Why We Should Be Taxing Churches

A piece in Slate makes a good case for why we should be taxing churches - all of them.  To the list of taxed organizations should be added in my opinion all of the quasi-religious organizations such as NOM, FRC, AFA, etc. , which are nothing more than propaganda organizations for extreme religious beliefs and which actively work against the rights and well being of other citizens.  Some might say that churches provide charitable relief to the poor and so forth.  If they can document these efforts, give them an exemption for funds actually spent on these endeavors but not on lavish church buildings and activities that do nothing to further the general welfare.  Here are highlights from the piece:

Amelia Thomson-Deveaux has a great piece about religious groups that are trying to remove restrictions on church-based electioneering. She suggests that rather than gutting the rules, there's a simple fix, "Religious leaders who want the liberty to endorse candidates can give up their churches’ tax deduction."

I would go one further. Let's tax churches! All of them, in a non-discriminatory way that doesn't consider faith or creed or level of political engagement. There's simply no good reason to be giving large tax subsidies to the Church of Scientology or the Diocese of San Diego or Temple Rodef Shalom in Virginia or the John Wesley African Methodist Episcopal Zion church around the corner from me. Whichever faith you think is the one true faith, it's undeniable that the majority of this church-spending is going to support false doctrines. Under the circumstances, tax subsidies for religion are highly inefficient.

What's more, even insofar as tax subsidies do target the true faith they're still a pretty bad idea. The basic problem with subsidized religion is that there's no reason to believe that religion-related expenditures enhance productivity.
Upgrading a church's physical plant doesn't enhance the soul-saving capacity of its clergy. You just get a nicer building or a grander Christmas pageant. There's nothing wrong with that. When I was young I always enjoyed the Grace Church Christmas pageant. But this is just a kind of private entertainment (comparable to spending money on snacks for your book club—and indeed what are Bible study groups but the original book clubs?) that doesn't need an implicit subsidiy.

Meanwhile, nobody thinks churches and other religious institutions should silence themselves on the important issues of the day. On the contrary, discussing moral action is at the heart of many religious enterprises. And much moral action plays itself out in the arena of politics. So trying to say that churches should get subsidy when they don't endorse candidates is de facto a kind of subsidy to religious doctrines whose views happen to lack strong partisan implications. So if your faith says "abortion should be illegal and spending on the poor should be increased and it's too bad neither candidate supports that" you're golden, but if your faith says "abortion should be legal and spending on the poor should be increased so good for Barack Obama" suddenly you're in trouble. That's perverse. Just make everyone pay taxes.

Yes, taxing churches would put some parishes and congregations out of business.   But why should I be indirectly subsidizing a religion that hates me or teaches in my opinion false views and lies?  Put churches out in the market place and let them compete like every other business - religion is, in truth big business, just look at Pat Robertson and the many sleazy televangelists who fleece people via cable TV on a weekly basis. If their "product" sells, they will survive.  If not, then they can end up on the trash heap of history.

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Why the GOP May Lose Virginia’s Statehouse

The more one knows about GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli and his equally extreme running mates - E.W Jackson, in my opinion needs to be in a mental ward - the more one should be disturbed by the fact that this trio of crazies (pictured above) were even nominated.  This year's GOP statewide ticket speaks volumes about just how far the Republican Party has fallen.  Ignorance, bigotry and frightening religious extremism and a contempt for the U. S. Constitution are deemed virtues in today's GOP.  And with luck, Virginians will defeat these extremists in November and save Virginia from retreating into a lapse back to the 1950's or earlier.  An story in The Daily Beast looks at why the GOP may crash and burn in November.  Here are highlights:

The conventional wisdom on the Virginia gubernatorial race can be summed up in a single sentence: Terry McAuliffe is too weak to beat anyone other than Ken Cuccinelli, who likewise is too weak to beat anyone other than Terry McAuliffe. This, however, is a little unfair to McAuliffe.

