting her nomination, and you should too.

Hilda Solis would be a Labor Secretary who understands the struggles of the working people. She embodies President Obama's promise to make the government work for all Americans.

The UFW feels strongly about this issue as Congresswoman Solis has worked in collaboration with us for years. She has helped bring basic protections and dignity to one of the most vulnerable segments of our society.

As a life-long supporter of union representation and as an advocate of workers' rights, we believe Ms. Solis will help restore what was the initial mission of the Labor Department. We cannot think of a more qualified representative.

Tell Your Senators You Want Ms. Solis Confirmed ASAP

---

Tell Lou Dobbs to Stop Attacking the Middle Class:
Rightist gas bag Lou Dobbs is waging war against the middle class by spreading misinformation about the Employee Free Choice Act. From a Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) Action Alert 2/6/09:

CNN host Lou Dobbs falsely suggested that the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would "end a secret ballot" on his February 4 show.

At the conclusion of a report by CNN correspondent Drew Tucker about the Service Employees International Union's mobilization in support of the legislation, Dobbs said, "The American people voted for lots of things, but I don't know a lot of people voted to end a secret ballot."

Dobbs' claim that EFCA would eliminate the "secret ballot" in union authorization elections, which has been a centerpiece in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce-funded anti-union PR campaign (see Nation, 1/26/09), is completely false. As the text of the act (H.R. 800, 3/2/07) reveals, EFCA contains no language about eliminating the "secret ballot" enshrined in the National Labor Relations Act under Section 9 e.

Under EFCA, workers would still have the right to vote in a National Labor Review Board (NLRB) "secret ballot" election if 30 percent of the workforce signs cards, just as they do now. EFCA would change the process of union formation by giving workers seeking to join a union an additional option of winning union representation after a majority of the workforce signs cards, through a new provision to the act (section 9 c 6).

As American Rights at Work points out, this method of union sign-up, known as "majority sign-up" or "card check," is already recognized under current labor law, but only when the employer approves it. EFCA would represent a change in such union drives by removing the ability of employers to withhold recognition and to insist on an NLRB election.

For generations, Unions have played a crucial role in bringing Americans into the middle class and helping them stay there. Lou Dobbs wants to help corporations lower wages and benefits so they can make even bigger profits at the expense of treating their employees fairly. Tell Lou Dobbs to retract his statements and to tell the truth about the Employee Free Choice Act.

Lou Dobbs
Email:lou.dobbs@turner.com

CNN:
212-275-7800

 

There has been a lot of commentary by Obama supporters on the reaction of the queer community to Obama's decision to have a fanatical bigot like Rick Warren give a blatantly unconstitutional invocation at the inauguration. Many Obama apologists have seen the furor merely as leftover rage at the passage of Prop. 8 in California and Warren's role in helping it to pass.

That certainly plays a role for many people, but the outrage, disappointment, and disgust among lgbt Americans at this goes way deeper than that. When someone has devoted an enormous amount of time promoting discrimination and violence against queers and women, giving them such a prominent role in an important government ceremony sends a viciously misogynistic and heterosexist message.

Such bigoted and divisive behavior from Barack Obama is seen among queers quite legitimately as a bait and switch. Obama had marketed himself as a supporter of lgbt issues and had made "change" his main campaign theme. Yet, Obama hasn't appointed even one openly queer person to his cabinet, following in the footsteps of Bush and Clinton. The involvement of a dangerous religious extremist like Warren is vintage Karl Rove politics...divide, divide, divide. Queers voted for Obama overwhelmingly, but we are getting Bush instead.

Those of us who have followed politics longer remember the betrayals, homophobia, and triangulation we experienced under Bill Clinton, a far right Republican who pretended to be a centrist Democrat. We have learned that you never "give him a chance" when "him" is a politician that has behaved as a heterosexual supremacist early on. We have learned the hard way that we have to fight bigots every step of the way.

Learning from history is a sign of political maturity in the queer movement. Obama, like Bush, has tried to pretend that history doesn't matter. It makes it easier for them to get away with doing whatever they want.

We know better.

The loss of lgbt support cost the Democrats a lot of House and Senate seats in 1994. Many of us stayed home. Very few of us volunteered for Democratic campaigns or made contributions to Democrats. Some of us voted Green instead of voting for a party that acted as if even treating us as second class citizens was too good for us. During the last Congress, we saw the efforts of Pelosi, Frank, and Reid to sabotage ENDA and hate crimes legislation. Now, with Obama's frighteningly homophobic behavior of late, we are a constituency the Democrats have lost.

