This comes from the “Bruce Is About A Week Behind In Email” file:

GOProud Endorses Charles Djou (R) in Hawaii’s 1^st  Congressional District

 Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director “Charles Djou is a limited government, free market conservative who supports policies that will improve the lives of all of the people of Hawaii, including gays and lesbians.”

 (Washington, D.C.) – Today, GOProud the only national organization representing gay conservatives and their allies, announced their board voted unanimously to endorse Republican Congressional candidate Charles Djou in Hawaii’s 1^st Congressional District.  “Charles Djou is a limited government, free market conservative who supports policies that will improve the lives of all the people of Hawaii, including gays and lesbians,” said Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director of GOProud.

GOProud’s Executive Director, along with the Board’s Chairman, met with Djou in Washington last week.  “Charles Djou is an impressive candidate who will make a tremendous member of Congress,” continued LaSalvia.  “Charles opposes Democratic efforts to expand discriminatory government run healthcare, supports lowering taxes on all Americans, supports repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, understands the importance of fighting global extremism and opposes any effort to federalize marriage through a Constitutional amendment.”

“I want to thank GOProud for their endorsement of my campaign for Congress,” said Djou.  “I want to be a Congressman all of the people of Hawaii – including gays and lesbians – can be proud of.” 

Djou faces two Democrats in the vote by mail special election which begins on April 30^th and concludes on May 22^nd.  This election will fill the seat of former U.S. Rep. Neal Abercrombie (D-HI).

If you’d like to help Charles Djou get elected to Congress, and help break the Socialist Democrats’ control of America  – feel free to donate!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Wow. I’m showing my age with that headline. That’s the old way that police dispatchers used to radio the cars on the streets in the event of a major crime.  Think James Cagney movie.  No, young people, he’s no relation to Cagney & Lacey. 

Oh, well.. they were female detectives on CBS. 

Oh… CBS… you see that was a broadcast network that was popular once.

But I digress.  I’m looking for one or two volunteers to help with the blog.  My biggest need right now is a researcher.  Someone who can follow up on leads and do research for blog posts both for me here at GayPatriot and over at BigJournalism.com.

My second request — someone with knowledge of video graphics & editing.

The pay will be the same as Dan, Nick and I get — the pleasure of our creativity being acknowledged.  (Actually, since 2004, I’ve experienced a net loss in pay writing at GayPatriot!  Ah well…)

Any takers?  Please email me:  bruce@gaypatriot.org

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Both Instapundit and the Washington Examiner link today what is perhaps the most important poll in the aftermath of the health care vote. And our critics’ hope for a changing views of Obamacare, notwithstanding, this doesn’t look particularly good for the Democrats. In fact, it looks downright bad.

From Byron York, commenting on the latter web-site:

The poll asked, “Regardless of whether you favored or opposed the health care legislation Congress passed this past week, do you think the methods the Democratic leaders in Congress used to get enough votes to pass this legislation were an abuse of power or were an appropriate use of power by the party that controls the majority in Congress?” The results: 53 percent say the Democrats’ methods were an abuse of power, while 40 percent say they were appropriate.

Breaking down the results by party, 86 percent of Republicans say the Democrats abused their power, while 58 percent of independents agree. Nineteen percent of Democrats say their own leaders abused their power, while 70 percent say Democratic methods were appropriate.

That ain’t the only thing Gallup found.  According to Greg Sargent (H/t Glenn):  ”more Americans blame Democrats than Republicans or conservatives for the rash of violence that greeted the passage of the reform law.”  Guess Barney’s bellyaching did cause the movement in public opinion the unhappy Democrat expected.

York adds, “The new numbers suggest that the public remains troubled by the tactics used to pass the unpopular health care measure.”  Guess we just don’t like Chicago-style politics, not matter how they’re dressed up.

Fred Phelps can go to hell. He’s likely the most vile person living currently in the United States and his presence here is an embarrassment. Likewise, the celebrity bestowed upon him by the media gives him much more status than he deserves. His rantings and anti-homosexual, anti-American, anti-taste shenanigans are anathema to everything any decent American believes.

That is why he should win in the US Supreme Court when the suit brought against him by Albert Snyder makes its way to them.

(The background on the story is all over the Web and cable news, so I won’t belabor it.)

It’s exactly the disgusting nature of his comments that demand the defense of the First Amendment. In an era when the President of the United States uses the drama of his State of the Union Address to attack and lie about the Supreme Court for upholding our right to speak (and publish books) about candidates running to (allegedly) represent us in government, it is incumbent on us as Americans to defend all political speech, ESPECIALLY that with which we disagree. Without that, our First Amendment means nothing.

That said, the premature ruling that Snyder pay the lawyer fees for this troglodyte is asinine. I’m glad to see many people stepping up to assist Snyder so he doesn’t face the $17,000 bill he can’t afford. Frankly, though, I believe he should drop his case, lest the unintended consequences result in a further abridgement of our right to free speech.

