Family Values

Bristol Palin, the 17-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin, is five months pregnant. She's still in high school and the families plan for the baby's parents to marry.

Let's go over this one more time: abstinence-only education does. not. work. Peddling ignorance only makes stupid people.

Now, I personally don't think there's anything wrong with an unmarried person having a baby. I do think there's something wrong with a teenager having a baby, but only because it makes getting a good education more complicated. The Republican party, on the other hand, along with christian conservatives, doesn't have such a live-and-let-live attitude -- unless, of course, it's their children who are having sex outside of marriage (or their candidates who are leaving their wives because they are crippled and then marrying a rich young trollop before the divorce with the first wife is final).

John McCain/Palin: the hypocrite ticket.

Jenna's Wedding Day Links

Here's a bit of what's going on out there on the net this weekend!

• Check out the weather forecast in Crawford, TX. According to John McCain's chief spiritual advisor, John "America is Damned" Hagee, this clearly means that God hates the Bushes.
• Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens was in Chattanooga yesterday to speak at the 68th conference of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. Check out the comments he made regarding the use of lethal injections: [H]e suggested that the recently-euthanized Kentucky Derby horse Eight Bells had probably experienced a more humane death than those who die on death row. "I had checked the procedure they used to kill the horse," Justice Stevens said, expressing surprise to learn it is against the law in Kentucky to kill animals using one of the drugs in a three-drug lethal injection cocktail that many believe is cruel to humans.
• Now that he's staring down the barrel at his reelection prospects, Chattanooga's Mayor Littlefield apparently is having second thoughts about the drastic cuts he's made to the curbside recycling program.
• Jesus! vs Darwin!
• You gotta love those family values republicans. It seems as though every week, another one finds his way out from under his rock...
• Would you crash this poll?
• The columnists speak of the end of the primary season: Eugene Robinson and Paul Krugman on the divisions in the Democratic party
• Cindy Lou: show me the money!

Richard Roberts Resigns

This news is actually a bit old at this point, but the busy holiday weekend has left some disorder in its wake. Anyway, it turns out that Oral's son, who grew up amongst the corrupt leaders at the top of America's Religious Right and apparently looked at that landscape that thought that he, too, could live lushly off the contributions of all the poor, sincere rubes who think they can get into heaven by sending their money to greedy men in designer suits.

The father once actually threatened his flock with the promise that God would call him home if they didn't send him money. And it worked out well for Oral (he raised over $9 million with just that one ultimatum) -- he wasn't "called home" and for many years lived at an exclusive St. Andrews Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida (under an assumed name), and communted between Boca and Tulsa in a private jet.

But things didn't go so well for the son, and he's finally resigned from his post as Oral Roberts "University" president (see below as to why I put that in quotes).

"I'm sure there is corruption everywhere," said freshman Ben Conners, one of several people interviewed before the resignation. "But if you're holding students to such a high standard, making them sign an honor code and live by these strict principles, I expect the administration to be living an even stricter set of principles. To see something like this, it feels empty, like an elaborate masquerade party."

Interestingly, Rev. Carlton Pearson, a former member of the ORU board of regents made a candid admission when talking about the current situation at ORU:

People are asking questions and questioning answers, and we're not used to it.

I hope they learn to like it, and that the practice spreads to other members of the Religious Right! Asking questions and questioning answers is a healthy endeavor and can lead to good things like well-informed decisions and educated opinions.

Are America's Senators Feeling Nervous?

At least one of them should be. Larry Flint is teasing an upcoming outing.

Yikes! ORU Scandal Goes Mainstream

The scandal at Oral Roberts "University" has moved from the blogosphere to the mainstream press, and a lot more details have come to light, such as...

Dead bolt locks were installed on all bedroom doors at the insistence of the Roberts' oldest daughter. This was precipitated by Mrs. Roberts repeatedly moving into the home her 16 year old male "friend," which made her daughters uncomfortable.

This is going to be a huge mess.

Incredible! Yet Another Conservative Christian Sexual Hypocrite!

This is getting beyond ridiculous -- and this time the conservative Christian's sexual antics resulted in his death. It's a sad story. What is with Republicans and these closet cases? (don't click on those last two links if you're offended by certain language)

Oral Roberts "University"

Well, as it turns out, yet another fundamentalist organization (Oral Roberts University) has been exposed as a cynical front for good, old-fashioned profiteering and (underage?) sexploits. Maybe Oral Roberts can lay a healing hand on the crooks who run the place? Oops! The chief crook is his own son (and daughter-in-law) -- is that what people are talking about when they refer to conservative family values?

UPDATE: more here.

A Republican Sex Scandal Per Day?

(And more on the way.) Seriously. How quickly can this party implode? The really sad thing is that the people making news lately are so incredibly pathetic.

