SIC SEMPTER COCKSMANUS STUPIDUS - (AN OBITUARY)

Well, it’s finally over. Herman Cain has suspended his campaign. And, sez I, GOOD RIDDANCE. Damn it, I really liked him, too – initially. Before he went off into StupidEconomicsLand, and StupidRepublicanPissedAtTheWorldLand, that is.

Where is it written that all Republican candidates MUST be either religious bigots or reverse social engineers? Apparently, if a Republican candidate has either a modicum of common sense, or a smidgen of compassion, if he can actually see merit in both sides’ positions and is willing to compromise even just a TINY bit, he’s immediately run up the flagpole nekkid and bloody. If the candidate doesn’t espouse getting rid of any and every program that actually WORKS, such as Social Security and Medicare, he’s immediately excoriated as being someone that just doesn’t understand how the country has GOT to get rid of these worthless, expensive programs that don’t do any good in deficit reduction. Like the WIC program, for example, or the free school breakfasts and lunches that feed over 8 million hungry kids, or the after-school programs that actually KEEP kids out of gangs and out of other trouble?
So, Herman Cain is gone. Big-idea man, larger-than-life gesticulator, and lying, sneaking would-be cocksman. I won’t go into the allegations of sexual harassment other than to say this: Claims of this nature are very thoroughly investigated, and NO monies are ever paid out on an unsupported claim. There were 5 accusers, from his days at the Restaurant Association, and 2 of them were paid off in cash; the other 3 were dismissed, but the association made sure that they all went to well-paying jobs elsewhere, with terrific recommendations. OH, but GOSH: Herman Cain never, EVER did anything that would spark this sort of reaction from these women. No SIRREE, he sure wouldn’t.

Excuse me, but COW POOP.

I’m betting that Mrs. Cain knew all about this, as well. It’s a very well-known and well-documented fact that folks, mostly men, that simply cannot keep their pants zipped always go home and tearfully confess their sins to their significant others. Mostly, they are forgiven, and go back out and cheerfully, even gleefully, commit the same sins that they have sworn they will never, EVER commit again. NEVER NEVER NEVER again, they say, and they might actually believe that they won’t do it – but they nearly always do.

This last allegation of complete and total infidelity really floored me. I mean, we all should have expected it, but nobody did. Ms. White’s just a friend that he helped financially from time to time but never had a physical relationship with, FAUGH. When he’s paying her rent, paying her car note, taking her places, and always hiding her from public view? C’MON, gangers! That’s also just so much cow poop.

Mr. Cain has denied the accusations, needless to say, as well as the story from Ms. White, a 46-year-old mother of two who told Fox 5 News in Atlanta that she met Cain in Louisville. She said they began a “casual” affair and she produced records showing dozens of phone calls and text messages to and from Cain’s cell phone. In the Union Leader interview, Mr. Cain acknowledged that he met Ms. White at a conference in Louisville years ago. He said he had merely been helping a “friend” when he provided her with financial assistance. He did not disclose how much money he gave White, on the advice of his attorney. He said his recent correspondence with White revolved around her requests for money. He said White told him “that quite frankly, I was the only person who was a friend at the time - and I underscore ‘friend’ - that was in a position to help her.” Mr. Cain has been known to help friends and relatives financially, said Maurice Atkinson, a friend and founder of DraftCain.org. He said he knows of a family member of Mr. Cain’s whom the candidate is assisting with house and car payments.

I do believe that I hear a rooster crowing, don’t you?

Well, folks, I don’t know about y’all, but there’s a really, REALLY big difference between helping out a family member, and throwing money at a woman that you are neither married to nor related to – unless there’s a darker and nastier reason. Like, say, she’s a girlfriend that you’re supporting. Mr. Cain said his wife did not know about his relationship with or payments to White until they became public this week. Again, COW POOP. That statement doesn’t pass the smell test. Regardless of what the two of them say, Mrs. Cain knew. Whether she chose to acknowledge it or not is another story, and one that we’ll probably never know the ins and outs of. I’m content with NOT knowing, thankyouverymuch.

Just remember this: When a pol is caught in a lie that can be proven to BE a lie, the first thing that he (and yes, it’s usually a man, at least 99.9% of the time) does is trot out the “little woman” to “stand by her man” in public. Never mind that she’s been humiliated down to her bare bones, appearances MUST be preserved. Until, that is, the furor dies down a bit, and a quiet divorce can be arranged.

nein, NEIN, NEIN, anybody?

McQUEARY IN FANTASYLAND

If there is any more sickening spectacle these days than the Penn State disaster I have yet to see it. The worst thing about it, of course, is Mike McQueary’s supremely pathetic attempts to paint himself as the “good guy” here.

Y’all all know the story, of course. You’d have to be DEAD not to know what’s happened in the last month.

Mr. McQueary was identified as a key witness in the ongoing Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. Grand jury testimony alleged that Mr. McQueary reported first to his father and then to head coach Joe Paterno that he had witnessed Mr. Sandusky raping a 10 year old boy in a campus locker room; Mr.  McQueary first told his father about the incident, then the next day informed Paterno, and then ten days later informed other university officials. According to investigators, Mr. McQueary did what he was legally required to do, and was not implicated in any wrongdoing. He was criticized for not intervening to protect the boy from Mr. Sandusky, as well as for not reporting the incident to police himself.

On November 11, 2011, Penn State announced Mr. McQueary would not be serving as receivers coach in the final home game of the season due to threats against him. He was put on indefinite paid administrative leave. Later that day, The Patriot-News reported that Mr. McQueary told his receivers in a conference call that he would no longer be their coach.

Well, boo hoo. Excuse me if I don’t feel sorry for this man and his atrocious behaviour. But, WAIT – there’s worse to come.

According to NBC correspondent Peter Alexander, Mr. McQueary states categorically that he didn’t just walk away, as just about everyone who’s heard this story presumes. Mr. Alexander posted an e-mail from Mr. McQueary to his former teammates. In this, McQueary again categorically states that he wasn’t a moral coward:

“I did the right thing…you guys know me…
The truth is not out there fully…I didn’t just turn and run…I made sure it stopped…
I had to make quick tough decisions…
I did stop it, not physically ... but made sure it was stopped when I left that locker room.”

Mr. McQueary also wrote in one of the emails that he sent out to his former teammates and friends, "I did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police.... no one can imagine my thoughts or wants to be in my shoes for those 30-45 seconds ... trust me." Mike McQueary told CBS's Armen Keteyian that the case has left him, "all over the place -- just kind of shaken ... like a snow globe." Standing on his front porch, Mr. McQueary said he couldn't say much to about the case itself, which has yet to reach trial. "This process has to play out," he told Keteyian. "I don't have anything else to say."

LIAR. Filthy, ROTTEN liar.

In all of this, Mr. McQueary apparently, and by his own admission, didn’t call the police, try to physically stop the rape, or even bother to check and see that the TEN YEAR OLD CHILD was physically OK. He goes on to say that he contacted police as well. The Morning Call, a newspaper in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, reports they obtained an e-mail Mr. McQueary wrote to a friend in which he claims to have taken more action than the grand jury report suggests. He "did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police."

LIAR. Filthy, ROTTEN liar.

He didn’t report anything to anybody outside of the Penn State officials except his father.

Mike McQueary did not report his allegations of child sexual abuse against Jerry Sandusky to the State College police department, Chief Tom King said Wednesday. Mr. McQueary, who was a graduate assistant at the time of the alleged incident, did not specify which police department he spoke to. Penn State has its own police force, and administrators are looking into whether Mr. McQueary made contact with that department. According to the grand jury report, Mr. McQueary left the locker room "immediately," was "distraught" and called his father. His father told him to leave the building and come to his home. Mr. McQueary did report the incident to his then-coach Joe Paterno the next day and later met with athletic director Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, vice president for finance and business.

The State College police as well as the Penn State campus police, as I said earlier, are baffled by his claim that he told them about witnessing an alleged rape of a boy in 2002. Mr. McQueary has been at the center of the furor over the sex abuse scandal at the university, in part because the grand jury report states that after seeing Sandusky sexually assault a boy about 10, Mr. McQueary left without doing anything. The report said Mr. McQueary stated that he reported the incident to former head coach Joe Paterno the next day. The VERY next day, after he went boo-hooing to his daddy. The grand jury report also stated that no one at the school alerted police to the incident. It wasn't clear whether Mr. McQueary was referring to the campus police force or the force of the town of State College. Neither department has a record of Mr. McQueary bringing the rape accusation to them. "Right now, we have no record of any police report filed by Mike McQueary," said Lisa Powers, spokesperson for the university, in an email sent to ABC News today. "This is the first we have heard of it." 

Uh-huh. Dedicated spin cycle, anybody?

What’s the most interesting thing about this horrible story is just WHO in Penn State was responsible for telling the police – as well, of course, as Mr. McQueary. Gosh. I was stunned when I read it. The man that was responsible for running the campus police department and who was the official liaison to the town’s police department is none other than the man who was the then senior VP for finance and business: Gary Schultz. Yuppers, one of the men who is now charged with perjury. I guess, IF you want to be charitable, that Mr. McQueary did indeed tell the police. At least, he told the man that was in charge of the police. I guess that doing that would probably fulfill the soubriet "notifying the police."

