Thursday, October 19, 2006

Poland's Prime Minister Outed, As His Govt. Continues Homo-hate Campaign

Poland's Prime Minister Outed, As His Govt. Continues Homo-hate Campaign
   
New from DIRELAND, October 19
POLAND'S ANTI-GAY PRIME MINISTER OUTED,
AS HIS GOVERNMENT CONTINUES TO SPEW HOMO-HATE
Poland's homophobic Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski—the identical
twin brother of Polish President Lech Kaczynski—was outed as a
homosexual in major Polish media last week, even as his government
continued to encourage homophobia by public, homo-hating declarations
and a new anti-gay law. For all the details, click on:
http://direland. typepad.com/ direland/ 2006/10/polands_ antigay.html

__._,_.___


For News And Commentary:
 
For Florida Election News See:
 
Political Talk For And By Political Junkies
Just Rumors The Rumor Mills

Monday, October 16, 2006

Now Who's Cutting And Running

 
 
"No Democrat should be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan, a do nothing policy in North Korea and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq. We need to stand up to them because staying the course isn't far-sighted; it's blind. Leaving our troops in the middle of a civil war isn't resolute; it's reckless. Remember: half of the service members listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall died after America's leaders knew our strategy would not work. It was immoral then and it would be immoral now to engage in the same delusion."
 


For News And Commentary:
 
For Florida Election News See:
 
Political Talk For And By Political Junkies
Just Rumors The Rumor Mills

Sunday, October 15, 2006

New Stem Cell Ad

Putting A Face To Stem Cell Research


Via HuffingtonPost.com, Majority Action's ad on
stem cell research:



WATCH THE AD HERE

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Debunking the Foley myth machine



A special Media Matters for America report:
debunking the Foley myth machine






Table of Contents







Democrats and their allies orchestrated the
Foley scandal as a political dirty trick


Many media outlets, without any basis whatsoever, have
repeated the charge by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
and others that Democrats or liberals are behind the Foley
scandal. The charge has appeared in various ways; some examples
include:



  • Hastert, as reported
    in the Chicago Tribune: "The people who want to see
    this thing blow up are ABC News and a lot of Democratic
    operatives, people funded by George Soros." ... "All
    I know is what I hear and what I see. I saw Bill Clinton's
    adviser, Richard Morris, was saying these guys knew about this
    all along. If somebody had this info, when they had it, we
    could have dealt with it then." At the time, Hastert
    acknowledged
    that he had no evidence to support his charge.


  • Former House Speaker Newt
    Gingrich (R-GA), who asked:
    "What if it does turn out that, in fact, this entire thing
    was rigged by liberals and Democrats, that this entire thing
    was done deliberately and methodically, and in fact, it is the
    equivalent of a large dirty trick."


  • Rep. Jack
    Kingston
    (R-GA): "Are we saying that a 15-year-old
    child would've sat on e-mails that were XXX-rated for three
    years and suddenly spring them out right on the eve of an
    election? That's just a little bit too suspicious, even for
    Washington, D.C."


  • Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC): As Media Matters
    noted,
    MSNBC host Chris Matthews asked McHenry if Democrats "had
    anything to do with holding information" about Foley's
    alleged communications with the former pages "and dropping
    it on ABC," the network that first publicized the story.
    McHenry replied that "I don't know that they did not,"
    and then noted that he had written a letter demanding that
    "[House Democratic Leader] Nancy Pelosi [CA] and
    [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman] Rahm
    Emanuel [IL] ... submit themselves under oath and say clearly,
    yes or no, did they have prior knowledge of the instant
    messages and/or emails." McHenry later stated that "this
    is not about Dennis Hastert" and added: "[T]he only
    question that remains is what did the Democrat [sic] leadership
    know and when did they know it?" Matthews also failed to
    challenge Kingston's statement that he "would be very
    surprised if Foley's opponent [Democratic challenger Tim
    Mahoney] knew absolutely nothing of this."



But these various charges -- that Democrats or their allies
knew about the emails and instant messages long ago and,
purposefully and in a coordinated fashion, released them to the
media in a way designed for maximum political advantage -- have
no basis. In fact, several media reports have contradicted such
charges.