Tea Party-favorite Cuccinelli is a rigid extremist, whose slavish devotion to his ideology has made him vulnerable in a state that prides itself on political independence. Which is why, if the latest poll from Quinnipiac University is any indication, the conventional wisdom is wrong—McAuliffe is stronger than expected, and Cuccinelli is much weaker than anyone imagined.

According to Quinnipiac, McAuliffe leads Cuccinelli by six points among likely voters, 48 percent to 42 percent. This is big news. So far, Quinnipiac is the only pollster to look beyond registered voters, where Democrats have an edge. The likely voter pool, by contrast, is smaller, whiter, and in the case of Virginia gubernatorial elections, much older. If past elections are any guide, a likely voter poll should have given Cuccinelli a small advantage over his opponent. For now, however, he’s at a significant disadvantage.

There’s more. At the same time “the Macker” is winning almost every Democrat (only one percent opposed), Cuccinelli is losing six percent of Republicans.  And indeed, recent news suggests that the state’s GOP establishment—or at least, a portion of it—has turned against the attorney general, repelled by his extremism and rigidity.
Cuccinelli has one other problem, and that’s his connection to the “gifts” scandal that has engulfed Gov. Bob McDonnell with questions, controversy, and a federal investigation. 

As always, it’s still early, and there are a lot of things that can change. Right now, however, the conventional wisdom doesn’t look so wise. The Virginia gubernatorial race isn’t one weak candidate against another, it’s one weak candidate against a disaster of an opponent, representing a Virginia Republican Party on the verge of collapse.

Turn out is critical and it is crucial that every sane Virginian, every woman who wants control over her own body, ever minority voter who fears disenfranchisement, and every gay who doesn't want to be re-criminalized needs to get out and vote against the GOP ticket in November.  We cannot sit back and assume that Cuccinelli, et al will lose.

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Antonin Scalia Calls Gays an "Invented Minority"

Some describe Antonin Scalia as the "intellectual leader" of the conservative faction on the U. S. Supreme Court.  Candidly, a close minded, bigoted old grump who wants the Constitution to conform to his own prejudices is a more apt description of the man.  Now, speaking a meeting sponsored by the Federalist Society, Scalia is describing and once again arguing  the rights of minorities should be left to the whims - or more correctly, the tyranny - of the majority.  gays as an "invented minority" As I have noted before, the man needs to retire or be removed from the Court.  Here are highlights from Talking Points Memo:

The U.S. Supreme Court is making decisions that should be left to Congress or the people, from wiretapping to “inventing” new classes of minorities, Justice Antonin Scalia said Monday.

In an apparent reference to the court’s recent decisions on gay marriage and benefits for same-sex couples, Scalia said it is not the function of the courts to create exceptions outside the Constitution unless a majority of people agree with them.

“It’s not up to the courts to invent new minorities that get special protections,” Scalia told a packed hotel ballroom in southwestern Montana.

Changes to the Constitution were made to protect minorities and to give women the right to vote, but that’s not how the court operates today, he said.  Rather, a majority of five judges decide issues that should be in the hands of Congress or made through a change to the Constitution.

 Per the Billings Gazette this also:

Scalia, considered an intellectual leader of the Supreme Court’s conservative wing, said the court’s justices are no better suited to decide what rights ought to exist than is “Joe Sixpack.”

“These aren’t questions for lawyers,” he said. “These are the kind of questions that society debates and decides.”

Many of his comments centered on his cause of interpreting the “original meaning” of the U.S. Constitution and its amendments, which he said spell out clearly defined rights that should not be embellished by the courts.

“I’m just pointing out what happens when you don’t stick to the original meaning of the Constitution,” he said. “The court makes an amazing amount of decisions that ought to be made by the people.”

Let's be clear, Scalia believes in the tyranny of the majority - unless, of course, it differs with his own bigotry.