Unfortunately, I’m not inclined to be charitable. Or polite, or nice, or give this lying SOB the benefit of the doubt. He’s doing the best damage control that he knows how to, because, after this, there is nobody anywhere in the world that is ever going to trust him or give him a job. I don’t just mean the schools, either: NOBODY is going to hire this man to even carry out the trash at a fast-food restaurant. He’s spent almost all of his working career in Academia, which is a very insular and a very sheltered place. He was a big noise at a large, important school, protected by one of the most powerful men in the world. No matter what, “Coach” Joe Pa was going to protect him. Now, he has NOTHING. No job, because Penn State is going to fire him. I don’t see that they’re going to have any choice in the matter. No prospects of any kind of a job, when this is all finished, because a coach or a teacher has just one thing to sell, and that’s her/his spotless reputation as well as her/his teaching skills – and he doesn’t have that any more, either.

I hope that he’s not married, because his family will be suffering right along with him. You know what the worst thing about Mr. McQueary’s personal situation is? I can’t think of anything more awful, at least. He is going to have to live the rest of his life KNOWING in the citadel of his inner-most self that he is a coward. He’s a moral coward, because he didn’t immediately call the police FROM THE LOCKER ROOM and have that monster arrested then and there. He’s a moral coward because he didn’t check on the child to see if he was hurt or needed medical attention. He is a moral and a physical coward because he didn’t physically STOP the rape. He’s now lying about calling the police, which means that he’s a situational ethicist – HIS situation and future were more important to him that the health and well-being of a physically abused little boy.

He’s going to have to live with all of that. For the rest of his life. He’s going to have to live with the sure and certain knowledge that every woman’s and man’s hand will be turned against him, and he’s going to have to live knowing that the scorn and disdain that he gets was well earned and completely deserved. He’s going to have to live with that while he rots in the stink of his own reflections.

I can’t think of a worse punishment.

WEASELS ON PARADE, EDITION #1, NOVEMBER 2011

Once again, it’s time to play WEASELS ON PARADE! (le sigh) So many, MANY weasels, so little time. So, without further ado, I give you this month’s first set of weasels.

WEASEL(S) OF THE WEEK #1: The Congressional “Super Committee. I can’t understand why anybody thought that this particular piece of bipartisan chuckle-headedness was a good idea. The Dems are trying, the RePubs/ReThugs are doing their best “NO” imitation, and nothing is going to get done before the deadline. On Aug. 2 of this year, with the nation on the brink of its first-ever default on the national debt, the option of punting the tough decisions to a “super committee” with a fixed deadline sure sounded like a good way out. But now, just eight days out, many lawmakers are signaling buyers’ remorse. Maybe they should have listened to former Senator Alan Simpson and former Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles. At least, those two fellas had good ideas.

WEASEL OF THE WEEK #2: Gloria “My husband respects women” Cain. It’s a given that any time a candidate or an electee gets caught in a lie, or gets into serious public trouble for something that he did in the past, said candidate/electee does serious photo-ops with his wife. David Vitter comes to mind, as does Eliot Spitzer, Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Clarence Thomas, and a host of others whose names escape me now. After all, how CAN the family values crowd explain away the whores that they’ve been caught with, the mistresses that they’ve (supposedly) paid off in return for silence, or the women that they’ve harassed and mistreated in the past? Why, by hiding behind the “little woman”, of course, who is publicly humiliated but who STILL stands by her man?

WEASEL OF THE WEEK, #3: Newt “WHAT Tiffany’s bill?” Gingrich. He’s a proven, public liar, and now he’s proved yet again that he’s a bully in public. This is the man who dumped wife #1 for a trophy wife, who divorced wife #2 when she was recovering from cancer surgery, who publicly excoriated President Clinton for having an affair while he was doing the same thing (at least he’s stayed married to this one, not that that’s something to brag about), who has stated publicly that anybody that took money from Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac ought to return said money, all the while that he was lobbying FOR Freddie Mac (to the tune of 1.6 million) over an 8 year period, and who is more of a weathervane even than Mitt Romney. I’ll give him credit for his intellectual firepower and that has great appeal to Republican voters looking for a "fighting conservative" who can stand up to Barack Obama, but that’s as far as I’m willing to go. He’s a jerk and a bully, and he’s proven that numerous times over the last 20 years.

WEASELS OF THE MONTH, #1: It’s a TWOFER, gangers! The Super Committee! See WEASEL(S) #1.

WEASEL OF THE MONTH, #2: District Judge Leslie Dutchot, who oversaw the bail hearing for Jerry Sandusky. Prosecutors from the state attorney general’s office had asked Dutchcot to impose $500,000 bail and require the 67-year-old Sandusky to wear an ankle bracelet during the Nov. 4 arraignment. Judge Dutchcot, a former Monroe County assistant district attorney, instead gave Sandusky $100,000 unsecured bail, meaning he didn’t have to put up money but just promise to appear in court, and did not require the monitoring. The general standard for recusal deals with the following requirement: if you have such a close relationship with someone that you could not be fair, you should recuse yourself. Judge Dutchot volunteered with Sandusky’s charity, and apparently was very fond of Mr. Sandusky. If that’s not a good reason to recuse yourself, I don’t know what WOULD be. Maybe like Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas and his wife?

WEASELS OF THE YEAR: All of the Penn State officials, from Mike McQueary to Joe Paterno, to Tim Curley, Gary Schultz and Graham Spanier, who either knew or suspected that Jerry Sandusky was at the very least bullying little boys and at the very worst physically and sexually abusing them. All of these contemptible specimens of so-called men could have done something to stop this monster – and they did nothing. With the exception of Mr. McQueary, all of them have lost their jobs, and it damned well serves them right.

Gonna be an interesting year in politics, no? Who’s left to be the next flavour of the month in the GOP Presidential field? H’mmmm . . . nope, Rick Santorum won’t make it. Probably Dr. Ron Paul. ‘Course, that’s the truly insane leading the mostly insane.

What WOULD we all do for laughs without the GOP?

SOMETHING’S HAPPENING HERE – AND WHAT IT IS, IS COMPLETELY CLEAR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdEE6qUm060&feature=related (Buffalo Springfield, FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH)

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear (unfortunately, that isn’t true in this case)

What’s happening here is the violent showing of police repression. Yes, I agree that Zuccotti Park probably needed cleaning. So, set up some dumpsters and let the PROTESTORS clean up the place. They were already doing something like that, and all they needed was somebody to cart the trash off. They even had the money to RENT the dumpsters, fer cry-yi-yi! I do NOT agree that the level of police presence and the violence with which the occupiers were evicted was neither necessary nor was it appropriate.

There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

The FACT that the evictions in Oakland, Portland, Houston and New York all took place at about the same time does NOT make me a paranoid – but it does speak to the fear that the Establishment politicians are living with. The longer a politician, or a policeperson, is in a position of authority and power, the more inclined they are to actively support the status quo. Because that status quo means that their power and authority stays in force and grows stronger. Orchestrating the evictions so that they all took place at about the same time on three different coasts shows that The Establishment is a lot more dialed into what is happening, and a lot more fearful of what MIGHT happen than even I thought.


I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong

Mayor Bloomberg, Mayor Quan, Mayor Parker: Do not make the mistake of assuming that evicting protestors is going to shut them up. On the contrary, it makes us ALL more vocal. It also gets people that wouldn’t otherwise be inclined to participate out of their comfortable chairs and out in the streets. Remember, this country was founded by contrarians – and contrarian behaviours are programmed into ALL American citizens, born and adopted, on the genetic level.


Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

The kids that are the majority of the protestors are the grandsons and granddaughters of those of us that marched with Dr. King, and marched in protest of the Vietnam war. They are putting their bodies and their convictions RIGHT out there, in public, and I am proud of them. Remember that I wrote about our “American Winter” last year. The OCCUPY WALL STREET protest is in the process of evolving from a movement to a revolution. The difference between the two? It’s simple. A movement goes a certain distance and then stops. A revolution never stops.

I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

The non-violent behaviours of the OCCUPY protestors has been exemplary. The violent reactions of the police and the political structure has been shameful. The panic and the fear of The Establishment is very clear. There’s already been blood, and there’s going to be a lot more before this is finished.

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

Not THIS time, gangers. Remember the Arab Spring? Too many cell phones with cameras, too many iPads – and the bright light of day took the dictators down. Eventually, this always happens.

We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down


Copyright, Buffalo Springfield , 1967

OOOOOOOOOOOooooo, THOSE ZANY HETEROS!

I’ve lived in the same house in the same neighborhood for over 14 years. It took me 10 of those years to prove to the rest of the neighbors that I wasn’t a panting pervert, slobbering to pounce on and molest young children. That’s why I am finding it absolutely incomprehensible that 4 self-identified heterosexual men have ALLEGEDLY done what they’ve been accused of over the weekend. One molester, and three moral cowards who either ignored the molestation or who swept it under the rug.

Most of you who either know me or who read what I write on a regular basis are very much aware that I’m gay, I’m out and I’m proud of BEING out. I and WonderWife – and a host of other GLBT folks of our generation – lived the Great Masquerade. That was a condition of life where we, basically, lived an out and out lie for most of our lives. That lie was that we were heterosexuals just like “everybody else” around us. There were then (and still are now, in various places in the world) very compelling reasons for this; the two most important ones were (and are still, in some cases), to insure our own physical safety as far as we could, and to be allowed to keep our families, both our birth families and our children. There are other reasons, but these two are paramount.

There have been far too many episodes of bullying, mostly, in these days of children who are perceived as being GLBT, and I am whole-heartedly in favour of Dan Savage’s IT GETS BETTER PROJECT (http://www.itgetsbetter.org/). However, that doesn’t address what I am speaking to at this point. That’s a column for another day.

