Pam Spaulding's Blog, page 107

Latest right-wing lie on Obama's speech abandons all pretense of rationality

crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

This isn't an lgbt issue per se but a very important one in terms of how some on the right lie about not just lgbts but whomever they generally target.

In this case, it's President Obama.

Now while many on the right credited Obama for his excellent speech about the Arizona tragedy, others bent over backwards to attack the president per usual.

First, it was Michelle Malkin (the Lamia of the Right because like the so-named monster of Greek mythology, she usually targets children) claiming that the White House had something to do with the t-shirts given out at the memorial service.

When that story was debunked, Malkin gave a half-assed "okay maybe I was wrong" explanation.

But now thanks to Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit, Malkin may have something new to sink her fangs into.

Hoft, who never met a lie so outrageous that he wouldn't spread, is now claiming that the White House asked for applause during the memorial service on the Jumbotron:

This is not only just a lie. It's a stupid lie. Hoft is using the closed captions of the speech to make this claim. Media Matters says the following:

Hoft's purported instruction for applause is actually the live captioning for the event. It's the same closed captioning that's made available for television programs. 

A University of Arizona information sheet about last Wednesday's service noted that "sign language interpreters and captioning will be available at" McKale Memorial Center. Captioning is available for some large events - at McKale and elsewhere. Indeed, a release for a separate event at McKale notes that "captions will appear on the overhead Jumbotron." 

But here is the kicker, according to the blog, Little Green Footballs:

And it gets better, because the other dim bulbs of the wingnut blogosphere are now co-signing Hoft’s post. Pamela “Shrieking Harpy” Geller: “TOGETHER WE WRITHE”: OBAMA MAKING HIS BONES ON THE BONES OF THE DEAD

Doug Ross: White House: we were shocked that Tucson memorial crowd hooted and hollered throughout because our APPLAUSE signs were actually quite discrete

  . . . And now, of course, it’s at Pajamas Media.

Betcha it will probably be on Fox News next week.

And I know just how they will do it. One of the Three Witches of Fox News (think the Three Witches of Macbeth), whether it be Gretchen Carlson (the supposed dumb one), Laura Ingraham (the shrew), or Megyn Kelly (the one who takes pictures in GQ magazine looking a bit "free") will bring it up with an innocent comment such as "people are saying . . ."  or  "some controversy is now developing over . . ." knowing fully well of course that there is no controversy and the only folks who are saying anything over this are the ones spreading the lie.

THAT is how some members of the right push phony controversies, folks. It's not accidental but an intentional lie on the pretext of "innocent discussion."

Now I know we are supposed to be engaged in civil conversations with those on the right, but I'm beginning to think we'd be better off with silver, crucifixes, holy water, and stakes.

No doubt there are some who will accuse me of betraying President Obama's cry for civility by what I have just written. But I disagree.

Civility is never the enemy of calling out liars and sometimes you can successfully walk the path of calm dialogue only after calling out those whose livelihood it is to litter that path with clutter.

Latest papal bigot eruption: "same-sex 'marriage' perverts essence and goal of family"

Yawn. It's not only offensive, at this point it's just tiring to hear this gasbag find different ways to say the same damn thing -- that LGBTs are defective, perverted and otherwise destroying society.

This is from EWTN News:

As efforts to legalize same-sex "marriage" proceed in the United States and countries around the world, Pope Benedict issued strong remarks on Jan. 14, saying that gay "marriage" perverts the "essence and goal of the family."

Addressing officials from the city of Rome and the Italian region of Lazio, Pope Benedict said that legislation and policies that promote same-sex unions end up "penalizing" heterosexual couples, "who, not without effort, seek to maintain stable emotional ties which are juridically guaranteed and publicly recognized."

"To this end," he stressed, "the various components of society must agree on the objectives of education, in order for human love not to be reduced to an article of consumption, but to be seen and lived as a fundamental experience which gives existence meaning and a goal."

FUN FACT: The conservative Catholic-bent EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) studio and HQ, ironically, is located not far from where Kate's mom and dad used to live in Birmingham, AL. It was founded by Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, who suffered a stroke several years ago, but is alive and well in perpetual repeats on the channel of her "Mother Angelica Live" program. Here (2000) she advises a caller on how to avoid purgatory.

