April 26, 2015

Why Are Two Wealthy Gay Men Hosting a Benefit for Ted Cruz? Israel.

Jay Michaelson

The LGBT community is threatening boycotts and canceling benefits. The hidden reason is the GOP’s Israel strategy.

If you’ve ever been to Fire Island Pines, one of the leading gay utopias on the planet, you know that there isn’t much to do. There’s only one commercial center with a couple of stores, a bar, and a hotel.

And yet, in less than 24 hours, over 4,000 people have said they’re going to boycott it. The reason? It’s owned by Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass, the self-described “prominent NYC hotel owners” who recently hosted a “fireside chat” with Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

No Tea Dance at the Sip n’ Twirl? Hard to believe, but that’s LGBT politics for you.

As if that weren’t enough, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS went one step further, canceling their popular “Broadway Bares” benefit. It had been scheduled for May 10 at the Out Hotel, which Reisner and Weiderpass own. “I have never considered that all of our many supporters would ever vote monolithically,” executive director Tom Moran wrote on his Facebook page. “But when any politician publicly holds so many of us in contempt… we cannot be misunderstood as standing with him/her.”

This is Ted Cruz, after all, one of 19 members of Congress on the Human Rights Campaign’s “Hall of Shame”, the man who authored the 2014 “State Marriage Defense Act,” which would ensure that gay people get no federal protections, ever. And who recently penned a letter sent to tens of thousands of Christian pastors, asking them to pray, preach, and presumably vote for him to support “biblical marriage.”

(Biblical marriage is actually polygamy and concubinage, but I digress.)

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/26/why-are-two-wealthy-gay-men-hosting-a-benefit-for-ted-cruz-israel.html

April 26, 2015

The Scholars And Lawyers Who Believe Gay Marriage Causes Abortion

Candida Moss

An amicus brief filed by conservatives opposing gay marriage is ridiculous, but there is a link between same-sex nuptials and abortion—it’s just not what you think.

On April 2, a group of 100 conservative lawyers and university professors filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court arguing, in part, that marriage equality will cause 900,000 abortions over the next 30 years. The claim may come as a shock to those who completed seventh grade and are under the impression that pregnancy was the result of sex between a man and a woman.

The argument, as summarized by former Antonin Scalia clerk Gene Schaerr, who served as the brief’s author, is that “a reduction in the opposite-sex marriage rate means an increase in the percentage of women who are unmarried and who, according to all available data, have much higher abortion rates than married women.”

The brief is accompanied by swaths of empirical evidence demonstrating that, in fact, in countries where same-sex marriage is legal, opposite-sex marriage declines. The problem, Christopher Ingraham points out in a piece in The Washington Post, is that the “chain of logic does not prove causality.” The decline in marriage rates in states where same-sex marriage is legal, which is adduced as proof that it is harmful, ignores the fact that marriage rates are on the decline everywhere and have been for decades.

Even if the statistics were indisputable (and Ingraham points us in the direction of some important counter-evidence), there’s no real way to link the legitimization of same-sex marriage and abortion. Correlation, as everybody’s high school history teacher used to say, is not causation.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/26/the-scholars-and-lawyers-who-believe-gay-marriage-causes-abortion.html

April 26, 2015

A Buckley Comes Out: A Young Conservative’s Case for The Freedom to Marry

Sean Buckley

A college-age grandson of modern conservatism’s founding family comes out in The Daily Beast and makes the case for the freedom to marry.

If you had asked me a few years ago if I supported the freedom to marry, I’d have been one of many young Republicans at the time who’d have given you an unequivocal “no.”

As the grandson of former Conservative Party New York Sen. James L. Buckley and great-nephew of National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr., I believed that gay rights were inherently anti-conservative and anti-Catholic.

But I began to reexamine my views after acknowledging a part of myself that I’d suppressed for years—I am gay.

My family is loving and compassionate but they have been active in the fight to keep marriage limited to heterosexual couples. Because of their influence and the views expressed by so many in my religious community, I grew up with an extremely negative view of gay people.

I was taught a “hate the sin, love the sinner” approach to moral issues while always being told to respect those with whom I disagreed. But given that you can’t separate yourself from who you love, teaching someone to hate their sexual orientation inadvertently teaches them to hate themselves. For me, this led to an intense self-hatred and a reflexive rejection of anyone that resembled the part of me I was so desperately trying to fight.