Over the weekend, one of the former coaches at Penn State was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexually inappropriate behaviour with male children.YOUNG male children. Young male children 10 years old and younger. This monster self-identifies as heterosexual. The two men that covered up his abominable behaviour self-identify as heterosexuals. Joe Paterno self-identifies as heterosexual.

On Saturday, Jerry Sandusky, 67, was charged by a State of Pennsylvania grand jury with myriad counts of deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault and other offenses after a three-year state police investigation.  The first incident was reported to Mr. Paterno happened in 2002, while he was an assistant coach at Penn State, working with Joe Paterno.– NINE YEARS AGO – and involved an “incident” in the showers between Mr. Sandusky and a 10 year old boy. That’s a TEN YEAR OLD CHILD.

Mr. Paterno made a statement over the weekend, and his words are truly appalling: “As my grand jury testimony stated, I was informed in 2002 by an assistant coach that he had witnessed an incident in the shower of our locker room facility,” Paterno’s statement read. “It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the Grand Jury report. Regardless, it was clear that the witness saw something inappropriate involving Mr. Sandusky. As Coach Sandusky was retired from our coaching staff at that time, I referred the matter to university administrators.”

In other words, he passed the buck up the food chain and forgot about it. His excuse? Coach Sandusky was retired “at the time”. No follow-up, no worries about what happened on his watch: just pass it on up the line and fergedaboudid.

The two school officials who were the ones that were charged with investigating the alleged inappropriate behaviors were the AD Tim Curley and Penn State vice president Gary Schultz; both were also charged with failure to report the abuse of a child and perjury for claiming they were not told of “sexual acts” by the graduate assistant, who the Harrisburg Patriot-News has identified as current Penn State assistant Mike McQueary. Both of them basically swept the entire business under the carpet and then lied about it. Both of them have resigned and are the focus of a grand jury probe. Mr. Paterno, as I said, did what was protocol: he passed the information on and forgot about it. Mr. Curleys' and Mr. Schultzs’ reactions were to band Mr. Sandusky from the campus, whether alone or in the company of little boys. Nothing came of the 2002 incident and Sandusky was allowed to live free for another 9½ years, where he went on to abuse more victims.

I won’t even go into Joe Paterno’s pathetic excuses. Pennsylvania law asks employees to pass the information up their chain of command, where it fell on Curley to tell authorities. However, Mr. Paterno is no normal middle manager. He is a powerful and iconic figure across the state and Mr. Curley worked as much for him as he did for Mr. Curley. Mr. Paterno also built his reputation as much for his moral compass and NCAA compliance as his 409 career victories in his five-plus decade career as head coach at Penn State. Mr. Paterno has always been about doing more than the letter of the law – at least, while he’s talking.

How could he possibly agree that there was concern that something inappropriate may have occurred between an old man and a young boy in the shower of what should’ve been a closed locker room yet apparently believe the information wasn’t inappropriate enough to call the cops himself? Yah, I can hear you all saying out there, “Well, he really wasn’t legally obligated to do more than that, so what’s the problem?”

The problem is that Joe Paterno, for years and YEARS, has held himself to a standard (at least in public) that he cares for children, cares for his football players and that he and his wife really, REALLY care what happens to children. Well, gangers, what he did in the past has, unfortunately for Mr. Paterno, is that the only thing that he really cares about is being head football coach of Penn State. IF he had truly cared about either the allegations or the welfare of the child, he would have – and SHOULD have – done more than just kick the problem up the food chain. Even 10 years ago, this man wielded the power to make everybody sit up and take notice.

What’s done, unfortunately, is done. What make me sick, and will continue to make me sick, is the FACT that a bunch of self-identified HETEROSEXUAL MEN were informed about a self-identified HETEROSEXUAL man possibly abusing children, and did nothing.

They did nothing.

WEASEL (SINGULAR) ON PARADE

I am getting SO very sick and tired of all the tragic-comic dramedy surrounding Herman Cain. It’s reminding me of all the garbage that surrounded Gary Hart when he sneered at the media and taunted them with “CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!” regarding his affair with Donna Rice. It’s also reminiscent of Bill Clinton’s assertions that he “never had sex with that woman, Miss Lewinski.” John Edwards also comes to mind. What do all of these sleazes have in common? They all lied, to one degree or another, about sexual misconduct.

So, therefore, today there’s only one weasel on parade. Herman “PIZZAMAN” Cain.

Herman Cain. Y’know, I really wanted to like this man. When his name was first mentioned as a possible candidate, I made the comment on Twitter that he’d probably wind up the Republican/Tea Party candidate for President. I got laughed, and several of my politically active friends suggested that I needed to get my meds adjusted (NO, I haven’t told any of them “I TOLD YOU SO!”, although I was tempted).

He’s a self-made man, with a terrific business sense and background. He took Godfather’s Pizza from bankruptcy to financial health, when everybody told him that the chain wasn’t savable. He went on to have a pretty stellar career in the food industry, rising to the chairmanship of the National Restaurant Association. He’s been married to the same woman for 40+ years. He’s a stellar example of what a person can do when she/he puts her/his mind to the task at hand. True, some of his policy positions are pretty out there, but then theory is usually demolished and tempered by reality. The 9-9-9 plan, for example, isn’t something that would work in the real world, although a flat tax across the board is a pretty good idea.

So, this tempest that has blown up around Mr. Cain since he prevaricated about whether or not he sexually harassed 2 women with whom the NRA settled out of court. First, it didn’t happen, then he recused himself from the “agreement”, then it was an agreement, not a settlement, then it was a settlement, but he couldn’t remember the women or the details, and now it’s all the fault of the Perry campaign that his shenanigans were made public in the first place.

I get it, folks – really, I do. No man in public life these days ever wants something as nasty as sexual harassment to become public knowledge, after all. Sexual harassment is pretty egregious behaviour, after all, and taints everybody’s reaction to the person that just accused of doing it, let alone somebody whose behaviour resulted in not one but TWO settlements. In the case of the first woman, lawyer Joel Bennett told The New York Times that his client wants to release a statement asserting that her version of events is different from Cain’s, while not violating her confidentiality agreement with the restaurant group.

Even if one of the accusers does step forward publicly, Mr. Cain may well believe he can withstand the firestorm. After all, former Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton withstood multiple, named allegations of sexual misconduct and became president. He also survived impeachment and finished his second term, despite the Lewinsky sex scandal. His campaign says that since Sunday, when the harassment story broke on Politico.com, fundraising has soared – a sign, the campaign says, that his supporters are sticking by him.

Maybe they are; also, maybe they aren’t going to stick around for the long haul, either.

“Politicians are always the last to know that they have been irretrievably damaged,” says Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He argues that Cain was never going to be the nominee in any case, but the harassment allegations have made that possibility even more remoter. Jillson also doesn’t think that Cain will be able to maintain his support over the long haul. “The first reaction of Republican social conservatives in general is that ‘this is unproven, they’re after our guy, so we’ll suspend judgment,’ ” Jillson says. “But I think that erodes. The facts will out at some point. These things never go away.” If Mr. Cain is looking to former President Clinton as a model for how to survive sexual allegations, the more relevant model would be Clinton the candidate. But even there, Mr. Cain is no Clinton. The former president had a career in elective office before running for president. Mr. Cain has none. President Clinton also had a fully organized campaign in place by the time Gennifer Flowers stepped forward with allegations of a long-running affair with then-Governor Clinton. Mr. Cain barely has a campaign apparatus, and has campaigned infrequently in the early primary and caucus states. His response to the sexual harassment story has been disorganized and ever-changing, even though he had 10 days’ advance warning it was in the works. Mr. Cain’s appeal to some Republican voters is precisely the fact that he is a nonpolitician and an outsider.

The problem for Mr. Cain, alas, is that the stories keep coming. On Wednesday, his campaign manager, Mark Block, blamed the rival campaign of Texas Gov. Rick Perry for leaking the story to Politico. The Cain campaign blames Perry adviser Curt Anderson, who advised Cain’s unsuccessful run for the Senate in 2004. Cain says he told Mr. Anderson about the sexual-harassment charges from his days at the restaurant association, but Mr. Anderson says he had no prior knowledge of the situation. "I didn’t know anything about this, and so it’s hard to leak something that you didn’t know anything about,” Mr. Anderson said on CNN Thursday morning. Governor Perry has denied that anyone in his campaign was involved in leaking the accusations. Earlier, Mr. Cain had blamed the liberal media for going after him, in addition to the GOP establishment.


And THAT, dear readers, is what makes him a weasel. When you know you’re in the wrong, and you’ve already been caught lying about it, start the “BLAME GAME”. After all, it’s not *YOUR* fault if some ugly women took remarks that you made regarding her physical attractiveness as harassment. It’s not *YOUR* fault if inviting said woman to your corporate apartment could be construed by said women as a serious pass. It’s not *YOUR* fault if they take issue with your repeated passes and your apparent inability to take NO for an answer and report you. Gosh, what on EARTH did you do wrong? Aside, of course, from trying to bully lower-level staff into your bed.

Mr. Cain might yet weather this storm. I hope not. I sincerely do. If he’s willing to blame poor people for being poor because they are lazy, and tell the world that the only reason people are jobless and homeless is because they aren’t trying hard enough, then we truly don’t need him in the Oval Office. If he’s willing to lie about things that he’s done in the past, then this country doesn’t need him anywhere close to the White House.

