Blogcasting from the worldwide headquarters of the not-so-vast gay right wing conspiracy.
Representing the millions of patriotic gays and lesbians across the USA by standing up for freedom, fairness, free speech, privacy and true American values.
Well, I’ve been proven right. Just shy of four years ago, I wrote:
I expect Ms. Couric to enjoy the same success with the CBS Evening News as Geena Davis [did] with Commander in Chief. All the hype about the show will give her great initial ratings which will gradually decline as the buzz wears off.
Couric’s “newscast” drew 1.62 million fewer viewers than did its counterpart on second-place ABC. And over 2.5 million fewer than first-place NBC.
I guess making nice with Joe Biden just doesn’t help you earn the respect of the American people.
Whoever thinks that he alone is wise,
his eloquence, his mind, above the rest,
come the unfolding, shows his emptiness.
A man, though wise, should never be ashamed
of learning more, and must unbend his mind.
Antigone, trans. by Elizabeth Wyckoff.
Please, Mr. President, unbend your mind; your policies aren’t working.
Positive gross domestic product readings and other mildly hopeful signs are masking an ugly truth: The US economy is in a 1930s-style Depression, Gluskin Sheff economist David Rosenberg said Tuesday.
Writing in his daily briefing to investors, Rosenberg said the Great Depression also had its high points, with a series of positive GDP reports and sharp stock market gains.
But then as now, those signs of recovery were unsustainable and only provided a false sense of stability, said Rosenberg.
Rosenberg calls current economic conditions “a depression, and not just some garden-variety recession,” and notes that any good news both during the initial 1929-33 recession and the one that began in 2008 triggered “euphoric response.”
“Such is human nature and nobody can be blamed for trying to be optimistic; however, in the money management business, we have a fiduciary responsibility to be as realistic as possible about the outlook for the economy and the market at all times,” he said.
The 1929-33 recession saw six quarterly bounces in GDP with an average gain of 8 percent, sending the stock market to a 50 percent rally in early 1930 as investors thought the worst had passed.
I hate to say “I told you so”…. but “I told you so”.
Bryan Glover, an assistant coach at Grassland Middle School near Nashville, co-wrote the country music song, “When You’re Holding a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail.”
It was co-written by a parent who has a child on the team. Glover, 26, said he emailed a copy of the song to friends, family members and player’s parents through his personal email account.
And that’s when all the trouble started for the self-described independent conservative.
“The coach called me and said parents were upset – that I was being politically incorrect and the song had racial overtones,” Glover told FOX News Radio. “An hour and a half later I was told I was being terminated.”
“I was informed that I was being let go because of the song,” he said, denying claims there were any racial overtones in the song.
Racial overtones? Good lord. Hasn’t the “race card” expired already for overuse?
If Patrick Guerriero had truly been concerned about the integrity of the organization he headed in 2004, the Log Cabin Republicans, he would have resigned his position as president immediately after George W. Bush was re-elected to a second term in the White House in 2004. Instead, he lingered for nearly two years. Since he was so closely tied to Log Cabin’s non-endorsement of Bush in that election, his resignation would have cleared the decks and allowed the organization’s board to tap someone who did not have such bad blood with the then-Republican Administration in Washington.
With that in mind, when I first read that Clarke Cooper was elected head of Log Cabin in May, it struck me that the organization’s head had long-standing ties to the Bush family, even having served eight years, W’s entire tenure, in that good man’s Administration. It was as if his appointment was a tacit acknowledgment that the organization had erred in 2004.
I met Clarke Cooper last night at a meeting of the Los Angeles chapter of Log Cabin — at which gathering congressional candidate Mattie Fein was also present (more on that anon) — and was reasonably impressed. Time will only tell if he can show a greater commitment to building the GOP than did the first two executive directors of the organization. In his speech he pretty much said all the right things; he was willing to listen to some of the criticisms I had leveled against the organization when I approached him after his talk. While in the manner of his distingished predecessor, Patrick Sammon, he was open to criticism, he did seem a tad defensive at times.
I was impressed that he said log Cabin need to “resynchronize” with the GOP. He even called the organization a GOP auxiliary. Thanks to his Bush connections, he was able to secure meetings at the RNC. He indicated that in 2010, that process of resynchronization should be relatively easy, given that all conservatives are “on the same page” with a focus on jobs and the economy, standing up to the big-spending policies of the incumbent Administration. (more…)
Another one in the can! Hopefully someday I’ll completely master uploading songs. It was a great two hours and I’m so excited to have had two awesome guests.