First, there's yet another self-hating homosexual Republican party operative, involved in an apparent double murder-suicide. You know, you Republicans may win a few elections with your gay-baiting and homosexual-hating, but you're also ruining actual lives in the process. People are so brainwashed by your homophobia that they will never be able to accept who they really are, and end up humiliating themselves in public bathroom stalls, by preying on kids, with hookers and drugs, in public parks, and by sexually assaulting sleeping men -- when they might instead be forming healthy relationships. Do you really think a few elections are worth all that pain and hate?

And second, yet another Republican operative has been found to be a pervert who abused little girls, and his fellow Republicans did nothing to stop him. He finally stopped himself, after being caught, by eating some CO₂.

How many more souls have to suffer and die before more people question the values promoted by the Republican party -- both explicitly and implicitly?

More Republican Family Values

Well, it looks like yet another Republican is poised to go down in a blaze of scandal (I remember the good old days, back when there were some honest Republicans running the country... but apparently one very bad apple really can do a number on the rest of the bushel).

This time, it's Rick Renzi and he's mixed up in shenanigans that include a shady land deal, legislation favoring a contributor, and special favors from the Justice Department. He's already had to give up committee work and he may well lose his seat in the House. If you're trying to place him, he's the guy who has 13 kids, but still managed to find the time to canoodle on the floor of the US House with Katherine Harris before her infamous run for the US Senate and subsequent descent into insanity.

What a guy.

It's no wonder the Republicans are having trouble raising money.

Mary, Mary... you're so contrary

The Cheney family is still trying to figure out how to hide from questions about the upcoming birth of their lesbian daughter's baby after they have spent years promoting an anti-gay agenda. So far, it's not working.

Mary is lashing out, but perhaps she's having trouble figuring out just who the enemy is (apparently she doesn't own a mirror).

Dick Cheney's daughter, and former gay rights activist and professional homosexual and head of the vice president's re-election campaign, Mary Cheney publicly declared today to an open panel discussion, and then in a personal interview with the New York Times (circulation 1.1 million), that her lesbian out-of-wedlock pregnancy is a private matter and it's none of anybody's business. Apparently, irony isn't big in the Cheney family.

Mary then laid into the #1 religious right leader James Dobson, accusing him of distorting scientific research in order to slam gays.

The religous right has a real problem with Mary. She claims she doesn't want to get political, but she already has, and continues to do so. And in the end, she's daddy's little girl. And everyone knows that daddy is the real president of the United States. If the religious right is trying to figure out why their agenda has disappeared from the Republican agenda, they need go no further than Mary.

In the meantime, Jon Stewart's response is, as usual, brilliant.

Let's say Strom Thurmond, who advocated for segregation, let's say he ended up having a black daughter. Would it not point out the rank hypocrisy of his political positions and the cowardice in not fighting for the human rights for your own flesh and blood?

And Stacy Shiff weighed in as a guest at the New York Times.

There are now officially only two people left in America who don't want to talk about their kids. When Jim Webb bowed out of that White House receiving line, President Bush tracked him down and asked after his son. Senator Webb is a former Navy secretary; he knows his protocol. He is also one of only a few members of the U.S. Senate with children serving in the military. "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," Mr. Webb replied. "That's not what I asked you," Mr. Bush snapped. Mr. Webb didn't really mean to answer, either. Evidently, he meant to slug the president.

Last week Wolf Blitzer asked Dick Cheney about his pregnant lesbian daughter. The vice president looked as if his arm had made contact with that meat grinder. Mr. Blitzer was, he growled, seriously out of line.

Neither Senator Webb nor Vice President Cheney wins points for his social graces. But what Letitia Baldrige said of the Webb encounter — "It was an uncivil reply to an uncivil remark" — does not apply equally to the vice president. Mr. Cheney has openly promoted an anti-gay agenda. His own base has called his daughter's pregnancy unconscionable. Family values have been his calling card. And our Prohibitionist vice president can't summon the courage to address the gin mill in the basement?

Mr. Webb was rude on principle; Mr. Cheney rude out of hypocrisy. One man took a stand. The other scurried away.

What the vice president's nonresponse did deliver was a very cogent message: the rules apply to you, but not to us. It's our privacy, your patriotism; our delusion, your sacrifice; our tax cuts, your kids. After all, as Mr. Cheney so tellingly said of his Republican critics, "I'm the vice president, and they're not." The part for which some of us have no stomach is the sense of entitlement.

An annoying thing about children is that they nudge you toward the high road and the long view. They demand pesky things like open-mindedness, self-denial, accountability, leadership and occasionally even integrity — qualities that appear to have packed up and gone home with Hans Blix. Once upon a time, you might have termed them family values.

