Paladino hates women too. I know. You are shocked, just shocked!



So, Paladino wants to reduce women to the legal status of incubators. Is there any level of hatred, bigotry, and just plain stupidity that Paladino won't sink to?

I'm so glad that NARAL NY is speaking out against this hateful monster. More people should be doing so.

 

As I have pointed out before, Rand Paul might as well have the words "For Sale" tattooed on his forehead. As usual, Paul is taking his panhandling approach to policy to outlandish extremes, this time calling for replacing the Income Tax with a 23 percent sales tax.

From the Louisville Courier Journal 10/12/10:

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul said Tuesday the federal tax code is a “disaster,” and he wants to replace the income tax with a 23 percent sales tax on goods and services.

Paul said he supports changing the federal tax code to get rid of the Internal Revenue Service and would vote to repeal the 16th Amendment that created the federal income tax.

“The federal tax code is a disaster no one would come up with if we were starting from scratch,” Paul said in a written statement distributed by an anti-tax group and verified by Paul's campaign. “I support making taxes flatter and simpler. I would vote for the FairTax to get rid of the 16th Amendment, the IRS and a lot of the control the federal government exerts over us.”

This would shift a huge proportion of taxation away from rich people who write Rand Paul enormous campaign checks and towards the middle class and the poor. The lost revenues would result in severe cutbacks or even elimination for public services used by the middle class and the poor including public education, unemployment benefits, public libraries, police, and fire departments.

Teabagger politicians get more and more brazen in paying back their money people every day.

Photo: Rand Paul for U.S. Senate 2010 (released under the Creative Commons license)

This might shock people who are still in denial about the rampant child molestation in the Roman Catholic Church. Voice of the Faithful, a group that argues for reform of the Roman Catholic Church from within, has published a study showing just how pervasive sexual abuse complaints have been in Chicago. Here are the most disturbing conclusions.

Among the study’s key findings:
• A total of 256 of the Chicago Archdiocese’s roughly 400 parishes and institutions, or approximately 60%, had an accused pedophile priest working there or in residence at some point in time.
• The percentage of parishes and institutions ministered by credibly accused priests approached 25% in the mid-1990’s. In 2009, one in five institutions in the archdiocese still had a credibly accused priest in residence.
• According to a comparison of priest assignments with ZIP codes, credibly accused priests were assigned exclusively to institutions in 135 out of the 263 ZIP codes in the Archdiocese of Chicago. No credibly accused priests were ever assigned to any of the remaining 128 ZIP codes.
• Of the 135 ZIP code areas where assignments were made, 13 ZIP codes received the most work assignments. Initial findings suggest that these areas tended to have higher concentrations of African-Americans and low median household income levels. Analysis of the demographics of the 135 assigned ZIP code areas is continuing.
• 64%, or 63 of the 97 credibly accused priests, lived at the same location at the same time as one or more other credibly accused priests

The roles of racism and classism in this were interesting, but hardly surprising. The Roman Catholic Church always has been a horribly racist and classist institution.

One thing that should be noted is that the study only includes instances where clerical rape victims spoke out against what was done to them. As was mentioned earlier in this blog, Sinead O'Connor has publicized that the RCC clergy have coerced abused children into signing oaths of silence that the pontiff alone can release them from. As you would expect, Ratzi has refused to acknowledge the existence of the oaths, much less release people from them. So, we know that the actual level of child molestation by RCC clergy was much higher than that which was documented in this ground breaking study.

I think it is really wonderful and courageous for Voice of the Faithful to do the study, but it is incredibly difficult for me to understand why they stay in their church. They themselves have documented monstrous behavior that their church's leaders have committed with little or no consequences from their church. I find it extremely difficult to empathize with the incredibly strong pull religions have on people who are so much better than their faiths.

(Thanks to Michael of Norfolk for alerting me to the story.)

 

If it wasn't for Democracy Now!, I wouldn't have even heard about this story.

GOP Candidate Paladino Questioned over $3M Tax Breaks

In political news, New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino is coming under criticism for receiving $3 million in tax breaks by promising to create more jobs in the Buffalo area. According to an investigation by the New York Daily News, Paladino created only twenty-five jobs. To justify tax breaks in one instance, he sold a dozen vacant lots he owned to himself and then claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars in “real property investments.” Paladino is a multi-millionaire real estate developer backed by the tea party. He has campaigned on a platform attacking government spending.

Every news outlet in the state and all the national news media should have picked up this story. They should be pressing Paladino on this scandal. Here are some of the questions he should be asked.