Libertarian blogger and Tea Party activist Andrew Ian Dodge was my guest for Hour #1. Check out Andrew’s work HERE.
And GOProud Executive Director Jimmy LaSalvia was my guest in Hour #2. Please support Jimmy’s work & GOProud HERE.
Finally, I promised I would post this great video with music from the song “Crying Freedom” written by Andrew. A great way to celebrate the awakening America — Cry Freedom!
While doing cardio a few moments ago, caught some of CNN coverage (on Rich Sanchez’s show) of the protests both supporting and opposing construction of the “Ground Zero mosque” and saw a rainbow flag attached to banner of one of protesters.
Did anyone see (or, does anyone know) whether that flag was attached to the banner of a supporter or opponent of the mosque? And is anyone aware of any gay group help organize a protest on either side?
CNN seemed hellbent on showing that that opponents were anti-Muslim zealots and were bound and determined to present the project’s leader Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf as a moderate. Is anyone aware of CNN reporting some of Imam Rauf’s, shall we say, more, um, well, radical statements?
Thanks, have to rush off to attend a Log Cabin/LA meeting featuring the new head of Log Cabin national so may not have time to get to this for a while.
Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Sunday that President Obama’s political advisers are out of touch with average Americans and need to “spend some time outside Washington.”
“The people around the president have really misjudged what goes on elsewhere in the country, other than Washington,” Dean told Candy Crowley on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“I don’t think this is true of the president, but I do think his people, his political people, have got to go out and spend some time outside Washington for a while.”
But, Howard, by Sophocles’ standards, Obama is out of touch with the rest of the country.
Melanie Morgan, founder of Move America Forward, the nation’s largest pro-troop organization, led about a dozen conservative activists who protested at the Venice home of Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans at a Saturday afternoon fundraiser for California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown.
Morgan reports the pro-American protesters, “blocked the entrance of hundreds of wealthy Democrat liberals, including Sally Kellerman and Cindy Asner, ex-wife of Ed Asner.” Protesters laid down on the sidewalk outside the entrance gate where guests had to step over them.
Event host Jodie Evans was visibly angry at getting a taste of her own medicine and had several confrontations, including one in which she denied, against the evidence, that she supports the terrorist organization Hamas. Several guests were none-too-pleased with being protested, while some had no idea they were attending an event associated with Code Pink.
Jerry Brown sneaked into the house from the back door while Melanie Morgan threw her body onto the sidewalk shouting, “Code Pink supports terrorists!” When not laying on the sidewalk, Morgan stood outside the back gate, “yelling through a screen at [Evans] while she sipped her white wine as Brown’s security guard watched from inside his SUV with the engine running for two hours.” Though the Dodge Durango burned needless fossil fuels, presumably waiting for Brown’s departure, he left in yet another vehicle.
I wonder how many of Teh Gays were in attendance? They can’t resist an anti-war, anti-American gathering.
Last weekend, I met Mattie Fein at a gathering for LA bloggers to welcome R.S. McCain to Los Angeles. We had a great conversation and she indicated support for same-sex civil unions and opposition to Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell (DADT).
During a July 14, 2009, address in Warren, Mich., Obama said, “Now, my administration has a job to do, as well, and that job is to get this economy back on its feet. That’s my job. And it’s a job I gladly accept. I love these folks who helped get us in this mess and then suddenly say, ‘Well, this is Obama’s economy.’ That’s fine. Give it to me. My job is to solve problems, not to stand on the sidelines and carp and gripe.”
At the time, the AP wrote, “With four simple words — ‘Give it to me’ – President Barack Obama took possession of the economy.”
Throughout this year, Obama has blamed Bush and the criticism has intensified this month.
And get this whopper:
During a fundraiser with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in Seattle this week, Obama said, “Eighteen months ago I took office after nearly a decade of economic policies that had given us sluggish growth, sluggish job growth, falling incomes, falling wages and a record deficit.”
Um, Mr. President, we didn’t get any of that sluggish growth until after your party regained the majority in Congress. And you’re one to talk about record deficits. You saw that “record deficit” and raised it a few hundred billion.
You’ve been president for more than 19 months. Your party has controlled Congress for nearly four years. When are you — and they — going to stop blaming a man who has retired to Texas and start taking responsibility for your own policies?