An October 11 Washington Post article
undermined such charges. The Post article reported that,
beginning in November 2005, "Democrats" or a
"Democratic operative" unsuccessfully attempted to get
several news organizations -- including Harper's (in May)
and the St. Petersburg Times (in November 2005) -- to
publish the emails. The article reported that "[a] second
source emerged, however, just last month, peddling the e-mails
to several other publications, including The Post." The
article also noted that the reporter who did publish the emails
-- ABC News' Brian Ross -- "has stressed that his initial
source was a Republican," as Media Matters has also
noted.
In addition, The Hill newspaper reported
that the media received Foley's alleged emails "from a
House GOP aide" who "has been a registered Republican
since becoming eligible to vote."


Furthermore, the Post article reported that, according
to Ken Silverstein of Harper's, his " 'Democratic
operative' " source " 'was not working in concert with
the national Democratic Party' " and that " '[t]his
person was genuinely disgusted by Foley's behavior, amazed that
other publications had declined to publish stories about the
emails, and concerned that Foley might still be seeking contact
with pages.' "


As for the more explicit instant messages, the Post
reported that Ross's source for them "stressed that he is a
'staunch Republican' who 'wouldn't vote for a Democrat ever.' "
That source decided to give the messages to Ross after Ross's
September 28 report on the alleged Foley emails, the Post
reported. At that point, he told the Post, "I
decided that it was in the best interests of kids in general,
pages and my friends specifically that Foley be dealt with
quickly and swiftly so that he couldn't hurt anyone else."


The Post revealed that its source for the instant
messages was a former page and college-aged "Democratic
operative" who wants the Democrats to win control of the
House in November, but reported that "when approached by a
Post reporter about the instant messages, he was reluctant to
provide them. Days later, he did so." According the Post,
"[t]he two sources said they had conferred about the
instant messages, which they had known about for months,"
and that their source gave them the instant messages
"subsequent[]" to Ross's having received them from his
reportedly Republican source.


In addition, a Chicago Tribune article reported
that "[s]enior Republican officials contacted Hastert's
office before his news conference Thursday [October 5] to urge
that he not repeat the charges, and he backed away from them in
his news conference," as the weblog TPMmuckraker.com noted.


Nevertheless, several media outlets, including National
Public Radio
, NBC's David
Gregory
and Tim
Russert
, and ABC's George
Stephanopoulos
, have reported this allegation, without any
challenge. Notably, as Media Matters documented,
CNN repeatedly
reported
Hastert's allegations and similar charges made by other
Republicans on October 5 but did not once mention the article in
The Hill or Ross's statement.


Hastert did not learn about Foley's
alleged behavior until September 29


Several media accounts have reported, without challenge,
Hastert's initial claim that he learned of the concerns
regarding Foley's alleged behavior only on September 29, the day
that Foley resigned. But, as Media Matters documented,
Hastert later said he would not dispute the contention by Rep.
Thomas Reynolds (R-NY) that Reynolds had brought the issue to
his attention in the spring of 2006 (though Hastert claimed not
to remember the discussion), and conceded
that his aides had learned of it in late 2005. Further, several
outlets entirely ignored House Majority Leader John Boehner's
(R-OH) conflicting statements regarding whether he discussed the
problem with Hastert.


Examples
of media uncritically reporting Hastert's claim that he only
recently learned of Foley's alleged actions include October 2
reports from The New York Times, the Los Angeles
Times
, and the Associated Press. Another example
is a report by NBC News correspondent Mike Viqueira on the
October 5 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:


CHRIS MATTHEWS (host): So much of this involves: Who
do you believe? Mike, as you know, the speaker has one point of
view. He says nobody really warned me. A couple of the other
leaders said that Reynolds, of course, and Boehner said, they
did warn a staff member. He's just resigned. Said he did warn
the speaker's staff people. Why don't they go lickety-split to
the question at the top: Who's telling the truth? Why do they
take weeks to do that?