Utah: mean-ass state senator Chris Buttars seeks repeal of school anti-bullying laws

How petty, small, mean, and bigoted does someone have to be to want to roll back protections for children in schools? Look no further than Turd Extraordinaire Chris Buttars. (Pride in Utah):

Senator "black babies are dark and ugly things" Chris Buttars was recently named as chair of the State Public Education committee, despite his call in 2010 to eliminate the 12th grade as "unnecessary." It appears he plans to use his latest position of power as much possible in his war against civil rights. His proposed resolution, SJR 1, strips the State School Board of the power to make changes to their policies unless they are already provided by statute. In other words, take away the protections for straight and LGBT kids from bullying, and the non-discrimination rules for district employees.

And here is the money quote from Buttars, who seems to have difficulty with church/state separation:

"We're in big trouble in our public education system. I didn't realize how much until a month ago when I was asked to chair public education appropriations," said Buttars. "We met and when we got done we were all so terrified we couldn't believe it. This was right under our nose."

"By accepting that, there's no God because he deals in absolutes," said Buttars. "This is an entire program to bring America down and I want to tell you right now it's well entrenched in Utah."

You can read his bill here.

NOTE: PRIDEinUtah will hold a rally on the opening day of the Utah Legislative session --January 24th, at 5:30pm in the rotunda of the Utah State Capitol Building.

Tiny violin time - Beck, Hannity lose their Philly area stations (4th largest market)

Does anyone feel like popping the cork on a bottle of champagne over this news?

Mediaite has learned Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity are being dropped from their Philadelphia radio station, WPHT 1210 (The Big Talker), in January.

The station is a CBS affiliate, and Philadelphia is the fourth largest radio market.

Taking Beck's 9am-noon slot is the local Dom Giordano, currently 6-10pm. Then comes Rush Limbaugh, noon-3pm, and Smerconish - who replaces Sean Hannity.

Semi-related hilarity:

* NYT Weekend Opinionator: Pam Spaulding = Glenn Beck

* Video: Glenn Beck's tears of patriotic fervor generated by Vicks Vapo-Rub

* Sean Hannity loses his mind (again) over men kissing

* Sean Hannity smears Kevin Jennings, but suddenly HE is the victim?

New RNC Chair Will Keep The Gays Out Of Marriage

Towleroad posted this video of newly elected Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus having a nauseating little chat with National Organization for Marriage front woman Maggie Gallagher about the dangers of marriage equality (aka gay marriage).

[Spoiler: He's against it. Shocking!]
He says he stopped it in Wisconsin, and he'll work to do the same as RNC chair.

Which actually should be a damn easy job or him. On the Federal level, the idea of marriage under attack from Congress is mostly a red herring. Not even the most feverishly optimistic assessment could imagine we'll see any real heat to legislatively repeal the Defense of Marriage Act under Priebus' first term as chair.

In the 111th there was a House bill, H.R. 3567 Respect for Marriage Act, introduced by Jerry Nadler (D-NY) that had 120 co-sponsors. There has never been a Senate bill.

The Courts will likely beat Congress in delivering Federal marriage equality when it comes. Foes are working hard to undermine any credibility such a decision might have.

And Priebus does them proud. He delivers a talking point soup of all the usual RW concerns: the Full Faith and Credit Clause (likely DOMA's Achilles Heel) isn't really part of the Constitution. The Founding Fathers weren't really serious about that separation of powers and that whole checks and balances stuff either. There are only "activists judges" overriding the will of the people. Mob rule is their only hope of staving off defeat. It will be interesting to see what they tack to when they lose that, as that house of cards is falling fast.

Of course, Priebus can't cite the part of the Constitution that says "but none of this equality stuff is applicable to gays." Fortunately, he has his Bible for that. He seems desperate trump to the words of the Founding Fathers with the edicts of his God. He repeatedly tracks back to theological justifications for keeping marriage between one man and one woman. Constitutional reasons? Not so much.

Priebus' "no marriage for gays" litmus test for potential candidate is really only relevant as it relates to other slightly more possible legislative victories we may be able to shoot for in the 112th or 113th Congress.