 

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AFA's Sany Rios: the Face of Bigotry (and Insanity)

Since it's Sunday morning, it's timely to look at some of the batshit craziness being spewed by the "godly Christian" crowd.  Always a contender for the title as one of the most hate filled and virulently anti-gay members is Sandy Rios, of the certified hate group, American Family Association.  Rios like most of the Chriatofascists has a bizarre fixation on gays and gay sex whether it's because she secretly longs to have some gay sex of her own or because we threaten her flimsy faith  system is hard to discern.  The woman needs a mental health care intervention in my view.  Right Wing Watch looks at Rios' latest explosion of verbal diarrhea.  Not surprisingly, the always racist Rios attacks Barack Obama as well.  Here are highlights:

After denouncing First Amendment protections for Muslim-Americans, American Family Association talk show host Sandy Rios saidthat despite the political setbacks of the Religious Right, “God will even the score” with President Obama and “homosexual activists.” She said that Obama and “homosexual activists” will be punished in the end for “breaking all kinds of moral laws and mocking everyone in the process.”

I would not want to be in the shoes of any of the left right now. I would not want to be in Barack Obama’s shoes. I would not want to be in the shoes of homosexual activists. I say that with humility and with fear for them because God will even the score, he will sort things out, he will be God and he will not be mocked. Whereas they think they are getting away with breaking all kinds of moral laws and mocking everyone in the process, they just don’t know God, they don’t know who they are up against and we do. And that should bring out some mercy in us because I wouldn’t want to be—what did that old evangelist say: ‘it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.

Personally, I love her reference to "that old evangelist."   We have no idea who actually wrote the books of the New Testament other than it wasn't those to whom they are attributed and we know the Bible has been manipulated and re-edited over and over again over the course of the first 1,000 years of the Church.   As for "God punishing" Obama and gay activists, Rios is unclear as to whether she is call for far right nutcases to inflict the punishment as instruments of God or if that will only happen on the supposed Judgment Day.  The woman is insane and she's dangerous in that she spews hate and venom that could incite violence.

I would not want to be in the shoes of any of the left right now. I would not want to be in Barack Obama’s shoes. I would not want to be in the shoes of homosexual activists. I say that with humility and with fear for them because God will even the score, he will sort things out, he will be God and he will not be mocked. Whereas they think they are getting away with breaking all kinds of moral laws and mocking everyone in the process, they just don’t know God, they don’t know who they are up against and we do. And that should bring out some mercy in us because I wouldn’t want to be—what did that old evangelist say: ‘it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rios-god-will-even-score-obama-and-gays#sthash.rpj2Sdvi.dpuf

I would not want to be in the shoes of any of the left right now. I would not want to be in Barack Obama’s shoes. I would not want to be in the shoes of homosexual activists. I say that with humility and with fear for them because God will even the score, he will sort things out, he will be God and he will not be mocked. Whereas they think they are getting away with breaking all kinds of moral laws and mocking everyone in the process, they just don’t know God, they don’t know who they are up against and we do. And that should bring out some mercy in us because I wouldn’t want to be—what did that old evangelist say: ‘it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rios-god-will-even-score-obama-and-gays#sthash.rpj2Sdvi.dpuf

After denouncing First Amendment protections for Muslim-Americans, American Family Association talk show host Sandy Rios said that despite the political setbacks of the Religious Right, “God will even the score” with President Obama and “homosexual activists.” She said that Obama and “homosexual activists” will be punished in the end for “breaking all kinds of moral laws and mocking everyone in the process.” - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rios-god-will-even-score-obama-and-gays#sthash.rpj2Sdvi.dpuf

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Russia Confirms Anti-Gay Law Will Be Enforced at Olympics

Russia seemingly is striving to create an impasse with western public opinion and  to force the International Olympic Committee to either repeat the moral bankruptcy it displayed in 1936 or to move the 2014 Winter Games.  How else to explain the new statement by Russia's Interior Ministry that the country's new anti-gay laws will be enforced during the games and that both athletes and tourists will be arrested under the draconian laws backed by the Russian Orthodox Church.  IT IS TIME TO MOVE THE GAMES. Here are highlights from state controlled RIA Novosti:

MOSCOW, August 12 (R-Sport) – Russia's Interior Ministry, which controls the police force, confirmed Monday that the country's controversial anti-gay law will be enforced during the Sochi 2014 Olympics.