VIQUEIRA: Well, good question. You know, Hastert
has largely stuck by his story that he didn't learn about the
emails and the IMs and the rest of it until last Friday, the day
that Foley quit.
I think a lot of Republican members now are
starting to sympathize with the speaker, Chris. I'm hearing a
lot about a potential backlash -- you know the speaker brought
out the George Soros card today -- that the Democrats were after
him. He singled out ABC News.

The alleged Foley emails that House
Republicans possessed were merely "overly friendly"


Many media reports have uncritically repeated Hastert's
characterization of alleged emails between Foley and a page
sponsored by Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA) as merely "overly
friendly." As Media Matters has noted,
Hastert has called the alleged emails "over friendly"
to justify the House Republican leadership's failure to
investigate Foley's alleged behavior when it was first informed
of them. However, as Media Matters has noted,
the Los Angeles Times reported that experts in psychiatry
and sexual misconduct have suggested that Foley's alleged emails
go well beyond "overly friendly"; for example, one
psychiatry expert told the Times that "they do in
fact raise a red flag." In addition, as Media Matters
has documented,
several conservatives and Republicans have objected to Hastert's
characterization of the emails as "over friendly" and
have argued that they should have provoked deeper scrutiny from
House Republican leaders when they first came to light.


But news reports have uncritically relayed Hastert's
terminology for the emails. For example, Fox News chief
political correspondent Carl Cameron reported
on the October 4 edition of Fox News' Special Report with
Brit Hume
:


CAMERON: Reynolds says he acted appropriately,
alerting superiors in the spring when he learned of Foley's
overly friendly emails to former pages
, then Friday, when he
learned of the salacious communication and demanded Foley's
resignation.

Another example
is a report by NBC's Mike Taibbi on the October 2 broadcast of
NBC's Today:


TAIBBI: At least five Republican house members did
know ahead of time, some nearly a year ago, about emails
described as "over-friendly" that Foley sent a
16-year-old male page, though not about any overtly sexual
messages.

The Foley scandal has not affected voters
or congressional races


Some media outlets, such as CNN, The New York Times,
and The Washington Post, have reported without challenge
Republican claims that the Foley scandal has not affected voters
or congressional races, as Media Matters documented.
In fact, at this point, several public opinion polls indicate
that the Foley scandal could be hurting Republicans. A CBS/New
York Times
poll
conducted October 5-8 found that 13 percent of independent
voters, and 21 percent of all voters, said the Foley scandal had
made them more likely to vote Democratic. An AP/Ipsos poll
conducted October 2-4 found that 66 percent of respondents said
that the "recent disclosures of corruption and scandal in
Congress" would be at least "moderately important"
to their "vote in November," with 48 percent
indicating it would be "very" or "extremely"
important. The poll also found that 62 percent of respondents
were either "dissatisfied" or "angry" with
"the Republican leadership in Congress." The AP poll
had a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percent. Similarly, an October
5 Time magazine poll
found that a "quarter" of respondents "say the
affair makes them less likely to vote for Republican candidates
in their districts come November," and that "[t]wo-thirds
of Americans aware of the lurid e-mails set [sic] to
congressional pages by a G.O.P congressman believe Republican
leaders tried to cover up the scandal."


While three recent
polls
-- ABC News/Washington Post, CBS News/New
York Times
, and Newsweek -- have shown no change
outside the margin of error on whether respondents would vote
for a Democratic or Republican congressional candidate in
November, two other recent polls showed large shifts toward
Democrats. A USA
Today
/Gallup
poll conducted October 6-8 found that
Democrats had made significant gains among likely voters since
the Gallup poll last month. While Democrats and Republicans were
tied at 48 percent in Gallup's September 15-17 poll, that has
now shifted to a 23-point advantage for Democrats, 59 percent to
36 percent. Similarly, a CNN
poll
conducted October 6-8 found that, among likely voters,
Democrats led Republicans 58 percent to 37 percent; by contrast,
a CNN
poll
conducted as the Foley scandal broke, on September
29-October 2, had Democrats leading Republicans 53 percent to 42
percent.


