Bloodthirsty Liberal

To hear Chris Matthews tell it (which aural bilge I will spare you), Obama is some sort of human embodiment of the moral suasion of Mount Rushmore.

Matthews is entitled to his opinion, of course—but not even Obama shares it:

President Barack Obama’s announcement that he now supports same-sex marriage came sooner than planned as a result of comments made by Vice President Joe Biden, he said in an interview broadcast Thursday.

“I had already made a decision that we were going to probably take this position before the election and before the convention,” Obama told ABC’s “Good Morning America,” referring to the Democratic National Convention in September.

Biden “probably got out a little bit over his skis, but out of generosity of spirit,” the president said.
He added that he would have “preferred to have done this in my own way, on my own terms,” but “all’s well that ends well.”

Biden told NBC’s “Meet the Press” over the weekend that he is “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex marriage.

So, it’s Biden who is the reincarnation of Harry Truman, not Obama, who was only “probably” going to make this announcement when it suited him (and his potential wealthy gay contributors). That makes Obama a latter day Millard Fillmore.

But I call BS on that, too. I think they sent Biden out to test the water. If the sharks ate him, no big loss. After three days and little political fallout, forward came Obama, chin jutted oh-so firmly, to wade ashore—a General MacArthur reclaiming the territories of the West Village and the Castro.

As a conservative who supports gay marriage, I congratulate the president on his, ahem, “evolution”.

But I wonder if he hasn’t alienated one constituency while pandering to another:

African-Americans voted 2-1 in favor of the North Carolina amendment banning gay marriage Tuesday, but the White House is betting that black voters there and beyond will stick with the president, despite broad resistance to legalization.

Now, that’s a profile in courage!

Took you long enough! (Please excuse the ape imagery. But I’m not the one who chose the metaphor of evolution.)

President Barack Obama, who previously said his views on the issue were “evolving,” said Wednesday that he supports same-sex marriage.

The announcement puts Obama squarely at odds with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who opposes same-sex marriage.

“At a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama said in an interview with ABC News.

The president once opposed same-sex marriage.

That would be the mincing creature on the left above. Today’s Obama is all the way on the right (graphically, not politically). Welcome to homo sapiens, buddy, happy to have you on board.

Of course, I say that because I support gay marriage. I’m a conservative, and I support gay marriage. Obama didn’t, and he was a liberal (nay, communist). Takes all kinds.

But I don’t approve of loaded words like “evolve” in this discussion. Evolution implies improvement (not scientifically, necessarily, but colloquially). Is Obama now saying he’s merely a better person than he was, or that he’s now better than the Neanderthals (fourth from left above) who don’t yet support same-sex marriage?

Because while I’m comfortable with my opinion, I don’t condemn those who don’t share it. I even acknowledge that mine (and Obama’s) is actually a radical opinion. It’s not like ours is the last society to come around. As far as I know, historically, we are the first.

As ever, it’s all political posturing with Obama. He had no good reason to oppose gay marriage—I’m quite sure he didn’t. But he bided his time. Speaking of whom, when Joe Biden out-courages you, you need a bigger set of balls.

Reader Carol shared this with us.

Aside: the more acronyms, the less I can pay attention, but I’ll bold the important parts.

This past week, StandWithUs Northwest organized 17 meetings in Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia for members of the Alliance of Israeli LGBT Education Organization (AILO). These LGBT activists, including Irit Zviel- Efrat, Avner Dafni and Iris Sass-Kochavi are the leaders of three of Israel’s largest LGBT organizations: Hoshen (Education and outreach), IGY (Israel Gay Youth) and Tehila (Israel’s PFLAG). Also on the trip was Adir Steiner, a LGBT activist for nearly 20 years who currently is the Deputy Manager of Tel Aviv. The delegation was brought to the U.S. by the organization A Wider Bridge and the Israeli Consulate for the Pacific Northwest.

We were excited to share the fact that, in many ways, Israel is far more progressive than the United States in its legal protections for and its treatment of its LGBT community. And these LGBT leaders have committed many years successfully fighting for equal rights for members of that community.

The delegation’s goal was to speak with similar organizations here in the U.S., to share their successes and failures, to discuss programs, to learn from one another, to build bridges. They looked forward to meeting with community leaders, to share the innovative work they are doing in Israel, to learn from their counterparts in the US, and to build relationships for future collaboration.

Last November, Irit, the CEO of the Israeli LGBT education organization, met with Mac McGregor, a co-chair of the Seattle LGBT Commission. The Commission reports to the Seattle Office of Civil Rights and to various councilmembers. Mr. McGregor invited Irit to return and promised that the Seattle LGBT commission would host a meeting/reception for the Israeli LGBT delegation at City Hall to meet with the Commission, members of the City Council, and leaders of Seattle’s LGBT community.

