Bush Panders to the Christo-Fascist Religious Right

Little Georgie is trying NOT to make the mistake his daddy made and piss off his right-wing Christo-fascist base. So W, Frist and the GOP are going to push the anti-gay "Federal Marriage Amendment" out again next week, and Bush will hold a ROSE GARDEN Press Conference to reiterate his support of the amendment and pander to the anti-gay Religious Right and try to keep them on board his sinking ship. If he loses these religious wackos, he is toast!

UPDATE: Prez. Bush also used his Saturday radio message to push the anti-gay FMA, and attacked "activist" liberal judges.
Sounds like a script from right-wing nuts Pat Robertson, Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Falwell, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, etc....

Let's see, didn't "activist" liberal judges strike down popular laws that discriminated against women, blacks, etc. ???

The Republican Party is lost folks! It is a fascist party!

Welcome Back Wendi Thomas

Welcome back to the Bible Belt Wendi Thomas! You wrote a reasonable column in the Commercial Appeal (May 16) asking why a lesbian couple and their child could not get a “family” membership at a YMCA and the local Taliban attack you. You should have learned by now that you cannot reason with people who think the earth was created in seven days, ten thousand years ago, by a jealous sky god who commanded that homosexuals (along with adulterers and disobedient children) should be stoned to death. Don’t forget this is a “Christian Nation” founded on the Ten Commandments and that civil rights are only for blacks, since they can’t help being black. (Homos and atheists don’t need civil rights!)

Welcome home.

TN Republican Party Pushing Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment

As expected, the Tennessee REPUBLICAN PARTY is pushing the anti-gay Marriage Amendment to get their conservative anti-gay Christian base out to vote.
Here's the evidence!
Here is their website:
TNVictory.org

It is VITALLY IMPORTANT that progressive Democrats speak out AGAINST this unnecessary amendment to the Tennessee Constitution!
Please visit the Vote No on Amendment 1 and join the fight against discrimination and bigotry in Tennessee!
VoteNoTN

>
>
>Dear Friend:
>
>Soon, on June 7th, the Tennessee Supreme Court will hear arguments on
>whether or not to allow voters to cast their vote this November on the
>Marriage Protection Amendment .
>
>During the 2005 session the Tennessee General Assembly overwhelmingly
>passed
>legislation that would allow voters, like you, to decide whether we should
>amend our Tennessee Constitution to define marriage as the union of "one
>man
>and one woman."
>
>But the ACLU, gay-rights organizations, and even Democrat Legislators like
>Reps. Tommie Brown, Larry Turner, and Beverly Marrero have filed a lawsuit
>to stop the Marriage Protection Amendment, because they don't want you to
>have a voice in setting the standards for marriage in Tennessee.
>
>This is outrageous!!
>
>We have already seen how activist courts have created new definitions of
>marriage in states like Massachusetts. The only way we can ensure that
>marriage is protected in our state is to allow Tennesseans to cast their
>vote in November in Defense of Marriage!!
>
>How You Can Help??
>
>1. Print this petition and ask 10 of
>your friends or neighbors to sign it saying that they, too, want the right
>the vote to amend the Tennessee Constitution and
> Protect Marriage.
>
>2. Reply
>>tect%20Marriage> to this email and we'll send you a list of 10 people in
>your community so you can tell them about the Marriage Protection
>Amendment.
>
>Only with your help can we keep liberal special interests from corrupting
>our courts and destroying our values.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Charlie Schneider
>Tennessee Victory 2006
>
>
>Copyright C 2006 Tennessee Republican Victory 2006..
>
>
>
>Paid for by Tennessee Republican Victory 2006.
>www.tnvictory.org
>Not Authorized By Any Candidate Or Candidate Committee.

Gay Rights: Democrats v. Republicans

Well the war over gay marriage and civil rights is heating up with battle lines being drawn between the Democratic and Republican Parties. DNC Chair Howard Dean has apologized for misstating the Democratic party's platform on marriage and will be speaking at the Stonewall Democrats national convention in a few months. Gay Republicans tried to score some pollitical points on Dean's misstatement of the party's platform, but they have no room to criticize Dean when THEIR party, the GOP, is the party behind the anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment and the anti-gay marriage campaigns across the states. Sure, some Democrats don't have the spine to stand up to the conservative REPUBLICAN attacks on gay marriage, and the GOP will continue to use the issue to beat Democrats in the South. Gay Republicans need to read their party's platform, which opposed ANY legal civil rights for gays and lesbians, and compare it to the Democratic platform which explicitly supports EQUAL civil rights for gays and lesbians, including civil unions, domestic partnerships, and non-discrimination laws, all oppposed by the GOP!

Laura Bush spoke out against the FMA, sort of, she cautioned Republicans not to make it a major campaign issue, which they will. Not sure if she supports it or not. Like her husband, they probably don't really want to support it, but the Republican party has to give something to their Christo-fascist base to get them out to vote in 2006. They don't have much else to win elections with..

