"We hate her," says the poster that's been on my bathroom wall for the past 14 years. It was made by the Campaign for Military Service back in 1993, to commemorate how gay and lesbian Americans, and President Bill Clinton, were royally screwed by then- Georgia Democratic Senator Sam Nunn (the "her" reference is to something in gay culture that some of you adamantly claim doesn't exist - well here it is not existing again from a completely different historical source).
Sam Nunn is the primary reason we have the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy banning gays from serving in the US military. Nunn took it upon himself in the first weeks of the Clinton administration to publicly challenge our new president and make a laughing stock out of him. Rather than let Republicans do the anti-gay dirty work of derailing Bill Clinton's effort to lift the ban, Nunn decided to take the lead himself. He ran the entire thing. It was horrible. I worked on the effort to lift the ban. I saw what Sam Nunn did from the inside. And he was gratuitously homophobic. Showers. He talked about showers. And what gays might do to straight soldiers in them. He took the media on a tour of a submarine to show how close the beds were to each other - because, again, you know those gays, just can't control themselves. It was simply horrible.
So, it's nice that Nunn is now saying "gosh, maybe we should revisit the policy" just in time to become Obama's possible VP (there's been talk of Nunn for the job). But give me a break. Did Nunn reverse himself on the policy? Is he now in favor of gay servicemembers serving openly in the US armed forces? Did he write an op ed for the New York Times proclaiming his mistake? No. Nunn's big "epiphany" is to suggest that the Pentagon do another study of the policy. Yeah, good idea. Wonder how that'll turn out.
[UPDATE: CREW has filed an ethics complaint with the Senate ethics committee against Craig, calling for an investigation into whether the senator violated the Senate Rules of Conduct for his restroom sexual foray.]
It just keeps getting better and better. This is just pathetic. Just days after his guilty plea for cruising an undercover officer in the mens room of the Minneapolis airport, Larry Craig wrote a constituent a letter propping up the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military.
In what could be called another of Craig’s "he said/he said situations," the Senator corresponded with a constituent (and SLDN supporter) earlier this month about why he’d never support repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." In the August 17 letter to his constituent, Craig wrote that, "The armed forces exist to wage war. It is unacceptable to risk the lives of American soldiers and sailors merely to accommodate the sexual lifestyles of certain individuals." He also noted that, "I don’t believe the military should be a place for social experimentation."
No, that's what train station and airport loos are for, huh, Larry?
When the ethics committee voted to boot Bob Packwood from the Senate for lewd sexual harassment in 1995, Sen. Larry Craig lamented the difficult decision, but called it "the right one."
After Packwood resigned the next day, Craig, then a member of the Senate ethics committee, shared a tearful embrace with his former colleague.
"One particularly poignant moment came during an exchange between Packwood and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, a member of the Ethics panel," Edwin Chen reported in the Los Angeles Times Sept. 8, 1995. "Afterward, they shook hands and hugged one another. Then Craig began sobbing and quickly strode into the GOP cloakroom, his hands covering his face."
A little recap for schadenfreude lovers. It was a bad time for cruising for homophobic Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), who pleaded guilty on August 8 to a disorderly conduct charge after his arrest in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in June.
An undercover officer just happened to be investigating complaints of lewd behavior and cruising in the men's restroom there when Craig decided to repeatedly leer between the cracks into the stall the officer was in, then proceeded to enter the adjacent stall and play footsie and gesture under the partition for sex. Larry, btw, learn to flush.
Karsnia showed his police identification under the stall. "With my left hand near the floor, I pointed towards the exit," the report said. "Craig responded, 'No!' I again pointed towards the exit. Craig exited the stall with his roller bags without flushing the toilet. ... Craig said he would not go. I told Craig that he was under arrest, he had to go, and that I didn't want to make a scene. Craig then left the restroom."
The senator, once detained at the Airport Police Operations Center tried the old "do you know who I am?" maneuver, showing the arresting officer his business card indicating he was a Powerful Man of InfluenceTM, saying "What do you think about that?" but alas, that didn't fly. Here's the guilty plea court document.