That meeting was scheduled for Friday last week. The delegation was looking forward to the meeting, particularly the opportunity to discuss and share with the Commissioners and leaders of Seattle’s LGBT movement their mutual struggles for LGBT civil rights.

The collaborative dialogue would have benefited both the Seattle LGBT Commission members and the Israeli leaders.

But it was not to be.

You can read the rest at the link, but the gist is that being an L or a G or a B or a T doesn’t excuse you being an I(sraeli). That’s fair enough, I suppose. If you don’t define your identity solely by your sexual preference(s), I can respect that. So I condemn the Seattle LGBT not as a bunch of queers, trannies, dykes, and freaks—that would be hate speech, and that has no place here—but as a pack of ignorant, hateful, fascist freaks. That is no libel, as it has the unassailable virtue of being true. I trust you appreciate the distinction.

You start to read this story, and your blood simmers if not outright boils:

An Israeli Muslim lesbian couple who claim they will be killed if deported to Israel due to their sexuality is being given a second chance to remain in Canada.

According to the Toronto Sun newspaper, Iman Musa and Majida Mugrabi who are currently living in Toronto, arrived in Canada from Tel Aviv in 2007 and filed unsuccessful refugee claims that were appealed to the Federal Court of Canada.

There goes Canada again—giving in to the prejudices against the Jewish state (in spite of their awesome Prime Minister, Stephen Harper)! Gays face no discriminated in the only Democratic state in the Middle East; Israeli Arabs are freer than any other Arabs in the region.

Huh? What’s that? Oh… okay. Never mind:

Judge Roger Hughes on March 8 granted the couple another hearing by an Immigration and Refugee Board based on new information that shows one of Mugrabi’s cousins confessed to the “honor killing” of his sister 12-years ago.

The couple in an emotional letter presented to the courts claimed they would be killed if forced to return to Israel for being a same-sex Muslim couple.

“We have a same sex relationship, which is forbidden back home,” the couple wrote. “We have dishonored our families by running away to try and start a life with each other.”

The couple, through their lawyer, Daniel Kingwell, said they were pleased by the court’s decision but still fear for their lives.

“As Muslim women, we don’t have any rights in our families,” the couple wrote. “The fact that we are lesbians does not help.”

The letter claimed Mugrabi’s grandfather is a Muslim sheikh, who “repeatedly threatened to kill her.” Musa’s brother, from Ramleh, has “threatened to kill her if she does not leave her lesbian relationship and marry a male,” the women alleged. “There are several police complaints regarding the threats of her brother.”

“Same sex relationships are not permitted or accepted in all Arabic countries,” they said. “There are many stories about honor killings and we are victims of this.”

There are several police complaints regarding the threats of her brother.”

Kingwell said the women will be killed if deported to Israel.

“The situation is not the greatest for gays or lesbians in some Arab countries,” Kingwell said on Saturday, adding many “honour killings” occur from family members who slay their same-sex or gay relatives.

“This couple face a real threat from Muslims in a Conservative country,” Kingwell said.

…

While Israel is known as a country highly tolerant of its thriving LGBT community, it is a well known fact that the Arab communities in Israel still hold an extremely conservative outlook and condemn the LGBT lifestyle.

Good job, Canada!

Reader Carol sends us this story:

A group of gays in Seattle pressured the Seattle LGBT Commission to cancel a Friday reception for a delegation of gay Israeli leaders, citing Israel’s human-rights record with the Palestinians.

Bowing to pressure from some gays outraged by Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, the city of Seattle commission that represents gays canceled a Friday reception at City Hall for a visiting delegation of Israeli gay leaders.

Commission members, some City Council members and local gay-community leaders had been invited.

The Seattle LGBT Commission had previously agreed to host the meeting, one of several the six-member Israeli delegation had scheduled on the West Coast — with stops in San Francisco and Los Angeles — to exchange ideas on advancing gay rights.

Only in Washington state, however, did the team encounter pushback from fellow gays.

At a heated commission meeting Thursday, a small, vocal group spoke out against the Jewish nation, saying Israel is masking what some call its poor treatment of Palestinians by promoting its positive record on gay rights — a phenomenon that has become known as “pinkwashing.”

Hey, Seattle gay community—”gay” is so exclusive: lezzies, queers, trannies, AC/DCs, all of y’all—I peed in your coffee.