Now… Let The Flaming Begin!

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, hunkered down at TML)

UPDATE: P.S., I know this is very controversial and perhaps even inflammatory. This is my opinion, and doesn’t necessarily reflect Bruce’s or Dan’s view.

Having long since found a Senate candidate in California, my gal Carly Fiorina, every conservative’s favorite Senator Dr. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma!) has now found a candidate in Florida: that good man “is endorsing Marco Rubio“:

“From the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ to the ‘Woodstock Museum,’ I’ve fought all kinds of wasteful spending throughout my career. But in my lifetime, I’ve never seen as wasteful a spending project as the failed $787 billion stimulus bill that Marco’s opponents supported. I have full confidence Marco will stand against costly disasters like the stimulus bill and government-run health care,” Dr. Coburn said.

And it looks like the Oklahoma Republican will soon have a candidate to back in the Evergreen State.   A county Republican leader in Washington State reports that the man who won that state’s governor’s race in 2004 (until ballots were suddenly found in heavily Democratic King County) is expected to announce against Patty Murray:

[Dino] Rossi was in Washington, D.C., last week meeting with Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele and also visiting with Republican senators who want to win back a few seats from the Democrats.

With RealClearPolitics having recently moved the California Senate race into the Tossup category, Rossi’s announcement should also cause similar movement for the Washington State race, especially given the Republican’s lead in a recent matchup.

If the Republicans, as did the Democrats in ’08, run the tables on the close Senate races, we’re looking at a 10-seat GOP gain — and that’s not including Wisconsin or the Gillibrand seat in New York.

Keeping in theme with my recent post about how Reason can save Cleveland, here’s another excellent video by Nick Gillespie(who looks WAAAY too much like someone we’d rather forget) and the folks over there on the rising of the public sector:

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from TML)

If not, then, by his standards, we can safely deem them representative of the Democratic Party:

(H/t: Instapundit.)

Over at Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft headlines a post, Oh Brother. Alan Colmes Says Code Pink Radicals Do Not Represent the Left.

Now, remember, how Barney lectured us Republicans on our need to “differentiate” ourselves from “from the hateful speech spewed in the healthcare debate’s final hours.”

Well, since neither Barney nor any senior representative of his party has differentiated himself from Code Pink’s latest antics, we can safely assume, given the standards to which the mean-spirited man from Massachusetts holds Republicans that he must also hold his party and their ideological confreres to that very standard.  Therefore, Alan Colmes is wrong.  We haven’t seen any prominent liberals differentiating themselves from Code Pink’s interruption of Karl Rove’s talk in Beverly Hills, therefore it’s safe to say that Code Pink does represent the left.

JervisTetch writes:

Cheney is undoubtedly the most pro-gay VP of all-time. Why? The answer is simple, silly: he’s the most anti-terrorist president of all-time.

We too wish that great and good man was president, Jervis. 

In standing up against terrorism, Cheney was standing up for a lot of gay men and lesbians — and not just his daughter.

A couple of days ago, a college classmate posted Paul Krugman’s angry and dishonest screed against Republican opponents of the recently enacted, unpopular health care overhaul.  Last night at Seder, a woman, unaware of my political leanings, talked about the extremist Tea Party folk.

Both are sensible folk, the former slightly to the left of center, the other more in the liberal mainstream.  Neither a foam-at-the-mouth left-wing activist, regularly spouting venom at Republicans and others on the right.

Yet, each, while well-informed on the issues of the day, has a jaundiced view of the Tea Party phenomenon.  This has little to do with the reality of said phenomenon, but with the coverage these protests have received in the media.  Even as the mainstream media are losing their audience, they still have some sway over public opinion.

At the same time the three broadcast networks and major East Coast dailies trumpet stories of right-wing extremists and “report” unsubstantiated allegations of racist behavior at Tea Party protests, they downplay or downright ignore evidence of similar behavior on the left.  Today, for example, Jim Hoft observes that while Code Pink radicals shut down a Karl Rove book signing in Beverly Hills, the national media are silent.  This event was covered only by local media.

Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds alerts us to their ignorance of other stories at odds with their narrative:

AFTER COVERING BOGUS “THREAT” STORIES LAST WEEK, ABC and CBS Skip Arrest of Man Targeting GOP’s Cantor. It’s all about the narrative. Besides, if they’d covered it, they might have slipped up and mentioned that he was a two-time Obama donor.

And yet, despite the press’s full-court press to demonize the Tea Parties, a majority of Americans believe Tea Parties are more in touch with reality than Congress.

Can you imagine what those numbers would be like if the media covered the Tea Parties more fairly and instead of focusing on their most extreme elements focused on the shared ideas and diverse backgrounds of the protesters?  And if instead of running with wild allegations from the movement’s critics, actually investigated them before reporting?