In addition, the Foley scandal appears to be affecting some
individual races. For example, one member of the House
leadership, Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY), appears to have lost
ground since the scandal broke. While a September 28 SurveyUSA
poll
had Reynolds ahead of his Democratic challenger, Jack
Davis, 45 percent to 43 percent, SurveyUSA's October
5 poll
of the race has Davis leading, 50 percent to 45
percent. While the margins of error for these polls were plus or
minus 4.5 points and 4.6 points, respectively, the trend toward
Davis appears to be supported by another recent poll in the
district, a Zogby International poll
conducted for The Buffalo News and released on October 7.
In that poll, Reynolds trailed Davis 48 percent to 33 percent.


Hastert and the GOP leadership forced
Foley to resign after they learned of the lurid instant messages


Several media figures have uncritically reported that Hastert
and the GOP leadership forced Foley to resign from Congress
after they heard of his alleged sexually explicit instant
messages with underage pages. For example, as Media Matters
noted,
in an October 3 entry
on the National Review Online's weblog The Corner, National
Review
White House correspondent Byron York uncritically
noted Hastert's claim
on the October 3 Rush Limbaugh Show that "[w]e took
care of Mr. Foley" and that "[w]e ... asked him to
resign." But, a day earlier, when asked in a press
conference "whether the leadership asked Foley to resign,"
Hastert had responded: "I think Foley resigned almost
immediately upon the outbreak of this information, and so we
really didn't have a chance to ask him to resign."


The claim that Hastert and the Republican leadership forced
Foley to resign has recently gone unchallenged in several media
venues, despite the contradictions in Hastert's own account. For
example, on the October 6 edition of NBC's Nightly News with
Brian Williams
, NBC News correspondent Chip Reid
uncritically reported Rep. Adam Putnam's (R-FL) claim
that the House leadership "acted aggressively and within
hours -- within hours of the explicit emails coming to light,
they demanded Foley's resignation." Putnam was presumably
referring to the sexually explicit instant messages Foley
allegedly sent to an underage former page, because Hastert's
office reportedly knew of the emails by at least February 2006.
From the October 8 edition of NBC's Nightly News Weekend
Edition
:


REID: But Republican Adam Putnam says there's only
one culprit: Foley himself.

PUTNAM [clip from ABC News' This Week]: The
speaker's office acted proactively. They acted aggressively and
within hours -- within hours of the explicit emails coming to
light, they demanded Foley's resignation.

REID: Putnam appeared on the show because of the
Foley scandal, sitting in for Congressman Tom Reynolds, head of
the Republican campaign committee. He's in upstate New York
struggling to hold on to his job.

Gay men are more likely than heterosexual
men to sexually abuse children


As Media Matters has documented,
during an appearance on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews,
Family Research Council president Tony Perkins used the Foley
scandal to promote a falsehood about gay men -- that they are
more likely than straight men to sexually abuse children, based
on the claim that gay men are overrepresented in child sex-abuse
cases. In fact, a 1995 study
released by the American Psychological Association found that
"gay men are no more likely than heterosexual men to
perpetrate child sexual abuse." The argument that gay men
are overrepresented in such cases is based on what John Hopkins
University psychiatrist Frederick Berlin has described
as the "flawed assumption" that men who abuse young
boys are also attracted to grown men.


Kirk Fordham's claim that Hastert's
office was told about Foley before 2005 is uncorroborated


Recently, former Foley chief of staff Kirk Fordham asserted
that he told Hastert of Foley's alleged behavior long before
2005, an accusation denied by Hastert chief of staff Scott
Palmer. Some media reports have presented Fordham's accusation
and Palmer's denial in a "he said, she said" manner,
such as an October 16 article
in Time magazine, ignoring the evidence that it is
Fordham who is telling the truth. But as Media Matters
noted,
an unnamed current Republican congressional staffer recently
came forth to corroborate Fordham's account, according to
October 7 reports by various news outlets, including The
Washington Post
and The
New York Times
. An October 8 Times article
further reported that Fordham's attorney stated Fordham is
prepared to testify under oath before the House ethics committee
that Fordham arranged a meeting with Palmer "as early as
2003" ("2003 or earlier," according to the
October 7 Post article) to discuss Foley's alleged
contacts with underage congressional pages.