Mary, Mary... you're so contrary

The Cheney family is still trying to figure out how to hide from questions about the upcoming birth of their lesbian daughter's baby after they have spent years promoting an anti-gay agenda. So far, it's not working.

Mary is lashing out, but perhaps she's having trouble figuring out just who the enemy is (apparently she doesn't own a mirror).

Dick Cheney's daughter, and former gay rights activist and professional homosexual and head of the vice president's re-election campaign, Mary Cheney publicly declared today to an open panel discussion, and then in a personal interview with the New York Times (circulation 1.1 million), that her lesbian out-of-wedlock pregnancy is a private matter and it's none of anybody's business. Apparently, irony isn't big in the Cheney family.

Mary then laid into the #1 religious right leader James Dobson, accusing him of distorting scientific research in order to slam gays.

The religous right has a real problem with Mary. She claims she doesn't want to get political, but she already has, and continues to do so. And in the end, she's daddy's little girl. And everyone knows that daddy is the real president of the United States. If the religious right is trying to figure out why their agenda has disappeared from the Republican agenda, they need go no further than Mary.

In the meantime, Jon Stewart's response is, as usual, brilliant.

Let's say Strom Thurmond, who advocated for segregation, let's say he ended up having a black daughter. Would it not point out the rank hypocrisy of his political positions and the cowardice in not fighting for the human rights for your own flesh and blood?

And Stacy Shiff weighed in as a guest at the New York Times.

There are now officially only two people left in America who don't want to talk about their kids. When Jim Webb bowed out of that White House receiving line, President Bush tracked him down and asked after his son. Senator Webb is a former Navy secretary; he knows his protocol. He is also one of only a few members of the U.S. Senate with children serving in the military. "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," Mr. Webb replied. "That's not what I asked you," Mr. Bush snapped. Mr. Webb didn't really mean to answer, either. Evidently, he meant to slug the president.


Last week Wolf Blitzer asked Dick Cheney about his pregnant lesbian daughter. The vice president looked as if his arm had made contact with that meat grinder. Mr. Blitzer was, he growled, seriously out of line.


Neither Senator Webb nor Vice President Cheney wins points for his social graces. But what Letitia Baldrige said of the Webb encounter — "It was an uncivil reply to an uncivil remark" — does not apply equally to the vice president. Mr. Cheney has openly promoted an anti-gay agenda. His own base has called his daughter's pregnancy unconscionable. Family values have been his calling card. And our Prohibitionist vice president can't summon the courage to address the gin mill in the basement?


Mr. Webb was rude on principle; Mr. Cheney rude out of hypocrisy. One man took a stand. The other scurried away.


What the vice president's nonresponse did deliver was a very cogent message: the rules apply to you, but not to us. It's our privacy, your patriotism; our delusion, your sacrifice; our tax cuts, your kids. After all, as Mr. Cheney so tellingly said of his Republican critics, "I'm the vice president, and they're not." The part for which some of us have no stomach is the sense of entitlement.


An annoying thing about children is that they nudge you toward the high road and the long view. They demand pesky things like open-mindedness, self-denial, accountability, leadership and occasionally even integrity — qualities that appear to have packed up and gone home with Hans Blix. Once upon a time, you might have termed them family values.

What was missing in the SOTU?

Any mention of supposed family values (a.k.a. the right-wing hobby horses of abortion, activist judges and gay marriage) and Katrina (which did make it into the Democratic Response). Will Bush do to social conservatives what he did to the people of New Orleans?

GOP-scandal-a-palooza

The latest scandal to come from the Party of Family Values (can you say that with a straight face?) is Rick Renzi -- who, if you'll recall, is the married Arizona Congressman who was caught canoodling with Katherine "Meltdown" Harris some time ago!

James Dobson Sinks Even Lower

While he continues his Tour of Hate through our state, he took time out to make excuses for a sexual predator. Where are those family values again?

Are there any people of conscience left among evangelical Christians? This man is one of your self-proclaimed leaders, and he thinks 52 year old men asking 16 year old boys to measure their penises is "a joke"? Absolutely sickening.

Enabling Sexual Predators -- Who's On Board?

Fox"News"? The White House?

To say that their attempts to coverup and, even worse, to rationalize a sexual predator's behavior are disturbing is to make a dramatic understatement.

I'm very worried about some of these people -- especially the ones who claim some ownership over "family values" and then demonstrate a complete lack of insight into what that phrase might really mean away from the cynical political stage that gives them the public's ear. If these politicians and pundits and talking heads don't, for example, understand the difference between preying on children and an affair with a consenting adult, can they be trusted to behave appropriately around, or on behalf of, our kids?

Meanwhile, Brit Hume of Fox News Sunday can't fathom the difference between Bill Clinton's extramarital affair with a consenting adult and the sicko criminal behavior of a dirty old Republican Congressman who preys on kids.

