Raw Story reports that at a Friday fundraiser for the Ohio Right to Life group, Palin assailed the media for getting “all wigged out about that” (writing notes on her palm for her Tea Bag speech) and claimed they’re attacking her because they “couldn’t argue the content” of her message.
Referring the crowd to a Bible passage from Isiah 49:16, she assured them she’s “in good company.”
“If what was good enough for God, scribbling on the palm of his hand, it’s good enough for me, for us,” Palin said. “In that passage he says, I wrote your name on the palm of my hand to remember you. And I’m like okay, I’m in good company.”
The passage reads: “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”
It is now official: Sarah Palin is nuts. If you like her, you’re crazy too. Case closed.
John McCain (R-AZ) is defending his U.S. Senate seat against a challenge from ultra-conservative radio host J.D. Hayworth. (Yes, the same Hayworth who was a very large recipient of money and gifts—like sports skyboxes—from the shamed lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to the New York Times)
While voters may find McCain’s name on the ballot, the man is utterly unrecognizable, switching positions daily to mollify the unruly Tea Party crowd. According to today’s Times:
….McCain now finds himself jammed, moving starkly—and often awkwardly—to the right, apparently in an attempt to gain favor among the same voters whom Hayworth, a consistent voice for the far right, could pull toward him like taffy come summer.
McCain now sharply criticizes the bailout bill he voted for, pivoted from his earlier position that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility should be closed, offered only a muted response to the Supreme Court’s decision undoing campaign finance laws and backed down from statements that gays in the military would be OK by him if the military brass were on board.
I never agreed with John McCain’s largely conservative voting record. There once was a time, however, that he had a small independent streak and could be counted on to occasionally buck the party line. Unfortunately, he threw his integrity out the window when he chose Sarah Palin for his running mate.
He knew she was incompetent and not qualified to be President. Yet, he sold out America and placed our national security at risk for a short uptick in the polls following the Republican convention. (Read More)
Poor Sarah Palin. First, Katie Couric asked the tough and “biased” question during the campaign” “What newspapers do you read.” Palin had no answer.
This week, Glenn Beck asked her who was her favorite Founding Father. She really had no idea and said “all of them.” This, apparently, was even too much for Beck.
I dunno, you guys, but Randy Thomas is absolutely queening out over the fact that Sarah Palin has gotten a new job (on top of her Facebook gig!) mangling the English language on Fox News. He is so excited that he is saying “KA-POW!”, which is presumably an extremely Heterosexual Tuff Guy™ version of “U go gurl!”
Randall goes on to share some emoticons and other Guy Stuff, and then adds
I am not real heavy into politics…
We know, sweetheart. We know.
Also, read your Wonkette on the subject of Mooseberries’ new “job.”
This doesn’t have anything to do with gay rights or the ex-gay movement, but I think it’s revelatory of a certain worldview we deal with on a regular basis. This happened on Fox News this morning:
Brit Hume had some advice for Tiger Woods during this week’s “Fox News Sunday.” Woods will recover as a golfer, Hume says, but it remains to be seen whether he will recover as a person.
“He’s said to be a Buddhist,” Hume said. “I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. … Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery.”
This is the same worldview that beatifies Lisa Miller because she’s become a fundamentalist Christian. This is the same worldview that asserts that gay people can’t be Christians. This is the same worldview that worships Our Sarah Of The Perpetual Word Salad, even though they don’t really know what her positions are*, because she’s One Of Them. This is the same worldview that would never stop to question whether groups like the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for ‘Murka, as well as their assigned pundits, et al. might be lying to them through their teeth/playing their adherents for fools, because they know their followers will never factcheck them. Or if they DO factcheck them, they factcheck within the echo chamber: “Rush was a-talkin’ about it, and then I saw it on Hannity too, and then OneNewsNow had a press release about it, so I’ma gwine-a say this is probably true!”
Hume’s quote also references the obsession that many American Conservatives have with “the redemption story.” I’m all for changing course and righting past wrongs, but with these people it goes much further. Ted Haggard says he’s “redeemed” from Teh Gay? Well, praises be! Let’s not look at any of the science/question whether his claim is even valid. Nope, it’s a redemption story! Slurp, slurp, slurp. Convicted Watergate criminal Chuck Colson is one of the luminaries of the Religious Right. It’s a redemption story! Slurp. And again, since it’s a thread running through so many of our conversations these days: Lisa Miller. She can do no wrong because She Hath Been Redeemeth-ed!
SLURP.
Here’s the video, if you want to suffer through it. It’s kind of funny, because after Brit Hume says the weird thing about Tiger needing to find Jesus, Bill Kristol, who is usually the wingnuttiest of them all, sort of shoots this uncomfortable look because he’s sort of, um, Jewish.