Confusion has reigned over how the country intends to act during the February 7-23 Winter Games after President Vladimir Putin signed legislation in June that bans the promotion of homosexuality to minors.

Minister Vitaly Mutko to insist no one is exempt from the law.

Many have raised concerns about the vague definition of promoting homosexuality to minors.
IOC president Jacques Rogge said last week he would ask for clarification on the issue before his organization takes a stance.

Some gay advocacy groups backed by public figures such as British writer and TV star Stephen Fry have called for a boycott of the Games, though world leaders including US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron have insisted it's the wrong way to tackle the issue.

If the IOC repeats the gutlessness it displayed in 1936, I for one will not watch a single competition on television and I will avoid the network broadcasting the event as well as the products of its advertisers.  I hope others will join me in this endeavor and that a loud message is sent to NBC and advertisers.  

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The Tea Party Vision: Gays and Minorities Should Not Exist

I often get challenged for equating the Tea Party and the Christofascists as being more or less one and the same.  Both have hatred towards others who look different or hold differing belief and seem driven by greed as well as exhibited by their desire to slash social programs and leave millions of citizens without access to healthcare.  If Christians do not like being equated with these, in my view, vile people, then they need to open - and loudly - confront and condemn these Christofascists/Tea Party hate merchants.  As for gays, we need to understand that in the world view of these people, they literally do not want us to exist.  A piece in The New Civil Rights Movement looks at the Tea Party's anti-gay agenda.  Here are highlights:

The Tea Party has a “big picture” vision and gay people are not in it. Neither are black people, Hispanic people, or outspoken women. Why do we pretend we don’t know what they really want?

The Republicans are gathering again in Iowa this weekend at the Family Leadership Conference. Right Wing Watch compiled a list of speakers,  . . . . Right Wing Watch noted the Family Leadership conference this way:

“For anyone who anticipates that Republican presidential candidates will move towards the center in 2016, this weekend’s festivities are a very loud wake up call.”

The Republican Party of Karl Rove is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tea Party. The Tea Party accomplished this takeover by instilling in every elected Republican a testicle-shrinking fear of a primary challenger coming at him from the right. The Republicans of old, except for Ronald Reagan, who they like to pretend shared their stone-hearted philosophy, are no longer relevant.

This new Tea Party controlled Republican Party does not want to attract any “ethnic” people to its membership. They do not want black people to join. They do not want Hispanics to join. They do not want people who aren’t Christian, and they especially do not want Muslims. They do not want women who don’t know how to be “demure” and “feminine”, and they do not want new gay Republicans. To the contrary, they have done everything but put a plank in the party platform pledging to reinstate sodomy laws,

When the Tea Partiers talk about “taking my country back”, it’s true they yearn for a time when white made right. But it isn’t true that they want to go back to slavery, or ship black citizens “back to Africa.” They think there is a way to return to a time when people of color stayed in their ethnic ghettos and white people had the rest of the country to themselves, and in their minds, everyone got along just fine. 

The Tea Party vision is to establish a “Christian Country”. But they have adopted a  modern standard of Christian conduct, where everyone is armed just as Jesus and the apostles would have been, had firearms been an option in 18 AD. Things would have gone a lot differently for Judas and Pontius Pilate if Jesus and his boys had been packing AK-47s.

Those who want public schools, and there are many who don’t, want them to teach a Christian curriculum, and students to be led daily in Christian prayer. They aren’t going to insist every student join in. They are willing to tolerate other faiths in the name of freedom of religion. But they want non-Christians to do their misguided worshiping quietly. In a Tea Party country, their Christian way would be the government sanctioned way, and all laws great and small would have to be in agreement with the Christian bible.