Hume said that while Foley is now "in total disgrace in his party," Clinton's "inappropriate behavior toward a subordinate [didn't] even cost Bill Clinton his standing in his party."

Clearly, Mark Foley's behavior has been disgusting. But are these men who dissemble on his behalf really any better? People talk about the Republican Culture of Corruption (before Foley, we saw Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Tom DeLay and Rep. Bob Ney go down in flames), but this takes the unsavory factor to a whole new level.

UPDATE: House Speaker Dennis Hastert has pulled mention of protecting children in cyberspace off of his web site. What is the message he's trying to send?

The Republicans Enabled a Pedophile

They knew (former) Congressman Mark Foley was a pedophile and sexual predator and did nothing to stop him (and the backpedaling and coverup have already begun, with the Washington Post's participation, shockingly enough). Family values, my ass.

Sex Scandals and Gay Hookers

Oh, what will the Republicans come up with next?!? Was Porter Goss forced out of the CIA because of his incompetence or because he's too close to the Republican hooker scandal? And just what gender are the hookers at Duke's Love Shack? And why has Jeff Gannon suddenly reappeared? And what has he come back to say? (Has he been spending any time at the Watergate lately?) And why is the administration replacing with Goss with a man who is already tainted by his own scandal? Are there no honest Republicans left?

Saturday Night, Coolidge Park

The Global Night Commute is a worldwide event organized by the makers of the film Invisible Children through the organization Invisible Children Inc. The Global Night Commute will take place on April 29, 2006. Youths from around the world will be walking to city centers to show support for Ugandan children who walk every night into city centers attempting to avoid capture by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

These children, between the ages of 3 and 17, from Acholiland in Northern Uganda, are referred to as "night commuters". They walk up to 20 km (12 mi) from internally displaced person camps to larger towns, notably Gulu, in search of safety from the LRA.

The Global Night Commute is similar to other initiatives raising awareness about the plight of the children in Acholiland like the Gulu Walk in Toronto, Canada; however, the the Global Night Commute will take place on a much larger scale. Over 53,000 people have signed up to participate in the event and it is scheduled to take place in 130 cities. The goal of the movement is to raise awareness and ultimately end Africa's longest running conflict by facilitating a change in the policies of the United States government.

Not Another Sex Scandal!

Both Democrats and Republicans got into legal trouble this week, but for very different reasons (which is probably a pretty good indication of where their priorities have been lately).

Five Democratic members of the US Congress were arrested today at the Sudan embassy where they were protesting atrocities in Darfur.

Now, the matter of genocide is a moral issue, outside of any kind of partisan politics, and yet, where were the Republicans? Well, maybe they were over at the Watergate Hotel...

The Republicans, you see, have gotten themselves into a very different kind of muddle, and it touches on ever so many of their other current scandals. They've apparently been getting their weenies waxed by professionals, courtesy of lobbyists. This story is just getting off the ground, so we're not sure how far up the tower of power it extends, or exactly who is involved, but many people will be making every effort to find out. Perhaps the story will carry us into November? And if the Republican Party collapses in the midst of a huge sex scandal, they only have themselves, Ken Starr and a little blue dress, to blame.

In the meantime, are the Democrats are ready to step in and run the county for us? It's certainly past time for someone else to take the wheel.

UPDATE: thanks to Jon at the Pensito Review for a quote that is apropos: “I happen to believe we’re losing our moral authority to lead this place. It’s been over a decade since my party took over the majority and I feel like we’ve forgotten how we got here.” – Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., today

March 31

It was one year ago today that Terri Schiavo died, ending what most people recognize was an embarrassing political and media circus. Instead of letting the poor woman rest in peace, one of America's most disgusting and immoral opportunists is using the anniversery as an excuse to beg for money.

After a humiliating loss in a Congressional race in New York State where he ran on a platform of no taxes, no social security, no abortion, and hating homosexuals, Randall Terry divorced his wife of 19 years, apparently because of his serial adultery. He eventually ended up in Florida, buying a $432,000 house with contributions solicited on the internet while falling behind on his child support payments. He later disowned all three of his children -- his gay son because of his hatred for homosexuals, and his daughers because they had sex without taking appropriate precautions (which often happens when ignorance is peddled in the name of "abstinence-only").

His hysterical ranting about Terri Schaivo put off even fellow conservatives, as does his position favoring the death penalty for homosexuals. He's now running for the Florida State Senate, eighth district -- as a Republican (of course) -- and he wants your financial support. His web site says that "Mr. Terry's opponent is a liberal, left wing Republican who is responsible for the death of Terry Schiavo."

So, what do you say? Ya gonna hook him up? (If so, you also might consider supporting a candidate in Tennessee who is almost as deranged as Mr. Terry)