As early as high school I felt that my current university, Georgetown, had betrayed its Catholic faith by supporting an LGBTQ organization. But as the fact that I’m gay became increasingly difficult to deny, I struggled to identify with a conservative political community that disdains who I am, and a gay personal community that largely disagrees with what I believe.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/26/a-buckley-comes-out-a-young-conservative-s-case-for-the-freedom-to-marry.html

April 25, 2015

Beleaguered National Organization for Marriage Hosts Yet Another Anti-LGBT Rally on Mall

Currently, 195 million Americans support marriage equality. Compare that number to the crowd that turned out today for yet another beleaguered National Organization for Marriage rally on the wrong side of history:





The "March for Marriage" featured some of the most virulently anti-LGBT voices in an effort to convince the Supreme Court to rule against marriage equality in its deliberations this summer.

Sen. Ruben Diaz, Family Research Council Action Executive Director and reality star Josh Duggar, Janet Crouse of the World Congress of Families, radio host Mat Staver, and NOM President Brian Brown were among today's featured speakers, proudly standing on the wrong side of history.



NOM has a long history of giving voice to hate. In its fight against equality, the organization has used racially motivated tactics as strategy, committed numerous campaign ethics violations, and promoted speakers and pundits who accuse LGBT people of child endangerment and abuse and compare marriage equality to Hitler’s Third Reich.

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http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/national-organization-for-marriage-hosts-yet-another-anti-lgbt-rally-on-mal?

April 25, 2015

Russian Hackers Read Obama’s Unclassified Emails, Officials Say

Source: New York Times


Some of President Obama’s email correspondence was swept up by Russian hackers last year in a breach of the White House’s unclassified computer system that was far more intrusive and worrisome than has been publicly acknowledged.

There is no evidence that the president’s email account itself was hacked, White House officials said. Still, the fact that some of Mr. Obama’s communications were among those retrieved by hackers has been one of the most closely held findings of the inquiry.

The officials said that no classified networks had been compromised, but officials conceded that the unclassified system contains information that is highly sensitive: email exchanges with ambassadors and diplomats, discussions of pending personnel moves and legislation, presidential schedules and, inevitably, some debate about policy.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/us/russian-hackers-read-obamas-unclassified-emails-officials-say.html?

April 25, 2015

The GOP’s imperial rebirth: How Dick Cheney’s twisted worldview became the guiding light

The Republican Party’s imperial rebirth: How Dick Cheney’s twisted worldview became the guiding light of the GOP

For a fleeting moment, it seemed like the nightmares of the Bush administration might be behind us. Not anymore...

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

One of the more disturbing quotes of recent days (and that’s saying something) is this one:

daveweigel ✔
@daveweigel

Rep. Jim Jordan on whether he backs Corker's Iran bill: "I want to talk to Tom Cotton. He's the guy who has the best insight."

12:16 PM - 22 Apr 2015
8 8 Retweets favorites

Obviously, the idea that any insight can be gleaned from the freshman senator — who famously made the Republican caucus look like a bunch of bumbling fools when they signed on to his embarrassing letter to Iran — is the disturbing part of that comment. When I described Cotton as “a leading light on the right in foreign policy and national security,” back in February, I thought I was making a little joke. But this man, who has been in the Senate for about three months, really has become the go-to expert on all things related to foreign boogeymen.

But as Ed Kilgore noted in an interesting article last week, this is about more than just Tom Cotton. It is part of an overall GOP turn backwards on national security, which was signaled pretty clearly in the 2014 midterms.

Kilgore writes:

I didn’t write about this a whole lot in my own book on the 2014 midterms, but did discuss it: towards the end of that cycle Republican Senate candidates—led by Scott Brown, who ran a surprisingly strong race in NH—really started demagoguing about terrorists pouring into the country via “porous” borders or in response to the general surrender-money [sic] tendencies of the Obama administration. And since the elections, I think we are all aware that Republican pols and rank-and-file alike are increasingly more likely to favor a re-invasion of Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran.

This has made one of the big developments of the previous couple of years—the emergence of a bipartisan coalition in Congress aimed at curtailing Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) surveillance programs at NSA and elsewhere—very, very fragile.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/25/the_republican_partys_imperial_rebirth_how_dick_cheneys_twisted_worldview_became_the_guiding_light_of_the_gop/

April 25, 2015

National Review editor: Jenner announcement is all about ‘spectacle, ratings, and ultimately money’

While reality show star Bruce Jenner was announcing his impending gender transition on ABC, the editor of the conservative National Review suggested the interview was about “spectacle, ratings, and ultimately money” as it always is with anything Kardashian-related.