They want schools where science takes a back seat to Bible studies. Where evolution is given the same weight as creationism. And where bullies are given a pass provided they are motivated by a deeply held religious belief that suspected gay kids should be given swirlies.

[T]hey are opposed to the government offering any relief. They call it “redistributing wealth”. Making sure your baby’s belly is full should not be the government’s concern. Taxes are for bombs and soldiers, and executing criminals, not for school lunches and Head Start. In a Tea Party America, not a dime would go to help the “takers.
 
It’s a grand vision, and they are executing it while our political pundits pretend they are merely a bunch of conservative leaning folks who are concerned about the deficit.

If it’s true that “By their fruits ye will know them”, the Tea Party fruits are rotten to the core. The Tea Party infested Republicans are no longer the “loyal opposition” keeping a check on power. It’s time we start talking about them as the threat to domestic tranquility that they have become.

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Was The American Revolution A Flop?

The mere title to this post will cause hysteria amongst the chest beating uber- patriot crowd who constantly proclaim that America is the greatest nation on earth,  regardless of many statistics that suggest otherwise - e,g., our life expectancy is less than in a number of developed nations, our infant mortality is much higher than in many countries, our prisons are overflowing, many of our citizens have inferior legal rights compared to in some nations, a fact known all too well by gays, etc.,  But the post title does raises some much needed questions that a true American patriot might want to ask himself/herself.  Sometimes being patriotic means not being the mindless cheerleader and instead asking questions some would prefer not be asked and/or exposing America's sins.  A column in the Washington Post looks at the results of the American Revolution from a foreign perspective.  Here are highlights:

The easiest way of assessing whether the United States would have been better off without its revolution is to look at those English-speaking countries that rejected the American Revolution and retained the monarchy, particularly Canada, which experienced an influx of American refugees after the British defeat. The U.S. performance should also be assessed against the ideals the new country set for itself — namely, advancing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The new republic started advancing life and liberty by keeping a substantial part of its population enslaved. (This, at least, proves the frequent British put-down that Americans don’t have a sense of irony.) By contrast, in British-controlled Canada, the abolition of slavery began almost 20 years before the War of 1812, sometimes called America’s “Second Revolution.” A good number of free blacks fought with the British against the United States in that conflict, even participating in the burning of Washington. And if, as some scholars argue, the Civil War was the unfinished business of the American Revolution, then Americans — like the Russians — paid a very high human cost for their revolutions.

[T]he International Centre for Prison Studies ranks the United States ranks first in the world in the number of prisoners per 100,000 residents. That’s well ahead of Canada (which ranks 136th) and even Russia. The U.S. incarceration rate for African American men, which is about six times higher than that of white men, according to 2010 data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, points to yet more unfinished business.

Most Americans work longer hours and have fewer paid vacations and benefits — including health care — than their counterparts in most advanced countries. Consider also that in the CIA World Factbook, the United States ranks 51st in life expectancy at birth. Working oneself into an early grave does not do much for one’s happiness quotient. This year the United States tied for 14th in “life satisfaction” on an annual quality-of-life study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That puts the United States behind Canada (eighth) and Australia (12th).  


Which brings us to the related matter of the revolution’s long-term impact on politics. While the Canadian, Australian and British governments have shown they can get things done, including passing tough austerity budgets in recent years, the norm in Washington has become paralyzing partisanship and gridlock.

In these senses, the American Revolution was a flop. Perhaps it’s time for Americans to accept that their revolution was a failure and renounce it. (For their part, many Russians have.)

Alternatively, rather than being wedded to every practice or institution that arose from the revolution, however counterproductive or dysfunctional today, perhaps Americans can rekindle some of the boldness of the nation’s Founders to create a “more perfect” and happier union. 