Speaker Hastert "took
responsibility" for the Foley scandal


Numerous media outlets have reported that, at his October 5
press conference, Hastert "took responsibility" for
the Foley scandal even though, as Media Matters has
noted,
Hastert also stated at the same press conference that "I
haven't done anything wrong, obviously."


For example, separate October 7 New York Times
articles
by reporters Adam
Nagourney
and Carl
Hulse
uncritically reported Hastert's claim, as did ABC News
chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos, who stated
the following during an appearance on the October
5 edition
of ABC's World News with Charles Gibson:


CHARLES GIBSON (anchor): And we're gonna bring in
now our chief Washington correspondent, George Stephanopoulos.
George, I used the phrase that the speaker was working at damage
control. So, there's been a lot of damage this week. Did he
control it?

STEPHANOPOULOS: I think he was pretty effective
today, Charlie, and I guess President Bush must have thought so,
too, because he called him for the first time. By
apologizing, accepting responsibility, getting statements of
support from his fellow leaders and promising to fix the
problem
, he lays the groundwork for a political defense, and
that ethics committee investigation gives all other Republicans
a reason to say Hastert can stay for now, they can wait until
the investigation is done.

Conservative evangelical voters are
particularly outraged by Foley scandal


Many media reports have suggested that conservative
Christians are likely to be particularly outraged by the Foley
scandal. But as Media Matters noted,
this suggestion is based on a dubious assumption: that
conservative Christian voters -- so-called "family values"
voters -- are more concerned than others with protecting
children, and therefore will condemn more harshly than others
allegations of a cover-up of alleged predatory behavior toward
children. Even veteran Republican pollster Matthew Dowd has
stated that "[i]t's not just the voters who care about
'family values' who might be driven away" by the Foley
scandal.


Nonetheless, Media Matters documented
many media reports suggesting that Christian conservatives will
be particularly upset by the Foley scandal, including:



  • Newsweek columnist
    Howard Fineman stated that the "Foley story is aimed right
    at" those "evangelical Bible-believing Christians"
    who have strongly supported Republicans in the past. (MSNBC's
    Countdown, 10/3/06)


  • CNN anchor Carol Lin reported that the "scandal is
    infuriating religious conservatives. But will they express that
    anger with their vote 30 days from now?" (CNN Newsroom,
    10/8/06)



Upon learning of emails, House
Republican leadership or Rep. Shimkus told Foley to end all
contact with pages


Media reports have also falsely claimed that House
Republicans privately told Foley in the spring of 2006 to stop
all contact with congressional pages. For example, Wall
Street Journal
OpinionJournal.com assistant editor Brendan
Miniter falsely
asserted
in his October 3 column
that upon "look[ing] at the few emails" Foley had
allegedly written to one former page, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL),
chairman of the House Page Board, decided "to confront Mr.
Foley and tell him to cut off all direct contact with underage
pages." As Media Matters noted,
Shimkus limited his warning to Foley only to the specific page
in question, telling Foley "to cease all contact with this
former House Page," according to a statement published on
Shimkus's website.
In his statement, Shimkus also asserted that he and "the
then Clerk of the House, who manages the Page Program," had
advised Foley "to be especially mindful of his conduct with
respect to current and former House Pages," but nowhere in
his statement did he say that he or anyone else told Foley to
"cut off all direct contact with underage pages."


An October 2 Washington Post article
headlined "FBI to Examine Foley's E-mails" also
falsely
reported
that Foley was told to "leave pages alone."


CREW withheld emails and other
information from FBI, congressional leaders


Several conservatives have recently accused Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonpartisan,
nonprofit organization, of withholding information from the FBI
in order to preserve the scandal until closer to the midterm
elections. As Media Matters noted,
the accusation arose from reports that CREW sent to the FBI in
July copies
of the emails Foley allegedly sent to an underage former
congressional page. Anonymous Justice Department sources claimed
that the copies of the emails CREW sent to the FBI were
incomplete and heavily redacted; that CREW refused to comply
with requests for further information; and that the FBI did
investigate the emails, but determined that there was not enough
to evidence suggest a criminal act.