We get the leadership that we deserve, most of the time. I just have a hard time seeing Herman Cain – or, for that matter, Mitt the Weathervane – in the White House.

Watch out for flying chairs, gangers. This one has gotten very ugly, and will be uglier still before it’s all over.

BOO HOO FUCKING WAAAAAAAAAAAH

I want to warn y'all that this is not going to be a comfortable column to read. I also want to warn you that there are quite a few nasty words in this particular column. This is not the column that I set out to write (was going to put up another episode of WEASELS ON PARADE, which I will get done later on today). So, consider yourselves warned.

*****************************************************************************
I’ve been watching teasers for the BIIIIIIIIIIIIG interview with Ruth Madoff on 60 Minutes this weekend, and I am not impressed. NOT AT ALL. Acutally, I'm nauseated.

Poor, POOR Ruth Madoff. Gosh, what a terrible life she’s now leading. Friends are lending her a place to stay in Boca Raton, with one telling People: “She lives very frugally. She spends virtually nothing.” Gee, from mensch to mooch in one fell swoop. These friends of hers must not have invested with her husband, wouldn’t you agree? Her effort to claim $70 million of her husband’s fortune was rejected. The Madoffs’ Manhattan penthouse and most of their belongings, the home in Palm Beach, Fla., and the yacht docked nearby – virtually everything – were seized and sold.

Ruth Madoff had been visiting her husband in prison regularly. That is, until their son, Mark, killed himself in December of last year. Now friends tell People Magazine that she’s cut off all contact with Bernie and quote her as saying “at night it gets to me, the shame, the disgrace, all the stuff that killed Mark.” People Magazine is reporting a source close to Ruth Madoff as saying “she’s come to accept she is carrying the burden of shame and disgrace. She knows she is wearing a scarlet letter.” The magazine reports Ruth Madoff has died her hair red, and often uses her maiden name (Alpern) while trying to keep a low profile in south Florida. People Magazine says she drives a 14-year-old car, and her idea of splurging is to rent a DVD for a dollar from a kiosk at a Publix grocery store.

Excuse me if I don’t have just a whole lot of sympathy for this atrocious woman.

Now, she’s going to be whining on 60 Minutes about the time that she tried to commit suicide, and oh, dear, whatEVER is she going to do? Her schtick is that she and her husband attempted suicide as public outrage mounted over Bernard Madoff's infamous $50 billion Ponzi scheme, the largest in U.S. history.

In an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes set to be broadcast on Sunday, Ruth Madoff said she and her husband attempted to overdose on a combination of pills including the sleep aid Ambien. "I don't know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous what was happening," she said, according to a partial transcript from CBS. "We had terrible phone calls. Hate mail, just beyond anything and I said' ... I just can't go on anymore.'" "I took what we had, he took more," she added. "We took pills and woke up the next day ... It was very impulsive and I am glad we woke up."

Following her husband's sentencing in 2008, Ruth Madoff said in a statement that she was "embarrassed and ashamed" of her husband's actions. "The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years," she said.

Again, I do not believe for one single instant that Mrs. Madoff didn’t know what was going on. Bloomberg News reported back in March of this year that Ruth Madoff’s account at Bank of New York Mellon Corp. received “fraudulent” transfers of at least $14 million. Irving Picard, the trustee, said last week that he had asked the bank for the couple’s monthly bank statements, canceled checks and other records from January 2002 through December 2008. Bank of New York had no objection to providing them, he said in the March 10 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Money going into Ruth Madoff’s personal bank account came from the imprisoned fraudster’s companies, which received nothing in return, Picard said in previous filings. When Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2008, the funds became the property of his customers, Picard said in his 2009 lawsuit against Ruth Madoff.

I’m all for a willing suspension of disbelief regarding the familial victims in a case like this one – up to a point, that is – and the foregoing wouldn’t strain the credulity of a dead elephant. And it gets worse:

Picard said in the 2009 suit he wanted to reclaim for investors Ruth Madoff’s $44.8 million profit from the fraud. In February, she was named in Picard’s $1 billion suit against the Mets baseball team owners. Ruth and her family invested $12 million of “other people’s money” in Sterling Equities Inc. entities, which Picard said he wants back. The Madoffs, who often invited the families of Saul Katz and Fred Wilpon, partners in Sterling Equities, to family celebrations, cocktail parties and dinners, used funds from the Madoff brokerage for their own benefit in making investments in Sterling entities, Picard said in the Feb. 4 lawsuit.

"She was her husband's bookkeeper for all those years, and we wonder why she has not been prosecuted for all this," said Ronnie Sue Ambrosino, a Madoff victim who works as an advocate for other victims. Through her lawyers, Mrs. Madoff has denied any knowledge of her husband's fraud scheme. In a written statement on the day of her husband's sentencing, she said, "to say that I feel devastated for the many whom my husband has destroyed is truly inadequate.”

Ruth Madoff should really sit down with Linda Lay, Ken’s Lay’s widow, and learn about just how little people who have been hurt in financial shenanigans care about the whinings of the wives involved. In January of 2002, Linda Lay was on NBC's "Today" show tearfully saying her family was near bankruptcy. Now dry-eyed since the sale of several luxury vacation homes in Aspen, Colo. (a cottage went for $10 million), and another in Galveston, Texas, she is working with her daughter, Robin, on selling family castoffs--pre-owned furniture. "Linda decided it didn't make sense to keep it all," said family spokeswoman Kelly Kimberly. "It was just stuff, and someone else might have a use for it."

Security was very, VERY tight while the shop was being readied for business, with a police officer in a marked police cruiser in the parking lot 100% of the time, 24/7. "If I were the Lays, I'd be afraid and call the police, too," said a shop owner down the street. "I think it's terrible what they did to those people at Enron. I'll be surprised if anybody buys their things, though you always have people who want a souvenir of a tragedy."

The shop had a grand 2 weeks’ worth of people shopping, and made right at 150K. The beginning of the second week, about 20 former Enron employees set up a protest with signs across the street. And, of course, sales dropped and dropped and dropped, and the shop went out of business approximately 6 weeks into its run. The ultra-rich, which Mrs. Lay was counting on to buy her cast-offs (most of which were reproduction antiques, and not particularly well done at that), were understandably squeamish about being watched and commented on. One day, when the former employees showed up to picket the shop from across the street, the parking lot was empty, the cop car wasn’t there and the shop was completely empty.

Mrs. Lay was on television several times, whining about how AWFUL it was that she couldn’t make a living, whining about how she was having a hard time living on just 25K a month from her Enron annuities, and how unfair it was that everybody was against her, poor widow-woman, and how hateful the have-nots and the former employees were, and yap yap yap. Last whine was when she closed the shop, literally in the dead of night, and ran away with her fake stuff. PARDON me, her "reproduction antiques".

Mrs. Madoff really, REALLY should just shut the fuck up. Nobody except her creditors gives a casual damn about how awful her life is now. Since she’s got an annuity herself, she’s not doing all that badly, particularly since she’s living rent and utility-free in a gated condo complex, in a 10,000 square foot condo.

Yeah, I know what y’all are saying as you read this: “Girl, where’s your compassion? These two women are collateral damage, and didn’t know what was going on!” I’ve got one comment to make about that nonsense: BULLSHIT. They both knew what was going on, because both of them were intimately involved with the two Ponzi schemes.
I will reserve my compassion for all the folks that lost most if not all of their money in the Enron collapse and the Madoff Ponzi schemes. I will reserve my compassion for Mark Madoff, who couldn’t take all of the crap that his father’s lies and financial peculations caused him, and who was basically innocent of anything except not knowing what his father was up to – unlike the other 2 boys, who worked for the company. I will reserve my compassion for Stephanie Madoff Mack, who is the widow of a suicide.

As I said before, Ruth Madoff needs to shut the fuck up, and make sure that she keeps her unsanitary yap shut. She enjoyed the fruits of her husband’s stealing for over 20 years. She hasn’t been prosecuted, and she should be grateful for that, not spiteful and whiney.

Boo fucking hoo, Mrs. Madoff.

WEASELS ON PARADE, VOL V.

When I first started this series, I really didn’t think that it would go so long. Having said that, I’ll say this: There seem to be more and more weasels each and every day. Maybe they’re just more of them coming out of the woodwork, or maybe there really ARE this many weasels. Be that as it may, here’s my list of weasels for the past week.

WEASEL OF THE WEEK, #1: John “CRYBAAABY” Boehner. This is a man who is the visible “leader” of the Republicans, ReThugs and TeaPartiers in the House. This is also the man who hasn’t got either the balls or the mandate to keep said members of his caucuses and party in line to vote as he’s told them to. Case in point: The refinancing of FEMA. No cuts elsewhere, NO FEMA funds for those who are STILL struggling to rebuild their communities, INCLUDING Katrina holdovers. Surely do hope that none of his constituents ever need FEMA.

WEASEL OF THE WEEK, #2: Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. He’s really GOOD at placing blame and pointing fingers, not so good at networking to make things better. ‘nuff said.

WEASEL OF THE WEEK, #3: Representative Ron Paul. He’s been my rep ever since he was first elected, and I would never have thought that he would turn out to be a person that is also a Practical Darwinist. Darwinism is the moral basis of a backward society. Practical Darwinism proposes that families, clans, and tribes form tight little groups with little interest in the public welfare. They distribute public assets among themselves, so public assets are minimal and poorly maintained, as far as the general public is concerned. Or, in other words: If there’s a disaster of any sort, send no help. If people are dying or hurt, don’t help them at all – let them live or die without aid. NO Social Security, NO Medicare or Medicaid, NO social programs at all – let ‘em live or die without help of any sort.