In the annals of GOP sexual hypocrisy excuses, we have this new one to add to the database -- the Wide Stance DefenseTM.
Craig denied any lewd intentions and told police he has a "wide stance" in the bathroom and reached down to pick up a piece of paper from the floor.
"It should be noted that there was not a piece of paper on the bathroom floor, nor did Craig pick up a piece of paper," Karsnia wrote in the police report.
He pled guilty, but now he says it was all a big misunderstanding (sound familiar?).
"At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions," he said. "I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."
What -- the pickup, the power play at the police station, or trying to make it all go away?
Craig, by the way, avoided 10 days in the Hennepin County, Minnesota pokey/workhouse for his bathroom. He's on probation for a year and paid $575 in fines and fees.The Idaho Statesman's Dan Popkey has a piece on its investigation of Craig's rumored closeted sexual netherworld after the senator was outed in 2006, which includes scuttlebutt going back to his college days, and the infamous 1982 pre-emptive denial regarding allegations of sex with underaged congressional pages going on up on the Hill.
The most serious finding by the Statesman was the report by a professional man with close ties to Republican officials. The 40-year-old man reported having oral sex with Craig at Washington's Union Station, probably in 2004. The Statesman also spoke with a man who said Craig made a sexual advance toward him at the University of Idaho in 1967 and a man who said Craig "cruised" him for sex in 1994 at the REI store in Boise.
The Statesman interviewed the Union Station cruise, who said that the men had sex in two restrooms with the encounter lasting "three or four minutes."
***
Yesterday Larry Craig decided to step down as co-senate liaison for Mitt. The Romney's campaign, which proudly hosted a video of Craig supporting the presidential candidate, quickly yanked it from its site (screenshot here), with Mitt's mouthpiece, Matt Rhoades announcing"Senator Craig has stepped down from his role with the campaign. He did not want to be a distraction and we accept his decision."
As we reported yesterday (and how it always is for these guys) Larry Craig's public record as a social conservative is solid. He: * Voted YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006) * Voted NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (Jun 2002) * Voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation. (Jun 2000) * Voted YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage. (Sep 1996) * Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation. (Sep 1996)
You all have been waiting for it...some knuckle-dragging commentary from the swamps of Freeperland about conservative Republican U.S. Senator from Idaho Larry Craig's same-sex bathroom booty call. Enjoy!
Part of the perversion that is homosexuality; sex in public places.
I'm getting to the point where I just don't care about that—my rage at the betrayals overshadows all. Haggard, Foley, this kook. It seems that NO one speaks for us and acts for us.
It will be interesting being that he is a Repub if he will get millions for a book deal, a one hour show on Oprah, and multiple favorable reviews in the New York Times like Gov. Jim McSleezy who put the security of the entire state of New Jersey at risk.
OK, here is my latest conspiracy theory... enjoy! Homosexuals are deliberately infiltrating the GOP so they can say either (1) See, we're gay and we're Republicans, too! or (2) They can claim to be anti-homosexual agenda politicians, and then when they are caught, it makes the GOP look like the party of hypocrites. Either way it advances the homosexual agenda.
Scumbags like this absolutely disgust me. I have no particular problem with him being a degenerate (as long as he does so on his own time) but he has no business serving in a public office, and especially not as a Republican. Thanks for the 'gift that keeps on giving' Larry!
Yes, another case of Conservative Hypocrisy for the lefties to crow about. What's the equivalent on their side? Al Gore wanting to force everybody else to ride a bike while he flies private jets, etc. John Edwards bemoaning poverty while padding his expense accounts. The difference is that Craig is finished in public life, and Gore will continue to get Oscars and big speaking fees and Edwards will continue to run for President and rate respectful ass-kissing from the MSM. It's the double standard.