However, as Media Matters noted,
the FBI has contradicted itself on these allegations. For
example, the FBI claimed that it did not pursue the Foley case
after receiving the emails because CREW refused to provide
enough information. However, the FBI also claimed that it did
investigate the emails and found that they did not indicate that
a crime had been committed.


Despite this, media outlets have uncritically reported the
anonymous sources' accusations against CREW, without challenge.
As Media Matters documented,
CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena's October 4 report --
which first aired on The Situation Room, and re-aired
several more times on October 4 and 5 -- failed to note the
FBI's disputed claims that CREW redacted the Foley emails and
refused the FBI's request for more information, instead
reporting: "Now, the FBI is refusing comment. But
government officials insist that the FBI did investigate. In
fact, they say that three squads looked at the emails. A public
corruption squad, a criminal squad, and then finally a cyber
squad. Now, we're told that agents determined at the time there
wasn't enough evidence to suggest any criminal activity."


As Media Matters has noted,
although CREW brought the emails to the FBI's attention, Fox
News host Sean Hannity baselessly accused CREW on the October 5
edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes of
"prioritiz[ing] partisan politics over the safety and
security of children." During the same program, U.S.
News & World Report
senior writer Michael Barone stated
that CREW "would also have been wise to turn [the emails]
over to ... the House Page Committee," even though the
House leadership reportedly learned of the emails long before
CREW did.


A "velvet mafia" on Capitol
Hill knew of Foley's alleged behavior and protected him from
public exposure


Media accounts have also suggested that a cadre of gay
congressional staffers protected Foley from exposure. For
example, writing in the October 16 issue of Time
magazine, national political correspondent Karen Tumulty
uncritically reported
that according to "a whisper campaign [that] has been
launched in Washington," former Foley chief of staff Kirk
Fordham may have been one of the "gay staff members"
belonging to "a 'velvet mafia' at the upper levels of
G.O.P. leadership" that sought to protect Foley.


But as Media Matters noted,
Fordham has claimed that he sought to alert Hastert's office to
Foley's alleged behavior at least three years ago, and an
unnamed current Republican congressional staffer recently came
forth to corroborate Fordham's account.










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Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Stay The Course

Majority of Americans think Hastert should resign


Sounds like a hostile crowd for the GOP

according to the new CNN poll:

- 75% said Republicans took inappropriate steps

- 52% said they believe the GOP leadership didn't investigate the charges earlier because they were deliberately covering the scandal up

- 39% approval for Bush

- 28% approval for Congress

- 58% of likely voters to support Democrats

- 34% think most members of Congress deserve re-election


It doesn't sound as though Americans are interested in staying the course.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

The List

"The List" (of Gay GOP Aides on the Hill); Hubris on
Bloggingheads.tv



There's a list going around. Those disseminating it call it "The
List." It's a roster of top-level Republican congressional aides who are
gay.



On CBS News on Tuesday, correspondent Gloria Borger reported that there's anger
among House Republicans at what an unidentified House GOPer called a
"network of gay staffers and gay members who protect each other and did the
Speaker a disservice." The implication is that these gay Republicans
somehow helped page-pursuing Mark Foley before his ugly (and possibly illegal)
conduct was exposed. The List--drawn up by gay politicos--is a partial
accounting of who on Capitol Hill might be in that network.



I have a copy. I'm not going to publish it. For one, I don't know for a fact
that the men on the list are gay. And generally I don't fancy outing
people--though I have not objected when others have outed gay Republicans, who,
after all, work for a party that tries to limit the rights of gays and lesbians
and that welcomes the support of those who demonize same-sexers.



What's interesting about The List--which includes nine chiefs of staffs, two
press secretaries, and two directors of communications--is that (if it's
acucurate) it shows that some of the religious right's favorite representatives
and senators have gay staffers helping them advance their political careers and
agendas. These include Representative Katherine Harris and Henry Hyde and
Senators Bill Frist, George Allen, Mitch McConnell and Rick Santorum. Should we
salute these legislators for being open-minded enough to have such tolerant
hiring practices? After all, Santorum in a 2003 AP interview compared
homosexuality to bestiality, incest and polygamy. It would be rather big of
Santorum to employ a fellow who engages in activity akin to such horrors. That
is, if Santorum knows about his orientation.