Just in time for the 2006 elections, the Republicans in Congress are reintroducing the Federal Marriage Amendment, to "save" marriage from us homos! The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines 10-8 (Republican for it) to send the anti-gay amendment back to the Senate floor. Hurray, again, for Sen. Russ Feingold (WI) who got into a fight with the Republican chair of the committee, Arlene Spector, and stormed out of the committee meeting in protest. And hurray for the Democrats for voting AGAINST this REPUBLICAN attempt to write discrinination against gays into the U.S. Constitution!

VP Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary Cheney, has reluctantly began speaking out against the FMA and promoting her new Book, MY TURN. She says she supported G.W. Bush despite his push for the FMA because she thought the "war on terrorism" was more important. Most Uncle Tom Republicans use this issue, TERRORISM, as their excuse for supporting Bush and the GOP, despite the FACTS that Bush and Cheney FAILED to defend us against terrorism! Bush/Çheney IGNORED the intelligence warnings of a terrorist attack, including using planes to fly into buildings, and they MISLED Congress and the AMerican people into an ILLEGAL invasion of IRAQ (which did NOT attack us!), and now we have MORE terrorism and increasing anti-American sentiment throughout the world, especially the Muslim world, which will no doubt lead to MORE terrorist attacks against Americans. So much for this lame excuse for supporting Bush and the Republican Party!

And what about those "moderate" Republicans like John McCain? He's been making nice with the Christo-fascist he once called "intolerant", he met with Jerry Falwell and spoke at Liberty University, now he's campaigning for former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed in Georgia... The Republican Party is definitely NOT the party of Lincoln anymore.. it hasn't been since.. well, Lincoln !

Dean Courts Evangelicals/Misstates Party Platform on Gays

What the crap is going on with the Democratic Party??
Hillary Clinton is kissing up to Rupert Murdoch and praising George W. Bush (30% approval rating!), and Howard Dean, the chair of the Democratic Party goes on Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network to court conservative evangelical Christians, and cannot even accurately defend the platform of the Democratic Party, which supports FULL EQUALITY for gays and lesbians! The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force called him on this and he has acknowledged that he was wrong.
NGLTF has returned a $5,000 donation from the DNC in protest.

Howard Dean’s recent actions have undermined the support of gays and lesbians for the Democratic Party! He recently closed the Democratic Party’s Gay Outreach Department, and fired his gay outreach advisor Donald Hitchcock after he criticized the Democratic Party for not doing enough to fight the anti-gay marriage referendums across the country this year. Hitchcock has been replaced, reportedly by Brian Bond, who recently accepted the National Stonewall Democrats executive director position.

Check out Doug Ireland’s blog for more information on Dean’s mixed record on gay issues:
DIRELAND

Dean and the Democratic Party want to try win over some of the evangelical Christian voters who have jumped to the Republican Party, but they should not focus on courting the Republican Party’s base and ignore their own base! That is why they keep losing to the Republican Party!

I agree with Tennessee Guerilla Women , Harold Dean should resign now!

Leon Gray and the Anti-Gay Black Religious Right

"Progressive Talk" 680's Leon Gray was at it again today, questionning teaching about sexual orientation in public schools, and it was a frustrating drive home from work listening to caller after caller voicing anti-gay bigotry and attacking the "gay agenda." What is it about Memphis and anti-gay religious fanaticism? It crosses party lines and seems just as ingrained in black churches as the White Republican Christian Right.. their anti-gay rhetoric is identical.

Too Bad Leon Gray gets tongu- tied every time he tries to discuss gay issues and always agrees with the religious fanatics who dish the Separation of Church and State and preach the anti-gay theocratic gospel. Why can't 680 am offer a real "progressive" voice on Memphis radio? Wouldn't it be refreshing to hear someone on Memphis Radio stand up to the religious fundamentalists and theocrats and DEFEND the separation of church and state, and gay rights without reservations?

And 680 AM needs to quit that crap about how Leon Gray speaks "Truth"... give me a break!
He doesn't even understand science or the Constitution of the United States!

I'm sorry, anyone who does not support teaching Evolution and sex education in public schools, the Separation of Church and State, women's reproductive rights, and FULL civil rights for gays and lesbians is NOT "Progressive"!

Speaking of Gay Cons & Uncle Tom Republicans--Mary Cheney

Mary Cheney *fianally* comes out and defends gay rights against Bush and her dad's fascist administration in a new book out Tuesday "My Turn"...
Too late honey!
Mary Cheney is an embarrassment, and an example of an "Uncle Tom Republican".
She has been sitting on the cabin porch along with the Log Cabin Republicans, supporting this heterosexist, fascist administration, while it attacks gays and lesbians. She has been quiet and silent too long. This book is not enough to make up for the past five years of her silence and complicity in the fascist takeover of this country by Bush/Cheney and the Christian Republican Party.
Mary Cheney is a priviledged, white daddy's girl who has profited from the Republican war on gays.
Like Log Cabin Gay Cons, she puts her own class and economic interests about the well-being of the gay community, as well as the American people (poor, workers, etc..)