Foley left congress and Craig won't be far behind. His support for amnesty was enough for me to want him gone. This gay bathroom crap will end his career. Good riddance to an amnesty supporter
Larry Craig is toast. I certainly would not want to represented by a Senator who drops his pants in public. There is something seriously wrong with him - he needs help. But not on the taxpayer's dime.
I thought Republicans were Anti-Gay? Am I missing something here? The GOP apparently has Gays in High Places. And the Main Stream media rather than saying, The Republicans are not the narrow minded Cretins we make them out to be. Instead say another "Fag Republican" was caught. What gives? The Demorats love Gays until they are members of the GOP. Then they are dirty scoundrels? Two faced liars and hypocrits. That's what the Demorats are today. They hurl the Gay Insult when a GOP member is outed. If they out themselves as Demorats they are courageous. Otherwise they are Sexual Deviants.
The GOP needs to clean it's house of perverts and sodomites.
I agree. This looks very bad, indeed. He can use all the excuses that he wants, but I doubt that he will convince many that he was "innocent." I hope that he does the right thing for the GOP and decides not to run again for the senate. He is political toast. Unlike the Dems, Republicans care about sexual ethics.
Craig is not stupid. Expeditious? Expeditious?? The only thing he expedited was his eminent exit from the senate. And the self destruction of the republican reelection effort. These are the long knives. The Republicans need to pull out the long knives and do some exposes' on some of the democrats' sordid misbehavior.
[And my personal favorite --]
I think this is another Democrat setup. Anyone who says anything against gays nowadays is persecuted.
Nah, I think more likely the GOP bigwigs eventually knew about it and figured it will come out any way, dump it today under the flash of the Gonzales stories.
Larry Craig, up until a short while ago, served as a co-senate liaison for the Mitt Romney campaign. Here is what a Mitt mouthpiece, Matt Rhoades, announced.
"Senator Craig has stepped down from his role with the campaign. He did not want to be a distraction and we accept his decision."
Sidney Smith, a Craig aide in Boise, said Monday afternoon that the senator was "in the (Boise) area" but was declining to give interviews.
Mitt's campaign is backing away as fast as it can from the potty-sex Senator. Take a look at Mitt's YouTube page scrub job. He had a video of Craig lauding the former Massachusetts governor, but you can no longer play the video. Click the link on the page -- it goes nowhere. And look at the direct YouTube page (screenshot below, click to enlarge).
***
What a blast from the past -- a vintage Larry Craig denial:
ABC News report from 1982 -- Rep. Larry Craig issues a preemptive denial regarding any involvement in a congressional sex and drug scandal.
He pleaded guilty, folks. This was kept under wraps for some time. The question is, will he take pointers from Florida State Rep Bob Allen when he discusses his public foray into man-on-man action for the press? It's all a big misunderstanding, you know. I wonder if there were any scary black men or lightning storms near the airport. Roll Call has the goods.
Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men's public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call Monday afternoon.
Craig's arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8.
A spokesman for Craig described the incident as a "he said/he said misunderstanding," and said the office would release a fuller statement later Monday afternoon.
After he was arrested, Craig, who is married, was taken to the Airport Police Operations Center to be interviewed about the lewd conduct incident, according to the police report.
Idaho reactionary and well-known closet queen, Larry Craig, was arrested in a public toilet for misbehaving in a way closeted Republicans often do. So apparently it isn't just train stations' rest rooms that turn Senator Craig on.
* Voted YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006) * Voted NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (Jun 2002) * Voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation. (Jun 2000) * Voted YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage. (Sep 1996) * Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation. (Sep 1996)
Kevin McCullough of Townhall, and the aptly named, Musclehead Revolution (Christianity Today has called him "the heir apparent to Dobson and Falwell"). He's whining about "angry gay bloggers," specifically NGBlog and OutsideTheTent, for "misreporting" on his work. If I had a nickel for all the instances when gay bloggers have had their words twisted by fundies.
Boo hoo, Kevin. How can anyone take you seriously when you say things like this, because "science says so":
[S]exual behavior is entirely a choice and something they can control - and race is not.