WEASEL OF THE MONTH, #1: GovGoodHair in both of the debates and in his public speaking between them. Here is a man that has some great ideas, like the Texas Dream Act, and some terrible ones, like legally by fiat forcing girls to take a vaccine to prevent the HPV virus. Here is a college-educated man, who says out loud that education doesn’t matter, and that our state’s abysmal record regarding the high-school dropout rate is OK. Here is a man who, on the one hand, calls for the abolishment of Social Security and Medicare, saying that they are Ponzi schemes and unconstitutional, and on the other hand, says that the two programs are going to be kept intact AS THEY ARE if he’s nominated/elected. If you’re scratching your head in confusion, you are NOT alone.

WEASEL OF THE MONTH, #2: Rick “The queers should all DIE!” Santorum. Don’t guess that I need to educate y’all on what Dan Savage has had to say about this weasel, or the nasty nickname that has been set about on Mr. Santorum. Look it up for yourselves. In the debate on Thursday, a gay soldier asked a very pertinent question regarding the repeal of DADT, to wit, if any of the candidates are nominated and elected, are they going to find ways to circumvent DADT and if so, why. The question was addressed to Mr. Santorum, and I honestly expected him to start foaming at the mouth, he was so angry. "Removing 'don't ask, don't tell' I think tries to inject social policy into the military," Santorum said during Thursday night's Republican presidential primary debate, in response to a question from Stephen Hill, who is a gay soldier currently serving in Iraq. Rick Santorum is so blinded by his anti-gay bigotry that he couldn't even bring himself to thank that gay soldier for his service.

WEASEL(S) OF THE YEAR, #1: ALL of the folks that were up on that stage on Thursday night, who HEARD the boos at that soldier, and who said NOTHING. Only two of the candidate wannbes even admitted to hearing anything, and the most that the two of them said was that the booing was “unfortunate”. SHAME ON YOU ALL.

WEASEL OF THE YEAR, (S) #2: ALL of the folks in the audience of both debates. ALL OF THEM. Between cheering GovGoodHair’s execution record – which makes him the most prolific serial killer in modern history -, Rep. Ron Paul’s assertion that a 30 year old that was on life support should be disconnected and allowed to die because there’s no insurance to take care of him, and booing a soldier who is on active duty because he’s gay, neither one of the audiences should be proud of themselves. AT ALL.

Gonna be interested, gangers. Wonder when those blood-lusting jerks are going to start practicing what they seem to love so much?

MURDER IS MURDER IS MURDER – ISN’T IT?

I used to be a very strong advocate of capitol punishment. Yup, you heard that right, gangers: Ms. Liberal here, was a strong advocate of “Kill ‘em all and let THEIR version of god sort ‘em out.” Two words changed that for me, a bit ago: Clarence Brandley. He was the black janitor that was wrongfully convicted of the rape/murder of a 16 year old high school student in Conroe, back in 1980. Incidentally, he was the ONLY African-American janitor in the high school. Suspicion immediately fell on two of the custodians, Brandley and Henry (Icky) Peace, who had found the body. During their joint interrogation — as Peace would recount — Texas Ranger Wesley Styles told them, “One of you is going to have to hang for this” and then, turning to Brandley, added, “Since you’re the “n(word)”, you’re elected.” Nope, not much racism in Texas in the 1980s, nope, no SIRREE! You can read more about Mr. Brandley here: http://www.witnesstoinnocence.org/view_stories.php?Clarence-Brandley-4

Now I’ve got another name to add to this tale of horror: Troy Davis. (http://news.yahoo.com/execution-looms-georgia-inmate-denied-polygraph-003837619.html) He was put to death yesterday after SCOTUS refused, unanimously, to issue a stay of execution.

Well, I can hear y’all saying, but he had a fair trial, didn’t he, and the law of the land was upheld and justice was served, wasn’t it?

Nope. Sorry, but no.

What this entire discourse eventually boils down to, and depends on, is your version of so-called “christian” covenants, and which covenant you follow in your life. The Old Covenant states quite clearly, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a life for a life.” The New Covenant states just as clearly, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Take a look at Matthew 19:18, where Jesus states, again, quite clearly, “Don’t commit murder.” Precisely, from the King James version, “He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness.”

And there you have it. There are other places in the Bible – in the OLD TESTAMENT – where murder is exhorted against. Including, might I add, the 10 Commandments.

Murder is murder is MURDER, and murder is wrong. Death itself robs us of our loved ones, both human and animal. Death attends and woos us every day while we live. Death takes all – the brave, the cowardly, saints, sinners – ALL, and Death comes to us all whether we like it or not – and MOST of us DON’T, myself included. Murder is even worse. Murder de-humanizes both the victim and the perpetrator. Murder robs us of our loved ones before their allotted time is finished. Murder reminds us that there are, still, amoral and uncaring animals in our midst that are pretending to be as human as we are – and that they will always be with us. Murder is murder is MURDER – and we do not have the right to kill.

OK. So? What do we do with these animals? Well, they’re rabid dogs, and we kill rabid dogs, right? OF COURSE we do. THEY don’t know any better, and their sickness will kill, so we kill them first - quickly, quietly, humanely. Unfortunately, this is an argument that doesn’t translate to humankind. We are not animals, to destroy those among us that are sick. We must try to heal that sickness if we can – and if we can’t, then it’s up to us to be sure that this sickness doesn’t get out to infect the rest of us.

Capital punishment, dress it in whatever language that we will, is still an act of murder. It is the state – which includes, dear reader, you and I – rather than an individual doing the killing, but it is STILL murder. “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life” is pretty plainly stated in the Bible, and that is what gives the state the moral sanction to COMMIT murder, no matter how quietly, and no matter how humanely. This is wrong. There is no difference between the acts of politically sanctioned murder, such as war, state sanctioned murder such as the death penalty, or individually performed murders committed by thugs.

Many, MANY people die that deserve to live, and if we cannot give back to them what was taken from them, then we have no right, no ethical mandate, and no moral reason to take life from anyone else regardless of what they might have done – or did do – to deserve it. I pity the McPhail family with my whole heart. They lost a beloved son, in the worst possible way. They’ve been waiting 20 years for this moment, and now they’ve gotten it. I pity the Davis family with my whole heart as well. They’ve been dreading this moment for the last 20 years, and now they too have lost a beloved son, in the worst possible way.

It’s time, and long PAST time, to be rid of the death penalty. It’s not a deterrent, except to the person who is murdered at the state’s will, and it basically solves nothing. IF we are to present ourselves to the rest of the civilized world as civilized, then we need to be rid of it. Governor Rick Perry was applauded at the first Republican Debate in the Reagan library because he’s signed 235 death warrants over the course of his tenure as governor of the state of Texas. To me, at least, that’s a shameful, tragic thing to be cheered.

We need to be rid of this shameful act of revenge. NOW.

NEW YEAR’S DAY – AND NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME AGAIN

I sat up tonight for a couple of reasons. One, I hurt my back lying in the front yard while the blessed, BLESSED rain fell in Houston. NOT a drought buster, but more rain than we’ve seen at one time since January 24th of this year. I keep forgetting that I’m an old fat woman who has a difficult time getting up without the help of a heavy-duty crane, or WonderWife (who was at work at the time), so I wrenched my STUPID back and had to crawl on my hands and knees to the pecan tree and pull myself up. By myself. OOOOWWWWIIIIEEEE. Maybe I should keep the heavy-duty crane on retainer for the times that I feel like – and pull – dumb stunts like that one.

The second reason was a bit more personal and deserved commemoration and celebration, even if I was the only one that was celebrating. At midnight, the repeal of DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL went into effect. It doesn’t sound like much, does it? Repealing a stupid, senselessly cruel law that has resulted in a great number of good Americans being dismissed from serving the country that they love simply because an accident of biology made them into what they were: gay. That being gay, or GLBT, is not something that they chose and should not have disqualified them from service. This is the great sin that then-President Clinton committed; basically, as President Obama has been forced to do by an intransigent political party, then-President Clinton made a compromise that was wicked and a betrayal of everything that he’d promised the GLBT community.

If you were gay, you could serve if, and only if, you were celibate and you stayed away from your fellow GLBTers. I don’t think that I need to enumerate the suffering that this caused over the years. I don’t think that I need to repeat the horrors that the GLBT service members went through, from sly, nasty jokes about “those queers”. I also don’t think that I need to tell anyone who has more than 3 functioning brain cells just how awful it’s been lately, either. People being outed and ousted from service, never MIND that their fellow soldiers/sailors/airmen and women knew and basically didn’t give a damn about their sexual orientation. People like Lt. Dan Cho, and Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach.

Supporters of repeal compare it to the racial de-segregation of troops more than 60 years ago. Desegregating the troops after WWII probably cost then-President Truman the election – but he did it, the world did NOT end, and that was pretty much the end of the matter. He did it by executive order, too. President Obama opted for the legal repeal, and, while I didn’t like it then and still don’t like it now, he was right to do it the way that he did. This way, it will have to be re-introduced, IF the ReThugs and their contemptible fellow travelers, the TeaPartiers, are ever stupid enough to try.