1) Did he pull any strings to get this deal?

2) Are sleazy tax breaks for the rich how he plans on cleaning up Albany?

3) Can he be taken seriously when he says he wants to clean up the MTA?

4) Will he support an independent investigation of this deal?

5) Why did he accept a bailout of his real estate business?

Reporters should be doing the research to find out what government services were cut to pay for this bailout. How many jobs were lost?

The corporate media seem to have little interest in doing their jobs.

Photo: elisfanclub

 

"Kool Aid Gets Fired" is the title of a fab comic book I found last weekend at New York Comic Con NYC. It is topical in many ways, including job loss, jobs being replaced by technology, and the ruthless and arbitrary power of corporations over people. Seeing Kool Aid frown and smoke cigars alone was worth the reading. I liked it so much I bought the mug too.

You can find out more about this and other work by Tim Piotrowski at www.glitchworks.com. "Kool Aid Gets Fired" even has its own webpage, with a funny animation. One difference between comic and graphic novel signings and regular book signings is that the artists often draw little illustrations with them. The one of a cranky and dejected Kool Aid rocked.

This was the first time I went to a Comic Con, and I got lucky, stumbling into the Small Press and Artists Gallery section before going to the main convention hall. That's where I found out about the trials of poor Kool Aid. I also bought a few issues of "How to Survive Working in Retail," a zine format book which details the tribulations of young people stuck in the lower rungs of our service economy. I found fab queer content in the form of the "Cavalcade of Boys" set by Tim Fish which I'm looking forward to reading.

The quirkiest thing I found was "God the Dyslexic God." I bought the first issue with a blenderized version of pantheism and an apparent opposition to animal experimentation. I also found a printouts of a couple of promising web comics, "Curls" and "Revolvers."

I should point out that the American Library Association also had a booth, where they promoted their 2009-2010 banned books brochure. The ALA also has a list of resources on stopping bullying against queer youth.

I got burnt out on superhero comics a while back. Maybe being middle aged is part of the reason. In any case, New York Comic Con, like comics in general these days, has subject matter much broader. My first senses of this were buying "Ghostworld" after seeing the movie and with Alison Bechdel's autobiographical "Fun Home", the latter being something that every queer should read.

Rediscovering the comic book art form is really refreshing, especially since there is a lot of content that appeals to my interests later in life. I wonder how much could be done with comic books and graphic novels to communicate liberal views and values. There was a lot of nutty rightist content at Comic Con too, but it didn't have a monopoly by any means. I hope the voices in comics from the left get more numerous and louder.

 

As you probably know, evil former EBay CEO Meg Whitman is trying to buy the governor's office in California. Some people are fighting back with comedy.











The sinister Meg Whitman doesn't take too kindly to parody, and sometimes has her goons try to physically intimidate the jokesters.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has put up two important videos of people talking about how important it is to pass ENDA, the Employment Non Discrimination Act.





I think it is critical that we discuss queer issues in human terms. When we do so, we usually win. When the debate gets deflected to religion or other abstractions, we don't do so well.

 

Former nude centerfold and current rabid homophobe Scott Brown did something I thought even he wouldn't do recently. He condoned simulated necrophilia. Linda McMahon's campaign has provided video proof that Brown has actually campaign for her.



Keep in mind that Ms. McMahon's WWE put simulated necrophilia on nationwide TV while she was CEO. This is widely known in New England, yet Brown appeared at the rally and promoted the former WWE CEO/Diva as a Senate candidate.

Obviously, Brown is not sufficiently opposed to broadcasting simulated sex with the dead. It must not be that big of a deal to him. Otherwise, he wouldn't be campaigning for McMahon. Brown is a train wreck.

I wonder if her WWE content or her WWE layoffs are more responsible for Linda McMahon's falling poll numbers.

 

The thing that pisses me off the most is that my tax dollars subsidize this heterosexist bullshit. (New York City taxpayers have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to the Yankees, even though it is a profitable business that needs no help.)



I will never vote for any politician that gives a dime of city or state money to that homophobic, greedy organization again. I will never forgive ultra homophobic Mayor Bloomberg for pushing the last stadium subsidy through.

 

Considering how little coverage Global Warming has gotten as a campaign issue this year in the corporate media and how much time and ink those outlets give to corporate shills who lie about the problem, one might think that the issue wasn't heavily present in peoples' minds.

That would be wrong. On 10/10/10, there were over 7,000 events for people fighting Global Warming. These "work parties" had a serious message. The start of 350.org's press release gives a general idea of what went on.