We know these people say they only care about marriage. But that's a damn lie. National Organization for Marriage threw their resources behind defeating Referendum 71 in Washington State, the "Everything but Marriage" civil unions alternative, and did the same in Hawaii.

It's not really about the word. It's about keeping gay people down any way they can. So, expect candidates that pass Priebus' "no gay marriage" litmus test to oppose anything that might offer employment discrimination protection (ENDA), immigration rights (UAFA), tax disequities solutions, inclusion in health care reform, measures to address school-bullying (SNDA & SSIA). Anything nice.

Of course, it remains to be seen if Priebus' influence on the party will be more Mehlman or more Steele.

I'd hoped we'd see a softening on LGBT issues coming out of the GOP, after the pleasant surprise of 8 GOP Senators voting for DADT repeal. I'd hoped the party had seen the writing on the wall on these issues.

But they never really do, do they? If they couldn't see reason and save themselves from losing the Latino vote forever, by supporting the Dream Act, I guess there's no reason for surprise here.

Hate the gays? Love the baby Jesus? Love only carefully selected parts of the Constitution and the Bible? You're a star in the GOP!

Step to the front of the line, Mr. Priebus.

Fact-checking Some Memes Regarding Transsexual People And Transgender Community

Within my Facebook pages is the crossposted essay entitled Why Transgender Activism .

One of the people who read the essay on Facebook left a comment in the comment thread. The commenter said this:

Autumn, what policy changes and lobbying are necessary for the Transgender movement when you exclude the Transsexual from the equation? It may be a stupid question, but I'm unable to think of any off the top of my head

There is no doubt in my mind that the premise for the question is incorrect. There isn't a movement to exclude transsexual people and transsexual people's issues from transgender activism -- transsexual people's civil rights are perhaps the major focus of transgender community activism.

Below is my answer to the commenter. I've added links and graphics for the response here at PHB (that one can't eas asily add in Facebook) so people can reference documentation regarding my remarks; the documentation is to show that what I'm stating has factual basis.

__________, there are many memes out on the web that many are accepting as truth regarding transsexual people and transgender community that can be fact-checked. Some of the memes, when fact checked, turn out not to be truisms.

One meme that isn't a truism is that I see crossdressers, drag performers, genderqueer people, and transsexual people as all being the same thing. I don't. There are distinct differences between these groups of people, which is why there are different names we use for all of these groups of people.

But that said, there is also the commonality between these groups of gender expression that doesn't fit into western society's sex and gender norms. All of those groups of people are subject to discrimination and sexual harassment based on the commonality of gender expression; the sociopolitical transgender community umbrella exists as a movement to work on public issues that are common between those who don't fit in society's sex and gender norms. Stating that there are commonalities between groups of people doesn't mean that differences are erased, it just means that within sociopolitical arenas, people have reason to join together to focus based on sociopolitical commonalities.

Another meme is that transgender activism excludes issues relating to transsexual people's freedom, equality, and justice. That's verifiably not true.

As one example that challenges the veracity of the meme, here in California where I live there are people who identify themselves as transgender who worked with Equality California -- a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community organization -- for passage of the Equal ID Act (AB-1185) in 2009. Assembly Bill 1185 would have allowed qualified transsexual people born in California to return to the county of their birth to obtain a new birth certificate reflecting the correct gender, as well as any accompanying name change. There is law in California that implies that post-surgical, California born transsexual people who no longer live in the state don't have standing to petition California Courts to change the gender marker on their birth certificates as California born, transsexual Californians have standing. The bill passed both state houses, and was vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger.

AB-1185 wasn't legislation that was designed to remedy a sociopolitical issue that impacts crossdressers, drag performers, and genderqueer people, yet lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activists all worked together to get that bill passed through both state houses. That's what sociopolitical umbrella community activists do -- these sociopolitical umbrella communities facilitate bridge building between subcommunities of a broader community. These coalitions of subcommunities specifically do work on issues that are of common interest of all, yet these coalitions also to work on issues that only effect a small number community members that fall under the sociopolitical umbrellas -- sometimes these coalitions work on issues that effect a majority of the community members, and sometimes these coalitions work on issues that effect only a small minority of the community members -- but these sociopolitical coalitions, formed under community umbrellas, provide the best opportunity for creating change for all of the community members at one point or another.