Tonight’s show will feature two notable conservative activists. Andrew Ian Dodge is a Tea Party mover & shaker in Maine. He’ll be on in our first hour. We’ll chat about the mid-terms & Andrew’s recent mention on the Rush Limbaugh program. Jimmy LaSalvia is executive director of GOProud – the only national gay conservative organization. We’ll discuss Ann Coulter & HomoCon 2010.
In his must-read piece (if you want to understand how some Christian conservatives are dealing with openly gay Republicans), on Why Right Wing News Is Sponsoring Homocon, John Hawkins gets at the attitude of an increasingly number of social conservatives, tolerance, if not welcoming, of gay Republicans despite their qualms about homosexual behavior.
His piece merits your time as well as your serious consideration. One reason I blog at RWN, that I have chosen to be openly gay in conservative circles is that I wish to challenge some of the stereotypes (and prejudices) that still exist on the right about gay people. That many conservatives are willing to engage a gay man suggests they are not as narrow-minded or hateful as some on the left might suggest. And that they listen suggests that, given time and good arguments, they might come to change their minds
That they see our commitment to conservative ideas often causes them to reconsider their attitudes toward gay people, no longer seeing the gay community as a monolith. To that end, John writes,
Now unlike the Log Cabin Republicans, GOProud, is a genuinely conservative group. Yes, most of the members probably agree with the Log Cabin Republicans on gay issues. However, they genuinely believe that gay conservatives should have an agenda that goes way beyond their sexual orientation (more…)
And in Barney’s district, McCain ran two points ahead of his statewide tally suggesting that perhaps 56% of the voters in the 30-year incumbent’s district are inclined to vote the mean-spirited Democrat out.
Wonder what our junior Senator, Mrs. Barbara Boxer, and my Congressman, Mr. Henry Waxman is going about this:
With consumers and businesses keeping a lid on expenses, more and more small and mid-size restaurants are throwing in their dish towels and closing up shop.
Southern California lost nearly a thousand more restaurants than it gained during the 12 months that ended in March, representing a net 2% drop that was twice the national average, according to the New York research firm NPD Group.
Nearly all the closings were among independently owned restaurants: small, family businesses that just couldn’t hold on as customers held back.
Doesn’t look like their stimulus has done much to stimulate the restaurant industry in Southern California. Just drive down any major commercial thoroughfare in Los Angeles and you’ll see an increasing number of Obama-Waxman-Boxers (OWBs), retail or restaurant space now gone vacant, their once colorful display windows now empty, save for a “For Lease” or “Available” sign.
Back in February, Jonah Golberg, (paralleling a notion I would later put forward) dated the onset of Obama’s troubles to the very “dawn of his administration“, indeed, to the first massive bit of legislation, he and Democrats pushed through Congress:
Politically, the stimulus offered the president a chance to break the back of the GOP, while at the same time fulfilling his promise to transcend the gridlock and partisanship of recent years. If he had offered something close to half-a-loaf to Republicans at the time, he wouldn’t have won total GOP support, but he would have gotten a sizable chunk of their votes — enough for the White House to claim a real bipartisan victory and force a Republican buy-in to Obama’s agenda. The climate going into the 2010 elections might look very different if the Republican Party had an ownership stake in Obama’s economic policies.
Now, Glenn Reynolds* alerts us to a piece in the Los Angeles Times where Aaron David Miller offers a similar view, claiming that while Obama may have “arrived at the right time; unlike them, he may have badly misread his moment, and America’s.” Note, I say similar. Miller doesn’t seem to offer as harsh an opinion of the president as some on the right do, but he does find that, in misreading the country, the president was guilty of “overreach”:
Obama was a man on a mission in 2008. But he has allowed his agenda to obscure his capacity to see where most Americans were and what they wanted.
First, he was convinced that the country was so badly served by his Republican predecessor that most Americans understood the need for sweeping change and were prepared to support it. Second, he misread his crisis: the recession. . . .
Obama may have had no choice but to introduce a large stimulus bill to stop the economic bleeding, but healthcare reform (and the way it was done) represented an overreach and stressed a political system that was already dysfunctional.
Read the whole thing. And I say that not because I agree entirely with Miller’s perspective, but he does offer a thoughtful non-conservative critique of the president, a lover’s lament if you will.
