It seems that GOP House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), and FRC’s Tony Perkins has aot in common. Both hail from Louisianna, have ties to KKK leader David Duke, and both have been busted speaking at White Supremacist organization meetings.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House majority whip, acknowledged Monday that he spoke at a gathering hosted by white nationalist leaders while serving as a state representative in 2002, thrusting a racial controversy into House Republican ranks days before the party assumes control of both congressional chambers. The 48-year-old Scalise, who ascended to the House GOP’s third-ranking post earlier this year, confirmed that he once appeared at a convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization. That organization, founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, has been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Beyond hosting a website, whitecivilrights.com, and staging an occasional conference, EURO is a paper tiger, serving primarily as a vehicle to publicize Duke’s writing and sell his books,” the SPLC writes on its Web site.
Surprise, surprise! Scalise was also was the lead author of Louisiana’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
“This would not have happened without the blessing of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church). The Mormon Church got a big black eye five years ago for all it did to pass Proposition 8 in California, which wrote discrimination into the state Constitution and took away gay marriage in the nation’s largest state. So in order to try to make amends, the Mormon Church led the effort to pass a workplace and housing nondiscrimination law in Salt Lake City in 2009. [snip]
“There are 10 Mormon members of the House of Representatives. If the Mormon Church would use its influence to get all 10 Mormon House members to support ENDA and have them to put some friendly pressure on Speaker Boehner, ENDA would likely become law. They need to lean on the Speaker to at least let ENDA come to the House floor for a vote, and then work diligently for its passage. Let’s hope that the Mormon Church, which advocates equal protection for all Americans, will stand up once again and help ENDA become the law of the land.” – 2012 gay GOP presidential candidate Fred Karger, who once said that he was proud to serve Ronald Reagan as one of his advisors writing for theHuffington Post.
Karger we hadn’t forgotten what the Mormon Church did with Prop 8, but to get all lovey-dovey over them not trying to block ENDA is nothing more than pure GOP bullshittery. Praising them for not blocking a bill that would still allow them to discriminate is ridiculous. And calling upon them to get it passed in the House is downright dangerous considering that it would enshrine LGBT discrimination into law by religious organizations, schools, hospitals businesses and more.
Stop being such a media whore and just go away Fred. GO AWAY.
A US House of Representatives chamber stenographer rushed the microphone below the speaker’s chair last night as votes were being tabulated to end the Government shutdown and began shouting about mocking God, the US Constitution, and her savior Jesus Christ.
House reps interviewed on CNN said the woman was a “stable, reliable worker” and “not a crazy person.”
Which makes sense since crazy people don’t look crazy to other crazies.
House Democrats Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC), and Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) have joined Tea Party backed Rep. Paul Labrador (R-ID) and 57 other Republican co-sponsors in introducing the “Marriage And Religious Freedom Act.” The bill would ban the federal government from taking any “adverse action” against the opponents of same-sex marriage.
The purpose of the bill is to let individual federal employees, contractors, and grantees refuse to do their jobs or fulfill the terms of their taxpayer-funded contracts because because they have a religious view about certain lawfully-married gay couples, or LGBT individuals – and then to sue the federal government for damages if they don’t get their way.
Of course Brian brown of The National Organization for Marriage is thrilled saying:
“This is a critical piece of legislation to protect religious liberty as a cornerstone of our country and deserves our full support. Efforts to redefine marriage pose a direct threat to the free exercise of religion. This legislation would protect the right of organizations to communicate their views about marriage without threat that the tax code will be used to punish them. We applaud Congressman Labrador and his colleagues for their leadership on this important issue.”
Contact Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC) @ (202) 225-2731 and Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) @ (202) 225 – 5701 and give them a piece of your mind over co-signing onto this bill that has nothing to do with Religious liberty and everything to do with bigotry and LGBT discrimination
According to Rep. Jared Polis, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is once again stalled in Congress as it has been since 1994. (LGBT History Lesson: Similar gay and lesbian anti-discrimination legislation has been introduced without passage since 1974. (That is almost 39 years folks.)