Dear Friends:
I almost lost my lunch when I heard that an Alabama woman bid $63,500 to have lunch with Sarah Palin. I kept thinking of how a contribution of this size would help Truth Wins Out fight the “ex-gay” industry for nearly a year. It would greatly assist us in our efforts to monitor these groups, conduct crucial research, help people come out of the closet and investigate “ex-gay” boot camps that abuse GLBT youth. So, I was thinking, why not have our supporters bid to have lunch with me? Okay, I can’t see Russia from my office. Sarah probably looks better in a beauty pageant swimsuit. And, no, I don’t have fabulous clothes swiped on the Republican National Committee’s credit card. But, if you ask, I can tell you what newspapers and magazines I read! And, if you dine with me, we won’t have to talk about death panels, I won’t flirtatiously wink at everyone and you won’t have to suffer through a bowl of moose stew. Most importantly, you will never hear the word “maverick”. Also, unlike Palin, I don’t chew with my mouth full. Okay, I made up the last part – although Levi Johnston is likely to back me up.
Seriously, if each person on this list contributes $25 today, we will exceed the obscene price paid to eat with Sarah “Barracuda” Palin. For those affected by these difficult times, a tax-deductible gift of $5 or $10 would help us enormously. Finally, I will dine with the highest bidder when he or she comes to New York City. If the bid exceeds $10,000, I will even fly to you! If you match the contribution to Palin, I will throw in breakfast, coffee and dinner. Don’t even think about dessert, I have a boyfriend. (If someone matches the Palin gift, we could make international news and get out our important life-saving message.)
I look forward to your contribution to help an inspiring cause. Let the bidding begin!
Bon Appétit,
Wayne Besen
Founder & Executive Director
Truth Wins Out
There wasn’t a Billy left in the hills on Saturday, when tens of thousands of anti-government types, gun nuts, white supremacists, religious zealots, tax evaders and crazies streamed into Washington. It was pure delirium, as the National Mall resembled a sanitarium.
In a sea of American (and many Confederate) flags waved by more than a few secessionists, Obama was pictured as Hitler and portrayed as Stalin. The federal government was likened to an alien invader run by an illegitimate, foreign-born black president, who just happened to be elected by the American people.
I wish I could say that this unruly behavior is an anomaly, but it seems to be a growing and vocal part of the Republican Party. In the 1980’s, Rev. Jerry Falwell and Ralph Reed used direct mail and talk radio to organize what were previously known as busybodies into the Moral Majority. Today’s GOP has harnessed the power of the Internet and cable television to lure the loons and create a constituency of crackpots.
The result has been disastrous for this nation. Our healthcare system is broken and we are rated near the bottom when compared to nearly every other industrialized country. We pay more per person for healthcare and we live shorter lives. There is instability, as families often go broke when a loved one falls ill and there is insecurity because losing a job means forfeiting coverage. American businesses are saddled with growing healthcare costs, which make it more difficult to compete in the global marketplace.
Yet, instead of an adult conversation about an issue that is crippling our nation, our dimmest citizens have derailed the debate. These out-of-control, severely under medicated, surreptitious partisans hijacked town hall meetings and may cost the rest of us decent healthcare reform. Obama’s powerful speech last week helped mitigate the damage, but having frittered away the summer, it may be too late for the president to regain momentum.
At fault is the media — who routinely offer right wing sickos a stage to air the most outrageous allegations. Max Blumenthal, author of the new book, “Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party”, discussed the media’s culpability last week on National Public Radio.
“The mainstream media attempts this veneer of balance of entertaining both sides,” said Blumenthal. “But when one side is completely hysterical, conspiratorial, and leveling baseless attacks, should it be taken seriously? And what are the consequences for taking these attacks seriously in a democracy?”
The result, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), is an explosion of militias and hate groups. In a new report, the SPLC documents at least, “50 new militia training groups — one of them made up of present and former police officers and soldiers.”
“Almost a decade after largely disappearing from public view, right-wing militias, ideologically driven tax defiers and sovereign citizens are appearing in large numbers around the country,” says the report. The bizarre theories include:
1) Nativist theories about secret Mexican plans to “reconquer” the American Southwest
2) A secret network of U.S. concentration camps to imprison “patriots” who stand up to the federal government
If these were just harmless blowhards, that would be one thing. The problem is, these nuts are heavily armed and are a staple at shows that hawk firearms. SPLC reports that, “Sales of guns and ammunition have skyrocketed amid fears of new gun control laws, much as they did in the 1990s.”
Unless the media culture changes, there will be another Oklahoma City-type disaster or even an assassination attempt on our President. Responsible media outlets must stop offering platforms to serial distorters such as Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck. The next time Sarah Palin makes up a lie, such as death panels, the story should be about how she twisted the truth. Not a single story should be written or broadcast giving legs to the lies and allowing mistruths to run amok.