In other words - we can not codify into law, preferences based on someone's choices. Whereas equal rights can never be disallowed for someone's state of being. No one has a choice on their skin color. Everyone has a choice in their behavior.
It is the totality of the entire debate between changing marriage laws to include non-marital unions or not too. The argument these angry gay bloggers and other radicals in the homosexual community have made is that because they were "born that way" they deserve the same special protections as actual minorities.
Ah yes, reducing orientation to sex acts alone -- the stale argument of the right wing. So one's gender identity must also be a choice in Kevin's eyes -- you simply need to go to the store and pick out clothing appropriate to your birth genitalia.
It's more than whether it's a "choice" as we see it -- McCullough sees bisexuality as "part-time homosexuality" -- religion is a choice as well, so how is "choice" a threshold for civil rights? For the wingers, their illogical reference to choice is that somehow a decision to have homosexual sex is a choice, yet heterosexual attraction/sex is not, it's God-ordained appropriate fitting of parts with a goal (procreation), and therefore any other sexual activity is against nature, Satanic, and those that participate in it are deviant. I doubt McCullough feels that he "chose" to be heterosexual.
Again -- whiny baby Kevin is upset that he's being chastised by the homos. We should be showering him with hugs, kisses, and flowers for truth-telling statements like these:
If they were to choose to engage in sex acts a thousand times over, their biological machinery would never produce what is needed - but for a different reason. There is no dysfunction in this case. Instead, the reason the sexual engagement does not work is because the necessary parts are not even present. It is the equivalent of screwing a nut onto a bolt, by using a hammer. They just don't fit.
Homosexual behavior and Christianity do not mix. From the standpoint of theory, theology, doctrine, and practice the two are totally and completely incompatible; as are adultery, pornography, bestiality, pedophilia, pre-marital sex, incest, cross dressing, multiple partner orgies and the list goes on.
For instance, a woman who engages in lesbianism will never know the joy of lovemaking that creates within her the product of that union -- an actual human life. She will never know the security of a true man protecting her from the dragons of the world and providing for her an environment where she can nurture and give love to that little life once it arrives, or the stamp of approval that God puts on such an experience. And because she and her partner know this, they must defy reason, biology and sexual function to create children and experiences that serve as faulty substitutes for that God-ordained picture.
Likewise, a man who seeks his perverse kicks by depositing the seed of life in, shall we say, non-life-giving cavities, may know orgasm, but never complete union, as he uses anatomy in ways for which the Creator did not create it.
"Jesus loves the homosexual, but he doesn't love homosexuality. This is about holding each other accountable." -- Dave Daubenmire, the founder of Minutemen United and Pass the Salt Ministries, who thinks breaking into church services to rail about the homos share "the word of God" is appropriate. (more on him below)
A "Christian" extremist group has decided to take their anti-gay message on the road and try to shake some sense into renegade churches that dare to be gay-affirming.
Members of the organization, Minutemen United, have crashed services at the First Baptist Church in Granville, Ohio every Sunday since July when, the church landed on the Minuteman hit list for hosting "Love Makes a Family," the Family Diversity Project's traveling photography exhibit of LGBT families. (Columbus Dispatch):
On one of the first Sundays, six people came to the church's 11 a.m. service and addressed the congregation during a time designated for prayer requests and comments.
[Senior pastor Rev. Kathy] Hurt said a man, who introduced himself as a minister from the New Beginnings Church in Warsaw, Ohio, started to give a sermon about how the church was acting against God's word by accepting homosexuals.
The other church on the Minuteman list was Columbus's King Avenue United Methodist Church in Columbus where the Rev. John Keeny said: "They rebuked me as a pastor for preaching that God's love is for everyone."
Alex Blaze of The Bilerico Project hits the nail on the head about these "Christians":
But this comes down to respect for people's religions, and the Religious Right always declares themselves on the side of religious freedom promulgating paranoid fantasies of police rounding up pastors after hate crimes legislations gets passed or school teachers locking away students with Bibles or whatever. But then when it comes to anyone who disagrees with them, suddenly the word "freedom" gets exposed for the window dressing that it is.