I was just talking about this with Aggie the other day: how dangerous it is when politics becomes one’s main source of identity. Beyond heritage, religion, nationality, profession sexual orientation—identity is a funny thing (why can’t you be a left-handed Latvian liberal lesbian left-coasted librarian all in equal measure?), but to subsume all else to political ideology is a dangerous thing. Do you want them to wear a pink star?

Obviously, my view of the Middle East is exactly the opposite of these ladies’, gentlemen’s, and others’. But I wouldn’t uninvite a gay Arab because his second cousin Mahmoud subscribes to Hamas Today. I’m not gay (nope, not me, nuh-uh—no gayness here!), but it seems to me this betrayal of gay people by gay people is monstrous.

I understand America is to be hated, despised, and condemned at all times and at all costs. I’ve been beaten into submission. Why, we don’t allow gay people to marry (well, actually, we do here in Massachustts).

Even President Obama can’t decide.

President Obama still has not reached a conclusion on whether homosexuals should be allowed to marry, despite months – or years – of supposedly thinking about the issue.

…

Attitudes evolve, including mine. And I think that it is an issue that I wrestle with and think about because I have a whole host of friends who are in gay partnerships.

That was 15 months ago. Which either makes Obama the most indecisive person on the face of the earth, or a man who is frightened that admitting he supports gay marriage WILL HARM HIS REELECTION CHANCES.

In 1996, Obama offered unequivocal support for gay marriage, only to reverse his opinion afterward.

But enough about Obama’s closed mind.

Maybe it’s a cultural thing:

Lesbian South Africans are living in fear as rape and murder become a daily threat in the townships they call home.

Noxolo Nkosana, 23, is the latest victim of a series of violent attacks against lesbians.

She was stabbed a stone’s throw from her home in Crossroads township, Cape Town, as she returned from work one evening with her girlfriend.

The two men – one of whom lives in her community – started yelling insults.

“They were walking behind us. They just started swearing at me screaming: ‘Hey you lesbian, you tomboy, we’ll show you,’” Ms Nkosana tells the BBC.

Before she knew it a sharp knife had entered her back – two fast jabs, then she was on the ground. Half conscious, she felt the knife sink into her skin twice more.

“I was sure that they were going to kill me,” she says.

She lived, and she was spared one indignity:

In April, Noxolo Nogwaza was raped by eight men and murdered in KwaThema township near Johannesburg.

The 24-year-old’s face and head were disfigured by stoning, and she was stabbed several times with broken glass.

The attack on her is thought to have begun as a case of what is known as “corrective rape”, in which men rape lesbians in what they see as an attempt to “correct” their sexual orientation.

The practice appears to be on the increase in South Africa.

More than 10 lesbians per week are raped or gang-raped in Cape Town alone, according to Luleki Sizwe, a charity which helps women who have been raped in the Western Cape.

Many of the cases are not reported because the victims are afraid that the police will laugh at them, or that their attackers will come after them, says Ndumie Funda, founder of Luleki Sizwe.

“The cases people read about in the media are not even the tip of the iceberg. Lesbians are under attack in South Africa’s townships every day.”

Reports of police ridiculing rape victims abound in the gay community.

“Some policemen in the township mock you saying: ‘How can you be raped by a man if you are not attracted to them?’ They ask you to explain how the rape felt. It is humiliating,” says Thando Sibiya, a lesbian from Soweto.

Where do people get such notions?

South Africa’s Human Rights Commission is investigating reports that Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini called gay people “rotten” during a speech.

The rights group says it has obtained transcripts of the speech to look into the matter.

…

King Goodwill Zwelithini allegedly made the anti-gay remarks in rural eastern South Africa during a ceremony at the weekend to mark the Battle of Isandlwana – a famous 19th Century Zulu victory over British troops.

“Traditionally, there were no people who engaged in same-sex relationships,” The Times quoted the king as saying.

“There was nothing like that and if you do it, you must know that you are rotten,” King Goodwill said, according to the newspaper, adding: “I don’t care how you feel about it … same sex is not acceptable.”

But the king’s office says the newspaper reports were badly translated and the king’s meaning misconstrued.

“At no stage did His Majesty condemn gay relations or same relations,” spokesperson Prince Mbonisi Zulu told the Sapa news agency.

King Goodwill should have studied at Harvard. He would have learned that it’s Jews who are “rotten”, not gays.

He’s queer,
He’s not here,
Get used to it:

The United States government denied political asylum to Ali Ahmad Asseri, the former first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, last week to avoid disrupting US-Saudi relations, according to a Saudi-American blogger and journalist based in Brazil.