They will have to do a lot at this point to win us back.

 

Bush's Job Approval Down to 19%

This headline shows how unpopular Shrub is. So, why do so many politicians in Congress kiss up to him? Why do Pelosi and Reid act as if he is a beloved president whose approval is needed for anyone's political survival? Why do so many other Democrats go along with this?

Why do so many Republicans pander to him and his unpopular policies?

It's as if our votes don't matter. The politicians have become so beholden to big money donors it is sickening.

While preemptive wars are a bad thing, there is nothing wrong with making a political endorsement in advance.

That is exactly what I intend to do. I am endorsing Cindy Sheehan if she decides to go ahead with a primary challenge she is considering against Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi has been acting like an unpaid political advertisement for the Green Party for some time now. She resorted to making racists comments in an attack on Hugo Chavez. The attack itself was desperate pandering to an unelected and unAmerican Bush regime.

Pelosi has been more interested in short-term political laziness than her Oath of Office to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America by insisting that impeachment is “off the table.” She has shown her contempt for our troops and the results of the 2006 elections by insisting that ending funding for the Iraq War is “off the table.”

Pelosi regularly insults the intelligence of Democrats by saying that she is opposing the war while doing everything in her power to keep funding it. She even lies and says that it takes 60 votes in the Senate to stop the war. Here are two ways to stop the war that don't involve 60 senate votes;

1) A simple majority of House members vote against war funding appropriations.
2) 41 Senators filibuster war funding.

Either, by itself, is sufficient to stop the war.

Pelosi has a nasty history in San Francisco politics. She originally got her house seat by queer-baiting openly gay frontrunner, Supervisor Harry Britt. She also would not have won without the support of the now-defunct Waxman/Berman/Feinstein political machine, which was determined to keep any openly gay or lesbian people elected to congress from California.

It's too bad Harry Reid is not up for reelection in 2008. He deserves a primary challenge at least as much as Pelosi does.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have been playing a sick game with the anti-war movement, with the lives of US troops, and with the lives of Iraqis for some time now. They pretend that they oppose the war, yet they have made clear from the beginning that they were determined to continue the war by continuing the funding.

At a certain point, war opponents have to realize that we are being betrayed by politicians who take our votes for granted while continuing to have our young people fight and die for Halliburton, Big Oil, the Christian Right, and other corrupt Bush regime cronies.

If these pro-war Democrats cared about fighting terrorism, they would not join Bush and Cheney in aiding and abetting Al Qaeda's terrorist training and recruiting efforts by supporting the war in Iraq. Sadly, Reid, Pelosi, and most other congressional Democrats just don't care, an attitude they share with the worst of Republicans.

The Democratic Party leadership has just agreed to legislation with no enforceable conditions for Iraq war funding, much less a timetable for withdrawal. (Bush can waive “conditions” on reconstruction funding, and there are no limits on the military spending.)

Of course, the Democratic Congress has done little or nothing worthwhile on a lot of other important issues as well. According to Nancy Pelosi, impeachment of Bush and Cheney is “off the table,” just like stopping war funding. So much for the rule of law.

The “Democratic” leadership is pushing another job-destroying trade deal instead of working to repeal NAFTA and withdraw the US from the World Trade Organization. Congress has yet to take any steps to restrict handguns, much less ban them like they should. Congress has yet to even try to revoke Most Favored Trade status for China, despite their economic exploitation of the US and their economic support of genocide in Sudan. Aside from holding hearings, Congress has done nothing on Global Warming either. Dealing with climate change needs action, not hot air.

On other issues like banning Halliburton from all government contracts, increasing fuel efficiency standards, windfall enacting profits taxes for oil companies, cutting government subsidies for corporations, taxing SUVs to pay for more public transportation, and increasing OSHA safety inspectors, the proverbial crickets are chirping.

Even on hate crimes legislation for the queer community, the only action taken so far is a House vote passing a heavily watered down piece of legislation. This is similar to the distressingly low increase in the minimum wage passed by congressional Democrats. Pelosi and Reid have nibbled on the edges of a few important issues, while carrying the water for corporate interests the vast majority of the time.

Now that we know that most congressional Democrats will support the war and most other corporate interests when it really counts, there are two choices for progressives. One would be to give up on the Democratic Party and vote Green. The other alternative is for progressives to run primary challenges against war mongering corporatists to replace them with Real Democrats.

If that does not work, it is important to remember that voting for Real Greens is better than voting for fake “Democrats.”