So, I'd argue against the truth of your premise that transgender activism doesn't include work for transsexual people. There are many more examples than just this one example of transgender activists (along with lesbian, gay, and bisexual activists) working together to remedy transsexual people's unresolved issues within broader society than just this one case I outlined above.

You wouldn't have to look very hard or long to find more of this kind of example -- Please take some time to do some looking for yourself to determine if the memes you're hearing or reading can be verifiably fact checked to confirm or debunk the meme that you're hearing or reading. I believe you might be surprised by what you discover about some of the memes you currently believe if you do some fact-checking of your own.

Another example of broader communities working for change of law or regulation for the benefit of transsexual people is the ACLU taking up the case of Illinois birth certificate gender marker updates in the case for Kirk v. Arnold. If you look at how the ACLU filed this case on their website, they filed it under LGBT Rights | Transgender.

It's not always a perfect marriage between transsexual people who don't choose to fall under the sociopolitical transgender community umbrella and those who choose to fall under the umbrella. It's not always a perfect marriage between transsexual people who don't choose to fall under the sociopolitical LGBT community umbrella and those transgender identified people who choose to fall under the umbrella. I don't think I need to explain how badly transsexual people have been treated at times by other community members in LGBT community.

However, transsexual people's lives have been improved by transgender community activism; transsexual people's lives have been improved by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community activism. It's not just theoretical that transgender activism has had positive impact for transsexual people; it's not just theoretical that LGBT activism has had positive impact for transsexual people.

And, it's not just theoretical that the activism accomplished under the transgender and LGBT community umbrellas will have positive impact on transsexual people into the future.

Weekender thread for the coffeehouse: pizza critics unite

This was a popular thread on my Facebook page when I posted that I had Tweeted around the horrors of the products produced at chain pizza places and frozen "food" marketed as pizzas.

The discussion didn't involve the politics of chains (such as Dominos), the focus was on the levels of pizza sucktitude (taste). It's assumed that you can make better pizza on your own, or find it at a local joint.

Of course there are cities where it's hard to find a good slice. One commenter on Facebook said he was in the Midwest and he knew the pizza was bad in one place when they asked him if he "wanted ranch with that." LOL.

I stay clear of pizza most of the time since it can spike my blood sugar something awful. So it's a treat to just have one slice so it better be good. I prefer plain cheese with spinach on it, NY style. Anyway, here are my assessments of a few:

Little Caesars: tastes like a sandy doormat with rubber cheese.Old Dominos (haven't had "improved" version) Craptastic prefab, awful sauce.Papa Johns: Shoe leather crust, too doughy, sauce too sweet.Pizza Hut: Drywall chew. The chain needs to stop focusing on BS like cheese in the crust and all these variations on the pie and just make a good one.It must be hand-tossed, no prefab . That's why frozen pizza is ass. If someone can actually think of anything out of a freezer section that is passable, I'd love to hear it.

My personal local favorite - it actually has good NY style pizza: I'll take Randy's any day.

Share your opinions, and tell us where the best local pizza is (or mourn that your town lacks good pizza).

MA: Holy Grounds Coffee House manager resigns; failed to register as a convicted sex offender

Anti-gay pastor Scott Lively was drawing young truants to his Springfield, MA coffeehouse, promising to bring his brand of homophobic spirituality to the town. One problem with pious, hateful "Christians" like Lively is the oh-too-hilarious ignorance/foolishness regarding background checks for employees, thinking anyone professing to be a believer is, ahem, honest and trustworthy. BZZZZT FAIL. On an epic scale.

Michael J. Frediani, 38, "has resigned from his volunteer position as a manager of the coffee house and we have accepted his resignation," said Scott Lively, who is pastor of Redemption Gate Mission Society which owns and operates the coffee house. The site also serves as a church with worship services and Bible study, and visitors to the coffee house, since opening in October, have included students from the nearby High School of Commerce.