Asseri argued that if he returned to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia he would face execution because the country’s radically fundamental form of Islam mandates the death penalty for same-sex relations.

…

In an e-mail response to the Post on Saturday, Abou-Alsamh, the Saudi-American blogger whose personal website “Rasheed’s World” first broke the story about the denial of the asylum application, wrote, “As far as I know the US government has not yet officially commented on Asseri’s denial of asylum, but from comments that I have read after I wrote my post, it seems that political asylum cases are often denied in first instance and then approved later when the applicant appeals.”

He added: “I do think the US government is afraid of unnecessarily annoying the Saudis, especially now with all of the turmoil that the Arab world is going through because of the Arab Spring revolts.”

Seriously? We’re going to let the Saudis cut off his head(s) so as not to “unnecessarily annoy” them? All annoyance of Saudis is necessary.

But wait, there’s more:

“His initial interview with Homeland Security was very positive, but then they came back and grilled him for two days after they found out that he had worked in the public prosecutor’s office in Saudi Arabia,” Alsamh continued.

“He had been an inspector to make sure that judicial punishments, such as lashings, were carried out within the law – not more, not less. They then accused him of participating in a form of torture,” Ahmed said on Abou- Alamh’s website.

Ahmed said that Asseri intends to appeal the denial of his application and the process could meander its way through the judicial process over the next few years.

Last year, the US news organization MSNBC first reported on Asseri’s decision to remain in the United States. According to an article from the MSNBC national investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff: “Ali Ahmad Asseri, the first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, has informed US Department of Homeland Security officials that Saudi officials have refused to renew his diplomatic passport and effectively terminated his job after discovering he was gay and was close friends with a Jewish woman.”

Talk about burying the lead! Which is worse—that’s she’s Jewish or that she’s a she? After they behead him, they’ll have to sew it back on and behead him all over again.

What about it, President Obama? Are you going to annoy the Saudis (who don’t vote) or the gay community and their Jewish f*g hag friends (who do)?

We hail our African brothers and sisters for their extension of law and justice to their own gay brothers and sisters—up to a point, anyway:

A Ugandan man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for murdering the country’s leading gay rights activist, David Kato, in January.

Sidney Nsubunga Enoch admitted in court that he had bludgeoned Mr Kato to death with a hammer, but alleged he had been provoked by sexual advances from him.

The murder sparked outrage, with Western governments calling on Uganda to legalise homosexuality.

Most Ugandans believe homosexuality is un-Christian and un-African.

Mr Kato was killed after a newspaper published the names and addresses of people they said were gay or lesbian under the headline “Hang them”.

He was a school teacher and gay rights activist who had led a campaign against a controversial bill which included the introduction of the death penalty for some homosexual acts.

We hopefully await the day when Ugandans follow our enlightened path and defend the right of homosexuals to engage in anonymous, illicit sex in public parks without interference by bothersome homophobic policemen.

You can do it, Uganda!

No offense to anybody who might be offended, but isn’t public buggery illegal?

On a cool August evening, a man was walking on a paved path through the Medford section of Torbert MacDonald Park when he locked eyes with a stranger. The man, a computer technician who is gay, believed that the look suggested that the stranger wanted sex, according to gay-rights advocates.

But the stranger was an undercover state trooper, who arrested the technician – not for a sex crime, but for trespassing – after he wandered 50 feet off the path, according to a police report.

State Police arrested 31 men at the park this past summer, most of them for trespassing, reviving fears in the gay community that the police were once again targeting gay men. The sexual orientation of most of the men is unknown, but their arrests prompted gay-rights advocates to meet recently with high-ranking public safety officials in Governor Deval Patrick’s administration.

What does this have to do with gay rights? Are the so-called advocates confessing that the impression that all the guys skulking in the bushes are gay men looking to hook up? Isn’t that profiling? Isn’t that hateful? I thought at least a few of them were bird-watchers, and if bird-watchers trespass, don’t they deserve equal treatment under the law?

And what about the people who don’t go there to hook up or watch birds? Do they have a right not to be creeped out, not to have their kids chase a lost ball in the brush, only to come across four more? Are straight couples permitted to bonk with abandon in public parks?

In 1989, State Police agreed to stop using undercover officers as decoys to crack down on alleged sexual activity between men at highway rest stops, according to a Globe report at the time.

But police officials say the recent work at the Medford park did not target any one group. Their overall goal, they say, was to maintain safety in state-owned parks and protect delicate grounds, which have been damaged by people veering off main paths to use drugs or engage in sex.