"We're Gay. Get Over it," stated the cover page of the Marine Corps Times distributed to bases worldwide a week ahead of Tuesday's repeal. In San Diego, about 200 active-duty personnel — both gay and heterosexual — made up the nation's first military contingency to participate in a Gay Pride march this summer, carrying banners identifying their branches of service. An Army soldier was in tears, saying she was touched by the thousands cheering them on, after hiding her identity for so long. The headline offended some, but for many troops it echoed their sentiment that repeal is a non-issue for a military that operates by following orders and is busy at war. That sentiment is backed by Pentagon officials who say they have found no evidence the repeal so far has disrupted forces or harmed unit cohesion as predicted by opponents.

At least 100,000 GLBT service members have been discharged for being gay, beginning with WWII and continuing until today. That’s an awful lot of people whose only crime was their sexual orientation. While there a just a WHOLE lot of reasons to condemn the Clinton Administration for failure to correct this, the belief that Clinton could have won a showdown with Congress over creating the policy is nonsense. Then-President Clinton was stopped dead in his tracks by – you guessed it – POLITICS. THANK you, Sam Nunn, I DON’T think. Similarly, the belief that DADT was, in itself, worse than preceding antigay military policies is willful, stupid ignorance. Yes, it was bad. Is bad. There were far more egregious policies in place that did a lot more harm than DADT. However, please remember that the larger point will still remain that any form of limitation on the admission and retention of out GLBT service members in the military will be abused for the same reasons they were a decade ago as reported by SLDN: institutional homophobia. Just like statistics on gay bashing in the civilian community, expression of it can ebb and flow whenever the amount of public discussion of gay equality does.

Eventually, guess what? It will cease being a topic of conversation of any importance. After all, Great Britain got rid of their version of DADT – and guess what happened? The world didn’t end. NOBODY CARED, and less than 1% of the on-duty people quit the military over having to shower with a bunch of gay dudes and women.

I did live long enough to see it, after all. I seem to be saying that a lot lately, don’t I? Isn’t it WONDERFUL?

WEASELS ON PARADE, VOLUME #3

HI again, everybody! It’s TUESDAY, so it must be time for another issue of WEASELS ON PARADE. Wow, and this week, the environment is really, REALLY target-rich! (SIIIIIIIIIIIIGH) So many, MANY weasels, so little time.

Weasel of the last TWO weeks, and a returning champion: Eric “IF YOU CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO PAY FOR IT YOURSELVES, FUCKING FORGET IT” Cantor. I really pity the people that elected this brain-dead “calls himself a man”. I really, REALLY do. First thing, last week, there was an earthquake whose epicenter was located in his home district. He said Wednesday that he intends to look for offsets if federal aid is needed to help areas of his Virginia district that were damaged in an earthquake Tuesday. On Monday, after the worst set of disasters in over 70 years – a Cat 1 hurricane and the flooding which will be continuing for the next several weeks – he said Monday that whatever bills the federal government racks up paying for the recovery efforts will have to be offset with spending cuts elsewhere. "This is a time, an appropriate instance, where there is a federal government role," Cantor said on Fox News. "We will find the money if there is a need for additional monies. But those monies are not unlimited, and what we've always said is we offset that which has already been funded." While I believe that he’s partially right, the unstated threat is pretty plain: Find the money yourselves or fucking FORGET any FedGov help. I guess that means the FedGov flood insurance program as well. There’s more of this weasel’s wriggling here: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-fema-budget-20110829,0,5537241.story?track=rss

WEASEL OF THE WEEK: Our own home-grown Texas chucklehead, GovGoodHair. I swear, that boy is not only all hat and no cattle, I personally think that the hat’s about 6 sizes too small. He has stated, with no equivocation, that middle-class folks don’t pay enough taxes. He also stated, again with no equivocation, that Social Security is a “Ponzi” scheme that isn’t going to pay for itself past 2025 (economists do not agree; according to Paul Krugman and Senator Bernie Sanders, the system is solvent through 2037). Basically, he’s another in a long line of “aw, shucks, ma’am” Cooperesque Texas politicos – which isn’t to say that they have all been morons (Sam Rayburn certainly wasn’t, and neither was Lyndon Johnson), and he’s all about proving that he’s more than a pretty face. Folks, this is the man that refused 8 billion in stimulus monies, and then begged the President for at least 5 billion in aid because of the wildfires and the drought. This is a man that believes in creationism, and thinks that science is something to be afraid of. I’ll add that he’s got a degree in veterinary medicine, which is all ABOUT science.

WEASEL OF THE MONTH (AND a new contender for WEASEL OF THE YEAR): Representative Michelle “I’M RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT AND I’VE GOT MY HUSBAND’S PERMISSION TO DO IT” Bachman. This is the woman that has publicly stated I don’t know how many times that a woman should submit to her husband in all things. I somehow do NOT think that that mindset will play in Peoria, let alone in Washington, OR in the real world. She hates women who are in favour of women’s health initiatives, AIDs education and treatment, evolution, free school breakfast and lunch programs for the pre-K to 8th grade children, allowing anybody that isn’t white and rich to vote, and any and everything else that the Tea Party is in favour of that retros this country back to the Eisenhower Era of the 50’s. Her latest chuckleheaded remarks would be funny if they weren’t so disgusting: She publicly stated during a campaign rally, that the earthquake and the hurricane were her personal version of her god’s attempts to get the politicians’ attention. The direct quote is as follows: "I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, "Are you going to start listening to me here?" Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending." Rep. Bachman is also in favour of drilling in environmentally sensitive land areas, to wit: she wants to get rid of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, but said she would rely on experts to determine whether drilling can be done without harming the environment, the Associated Press reports. Uh-huh. WHOSE experts, and how much attention? “Whether that is in the Everglades, or whether that is in the eastern Gulf region, or whether that's in North Dakota, we need to go where the energy is,” she told her very carefully hand-picked audiences in Florida over the weekend. “No one wants to hurt or contaminate the earth. We don't want to harm our water, our ecosystems or the air. That is a minimum bar,” she told her audiences. “From there, though, that doesn't mean that the two goals have to be mutually exclusive. We can protect the environment and do so responsibly, but we can also protect the environment and not kill jobs in America and not deny ourselves access to the energy resources that America's been so blessed with.”

LEADING CANDIDATES FOR WEASEL OF THE YEAR: #1: The racist, homophobic, whites-for-the-most (99.999%)part Tea Party. ANY member of the Tea Party, starting with Ron Paul. #2: Eric Cantor, for obvious reasons. #3: GovGoodHair. #4: Michele Bachman. #5: Sarah “CARIBOU BARBIE” Palin.

As I said, so many, MANY weasels. So very little time.

My SHAMEFUL Secret

I hate to admit it, but I've got a shameful secret. A VERY shameful secret. Since I finally came out to my mother-in-law and WonderWife, it's now my responsibility to share that shameful secret with all of you as well. Make sure you have your smelling salts firmly in hand, and please be sure you're sitting down.

Here it is: There's a Republican candidate for President that I like. Yeah. I know. Unashamed, unabashed liberal that I am, there is a Republican candidate for President that I like. Unbelievable. I scarcely believe it myself. And that person is John Huntsman. Yeah, yeah - I know. Mormon, member of the "magic underwear" contingent, 8 kids, family values, loves DOMA, etc ad nauseum. And yet, while he's not the man for my vote, he is someone that I think would make a very good President some day.

So, who is John Huntsman, and why would I like him? Well, first of all, he is neither a religious fanatic nor is he an extreme fiscal conservative of the kind that would rather let the country default than compromise his principles. He is a Mormon, sure, but he's the kind of Mormon that is more concerned with following the teachings of Jesus regarding the poor, the fatherless, the halt, blind and lame and the hungry than he is in laying up public acclaim for his ideals. He has had a distinguished career as a dedicated public servant, who has always striven to do more good than harm. He is, in other words, a very good man.

He was the 16th Governor of the state of Utah, and he's been very active in public service for a good many years. He served as a Mormon missionary for two years in Taiwan, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in international politics. He worked as a White House staff assistant for Ronald Reagan, and was appointed by George H.W. Bush as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce and later as United States Ambassador to Singapore from 1992–1993. Mr. Huntsman served as Deputy United States Trade Representative under George W. Bush, launching global trade negotiations in Doha, Qatar in 2001 and guiding the accession of China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization. Mr. Huntsman was elected Governor of Utah in April, 2004 and won re-election in 2008 with nearly 78% of the vote. During his tenure, then Governor Huntsman cut taxes by more than $400 million (the largest tax cut in the state's history) while still maintaining a budget surplus, and Utah was named the "Best Managed State in America" by the Pew Research Center. While he was serving as governor, he also served as chairman of the Western Governors Association and as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Governors Association. On August 11, 2009, he resigned as governor to accept an appointment as the United States Ambassador to China.

His political philosophies are clear-cut and very well defined. Mr. Huntsman is a Republican, with conservative fiscal credentials and a mixture of positions on social issues. He has been described as "a conservative technocrat-optimist with moderate positions who was willing to work substantively with President Barack Obama." As governor of Utah, Mr. Huntsman listed economic development, health-care reform, education, and energy security as his top priorities. He also oversaw large tax cuts, and advocated reorganizing the way that services were distributed so that the government would not become overwhelmed by the state's fast growing population. He also proposed a plan to reform health-care, mainly through the private sector, by using tax breaks and negotiation to keep prices down. In 2007, when asked about a healthcare mandate, Huntsman said, "I'm comfortable with a requirement, call it whatever you want, but at some point we're going to have to get serious about how we deal with this issue." In a 2008 evaluation of state governors' fiscal policies, the libertarian Cato Institute praised Huntsman's conservative tax policies, ranking him in a tie for fifth place on overall fiscal policy. He was particularly lauded for his efforts to cut taxes, where he received the highest score on tax policy of all 50 governors. The report specifically highlighted his reductions of the sales tax and simplification of the tax code. However, the report concluded that: "Unfortunately, Huntsman has completely dropped the ball on spending, with per capita spending increasing at about 10 percent annually during his tenure." He defines his taxation policy as "business friendly".