"Work Parties" Issue a Political Challenge: Get to Work on Climate Solutions
World's Biggest Day of Climate Action Unites 7,000 rallies in 188 Countries

Washington, DC – Just weeks before elections in the United States and climate talks at the United Nations, citizens from Afghanistan to West Virginia joined 350.org's "10/10/10 Global Work Party" to issue a unified demand that politicians stop dragging their feet and get to work on climate solutions.

Leading by example, citizens in 188 countries joined more than 7,000 climate "work parties" over the weekend to get to work installing solar panels, weatherizing homes, planting trees, and then calling politicians to ask a simple question, "We're getting to work, what about you?"

"The fossil fuel industry may have thought that the collapse of the Copenhagen talks and its victory in the U.S. Congress were the final word—that people would give up in discouragement," said acclaimed environmental writer and 350.org founder Bill McKibben. "The turnout today—at what is almost certainly the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history—demonstrates that people are fed up with the inaction of their leaders and ready to take matters into their own hands. Game on."

The press release also provides us with an idea of the extent of involvement.

10/10/10 Global Work Party highlights include:

* In Instanbul, Turkey, 7,000 marched for climate action
* In China, 30,000 students joined over 300 events across the country
* In Bangladesh, citizens demonstrated knee deep in the flood waters that are affecting hundreds of thousands of people
* In Hamadan, Iran, hundreds of students attended an environmental symposium
* In Afghanistan, groups of students planted trees in a valley outside Kabul
* In South Africa, a local business installed solar panels on the roof of an orphanage
* In the United States, there were over 2,000 rallies with events in all 50 states, including 400 clean energy rallies in California

Climate Change is a big deal, not just in terms of the planet, but as an issue people want addressed.

One thing you can do to fight Global Warming is to learn about the dangers of coal and educate others.



Learn More and Sign the Sierra Club's Petition!

 

The rampant racism among the teabaggers has gotten a lot of coverage on the left, but their heterosexism has yet to get the attention it should. Sarah Palin's Mini Me in Delaware, Christine O'Donnell was a vocal homophobe and was a press spokesperson for the venomously homophobic "Concerned Women for America." CWA was, and still is, a militant Christian supremacist hate group designed for a membership of women but under the control of men.

Now, teabagger candidate Carl Paladino, a wealthy real estate speculator in Buffalo, is spewing heterosexist hate every chance he gets. On NY1, he is quoted saying these things in front of a group of orthodox rabbis.

"I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don't want them to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option. It isn't," said Paladino.

The remarks came right after Paladino said it was time to stop pandering to "pornographers and perverts."

...
"I oppose the homosexual agenda, whether they call it marriage, civil union or domestic partnership," said the Republican candidate.

The fact that Paladino has a gay nephew makes his comments even more reprehensible. He should know better. Also, why is it that bigoted politicians always feel they have free reign to spew bigoted filth in front of orthodox rabbis?

Paladino couldn't stop there either. On the Today show, he spewed the following:

He said, however, that he took issue with the decision of his opponent, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, to take his two daughters to a gay pride parade.

"I don't think it's proper for them to go there and watch a couple of grown men grind against each other. I don't think that's proper, I think it's disgusting," Paladino said.

Paladino doesn't complain about heterosexuals bumping and grinding, which they do all over TV and in public. What a hypocritical, bigoted jackass. I feel sorry for Paladino's family. That man is a horrible mess. I feel especially sorry for his nephew.

Not surprisingly, Paladino's bigotry is far from limited to hetersexism. From the Today show coverage:

Paladino, who apologized for forwarding racist and sexist e-mails early on in his campaign to replace Democratic Gov. David Paterson, was campaigning on Sunday through traditionally Jewish conservative neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

This is an important lesson. Bigotry is seldom limited to heterosexism. Racism, misogyny, and heterosexual supremacy all are part of an interlinked worldview, one which is pushed at us every day by the rich and the powerful. When queers on the right don't want LGBT organizations to support the struggles of other oppressed groups, they are furthering the oppression and violence that us queers face.

Another weird aspect of this is that Paladino's first audience was made up of militant, Jewish fundamentalists who encouraged Paladino's bigoted nonsense. Obviously, they have no sense of enlightened self interest. The vast majority of homophobes hate Jewish people too, even if they are less vocal about it. Anytime a politician says anything against queers, that should automatically raise red flags among anyone who isn't Christian.

Illustration: ddogbreath