I saw former NATO Commander US Gen. John Sheehan’s remarks made a couple weeks ago during a Congressional hearing on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”  I was surprised it didn’t receive more media attention when he said it:

Sheehan claimed that Dutch leaders, including the former chief of staff of the Dutch army General Henk van den Breemen, had told him that the presence of gay soldiers had contributed to the fall of the enclave which led to the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

When I saw the original testimony, I was flabbergasted and wondered who on Capitol Hill had vetted this guy.  Then again, he was NATO Commander.

Sheehan has since apologized, under threat of lawsuit by Dutch groups.

“To be clear, the failure on the ground in Srebrenica was in no way the fault of the individual soldiers,” states Sheehan’s letter, dated Monday and addressed to the now retired Van den Breemen.

“I am sorry that my recent public recollection of those discussions of 15 years ago inaccurately reflected your thinking on some specific social issues in the military.”

What is it with NATO Commanders and their grasp of reality.  Sheehan, Wesley Clark, and Alexander Haig.  All three seem to have been a few cards short of a full deck, no?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

As our readers note, Tammy Bruce is a gun-toting, abortion-rights’ supporting lesbian feminist who once served as president of the LA chapter of the National Organization for Women, breaking with them after her harsh criticism of O.J. Simpson and his defenders during his murder trial.  In 1992, she enthusiastically backed Barbara Boxer in her first bid for the United States Senate.

On Saturday night, she was Bruce and my guest at the Claremont dinner, honoring former Vice President Cheney.  And not only was it a treat to hear the Vice President speak and to meet that great and good man, but I was particularly honored to sit next to Tammy at dinner.  She is a great conversationalist who does not mince words.

Just like the former Vice President.

And during dinner, we were constantly being interrupted as numerous guests at this fundraiser for a conservative think tank came up to tell this pro-choice lesbian how much they loved her and appreciated her work.  She was even approached as we retreated to the bar after the dinner.

So, here we have an openly lesbian, openly pro-choice, openly feminist woman with an enthusiastic fan base among Angeleno conservatives.  Guess being a lesbian is not a hindrance to earning accolades on the right.  Kind of defeats the narrative of a narrow-minded, gay-hating right.

As President Obama signs the reconciliation portion of the Stalinization of Health Care Act of 2010 into law this morning*, comes word from an AP analysis that young people will be getting the shaft as the new regime of mandates spreads their wealth around to their older, less-healthy fellow citizens.

Of course, we told you so.

Now, while the report caveats that the study “did not factor in tax credits to help offset the increase,” it’s little consolation. What we have now is the choice between the bad of young people having to bankroll their parents and grandparents or the even worse of the entire Nation having to bankroll thier bankrolling. So would you rather young broke people or young dependent people?

President Obama won 66% of the youth vote. I suppose he hopes he can keep them ignorant of his socialist tendencies and plans to finance his utopia on thier backs. Let’s hope, for America’s sake, they’re smarter than that.

*Thought you’d get a kick out of this: Watching the ceremony with the sound off, the useless notes beneath President Obama next to the FoxNews logo read: “OBAMA: TODAY MARKS HISTORICAL MILESTONE” Funny that I misread this on first glance as “MILLSTONE”?

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from TML)

Over at Gateway Pundit, the indefatigable Jim Hoft has relentlessly been taking on those Democrats (and their MSM allies) who contend that Tea Party protesters hurled ugly racial epithets at members of the Congressional Black Caucus as they paraded with Nancy Pelosi to vote on increasing government control over.

He has shown this picture of U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) marching through the crowd carrying not one, but two, digital video cameras.

Now, why would the Democrat be carrying two such cameras?  Will Collier helps lead us to the answer:

The Democrats and the left in general have been trying unsuccessfully to smear and marginalize the tea party movement for over a year now. I think that in the face of a storm of opposition, they decided to try for a Hail Mary pass; they picked a charge perfectly calibrated to excite the prejudices of their allies in the media and get big coverage. In the last, at least, they were successful.

But that was simply preaching to a very willing choir. In the arena of public opinion, the “Hail Mary” failed. No such video exists. If it did, we’d all have seen it a thousand times by now. Andrew Breitbart was confident enough about the un-video to publicly bet $10,000 (since raised to $100,000) that nobody could produce one. So far, there haven’t been any takers.

(H/t:  Instapundit.)  While I agree with the general thrust of his argument, I do have a slight quibble with his recreation of what went on in the Democrats’ strategy meeting.  I contend they didn’t think what they were doing was a “Hail Mary” pass.  They thought that by staging this bit of political theater, it was certain to elicit racist reaction because they really, truly believe that Republicans, especially their most zealous supporters, hate people of color (and sexual minorities).  Hence the cameras.

If a group of black people walked through a crowd of Tea Party protesters, they were bound to hear a racial epithet.