“I hope to continue to increase the number of sponsors of ENDA in the next session. I am confident we will be able to do that. We still face opposition from Republican leadership, both in the committee and within the wider House, and their opposition makes it very unlikely that we will be able to bring it to the floor even if we’re able to get a majority of members to commit to support it.” – Rep. Jared Polis, confirming that ENDA has little chance of passage in the next Congress.
Perhaps R. Clarke Cooper and his Log Cabin Clubbers and the thoroughly disreputable fake hate crime producing GoProuders might wish to elaborate for the rest of us, why again LGBT people should be voting Republican?
The fact that ENDA struggles at all is completely insane. We are talking about a policy here that frequently polls at 70-80+% of Americans supporting it, and in fact that polls frequently show *most Americans believe to already be law*. This seems like something that could be used as a cudgel to beat the people blocking it with if it could advance enough for anyone to even be aware this is even a debate that’s HAPPENING.
As for Polis. I realize that there is not much that he can do on the GOP side. (That is where Obama’s bully pulpit would have to come into place if he actually cared to and would learn to use it..) BUT the fact that not 100 PERCENT of Democrats in the Seanate and in the House are on board for passing ENDA is shameful and the DNC should be exerting pressure and withholding campaign money from those Democrats who aren’t.
Brietbart, the Daily Caller and other Tea Party organizations including American Majority Action are incensed over that the fact that the GOP dominated House has removed some its most hard-right members from key congressional committees, and are now backing a campaign to get rid of House Speaker John Boehner once and for all.
American Majority Action (AMA) is launching a #FireBoehner campaign. If 16 members of the Republican Party abstain from voting for Boehner as speaker in January, he will be one vote shy of the 218 necessary to confirm his speakership. “Speaker Boehner has been an abysmal failure as speaker, and his latest purge is the nail in the coffin for conservatives,” said Ned Ryun, president and CEO of AMA. “Boehner has never won a negation [sic] battle with the White House or Senate — and he’s been nothing short of an embarrassing spokesman for the conservative movement. It’s time for him to go.”
Ahhhh I love the smell of right-wing GOP/Tea Party cannibalism in the morning.
Tea Party wingnuts went insane this afternoon thinking that Florida’s St. Lucie County in FL failed to finish their court-ordered recount by today’s noon deadline, prompting Patrick Murphy’s campaign to claim final victory over Rep. Allen West.
Crazed GOP West supporters stormed into the St. Lucie election office screaming, “Count our votes!” While West’s lawyers raced to a judge’s office to demand an injunction against the state deadline all for nothing as St. Lucie election officials are saying that the deadline was met and that Patrick Murphy actually gained votesin the recount.
Under Florida law, the final certified results were due from all of the state’s 67 supervisors of elections today. If the results do not arrive on time, the certified unofficial results submitted last Sunday stand. Those results have Murphy winning by 0.58 percent. A spread of less than 0.5 percent would have triggered an automatic recount. “Today at noon, it became clear Patrick Murphy will be officially certified as the next congressman from the 18th Congressional District,” Anthony Kusich, Murphy for Congressman campaign manager, said in a prepared statement issued around 12:40 p.m. “The voters have spoken and Patrick Murphy is once again the clear winner. It is beyond time to put this campaign behind us and put the interests of the people of the Treasure Coast and Palm Beaches first.”
Murphy campaign senior advisor Eric Johnson was quick to reaffirm victory. “As far as we’re concerned, this puts an end to it,” Johnson said. “The West people demanded a recount. They got that retabulation and Patrick Murphy gained a margin of 242 votes. “This election is over,” Johnson added. Mowery said the final count was 65,841 votes for Murphy and 52,704 for West.
This may signal the end for Alan West. But Florida is still and will remain to be the laughingstock of the country when it comes to voting regulations and voters rights.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi told the House Democratic Caucus this morning that she will stay House Minority Leader.
According to a Democratic aide, Leader Pelosi told members of her caucus, “They say a picture is worth a million words. Well, this picture is worth millions of aspirations of the American people. This new class makes our caucus historic. The first time in legislative history that a caucus will be a majority of women and minorities.” “The message is clear from the American people,” she continued, echoing remarks she delivered at a press conference yesterday. “They want us to work together to get things done. And that’s what these folks are here to do. Just like all of you.”