Thanks to the press winking and nodding to the nuts, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) felt empowered to heckle the President during his healthcare speech. More disturbing are reports that say many people in Wilson’s district applaud his sophomoric actions.
Clearly, it is time we stop calling these people “conservatives.” True conservatives, who believe in respecting authority and protocol, would have been appalled at the example Wilson set for children. After all, how can young people be expected to obey parents and teachers when the president is catcalled in the halls of Congress?
I’ve had it with such antics. This crowd destabilized Bill Clinton’s presidency. Then, they stole the 2000 election, by sending partisan thugs down to South Florida to disrupt the recount. Now, the paranoiacs are in a full-blown panic over the first black president.
This fight is no longer about healthcare, nor is about deficits. It is about the very health of the political process and turning back the deficit in decency exemplified by Joe Wilson, Sarah Palin and the demagogues out to undermine our system of government.
I vividly remember the first time I was introduced to the phrase “Family Values.” It was the early 1990’s and I was driving in my car. I looked out of the window and saw the strange verbiage promoting a new subdivision on a towering billboard above the highway.
The sign didn’t perturb me, but I was puzzled by the slogan. Having grown up in a series of subdivisions, it went without saying that the existing cul-de-sacs were always brimming with families.
So, what made this development so different? Did they forbid singles from living behind the gates? What if a divorce occurred, did the broken family have to move? Did offspring have to eventually leave if they had not married by a certain age? Were gay people forbidden from living there?
What I found most bewildering was the idea of promoting family, as if it were a prefab product that could be marketed, packaged and came with 2 ½ bathrooms. That seemed as forced and unnatural as the wax fruit placed on the coffee tables of model homes in such developments.
At that time, my parents had been together for more than 20 years (They celebrate their 40 year anniversary in August). Their lifetime together was just an organic experience that didn’t need to be trumpeted. They never had to say, “look at us, aren’t we just the healthiest, happiest family you’ve ever seen? Check out our wonderful morals and values. Aren’t we special? And, by the way, vote for a specific political party to keep us together.”
Aside from politicians kissing babies and posing with their brood, I always imagined the value of family to be a private affair. It was an intimate bond between two people and their children. The ostentatious commercial worship of this unit seemed jarring and exploitative. Indeed, it seemed anathema to actual healthy families. If one’s family were so wonderful, after all, why would it need a special subdivision?
Shortly after I saw this billboard, President George Bush and his vacuous Vice President, Dan Quayle, brought the “family values” mantra into the political arena. Religious scolds, who worked to transform marriage from a private institution to a very public one, championed this moral marketing campaign. The GOP soon recast itself as the great defender of family and assiduously catered to this crowd, who eventually took over the party.
In reality, of course, strong families don’t need to be defended. If a husband and wife are busy cuddling, they don’t need candidate crusaders. If parents are taking their children to soccer practice, they don’t need James Dobson socking imagined enemies. (Read More)
Sarah Palin spent much of her 2008 vice-presidential campaign moralizing against liberals and fiscally responsible independents — even as her unwed daughter became pregnant thanks to abstinence-only education, and even as her own record as Alaska town mayor was one of runaway deficit spending.
Contact: Wayne Besen
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
TWO Sends Palin A Book To Help Change Her Backward, Unscientific Views
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out criticized Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin today for repeatedly saying in an interview with Katie Couric on CBS News that homosexuality is a choice.
“While it is encouraging that Palin has a gay friend, we are still disturbed that a person on the cusp of enormous power could hold such backward and unscientific views,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “She seems to be in lockstep with her church, that promoted a ‘pray away the gay’ conference in Anchorage. We hope Palin will choose to educate herself so she will learn that being gay is not a casual choice, like eating moose stew for dinner. We want her to understand that you can’t pray away the gay.”
Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen sent Palin his book today, “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.” He hopes it will bring her up to speed on the latest science on homosexuality, as well as introduce her to the damage done to gay people who “choose” to go straight. Every respected medical and mental health association in America – including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association – warn that so-called “ex-gay” sexual engineering programs can be harmful.
On the topic of sexual orientation, Palin told Couric the following:
“And you know, I don’t know what prayers are worthy of being prayed and I don’t know what prayers are going to be answered or not answered. But as for homosexuality, I am not going to judge Americans and the decisions that they make in their adult personal relationships. I have one of my absolute best friends for the last 30 years who happens to be gay, and I love her dearly, and she is not my ‘gay friend, she is one of my best friends, who happens to have made a choice that isn’t a choice that I have made. But I’m not going to judge people.”
With a gift of $35 to Truth Wins Out, you can receive an autographed copy of "Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth."
John McCain (R-AZ) is defending his U.S. Senate seat against a challenge from ultra-conservative radio host J.D. Hayworth. (Yes, the same Hayworth who was a very large recipient of money and gifts—like sports skyboxes—from the shamed lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to the New York Times)
I dunno, you guys, but Randy Thomas is absolutely 