(And when they didn’t find what they expected, they still rushed to the media with the accusations they were prepared to have leveled when they encountered the racism they were certain to find–but didn’t encounter.)

Mistaken in their assumption of prejudice, they’re blind to their own prejudice, their assumption of the racial bias of Americans protesting big government.   (more…)

Glenn Reynolds links Nick Gillespie’s most excellent post on the coming “war” between public and private sector workers where that Reason magazine scribe opines, “I think this split between private and public-sector workers is one of the biggest issues in contemporary America.”

I agree.

As many Americans in have taken pay cuts to keep their private sector jobs, salaries for public employees keep growing, even as states face massive deficits.  Since they’re working on our dime, shouldn’t they see a cut back in their salaries and benefits when we’re earning fewer dimes, thus sending even fewer pennies to them?

I just had a pleasant conversation with Araceli Gonzalez, Deputy Coalitions Director for the Meg Whitman campaign, and asked if she’d be willing to come down to Los Angeles to talk to some of our readers about concerns gay conservatives have and how we could help her campaign should we find her the better of the two leading Republican candidates.

She agreed to come down and talk to us on Monday, April 12 at 7 PM, with the formal meeting starting at 8.  Right now, we’re looking for a venue for this meeting, so please let me know if you’d like to attend.

Ms. Gonzalez has promised to look into Whitman’s stand on the state’s domestic partnership program.  I told her that gay conservatives would be more likely to support her if the Republican candidate made clear that she would keep this landmark legislation in place.

Last Saturday, the Hill reported:

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), called a “Homo Communist” on Saturday by protesters opposed to President Barack Obama’s health plan, says his GOP colleagues need to do more to “differentiate themselves” from the hateful speech spewed in the healthcare debate’s final hours.

Today, we learn that the FBI charged an Obama donor “with threatening to kill United States Congressman Eric Cantor and his family“.  Cantor is the House Republican Whip.

Bricks have recently been hurled through GOP offices in Michigan and Virginia.

Harry Reid supporters have threatened violence against Andrew Breitbart at a Tea Party Protest.

If, in the next 48 hours, given the demands Mr. Frank made the weekend of the health care vote about Republicans, if he does not (to borrow his expression) “differentiate” himself from those making such threats or committing such acts, we will assume this unhappy Massachusetts Democrat countenances them — and hold him to account.

Of course, should he choose to apologize for his past statement instead and say that he was wrong to say Republicans needed to “differentiate themselves” from the alleged actions of a few isolated protesters, then we will not hold him to account for the actual behavior of these angry leftists.

*Or apologizing

Thanks to one of our readers for snapping this picture of me meeting the most pro-gay Vice President in U.S. History.  That’s Tammy Bruce right behind the great man and his lovely wife Lynne next to him:

Sometimes, I think, the best thing to defeat the Obama agenda would be to get Barney Frank on TV more often promoting it.  His mere tone and presence helps discredit the Democratic talking points he spits out.  And when met with a tough questions, he starts ranting against Republicans, his interviewer, blames his father for neglecting him or his mother for overindulging him– or he just throws a hissy fit and storms off the set.

Barney doesn’t seem very happy.  He presents himself as a much more intelligent than the rest of us as if he knows what’s best for us.  His condescension may work wonders with the mainstream media, but surely rubs the American people the wrong way.

But, here’s the problem.  Barney’s not just a mean-spirited, arrogant liberal.  He’s also gay.  And do we want the American people to assume that, because he parades his homosexuality everywhere he goes, all gay people are like him, bossy liberals eager to tell us how to run our lives?

Since the “stimulus” passed last February, the (once-)Golden State lost over 700,000 jobs.  Los Angeles County alone has lost nearly 100,000 jobs.  Drive alone the once-bustling commercial thoroughfares in Hollywood and West Hollywood and you’ill see an increasing number of stores sporting “Available” or “For Lease” signs in their otherwise empty display windows.

Rhoda Morgenstern might have trouble getting work in the city of Angels.

And as LA languishes, the dean of its congressional delegation pontificates, calling in industry executives because their financial statements on the impact of the Democrats’ health care law don’t match with the lofty promises of those who authored it, many of whom, like Mr. Waxman, barely (if ever) labored in the job-creating private sector.

Waxman has been serving in the California Assembly and Congress for 42 years, having briefly practiced law during the Johnson Administration.

If Mr. Waxman truly carried about our district (alas, he is my representative in the House), instead of berating the job creators, he would be asking them what Congress could do to make it easier for them to create jobs.  And threatening letters from the chairman of a powerful congressional committee (which Mr. Waxman is) will likely not succeed in those companies expanding their employment opportunities.

UPDATE:  Michelle wonders if Henry’s gotten wind of the concerns owners of ski resorts have with the health care bill he so proudly supports.