And about that Daubenmire fellow. Let's just say that he shouldn't cast stones, as his son was convicted on a child pornography charge.
Not only that, he's yet another fundie with a very odd fixation on homosexuality. He forced himself to attend a Gay Pride parade in Columbus and made these keen observations (something I blogged about back in July):
The homosexual leadership, those who work iniquity, has done a great public relations job. They have convinced us that Tommy and Billy who live down the street are the real face of homosexuality. Sadly, as those who walked into the den of iniquity with us on Saturday can attest, the under-belly of sodomy is a despicable thing to see. A friend once told me that I should never go to a meat packing shop and watch hot-dogs being made. If I did, he warned me, I would never eat another hot-dog as long as I lived.
The same can be said for the sodomite parade. The "meat" on display will forever change the way you view homosexuality. Sin has no boundaries, no clutch, and no emergency brake. Once you dip your toe into the pool of sin, especially sexual sin, there is a magnetism that will not let go. The debauchery parading down our public streets is abominable.
[NOTE FROM JOHN: I speak Italian, and the word the Italian politician is using is not "faggot," it's "ass-f*cker." Oh, and the only reason I'm using the little star is because a few Internet filters have classified us as an adult site, read: porn - hoping to avoid that in the future.]
And we were worried about Jim Naugle's proposed $250K robojohn in Ft. Lauderdale to halt imaginary gay bathroom sex. Take a look at what right-wing pol Giancarlo Gentilini, the deputy mayor of the Italian town of Treviso proposed in a TV interview:
"I will immediately give orders to my forces so that they can carry out an ethnic cleansing of faggots," Gentilini told the station in an interview.
"The faggots must go to other [places] where they are welcome. Here in Treviso there is no chance for faggots or the like."
There were nearly 1000 people in front of city hall protesting the outrageous comments, and calling for Gentilini's resignation. There's a video (in Italian), for those willing to translate.
It looks like the tourism industry in Fort Lauderdale is so worried about taking a hit because of homo-obsessed Mayor Jim Naugle's outrageous anti-gay statements that members of the commission have signed a letter declaring that the area is gay-friendly. It's hard to hear that message when the mayor advocated for the installation of $250K robojohns to halt imaginary beach restroom sex (gay male sex, that is).
Commissioners called the outspoken Mayor bigoted and said his remarks were despicable, but even had they officially censured him it would have no effect. Although Fort Lauderdale is within the county, as a separate city with its own council the county can exercise no control over the resort town or its politicians.
But as concerns mount of a possible tourist boycott the commissioners said they want the worldwide LGBT community to know they disagree with Naugle. County Mayor Josephus Eggelletion and all 9 commissioners signed a letter voicing their support for gays.
...So concerned is the tourism industry over the potential fallout the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau is using paid media watchers in New York and Europe to see how far the story is spreading.
Naugle doesn't give a damn.
Naugle dismissed the county move, telling the Sun-Sentinel that the county has no influence on him. "I have only spoken the truth, and sometimes the truth hurts but it needs to be said," Naugle told the paper.
Here's a laff fest from activeChristianmedia.com -- videos of support for Jim Naugle. Have tissues ready as you weep with laughter.
What's so ridiculous is that the videos portray the LGBT activists as in favor of sex in public restrooms, when that's obviously not the case. The rally is about the embarrassment heaped by Naugle on their city; he continues his homobigoted bleating even though the police have said there have been no reports of this imagined orgy of men in public beach restrooms.
It just keeps getting better and better. This is just pathetic. Just days after his guilty plea for cruising an undercover officer in the mens room of the Minneapolis airport, Larry Craig wrote a constituent a letter propping up the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. 
A little recap for schadenfreude lovers. It was a bad time for cruising for homophobic Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), who pleaded guilty on August 8 to a disorderly conduct charge after his arrest in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in June. 
[S]exual behavior is entirely a choice and something they can control - and race is not.