Last Fourth of July, while I visited sweltering-but-beautiful Washington, I came across an inscription in the Jefferson Memorial in which the third president warned against allowing institutions to calcify: “I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. . . . [W]ith the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.”

I am not anti-American.  In many ways America IS a great country.  But it could be much better.  The best honor and respect that we can show to the Founding Fathers is to continue their work to make America keep pace with the times and changing knowledge and circumstances.  The irony is that nowadays those who are the biggest obstacles to this are those who claim loudly to love America the most.  Yes, you guessed it.  The GOP base, the Tea Party and, of course, the Christofascists who are the antithesis of what Jefferson, et al, believed.

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Obama Follows on Gay Rights -- Again

I've noted before that I keep having a feeling of deja vu this year as once again Barack Obama seems to be in dithering mode rather than a leadership mode on issues important to the Democrat Party base and on gay issues in particular.  It's the same thing that we saw in 2009 and it helped insure a GOP sweep of statewide office here in Virginia.  Hopefully, this year will see a different result in November given the abject insanity of the GOP ticket, but Obama is not helping matters.  A piece in Politico looks at Obama's lack of leadership on LGBT issues, particularly ENDA.  In 29 states gays can be fired at will, yet Obama won't even sign an executive order that would protect federal workers in gay hating states like Virginia.  Here are some article highlights:

Activists for same-sex marriage could use a master grass-roots campaigner as they take their fight from the Supreme Court out into the states – but they’re not going to hold their breath for Barack Obama to lead the charge.

Even Obama’s greatest contribution to the gay-rights cause was a passive one: He chose not to have his Justice Department defend the constitutionality of DOMA in court. And his first public statement after the law was struck down was out of the smartphone of a DOMA challenger – not the pomp of a Rose Garden ceremony.

For now, Obama is focused on the ruling. As he traveled aboard Air Force One to Africa, Obama applauded the court’s decision and said he was directing his Cabinet to “review all relevant federal statutes to ensure this decision, including its implications for federal benefits and obligations, is implemented swiftly and smoothly.”

Yes, I am being hard on Obama.  But the reality is that for gays in 37 states, our relationships still receive no legal recognition and in 29 states we can be fired at will by the "godly Christian" folks.   Being treated as a second class citizen gets old and has a corrosive effect.

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Will The DOMA Decision Have a Ripple Effect?

Justice Anthony Kennedy

One thing is clear in the wake of yesterday's Supreme Court rulings on gay rights: there is still a great deal of work to be done in states like Virginia where legal recognition of gay relations is banned by the state constitution, where gays can be fired at will from their jobs and where we still face housing discrimination and all too often homophobic judges.  Thus, while yesterday gave rise to reasons to celebrate, the reality here in Virginia is that little has really changed.  LGBT Virginians remain second class - fourth class? - citizens.  Will the DOMA ruling help to set a movement for change in motion?  A piece in Politico looks at this question.  Here are excerpts:

The Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decisions managed to do the impossible: get gay rights advocates and conservative Justice Antonin Scalia to agree.

Writing for the majority striking down the Defense of Marriage Act, Justice Anthony Kennedy was unsparing, declaring that the law’s “purpose and effect [is] to disparage and to injure” those in same-sex marriages, subjecting them to “a stigma” that “humiliates tens of thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples.”

Kennedy insisted this kind of language wasn’t meant to support marriage equality litigation in future state-by-state fights, but the justice often seen as the intellectual leader of the court’s conservative wing wasn’t convinced.

“By formally declaring anyone opposed to same-sex marriage an enemy of human decency, the majority arms well every challenger to a state law restricting marriage to its traditional definition,” Scalia warned. 

Precisely, say the prospective challengers.  “Scalia’s dissent is absolutely on the money,” American Civil Liberties Union executive director Anthony Romero told POLITICO. “It’s going to open the floodgates for litigation applying equal protection standards to laws discriminating against LGBT people.”