Pelosi also said that she felt compelled to remain in leadership as Congress and President Obama embark on an effort to resolve a fiscal crisis that could jeopardize core government programs. And she vowed to work to limit the role of money in politics and to empower women in the workplace and the political arena.
We’re very happy that Nancy Pelosi will remain House Minority Speaker.
After all she and Joe Biden are the only Democrats in D.C. with balls running the government.
Despite the disappointing endorsement by the LGBT Victory Fund the Boston Globe is reporting gay GOP HonoCON Richard Tisei has been defeated by LGBT straight ally and top progressive incumbant Democrat John F. Tierney for the House seat from Massachusetts last night.
Tierney descended to the ballroom at Salem’s Hawthorne Hotel about 12:30 Wednesday morning to declare victory, holding his wife’s hand aloft and basking in the cheers of 100 remaining supporters. He made an elliptical reference to the family scandal that had dogged him throughout the campaign and provided ample fodder for challenger Richard R. Tisei…
…With all precincts reporting, Tierney held a nearly 4,000-vote lead, collecting 48.3 percent to Tisei’s 47.3 percent.
But Tisei in typical GOP homoCON crybaby fashion is not willing to concede the race at this point and is screaming about allegations of voter fraud and calling for an investigation.
Tisei team is testing the truth of Tierney’s win. Tisei’s campaign manager, Paul Moore, said he wasn’t able to speak to the town clerk of Lynn and believes there may have been foul play.
“I think at best we have a very incompetent official in Lynn…,” Moore said.
In a statement emailed to NECN News, Lynn city clerk and elections chief Mary Audley responded:
“The allegations made by Mr. Tisei’s campaign are unfounded. We were in City Hall from 6:30 a.m. yesterday morning until 9:30 p.m. Our phones were extremely busy, but nobody came into the office to make any complaints. We received no calls from the Secretary of State’s Office regarding any such allegations and no voters were challenged. Other than that, I really have no comment as to what he believes other campaigns did or did not do. We are committed to running every election to the letter of the law and to allege otherwise is quite offensive.”
Tisei needs to face the fact that he lost the Lynn vote by 3:1 because he would have caucused with the GOP and Tea Partiers and supported their policies, not the pro immigration reform, pro affordable health care and pro blue-collar positions Lynn residents desperately care about.
John Tierney on the other hand has been a stalwart defender of the Democratic and progressive movement and LGBT rights. Tisei would have hurt Massachusetts and the LGBT Community and helped empower a party that’s inhospitable to gay rights.
As for the Victory Fund they should be deeply ashamed for ever endorsing Richard Tisei and should no longer receive donations from the LGBt community until they adopt a pro LGBT equality mission statement before their current pro LGBT candidate mission statement.
For the first time in history a Washington politician, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) has openly and unabashedly appeared on a white supremacist radio show The Political Cesspool.
From Mother Jones:
Rep. Walter Jones, a fiercely anti-war congressman who often breaks with his party on key votes, appeared on the Political Cesspool, a Memphis-based program hosted by ardent white nationalists James Edwards and Eddie Miller. The show has been condemned by groups like the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center for promoting racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic beliefs. Jones is the first member of Congress to appear on the program. An avowed white nationalist who says David Duke is “above reproach,” Edwards has referred to African-Americans as “heathen savages” and “subhuman” and suggested that slavery was “the greatest thing that ever happened” to blacks.
The show’s mission statement is blunt: “We represent a philosophy that is pro-White and are against political centralization,” it declares. It then outlines a series of issues the show exists to promote. “We wish to revive the White birthrate above replacement level fertility and beyond to grow the percentage of Whites in the world relative to other races,” reads one plank. Another bullet point endorses the Confederacy: “Secession is a right of all people and individuals. It was successful in 1776 and this show honors those who tried to make it successful in 1865.”
In a sane United States, this would be the nail in the coffin of his career. But that’s not exactly the case anymore is it.