Appearing with Megyn Kelly on Fox News, Rich Lowry expressed mild contempt for the deeply personal interview Jenner gave to ABC’s Diane Sawyer, saying, “Do we really have to hear about it?”

“God bless him, do we really have to hear about it?” Lowry said. “Does there really have to be a reality show about it? And the answer in contemporary America is yes.”

Lowry’s attack on Jenner seemed rooted in his mild contempt for the opportunistic Kardashian family — Jenner was formerly married to family matriarch Kris Kardashian — saying, “It’s about what it always is about with the Kardashians. It’s about spectacle, ratings, and ultimately money.” He noted that Kim Kardashian sold the rights to both of her weddings, with Lowry calling one of them “fake,” before adding, “Everything is for sale.”

-snip-

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/national-review-editor-jenner-announcement-is-all-about-spectacle-ratings-and-ultimately-money/

April 25, 2015

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence hires Koch Industries spokesperson as his approval ratings collapse

Indiana Governor Mike Pence, who has seen his approval rating in his state go into a death spiral following the signing of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), has hired the communications director from Koch Industries to help him stop the bleeding as he gears up for re-election next year.

The IndyStar is reporting that Pence is bringing back former spokesperson Matt Lloyd to replace his current communications director Christy Denault who announced she is stepping down to spend more time with her family.

According to Pence chief of staff Jim Atterholt, Denault’s departure “has nothing to do with the RFRA issue. It was her decision to leave, made before RFRA, in order to attend to the needs of her young family, including a set of triplets.” Lloyd served as Pence’s spokesperson when he launched his first gubernatorial bid four years ago and, with his re-election prospects next year looking grim, Lloyd is expected to bring his Koch connections along to help the embattled governor.

In 2013, Pence’s approval rating stood at at 52 percent, but the blow-back from his bungled handling of the RFRA has seen him drop to a 35 percent approval rating, below his 38 percent disapproval rating.

more
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/indiana-gov-mike-pence-hires-koch-industries-spokesperson-as-his-approval-ratings-collapse/

April 25, 2015

Same-sex marriage debate forces GOP contenders to tread carefully

Republican presidential hopefuls are struggling with how to position themselves on same-sex marriage, an issue that is bedeviling a party hoping to avoid social controversies as the 2016 election approaches.

Rapidly changing public opinion has forced much of the field to recalibrate their pitches. Early front-runners have sought balance between the GOP base and the broader electorate — saying that they have no problem with gay people but oppose a national right to gay marriage and favor strong legal protections for business owners who do not want to serve same-sex ceremonies.

It is a difficult task, with the perils on stark display last month in Indiana. Republican state lawmakers encountered criticism when they tried to strengthen religious-liberties laws in the face of legal same-sex marriage in that state. With support for same-sex marriage hovering around 60?percent nationally, opponents also risk being labeled bigots.

At the same time, some conservative strategists see an upside for candidates who boldly oppose same-sex marriage. In arguments scheduled for Tuesday, the Supreme Court will consider whether there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage or whether it should be left to the states. If the court establishes a national right as expected, it could energize Christian activists.

The tensions were evident this week when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) made headlines at a meet-and-greet hosted by prominent gay New York hoteliers in which he reportedly said he would still love one of his daughters if she came out as gay, and did not discuss his opposition to same-sex marriage.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/same-sex-marriage-snarls-gop-contenders/2015/04/24/6b5a8d18-ea8c-11e4-9767-6276fc9b0ada_story.html?hpid=z4

April 24, 2015

Ted Cruz And Marco Rubio Have Missed The Highest Percentage Of Votes Among Current Senators

Presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have the two highest rates of missed votes in the Senate, a Huffington Post analysis shows.

Cruz has the highest percentage of total missed votes with 10.4 percent, while Rubio comes in second with 8.2 percent, according to HuffPost's analysis of data compiled by GovTrack. The numbers encompass the full Senate careers of each currently serving member and are accurate as of Friday morning.

The ranking excludes Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) who is technically ranked first but missed all votes during the year he was away recovering from a stroke, as well as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who is ranked second but missed hundreds of votes during his 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns. (When the rankings are calculated without considering those time periods, Kirk and McCain end up as No. 3 and No. 10, respectively.)

This week, Cruz faced criticism for missing Thursday’s vote to confirm Loretta Lynch as the next U.S. attorney general. The Texas Republican instead attended a fundraiser in his home state, despite having vocally opposed Lynch's nomination for months.

more
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/24/marco-rubio-senate-missed_n_7063156.html