“It gives me great joy” to find agreement with Scalia, gay rights activist and Clinton White House adviser Richard Socarides said. He said Kennedy’s withering condemnation of the motivations of same-sex marriage opponents and his lamentations about the impact of discrimination on the children of same-sex couples will be a major boon for the gay rights cause.  “I think the language is going to be extremely useful because it’s very powerful and it makes clear the court takes a very dim view of laws targeting gay people,” Socarides said.

However, Kennedy’s majority opinion in the DOMA case falls short of something both gay groups and the Obama Administration asked the court to do: explicitly declare that government classifications based on sexual orientation are subject to “heightened scrutiny” by the court.

Romero called the ruling “huge” and “a tipping point, but said the ACLU will be hedging its bets on the legal impact of the decision. The civil liberties groups is pressing on with litigation in some states but also mounting a significant legislative effort to legalize gay marriage in many of the 37 states where it is not legal, and in many cases, banned.

The ACLU has hired Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, a top adviser to Sen. John McCain’s 2008 campaign, to build GOP support in the states for legislation to make gay marriage legal. “There’s support for marriage equality among Republicans ranging from moderates to the Tea Party,” Romero said, offering a pitch that casts the issue as one of “limited government.”

Romero noted that the DOMA case the court decided Wednesday left intact a portion of the 1996 law that says states can’t be forced to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. He said that means marriage rights in every state remain critical even if same-sex couples have more and more places they can tie the knot.

In short, the battle continues, although there are many days I'd like to just leave Virginia and move to a place where the boyfriend and I could be fully equal.  Sadly, many gays don't have the luxury of being able to pick up and move.   Hence we remain in backward rat holes like Virginia.

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Evangelicals to GOP: Don't Betray Us Or Else

The so-called GOP establishment continues to struggle to control the Frankenstein monster that it created in the pursuit of short sighted expediency when it allowed the evangelical Christians - the Christofascists, if you will - to begin their infiltrating of the local city and county committees 15 to 20 years ago or more.  Now, the anti-modernity, open embrace of ignorance and religious based hate and bigotry of the Christofascists is making the GOP non-competitive at at least the national level.  Yet, the Christofascist continue to demand that the GOP surrender to them and push their extremist agenda.  Nowhere do we see this more than on the issues of abortion and gay rights.  In the context of abortion, it is the Christofascists who are ultimately responsible for the GOP's war on women.  The same holds true for opposition to any rights for gay Americans even though more than 50% of young Republicans - or at least those who haven't yet fled the GOP - support gay marriage.  As Politico notes, on abortion, the swamp fever ridden Christofascist (perhaps rabid dogs is a better analogy) are threatening the GOP if it doesn't continue to do their bidding.  Here are story highlights:

After Todd Akin last year and Trent Franks this week, abortion is about the last topic many national Republicans want the political conversation to focus on.

Yet social conservatives in town this week for the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference say the GOP would be making a grave mistake to ignore the hot-button culture war issue. To the contrary, they believe it’s key to the party’s fortunes in the 2014 midterms and beyond.

The Republican National Committee’s 100-page “autopsy” report in March, packed with recommendations for how the party can recover after its 2012 losses, did not make reference to abortion. “When it comes to social issues,” it stated, “the Party must in fact and deed be inclusive and welcoming. If we are not, we will limit our ability to attract young people and others, including many women, who agree with us on some but not all issues.”

Still, some GOP politicians are responding to the call of social conservatives to take a more aggressive stand on abortion — even as Democrats sound the alarm about a Republican “a war on women” and after Mitt Romney lost by double digits among female voters.

Next week the House will debate a bill that would ban most abortions after 20 weeks, even though the measure could never clear the Senate or receive the support of President Barack Obama.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a likely presidential candidate, is poised to sign a law requiring women to undergo an ultrasound before being allowed to go through with abortions. Ohio’s Republican legislature passed a budget last week aimed at making abortions more difficult.