Officials at the state Department of Conservation and Recreation said that “men who have sex with men’’ go off main paths at the Middlesex Fells Reservation to have trysts, trampling on natural resources, according to a draft of the department’s resource management plan.

The language rankles advocates, who said it unfairly blames one group of people. DCR officials said they would revise the language in the plan’s final draft.

I can see why the gay community is upset: they don’t want to be lumped in with drug addicts. Fair enough. But stay on the trails and get a room, and nobody will bother you. I’m a prude, but I think dinner and a movie first is more romantic than anonymous hook-ups by the monkey bars. Sorry.

PS: If Governor Patrick were half as smart as he thinks he is, he would set the environmentalists against the gay advocates. One busybody old lady banned (temporarily) the sale of plastic water bottles in Concord. You think she and her ilk would stand for all those Cole-Haans and Johnston & Murphys trampling the fragile and threatened flora in public parks? Tell them Walden Woods has become the latest Ramrod Bar and they’ll be out there with their flashlights, binoculars, and walking sticks.

John Kerry isn’t as brave as my left butt-cheek—and no, by the way, I did not serve in Vietnam (I got a deferment for being 12):

Seven years after a presidential campaign in which he threaded the needle by explaining his support for the gay rights revolution taking place in his home state while not supporting gay marriage himself, US Senator John Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts, has a declaration.

He now supports gay marriage.

Oh, big whoop. A standing-O for the senator, please.

Now, he comes out. When the momentum is in that direction. This isn’t about gay marriage to me. It’s about leadership.

I respect those who disagree. I support gay marriage, but I still don’t know what it is we’re talking about. The overwhelming majority of people would support absolute equality under the law for same-sex couples. But some of them don’t want to call it marriage. Are they wrong? It’s never been called marriage before in the history of mankind, has it? Why must we (even if I would, and do)?

But back to leadership. The Democrats aren’t even acquainted with the term. Clinton ran on the promise of allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the military, then ran into a real general with real medals across his broad chest. He cowered. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was his craven response. Obama showed no more inclination to change the policy until the military itself caved.

And if gays thought Obama had their back (so to speak) on marriage, they have been sorely (also so to speak) disappointed. I guess that’s another example of leading from behind (yeah, yeah).

Any gay person stupid enough to wait for John Kerry to take up his cause now knows how his constituents feel. We’re stuck with him. What’s your excuse?

They are called the Millennials, they all voted for Obama, and they are sorely disappointed

This article claims that the Republicans have hope with this cohort because they include the most self-proclaimed independents of any generation and because they are really suffering financially.

I think that there is hope, but for one problem that most older people don’t understand, and that problem is the traditional Republican position on gay marriage. I know a lot of people in this age group, and every last one of them is firmly behind gay marriage and consider it to be very important. In other words, many of us may be in favor of gay marriage, gay rights across the spectrum, but it doesn’t drive our voting behavior. We don’t prioritize it at the top of our personal list. They do. Longtime readers of this blog can get the idea by asking themselves this question: If a candidate arose that Aggie agreed with on all aspects of her personal wishlist, except Israel, if this candidate was making what Aggie considers to be unreasonable demands on Israel and coddling the Palestinians, but in other ways was close to perfect – would Aggie vote for him? You know the answer.

Unless the Republicans can make peace with the issue of gay rights, they probably can’t win the majority of the Millennials.

- Aggie

Worker at Jackson’s Civil Rights Organization claims Jackson harassed and humiliated him.

I wonder if Jesse Jackson will be the keynote speaker at the Democrat convention again? Will gay progressives mind this, or will they shrug it off?

A spokesman for the Rev. Jesse Jackson Thursday denied a claim from a man who says he was fired from the Civil Rights leader’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition because he is gay.

Tommy Bennett filed a complaint with the city of Chicago’s Commission on Human Relations last year, alleging Jackson fired him unjustly and that the civil rights leader forced him to perform “uncomfortable” tasks, including cleaning up hotel rooms after Jackson had been there with various women.

“The Rainbow PUSH Coalition and Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., unequivocally deny Tommy Bennett’s false claims of harassment, retaliation and discrimination,” PUSH spokeswoman Lauren Love said in a written statement. “We are fully cooperating with the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and expect to be fully exonerated.”

The statement goes on to say that Bennett’s “inflammatory allegations are an attempt to malign Rev. Jackson and the organization, and are hurtful and harmful to the progressive community.”

The Windy City Times story claims Bennett, in his complaint with the city, said he was forced to escort women for Jackson into hotel rooms — and later clean up the rooms.

There are other reports that suggest that Jackson requested… the kind of non-sex that Bill Clinton had from Monica Lewinsky.

- Aggie