Mr. Huntsman is also a signatory to the Western Climate Initiative and is a strong supporter of Israel. On foreign policy, Mr. Huntsman has repeatedly stated, "We need to continue working closely with China to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program." He has also named Taiwan, human rights, and Tibet among the "areas where we have differences with China" and vowed "robust engagement" on human rights if confirmed. The governor, who lived in Taiwan as a Mormon missionary, said he felt "personally invested in the peaceful resolution of cross-strait differences, in a way that respects the wishes of the people on both Taiwan and the mainland. He has said that current US policy "supports this objective, and I have been encouraged by the recent relaxing of cross-strait tensions."

OK, I can hear y'all saying this now: "WOW, Wils, this is really exciting. (YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN) so, why should I care?" Good question, and one that I asked myself over and over again. John Huntsman is getting to be a person of interest to me because he is the only person in the race for the Republican nomination that isn't either a loon or a flip-flopper. Yeah, Mitt Romney isn't a loon, but he's also not a person that has consistent views from one day to the next. Mr. Romney is trying to be all things to all people. Mr. Huntsman (and Mr. Pawlenty, who is no longer in the race) aren't concerned with being all things to all people. Mr. Huntsman might be a politician, but he doesn't act like one. Mitt Romney IS a politician, just like Rick Perry (with an "E"), and both of them are consistent in only one thing: they both want to be President, and they both put that goal ahead of anything else. Or, in other words, a more extreme than usual case of "HOORAY for me, and fuck YOU".

Mr. Huntsman warned, on ABC's THIS WEEK this Sunday past, that his opponents' stances on the "extreme end" may make them "unelectable" in the general election. In an exclusive interview on "This Week," Huntsman said "there's a serious problem" with comments made by Perry in New Hampshire last week calling man-made global warming "a scientific theory that has not been proven and from my perspective is more and more being put into question" while claiming scientists have "manipulated data" on the issue.

"The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party - the anti-science party -, we have a huge problem," Mr. Huntsman told ABC News Senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper. "We lose a whole lot of people who would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012." "When we take a position that isn't willing to embrace evolution, when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said … about what is causing climate change and man's contribution to it, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science, and, therefore, in a losing position," Huntsman added. (The article can be read in its entirety here: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jon-huntsman-swinging-gop-rivals/story?id=14349989)

How can you NOT love a candidate that tweets something like this? "To be clear, I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy." He has also said that, "We've found ourselves at the extreme ends of the political spectrum and people are crying out for us to get back to some level of sensibility."

Mr. Huntsman is a man of intellect, consistency and good will. He has been a good and a dedicated public servant for most of his career. He is NOT a lunatic, nor is he a Religious Reichian©. He is a centrist, with good ideas and the political stature that will - I hope - eventually lead folks to listen to him. He's not talking pie in the sky; everything that he is putting forth as ideas that will really help the economy and the country are things that he did in Utah that proved to be successful, like the flat tax that is still in force today. Frankly, he's scary. He's SANE.

As I said, not the man for my vote this cycle - but a good man that would make a good President. I'm just sorry that he's running right now, when he won't be taken seriously and doesn't have the proverbial snowball's chance of even getting taken seriously.

And that, gangers, is my shameful secret. I've found a Republican that I could cheerfully support and whose campaign I would be more than happy to work for - if he just weren't running NOW.

Project Kilimanjaro

Hi, all:

BOY, do I have something wonderful to share with you all tonight. Was watching the local ABC affiliate and saw this: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=8312350. To say that I was both humbled and awestruck is really NOT overstating the case.

The first link is to the video and the print story. The second link: http://wechoosetoclimb.com/ is to the group of women that are DOING the climb. This is one of those little stories that I find from time to time that make me ashamed of my grizzling about having an chronic and incurable illness. I'm not going to say anything other than that.

Please read the article, watch the video, and then go to their website. This will really, REALLY uplift your day. 

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF GOVGOODHAIR, CHAPTER II

Cuz’n Anne Richards once remarked about TheUnAnointedWishesHeWereKing, Georgie-Porgie Bu$hit, “Poor George . . . he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.” After the last 3 days, I’m beginning to believe that he was FAR from the only one. Witness the statements made by GovGoodHair on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

Mr. Perry spoke in Iowa on Monday, and had some nasty words for Ben Bernanke. Perry told supporters at the end of his first full day campaigning in Iowa that he wasn't a big fan of the head of the Fed, and suggested that Texans would probably beat Bernanke up if he prints anymore money before the next election. Just so y’all will know, GovGoodHair doesn’t want to “beat Bernanke up”. The punishment for treason is capitol punishment. Therefore, as Gawker's Max Read puts it, "Rick Perry Wants to Execute Ben Bernanke”. NEVER MIND that Mr. Bernanke is a Bu$hit appointee. Mr. Perry really, REALLY doesn’t like him, to wit: “If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y’all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion.” Wow. Just ALMOST treasonous? And playing politics with money is also ALMOST treasonous? Is that anything like being kinda pregnant or slightly dead? Just what in Hell’s name does GovGoodHair THINK has been going on with the debt ceiling debacle these past few months?

Oh, WAIT – I forgot! That was the Republican/ReThug/TeaPartiers following what passes for their own consciences and “principles” regarding allowing the United States to default rather than do something positive and proactive, and that’s HIS party, so it’s OK to play politics with money. Thanks to Republican brinksmanship, our country now has an AA+ credit rating instead of an AAA credit rating.

GovGoodHair went even further in his criticism of what passes for monetary policy in MY country at this point: “We’ve already tried this. All it’s going to be doing is devaluing the dollar in your pocket and we cannot afford that. We have to learn the lessons of the past three years that they’ve been devastating. The President of the United States has conducted an experiment on the American economy for almost the last three years, and it has gone tragically wrong and we need to send him a clear message in November of 2012 that new leadership is coming.”

Wow. REALLY.

Trust me, after this, I seriously doubt that you, GovGoodHair, will be either that candidate or that leader. Takes more than a pretty face and tough talk to be a leader. Even Karl “TurdBlossom” Rove is against him. ‘Course, the two of them have a feud that goes back a good many years. GovGoodHair didn’t much care for then Governor Bu$hit, and he also wanted to be SenatorGoodHair instead of Lt.GovGoodHair. Kay Bailey Hutchinson was the one that got the blessing, the candidacy and the money to win that Senate seat. She also got the blessing/money/backing to run for Governor (which she didn’t win, didn’t even finish.)

And then, of course, there are the remarks that GovGoodHair made about the President during his first campaign swing in Iowa. At his speech before Iowa Republicans Sunday night, he said, "One of the reasons, one of the powerful reasons, that I'm running for the presidency of the United States is to make sure that every young man and woman who puts on the uniform of this country respects highly the president of the United States." NBC News' First Read wonders, "Does that mean he doesn't think the U.S. military respects its current president? That's quite a charge from someone who isn't the commander-in-chief." Perry served in the Air Force from 1972 to 1977; he flew a C-130 in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East. Perry called the aircraft "trash haulers," as he told the Abilene Reporter News' Sarah Kleiner Varble, describing his service as one in which he had to expect the unexpected: "There was no telling what you were going to haul around on any given day, from high value cargo like human beings to the colonel's kitty litter." (President Barack Obama has decided to forgive Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry for his not-so-nice remarks about the current administration, such as calling the President too big of a wimp to act as commander in chief, just this one time, because after all, GovGoodHair is new at this whole running for president thing. "This isn't like running for governor, running for senator, running for congress, but I'll cut him some slack, he's only been at it a few days now," the President told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an interview today.

Wow. I know, I’ve been using that word a LOT this time, but it’s the only word I know that really covers the subject. TALK about an administered slap, PLUS an extremely condescending pat on the head! GOT to love the finesse.

GovGoodHair didn’t mention getting shot at, because one of the places he did not fly was Vietnam. As a military man, this clown surely knows that the Great American Manly Man Contest is not merely between those who went to boot camp and those who did not. There's a manliness hierarchy within the military, too. IF GovGoodHair is going to be stupid enough to argue that a wartime commander-in-chief must have military service, couldn't the case also be made that the commander-in-chief must have had that military service in a war? And, furthermore, if he just has to have served in a war, shouldn't he have been combat arms? And if he's combat arms, shouldn't he have been in the infantry, to understand what it's like kicking in doors?

Well, gangers, there is this: Flying a plane, or a cargo plane, doesn’t prove anything one way or the other. Being a pilot of any kind of plane doesn’t make you an action hero. Being an “action hero” doesn’t qualify you to be President, either. Look at Dwight Eisenhower, as a prime example of why military men don’t always make the best or the most effective Presidents. Dwight D. Eisenhower was a nice man who was also a ruthless, cold-blooded killer, as is usually the case with upper-level military people. There is nothing wrong with being that way. Remember what General George Patton had to say about that? Being a military man who is also the Commander-in-Chief might be a good idea during a time of war, although FDR (as much as I despise that parlour pinko and idea thief) was probably the best man for the job at the time of WWII. Having a military man as the President can be, and in Eisenhower’s case, was in a good many ways, an absolute disaster.