I despise Uncle Tom Republicans!

Gay Cons (Uncle Tom Republicans)

Here’s a good article by Surina Khan with Political Research Associates (which monitors the right-wing in the U.S.) on Gay Conservatives

Gay Conservatives: Pulling the Movement to the Right
By Surina Khan
Gay Conservatives:Pulling the Movement to the Right

It was written in the late 90s and is a little out of date in terms of the present leadership of the Log Cabin Republicans and the Gay Right, but it is important information for anyone who wants to understand what the Uncle Tom Republicans are doing to the gay movement.

Iraq Joins Iranian War on Gay People

Very disturbing news from Iraq... As in Iran, fundamentalist Muslim clerics are inciting violence against (and killing of) gay people or people suspected of being”homosexual”. What is the U.S. Government (and our occupying forces) doing about it? Nothing!

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0505-06.htm

Published on Friday, May 5, 2006 by the Independent / UK
Iraqi Police 'Killed 14-Year-Old Boy for Being Homosexual'
by Jerome Taylor
 
Human rights groups have condemned the "barbaric" murder of a 14-year-old boy, who, according to witnesses, was shot on his doorstep by Iraqi police for the apparent crime of being gay.

Ahmed Khalil was shot at point-blank range after being accosted by men in police uniforms, according to his neighbours in the al-Dura area of Baghdad.

Campaign groups have warned of a surge in homophobic killings by state security services and religious militias following an anti-gay and anti-lesbian fatwa issued by Iraq's most prominent Shia leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Ali Hili, the co-ordinator of a group of exiled Iraqi gay men who monitor homophobic attacks inside Iraq, said the fatwa had instigated a "witch-hunt of lesbian and gay Iraqis, including violent beatings, kidnappings and assassinations".

"Young Ahmed was a victim of poverty," he said. "He was summarily executed, apparently by fundamentalist elements in the Iraqi police."

Neighbours in al-Dura district say Ahmed's father was arrested and interrogated two days before his son's murder by police who demanded to know about Ahmed's sexual activities. It is believed Ahmed slept with men for money to support his poverty-stricken family, who have fled the area fearing further reprisals.

The killing of Ahmed is one of a series of alleged homophobic murders. There is mounting evidence that fundamentalists have infiltrated government security forces to commit homophobic murders while wearing police uniforms.

Human rights groups are particularly concerned that the Sadr and Badr militias, both Shia, have stepped up their attacks on the gay community after a string of religious rulings, since the US-led invasion, calling for the eradication of homosexuals.

Grand Ayatollah Sistani recently issued a fatwa on his website calling for the execution of gays in the "worst, most severe way".

The powerful Badr militia acts as the military wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which counts Ayatollah Sistani as its spiritual leader. Another fatwa from the late and much revered Ayatollah Abul Qassim Khoei allows followers to kill gays "with a sword, or burn him alive, or tie his hands and feet and hurl him down from a high place".

Mr Hili said: "According to our contacts in Baghdad, the Iraqi police have been heavily infiltrated by the Shia paramilitary Badr Corps."

Mr Hili, whose Abu Nawas group has close links with clandestine gay activists inside Iraq, said US coalition forces are unwilling to try and tackle the rising tide of homophobic attacks. "They just don't want to upset the Iraqi government by bringing up the taboo of homosexuality even though homophobic murders have intensified," he said.

A number of public homophobic murders by the Badr militia have terrified Iraq's gay community. Last September, Hayder Faiek, a transsexual, was burnt to death by Badr militias in the main street of Baghdad's al-Karada district. In January, suspected militants shot another gay man in the back of the head.

The US State Department has yet to document the surge in its annual human rights reports. Iraq's neighbours, however, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are often criticised for their persecution of gays.

Darla Jordan, from the US State Department said: "The US government continues to work closely with our Iraqi partners to ensure the protection of human rights and the safety of all Iraqi citizens."

© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited

###

Democratic Socialists of America Chapter Forming

I'm trying to organize a Memphis DSA Chapter (Democratic Socialists of America).
Visit our website to learn more about DSA:
Memphis DSA

DSA is not a political party, we are primarily left-wing Democrats trying to pull the party to the left, away from the conservative DLC...
It would be nice to have a Democratic Socialist Party, but we have to build a movement for it.
The Democratic Party must move left and challenge corporate capitalism or die.
We can start with Universal Health Insurance...

Shelby County Primary Election

Well there was not a lot to celebrate in the Shelby County Democratic Primary, especially given the very low (9%) turnout. I was disappointed that Rep. Henri Brooks beat progressive candidate Reginal Fentress for the Dist. 2 County Commission seat. You may recall that Rep. Brooks told gay activists that gays were not a significant community for her to be concerned with and that she represented black churches in her district. She does not represent the Democratic Party or her district very well.

The good news is that Steve Mulroy beat Gibson for the Dist. 5 Commission seat, and will likely win the general election.

Now we have to try to get a real (progressive) Democratic candidate for the Dist. 9 House seat vacated by Ford Jr., who will sadly be the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.