Let's be clear about one thing: the Mark Foley scandal is not about
homosexuality. Some family value conservatives are suggesting it is. But anytime
a gay Republican is outed by events, a dicey issue is raised: what about those
GOPers who are gay and who serve a party that is anti-gay? Are they hypocrites,
opportunists, or just confused individuals? Is it possible to support a party
because you adhere to most of its tenets--even if that party refuses to
recognize you as a full citizen? The men on The List might want to think hard
about these questions--as they probably already have--for if I have a copy of
The List, there's a good chance it will be appearing soon on a website near
everyone.



READ MORE......

Monday, October 02, 2006

Gays Stand to Gain if Dems Win House

Gays Stand to Gain if Dems Win House

‘It means no more anti-gay bills come up and some
pro-gay bills come up, and we’ll pass some of them.’











The U.S. House of Representatives has been cause for excitement all year
for Democrats and liberals thirsting for a change in the Congress, but the
LGBT community also stands to gain say some politicians and consultants.





Five weeks out from the Nov. 7 elections, pollsters generally agree that
Democrats still have a good chance of picking up the 15 seats necessary to
become the majority party. That would put the legislative agenda of the
House entirely in the hands of the Democrats, who would decide exactly
what comes to a vote and what doesn’t.





"It means no more anti-gay bills come up and some pro-gay bills come
up, and we’ll pass some of them," said openly gay Rep. Barney Frank
(D-Mass.) in an interview last week. Frank was scheduled to appear at a
"Take Back The House" fundraiser in the city for the National
Stonewall Democrats and Stonewall Democrats of New York City on Saturday,
Sept. 30.





"First of all, people won’t have to spend any energy fighting that
stupid constitutional amendment because the Democrats won’t let it come
up—that’s over," Rep. Frank said of the anti-gay Federal Marriage
Amendment. He also said he believed they could garner enough support to
pass a national hate crimes bill that would be "specifically
trans-inclusive" and an employment non-discrimination act (ENDA).





"The problem of course with George Bush as President—we might get
them passed in the Senate too—but he will veto it," Frank said.
"At least, we will begin to establish that argument."





Frank also anticipated that the House Armed Services Committee would hold
hearings to determine how much the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is
damaging military morale and preparedness. To date, more than 11,000
members of the armed services have been discharged on the basis of their
sexuality.





Democratic consultant and LGBT activist Ethan Geto agreed that under
Democratic leadership the House could move forward on both repealing
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and passing a federal gay rights bill that
focused on job protection.





"On both of those issues, a vast majority of the American public,
including a majority of Republican voters, favor both of those pieces of
legislation, " Geto said, adding that polling data has indicated
broad public support in both areas for years. Congressman Marty Meehan’s
(D-Mass.) bill to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell now has 121 co-sponsors
in the House.





Geto said the reason these pieces of legislation had not been taken up is
because the Republicans have been pitching at their base of hard-core
evangelical Christians. He also agreed with Frank that this legislation
would have a chance of being passed in the Senate, even if it stayed under
Republican control.





"If the House was moving on this stuff, I suspect we would win a
majority vote in the Senate for both of those pieces of legislation even
without it changing hands," he said. "The Senate is generally
somewhat more liberal than the House is today."





A change that is slightly more symbolic in nature is that Rep. Frank would
become Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, the highest rank ever
held by an openly gay member of Congress.





As chairman, Frank said he would try to ensure that LGBT people in the
financial services industry and private sector get treated fairly. Frank
has openly gay friends at the New York Stock exchange who have felt the
pressure of homophobia. "I think it does sort of make it harder to
discriminate against somebody at a major financial services firm and then
come and be nice to me," he said.