[E]vangelicals in town for the three-day faith conference warned that the party must give them reasons to mobilize in 2014.   “If they want to just run on economic issues, you’re not going to get the church people,” said Bob West of Tallahassee, Fla., wearing a yellow tie with the words “Choose Life” on it. “That’s the bottom line.”

The rank-and-file believe the steadfastness of the party’s opposition to abortion is a reflection of its character.  “If they back away from that, they’ll never win another election,” said Regina Brown, the national prayer coordinator for the Faith and Freedom Coalition. “Our numbers are in the church.”

The pervasive belief among speakers and attendees at the conference is that not talking about social issues hurts more than the occasional gaffes that get such intense media attention.

Having been actively involved in the GOP when the Christofascist takeover began, I have no sympathy for those in the GOP who are now reaping what they sowed.  The evangelical base is down right insane, worships ignorance and bigotry, is theocratic and anti-democratic, and is a clear and present danger to constitutional government.   They are not nice people and they deserve no deference, especially from anyone who has taken an oath to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution.

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Ralph Northam and Mark Herring to Face GOP Extremists E. W. Jackson and Mark Obenshain

Lt. Governor Candidate Ralph Northam

The Democratic primary today decided who will face off against GOP whack job "Bishop" E. W. Jackson for Lt. Governor and the GOP's Mark "Women Must Report Miscarriages or Go to Jail" Obenshain for Attorney General.  (I put the word bishop in quotation marks before Jackson's name because it seems that in some of these "start your own church" non-denominational churches anyone can become a bishop).  The Democrat contender for Lt. Governor will be Senator Ralph Northam who currently represents portions of Southside Hampton Roads and  the Eastern Shore.  For Attorney General the Democrat candidate is Mark Herring whom I have met and found to be impressive.  I have known Northam for some time and actually was a donor for his campaign kick off event. 

Sadly, it was a low turn out primary for the Democrats although it is certainly possible that in both races Democrats felt that either Democrat contestant was light years better than the GOP alternative.  The good news for LGBT Virginians is that both Northam and Herring support LGBT rights.  On his campaign website, Northam has stated as follows on the issue of gay marriage:

There is no excuse to discriminate against Virginians based on whom they love or to stigmatize the children of same-sex couples as unequal because their parents cannot marry. I recently met with a constituent who broke down in tears because his gay son’s love would be treated as second-class. This discrimination and callousness must end. We must cherish and promote ALL Virginia families and children across the Commonwealth. That is why I will continue to fight for marriage equality,” 

As noted above, I have met Mark Herring in person and have had an opportunity to chat with him.  His campaign site includes the following:

Mark will use the power of the Attorney General to support initiatives to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Virginians from discrimination and disparate treatment in state and local agencies and programs. 

He will reverse the opinion issued by then Attorney General Bob McDonnell that says the Governor does not have the authority to issue an executive order protecting LGBT workers in state government from discrimination. Mark believes that the Governor, as chief personnel officer, clearly has this power as exercised by both Governors Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, and he will issue an opinion that confirms that the new Governor is authorized by law to offer the protection of an executive order to all state employees.

Mark will adopt a nondiscrimination policy for the Office of Attorney General that protects all employees from discrimination and includes sexual orientation and gender identity. As a member of the State Senate, Mark has co-sponsored legislation that would codify protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity for all public workers. He will continue to support this legislative effort as Attorney General.

In November, turnout will be critical because the Christofascist base of the Virginia GOP is motivated. The triumvirate of crazies and religious extremists nominated by the GOP  is the dream ticket of the theocrats at The Family Foundation and that organization will use its toxic network of far right pastors and anti-gay churches to turn out the Kool-Aid drinkers on election day.  If Democrats are complacent, Virginia could find itself election the most extreme and frighten ticket in Virginia's history.  Virginia's gays, women and minorities must mobilize to prevent this from happening.

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