Frediani was convicted in 1996 of sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl in New York state, and served more than two years in prison. He is listed as a Level 3 (high risk) sexual offender in that state and as a Level 2 (moderate risk) offender in Massachusetts.

Frediani had identified himself as Michael Free and as a born again Christian in an earlier interview by The Republican. Police said Michael Free is an alias.

The ministry's board "is unanimous in supporting his claim to be a changed man," Lively said.

Read up on this debacle: Jan. 13: Lively says he didn't know his manager is a convicted sex offender Jan. 13: Police arrest manager of Holy Grounds Coffee House as unregistered sex offender Jan. 10: Lively says students prohibited from coffee shop during school hours Jan. 7: Springfield officials worry Holy Grounds coffee shop attracts truants

Death and War and Us

A lot of people are being blamed for deaths these days. First we had Wikileaks. Now, no one has shown a single death resulted from the revelations. And yet, the media was awash in condemnations of the danger the revelations would pose for innocent Afghans and the like. Then the Arizona tragedy. The right has taken a lot of flack (some deserved, some not, in my view) over the prospect that its rhetoric could have made a maniac buy a gun, drive out to a Safeway, and pull the trigger. And on the one hand, this is a good sign. Culture of life and all that. Every life matters, every life is precious, every life has value, et cetera. It says something good about America as a civilization that values life. But when you look at our actions as a nation of war, this all comes tumbling down. One of Eabo's comments triggered this diary. He claimed: "And not one single act of death or violence...has been attributed to talk radio, or sarah palin.  But that hasn't stopped your fellow travelers from arguing that, has it?"
The thing is, we can attribute deaths to individual politicians. We can attribute them to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell for knowingly misleading this country about Iraq. We're talking predictably dead civilians on the order of one hundred thousand. And these people lied to make it happen. Then there were the Congressmen who decided war was a light enough matter to be informally declared on only the most skimpy of evidence. We can blame them too. Then we get to the great educated eloquent liberal Democratic president, Barack Obama, who regularly sends robots to drop bombs on Pakistani villages, deciding that the deaths of innocent civilians are acceptable--and only acknowledging this in a joke about the Jonas Brothers, and sends the same robots to Afghanistan. Barack Obama, who relentlessly bombs Yemen, who sends weapons to the region and lies about it. These are the deaths we cause.

These are not simply deaths caused from our passivity (i.e. crime, preventable disease). These are deaths that we directly make happen. Now, you don't have to agree that every single one of these acts of war is wrong to agree with this single main point: If the United States, as a nation, truly valued life, we would care that our bombs fly across the world and shatter innocent families. We would not relegate our wars to the inside of the front section of the newspaper that only the most dedicated read. We would not accept that a president can wage war in half a dozen countries and not tell us about it. It would bother us that our flag is printed on these bombs, it would bother us that we are the bringers of death, and it would bother us that, across a significant portion of the world, we are the things that go "bump" in the night.  

Sayonara, Michael Steele, say hello to new RNC Leader Reince 'Execute Obama' Priebus

It was an anyone-but-Steele RNC chair election today, and the victor was one Reince Priebus. (CNN):

The Republican National Committee tossed out controversy-plagued chairman Michael Steele Friday and tapped Wisconsin GOP Chairman Reince Priebus to lead the debt-ridden party organization into the 2012 presidential election cycle.

Priebus managed Steele's successful campaign in 2009 and went on to serve as RNC General Counsel, but he resigned the post in December to launch his own bid for the chairmanship after some arm-twisting by Steele critics eager to find a competent committee insider to replace their gaffe-prone leader.

Upon his election, Priebus was modest and promised to forge ahead for 2012:

"I am here to earn the trust and support of each and every one of you," Priebus said, addressing the RNC following his win. "I am going to start working right now as your chairman. We all recognize that there is a steep hill here ahead of us, and the only way we will be able to move forward is if we're all together.

My guess, however, based the rhetoric he used during a recorded conference call in 2010, is that the new call for civility is unlikely to be honored by Mr. Priebus, who earned himself Keith Olbermann's Worst Person In The World on 10/08/10, dabbling in an endorsement of the execution of the President. And it wasn't a slip of the tongue, as Keith points out.

The video is below the fold. The fun begins at 2:16 in.