Last week before my computer woes, I had sketched out some notes for a post on Jay Bennish, that left-wing geography teacher who went wild in the Rocky Mountain State. I was going to note that he attacks the President like many social conservatives attack gays, not based on the president’s actual record (or rhetoric given this teacher’s comments) but on what he believes his rhetoric to be. Just as social conservatives who bash gays rarely quote the actual statements of the gays they love to loath. And have defined our lives by their own twisted image of what they call our “lifestyle.”

In his comments comparing the president to Hitler, Bennish never actually quotes the man he compares to the bloodthirsty and charismatic psychopath. To be sure from time to time, anti-gay social conservatives (unlike Bennish) do manage to quote from statements of certain “homosexuals,” but they almost always refer to the most extreme “sexual liberationists” or whatnot, sort of like someone quoting from Madonna’s book on sex to define heterosexual love in America.

As time passed and I thought of Bennish’s remarks, it occurred to me how obsessed this man is with the president. He may claim that he had hoped to make such a bold statement in order to promote discussion, but I wonder why a geography teacher would bring up a subject more suited for a Political Science or Current Events class. I’m not sure how comparing Bush to Hitler can help students distinguish between an estuary and a tributary — or even between the topography of those two very different men’s homelands.

Mr. Bennish is not the only Bush-hater to bring up the president in a discussion of something unrelated to politics or world affairs.

A few months ago, I was chatting with an acquaintance at the gym. He mentioned that he was looking for a new car; I asked him what kind. He was leaning toward an SUV. Before I could comment on his preference, he (not knowing my politics) said, “But I’m not a Bush supporter.” I wondered why buying an SUV would indicate support for the president (especially given that if an SUV in this area is sporting a bumper sticker from the ’04 campaign, it’s all but certain to be a Kerry-Edwards one).

I’m sure y’all can come up with other examples of Bush-haters bringing up the president’s nasty nature and malign motives when it seems (to the level-headed individual) irrelevant to the conversation at hand.

What is it, I wonder that makes this people so obsessed with Bush that they will bring him up in a geography class — or in the discussion of buying a new car?

These people are, in many ways, just like gay-baiting social conservatives. They’re as obsessed with us as Jay Bennish and Michael Moore are with President Bush. They’ll bring up “homosexuals” at the drop of the hat. I recall how at one GOP gathering in Northern Virginia in 1998, upon learning of my support for Henriette Warfield, then the chair of the Arlington County GOP, a woman faulted Henriette for promoting the “homosexual agenda.” This woman didn’t know I was gay (I came out only after she attacked Henriette) and was only aware that that great chairwoman had welcomed the Log Cabin Republican Club of Northern Virginia into the local party. (She could point to any policy stand Ms. Warfield had taken on gay issues.) What struck me about this woman was that of all the issues to fault Henriette, she chose the “homosexual” one.

You’ve got to wonder about those people who dwell constantly on their hatred for an individual or group, especially when that individual (or group) is not relevant to the conversation at hand — or the class they’re teaching.

-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com

According to the Chicago Tribune, several phone calls from the 9/11 hijackers were placed to Saudi Arabia and Syria prior to the attack. (h/t – In the Bullpen)

The Sept. 11 hijackers made dozens of telephone calls to Saudi Arabia and Syria in the months before the attacks, according to a classified report from the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
According to the report, 206 international telephone calls were known to have been made by the leaders of the hijacking plot after they arrived in the United States—including 29 to Germany, 32 to Saudi Arabia and 66 to Syria.
The German report contains no information about the timing or recipients of the calls, except that the majority of them were made from a cell phone registered to al-Shehhi, a native of the United Arab Emirates. It said the telephone records were obtained by German intelligence agencies from the FBI.

Anyone with half a brain could have figured this would have happened. It wasn’t like the 19 hijackers just arrived here and never received instructions from overseas.

So President Bush’s authorizing the NSA to conduct overseas wiretapping of suspected terrorists, had it been in place during the Clinton years, may well have prevented the 9/11 attacks.

Let’s hope Congress doesn’t do something stupid and take this vital tool away from the Commander In Chief.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

- Why do Tim and Faith want to be “Dixie-Chicked“?

- The Religion of Peace opposes cartoons and now punishes a guy for eating cheese and uses kites as terror weapons.

- Our favorite gay Democrat prostitute lost his Texas house race, but gained 45% in the Democratic primary. PatriotPartner thinks Malin will probably “lose God” now that he has lost. Hey, maybe Jeff Gannon should run for public office?

- And this…. abortion rights for men?

A 25-year-old computer programmer is ready to file suit to block a child support order to pay for a daughter he does not want. The National Center for Men plans to use the suit to establish that men, too, can choose whether they want to become parents.

I love this idea. But I say go further. Why shouldn’t men have the right to “veto” abortions that a woman wants to do without his consent? Since 50% of the fetus comes from the man’s DNA, I think he should have just as much of a say on if the baby is born or not. I’m sure the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s gay & abortion rights organization, will oppose my idea.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)