You see, democracy is not a black and white proposition, such as the military hierarchy, with a manual to cover every contingency. Democracy is not capable of being squished into a military mold, because that military mold is very straight-line and rules-dominated. A true democracy is messy, and it’s loud and opinionated, plus it’s all about compromise and shades of grey. Politics is the art of the compromise, and if everybody is unhappy about the outcome, then the compromise is usually a good one. Nobody gets everything they want, but they all get SOME of what they want. That’s what most career military men can’t seem to understand: you cannot ORDER Congress to do anything. You can suggest, you can advise, you can even threaten, but you CANNOT order Congress to do anything that they aren’t inclined to do in the first place.

So, I’m not nearly as worried about GovGoodHair’s running for the Presidency as I was a couple of days ago. Yes, I think he’s going to get the nomination. No, I don’t think that he’s going to win. About the only way that he could truly give the President a run for the money would be to have Mitt Romney on the ticket with him. Kinda like Clinton/Gore. One pretty, charismatic leader, and one handsome, solemn backup. GovGoodHair didn’t create all the jobs that he’s taking credit for. The state economy has just been that good.

Later on this week, I’ll tell you all about what I would make talking points and platform planks if I were running for either party’s nomination.

Happy Wednesday, all!

HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND ENBRACE THE NEW REVULSION: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF GOVGOODHAIR

I’m not a conspiracy theory nutzoid. Really, I’m not. I’m always up for a good conspiracy theory, like what’s promulgated on Jesse Ventura’s show. It’s fun to speculate, theorize and enjoy some of the crazier ravings that come out of some of these theories. I honestly do NOT see the boogieman under the bed, and I also don’t check in the closet or under the bed to see if there really ARE boogiemen there. Unfortunately, there’s a new conspiracy theory out there that seems to be the truth, and it scares me to death. The boogieman might actually be real.

Those of you that read my blog posts and columns on a fairly regular basis know that I’ve got about as much use for the fundie pastors as I do for most critters of their contemptible ilk. I have opined, in the past, that it’s a damned good thing that none of the fundies running around loose can get over their differences long enough to form one united front to the country, because that’s about the single most dangerous thing that I can think of that could happen here in this country. On 9/13/01, during a broadcast of The 700 Club, both Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell categorically stated that the atrocities that were perpetrated on 9/11/01 were OUR FAULT as a country, that their version of god was raining fire down upon us and killing our citizens because we weren’t following strict Old Testament rules of law, and that the Muslims were all satanic. They called for an end to religious sectarianism, and ordered the country to go back to being the Christian nation that we’d been set up as in the first place.

Commentary as follows: Pat Robertson said “we have sinned against God, that the Supreme Court has insulted God over and over, that we (America) have allowed rampant pornography and secularism, taken God out of the schools, taken away the Ten Commandments, legalized abortion. We have insulted God at the highest level of our government" and that "this happened because we lost God's protection and now we're vulnerable...". He admonished us to humble ourselves, pray and turn from "wicked ways", and that "we must come back to God as a people". He said, "If you're not right with God, get yourself right with God" and that "it happened because people are evil but it also happened because God lifted his protection of us...we must have a spiritual revival". He also blamed "sexual perversion", evil and the "pervading secularism" that is exported through the Internet and through our films.

He also talked with Jerry Falwell. Mr. Falwell said "the Lord has protected us the past 225 years...I fear that this is just the beginning...this could be minuscule if God continues to lift the curtain and allow our enemies in. He also said that "the ACLU's gotta take a lot of blame for this" for "throwing God out of the public square" and out of schools.

Mr. Falwell also said, "The pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians...the ACLU, People For the American Way and all those that tried to secularize America -you helped that happen" to which Mr. Robertson replied, "I concur".

Further commentary by folks opposed to this silly and egregious nonsense: "As if our country has not suffered enough at the hands of religious fanatics with the recent terrorist attacks, we are now treated to even more hatred cloaked in the mantle of religion, courtesy of Jerry Falwell," said Ed Buckner, Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism. "I can't help wondering how the family and friends of David Charlebois, the gay co-pilot who lost his life on the American Airlines jet that crashed into the Pentagon, feel when they hear Falwell's hateful remarks," said D.J. Grothe, Field Director for the Council for Secular Humanism. "We are all grieving at this time. Some of us take comfort in the solace of their religious beliefs, but many others of us are able to express our compassion without recourse to religion. Everyone, religious or nonreligious should be respected at this time," added Grothe.

These two (Falwell and Robertson) apologized (sort of), BUT once the idea of playing the “blame game” was out there, well, it never really went away. Look at the anti-gay laws that were passed in Uganda. If you’re gay, or even accused of BEING gay, the Religious Reichians© of that country have the legal right and the legal mandate to arrest you, harass you and kill you. Guess where that idea came from? The C Street religious barracks owned by The Family. A little background on this bunch of vile opportunists, called The Family: Family men are more than hypocritical. They're followers of a political religion that embraces elitism, disdains democracy, and pursues power for its members the better to "advance the Kingdom." They say they're working for Jesus, but their Christ is a power-hungry, inside-the-Beltway savior not many churchgoers would recognize. Sexual peccadilloes aside, the Family acts today like the most powerful lobby in America that isn't registered as a lobby - and is thus immune from the scrutiny attending the other powerful organizations like Big Pharma and Big Insurance that exert pressure on public policy.

The Family likes to call itself a "Christian Mafia," but it actually began 74 years ago as an anti-New Deal coalition of businessmen convinced that organized labor was under the sway of Satan. The Great Depression, they believed, was a punishment from God for what they viewed as FDR's socialism. The Family's goal was the "consecration" of America to God, first through the repeal of New Deal reforms, then through the aggressive expansion of American power during the Cold War. They called this a "Worldwide Spiritual Offensive," but in Washington, it amounted to the nation's first fundamentalist lobby. Early participants included Southern Sens. Strom Thurmond, Herman Talmadge and Absalom Willis Robertson (Pat Robertson's father). Membership lists stored in the Family's archive at the Billy Graham Center at evangelical Wheaton College in Illinois show active participation at any given time over the years by dozens of congressmen.

Well, OK, and so what? I can hear you all thinking. And this ties up to GovGoodHair and HIS run for the Presidency how? GLAD you asked.

Many of the pastors that were invited to GovGoodHair’s PrayAThon on Saturday, August 6th are part of a little-known, very specific religious and political movement: The New Apostolic Reformation. Pastors in the movement believe themselves to be modern day prophets or apostles, directly linked to God. Their aim is "to infiltrate government, and Rick Perry might be their man." (The rest of the article can be viewed here: http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/rick-perrys-army-of-god).

Are you starting to see a pattern here? GovGoodHair hosting what can only charitably – VERY charitably – called “men of god”, GovGoodHair getting into the Presidential race ONLY after praying over his participation and getting the green light from his version of god, GovGoodHair doing exactly what the Bible specifically exhorts AGAINST, making a public show of his “piety”, GovGoodHair specifically stating that we all must turn back to god – HIS version of god, that is – and BEG for forgiveness for whatever it is we’re supposed to have done wrong as a country.

That means that all of us, female AND male, that support women’s health issues, the social safety net being left the fuck alone, free and equal voter registration, and a host of other social initiatives including getting rid of DOMA, DADT, and including marriage between same-sex couples, plus the right to be left the fuck ALONE by the nascent American Taliban are in some seriously deep trouble. This country was NOT founded by christians. It was founded by a polyglot group of folks that were all determined to NOT have a state ruled by religion – ANY religion. Of the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, 49 were Protestants, and three were Roman Catholics (C. Carroll, D. Carroll, and Fitzsimons). Among the Protestant delegates to the Constitutional Convention, 28 were Church of England (or Episcopalian, after the American Revolutionary War was won), eight were Presbyterians, seven were Congregationalists, two were Lutherans, two were Dutch Reformed, and two were Methodists. A few prominent Founding Fathers were anti-clerical Christians, such as Thomas Jefferson (who created the so-called "Jefferson Bible") and Benjamin Franklin. A few others (most notably Thomas Paine) were deists, or at least held beliefs very similar to those of deists. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States)

We have never had a Taliban-like religious movement in this country – until the last 3 years, when we overwhelmingly elected a black man to be our leader. That’s where a lot of this nonsense is coming from. We have, for the first time, a woman running for office who has publicly stated that a woman MUST submit to her husband in all things and in all ways. Wonder how that would play if she were elected President? I somehow do NOT think that Dr. Bachman could do as good a job or be as unobtrusive as Nancy Reagan or Edith Wilson.

As for GovGoodHair: Even the Republican strategists here IN TEXAS despise the man, and so do most of his constituents. He isn’t a flip-flopper, even if it seems like he has been flip-flopping on his entry into the Presidential arena. All of his pretended hesitancy in that particular area has served the same purpose as CaribouBarbie’s nonsense: they are both branded quite nicely, they are both or are both perceived as religious fundies, and they are both the darlings of the ReThugs/TeaPartiers/ReligiousReichians©.

Rick Perry is pretty much all hat and no cattle. He is, as are most Texas politicians, a consummate liar with as many faces as he needs to convince folks that he really is all things to all people. He’s shrewd, he’s cunning, and he has charisma. He is what Mitt Romney wishes he were.

Know what scares the shit out of me? A Perry/Palin Presidential ticket.