Sunday, October 01, 2006

Ken Mehlman Under Investigation


By Joel Seidman

Producer NBC News

WASHINGTON - A report released in June by the
Department of Justice's Inspector General, Glenn Fine, contained what may have
been be the first references of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's strong ties
to White House Political Director Ken Mehlman, but it was only today that the
extent of that relationship was revealed.


Melhman is now the Chairman of the Republican
National Committee.


The June report said that Abramoff was receiving
information about the U.S. territories in the Pacific -- Guam and the
Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas -- directly from White House
information "recommended" to be given to Abramoff by Mehlman. Both
territories were clients of Abramoff lobbying firm.




The IG report says White House political official
Leonard Rodriguez told investigators he had "kept Abramoff aware of
information relevant to Guam ... at the behest of Ken Mehlman,” the White
House Political Director, who “recommended or suggested that I reach out to
make Jack


aware of issues related to Guam."


But the House Government Reform Committee report
released today says Abramoff and his team reached out themselves to the White
House Office of Political Affairs some 17 times. Six times, Abramoff’s
team had direct contact with Mehlman.


The report says, on Oct. 9, 2002, Abramoff e-mailed
Mehlman to seek an endorsement from President Bush for Republican candidates
running in Guam.


Within two weeks, Susan Ralston, an aide to Karl
Rove, e-mailed Abramoff: "Ken asked me to let you know that he has
the quote to be approved for your Guam candidates."


Abramoff also vigorously lobbied the White House to
back Benigne Fitial, a garment plant operator and newspaper publisher who was
running for governor in the Northern Marianas under the banner of a third
party known as the "Covenant Party."


The Marianas, famous for their low-paying garment
factories, hired Abramoff to keep the islands' workers exempt from U.S. laws
like the minimum wage. In the e-mail in May, Abramoff writes: "I
met with Rove tonight. They are not going to allow (Juan) Babauta to
have his way and they are looking forward to your arrival."


The House report says an entry in an electronic
calendar indicates that the event probably occurred at a "Tax Policy
Dinner" at Grover Norquist's home. Abramoff received an e-mail on
Oct. 31, 2001, from Ralston, stating the White House would not endorse the GOP
candidate:


"You win :). KR said no endorsement."


Abramoff urged White House officials, including Rove
and Mehlman, to intervene to remove a State Department employee, Allen Stayman,
who advocated labor reforms and opposed their efforts in the Marianas.


Todd Boulanger, who worked for Abramoff wrote,
"It will be a great day when Stayman is whacked."


Tony Rudy, a former aide to Tom DeLay, who also
worked for Abramoff, said in an e-mail exchange released by the committee,
"Mehlman said he would get him fired." Stayman was eventually
let go from his State Department post.


Despite Abramoff's lobbying, Republican candidate
Juan Babauta was elected Governor of the Commonwealth in 2001. After the
election, the Commonwealth terminated their relationship with Abramoff as a
lobbyist. But in 2006 Fitial became governor and wrote a letter on behalf of
Abramoff to the Miami judge who would sentence him to 70 months in jail in the
SunCruz casino scandal which Abramoff pleaded guilty to defrauding investors.


Fitial wrote, Abramoff was a "personal friend
and political champion" of the "beleaguered" Pacific islands.
"He was a natural crusader and political activist, with great sympathy
for our un- represented Commonwealth," the governor wrote on official
stationary.


The lobbying of Mehlman described in the House
documents also included a discussion between Abramoff and Mehlman at a White
House reception regarding political appointments. And there was a
meeting with Rudy when they discussed efforts to secure federal funds for the
Mississippi


band of the Choctaw Indians, an Abramoff client.
After that meeting with Mehlman, Rudy wrote Abramoff: "Mehlman said
he would 'take care of this.' He was a rock star."


Rock star or not, Abramoff offered Mehlman tickets to
a U2 concert on June 15, 2001. The documents don't say whether Mehlman
attended, or if he did, whether he paid for his own tickets.


Mehlman first started working with Rove in the Bush
campaign in 1999 and later managed Bush's re-election in 2004. He told
Newsweek recently, "We've learned a lot from each other--from what we've
done right and what we've done wrong," he said.



© 2006 MSNBC Interactive

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