The John Plays the Fox ‘News’ Game of ‘Some Say…’

Not with that exact verbiage, but you’ll get the idea in this excerpt from a piece about the ENDA blame game that is ramping up:

[T]here’s this:

Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, also blamed Republicans for the failure to advance ENDA in the Senate. She also cited what she called a “general dysfunction” in the chamber as a problem.

“It’s certainly not all about ENDA,” she said. “It’s certainly, certainly not about transgender inclusion in ENDA. They can’t get campaign finance reform through, they can’t get, sometimes, job bills through.”

That’s not what I’ve been hearing.

On the one hand, it truly is hard to find fault with The John for, at least on principle, not believing things that emerge from the Head Quack at the Quisling Quacktory.

On the other hand, “Thats not what I’ve been hearing” sounds more than a little bit like the (if it wasn’t, then it should have been) patented “Some say…” trick of Fox ‘News’.  And, when one considers the gay-first-including-gay-marriage-and-yes-that-means-that-you’d-better-not-suggest-that-incremental-progress-applies-to-gay-marriage greed mentality of those who share space in The John’s echo chamber, I can actually believe that all he’s been hearing is how ‘that e-vul trans-scum’ is mussing up ‘their’ ENDA.

Meanwhile, back in reality….

How to Observe Day of Remembrance This Year? Help a Transphobic Gay Male Exploitation Artist Line His Diseased Pockets

I surfed over to this Fangoria page from a post by Kelli Busey – a post that I’d hoped was a satirical sequel to my Myra Breckinridge Luna-Tick post.

But, alas…

One of the most controversial films shown at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year was TICKED-OFF TRANNIES WITH KNIVES, a horror-revenge film that ticked off certain members of the transgendered community itself. Now it’s poised to provoke some more, as it has a North American distributor.

Breaking Glass Pictures gave Fango the scoop that it has acquired the rights to the movie, and plans theatrical screenings during the Halloween season, followed by DVD/video-on-demand release in November.

That’s right….

Make sure that your community’s DOR observance is the first to include a screening of a film that, whether any of the Luna-Tick’s conspirators and/or apologists acknowledge it or not, is designed to encourage violence against trans women!

Appletini!

The “U.K. Buys the Janice Raymond-Consecrated Transphobia of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival and Vancouver Rape Relief” Act of 2010

Strangely enough, that’s not the official name of a recent creation of Parliament – one that makes the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 not worth the paper its printed on (and the gender recognition certificates that that 2004 act allows for worth even less than that.) 

Perversely, the official name is the “Equality Act.”

Here’s what Zoe Brain has to say about it:

[T]here is one “protected” class where protection is explicitly removed, not granted. It means that a gender recognition certificate is not worth the paper it’s printed on. Rather than being a recognition that they are of the target gender, it’s a nullity, as the law states that they’re not, not really. This is made clear in the explanatory notes.:

…

Example
A group counselling session is provided for female victims of sexual assault. The organisers do not allow transsexual people to attend as they judge that the clients who attend the group session are unlikely to do so if a male-to-female transsexual person was also there. This would be lawful.
…
Schedule 9: Work: exceptions
Part 1: Occupational requirements

A counsellor working with victims of rape might have to be a woman and not a transsexual person, even if she has a gender recognition certificate, in order to avoid causing them further distress.

The provisions of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 that over-rode that 1975 act have now been repealed. There is a distinction between “women” and “transsexual persons with (or without) gender recognition certificates” now.

Okay, so Zoe and I have different qualitative assessments as to what is worth a piece of paper and what is worth less.

Nevertheless, I think we have a similarly negative assessment as to the reality of what the Anti-GRA Act is.  Zoe, however, captures it more brilliantly with a comparative graphic than I can with legalese:

I think I’ll give it a try…

This is an acceptable woman:

But this isn’t:

Ah  yes…

It all makes perfect sense.

Now…

Where is my ‘Alix Dobkin Cassette’ suppository?

The Eyes of (the State Bar of) Texas Are Upon the Lawyer Who is Trying to Nullify Nikki Araguz’s Marriage and Life

Lack of ethics, much?  From the Houston Press:

Frank Mann, the lawyer representing Thomas Araguz’s ex-wife, is facing investigation by the State Bar of Texas’s disciplinary office for a possible ethics violation related to an e-mail he sent “outing” the widow, Nikki Araguz, during her mayoral campaign.

Mann represented Araguz and her first husband in a 2002 bankruptcy case. Earlier this year, he represented Heather Delgado, Thomas Araguz’s ex-wife, in a bitter custody dispute, and is now representing her in a motion to void Nikki’s and Thomas’ 2008 marriage.

In an April deposition of Nikki Araguz, Mann got her to admit that she was born Justin Graham Purdue; he also asked about her medical history. Mann then used the information in a May 6 e-mail titled “Public Information on Nikki Araguz who is running for Mayor of Wharton, Texas.”

Possible ethics violation?

And – since this blog isn’t a court of law, Frank Mann’s past can be brought in to convict him in the court of public opinion…

you know, the way he disclosed information about Nikki in order to sabotage her campaign?  And now to sabotage her legal interests?  The difference is, of course, evn though I am a lawyer, this clown wasn’t my client – and I definitely didn’t learn this info via attorney-client confidentiality:

It’s not Mann’s first dance with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel: in 1990, Mann agreed to a fully probated 36-month suspension for “misrepresentations of fact concerning the dates of his hospitalization for alcohol and substance abuse in an affidavit offered in support of a motion to retain.” (The suspension was stayed; he was allowed to actively practice, but was placed on probation.) The Office of Disciplinary Counsel also ruled that, in one case, Mann “assigned away 100 percent of any attorney’s fees” and then “intervened in the pending lawsuit, claiming an interest in attorney’s fees.”

In 1997, Mann was suspended for five and a half years and was not eligible to practice for the first 36 months. In that case, among other things, the Counsel found that Mann’s paralegal “affixed [a] client’s signature from a prior document to a proposed modification, without the client’s consent.” Mann wasn’t in the office at the time, but he was “responsible supervision and instruction of his staff and for ensuring that his staff follows the law and the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct.”

Okay – the paralegal thing doesn’t necessarily call into question his honesty, just his competence at overseeing his employees.

According to Mann:

all of the information in his May 6 e-mail was gleaned from the deposition, and not from his earlier representation of Araguz and her first husband.

…

He also said that, when he represented Nikki Araguz in the 2002 bankruptcy, he did not know anything about her sexual identity and only focused on financial matters.

To be absolutely fair: Yes, its is possible that that is accurate.

Really.

If I can find a bookie who’ll give me odds, however, I’ll put $20 down against it.  Sadly, I suspect the ‘official’ paper trail will not yield the type of dot-connecting that will force the State Bar to disbar the guy.  Nevertheless, I have trouble believing that in 2002 the subject of any and all former names of a bankruptcy petitioner was never discussed during either the proceedings themselves or at some point during representation of that petitioner.

Christianism is as Christianism Does

Oooooooooohhhhhhhhh, but its the Kweeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrzzzzzzzzzz who are evil, eh?

Right.

From WREG in Memphis:

Memphis city council member Janis Fullilove has received multiple death threats related to her efforts to ban discrimination against gays in city government.

Police think the threats are serious enough have increased patrols around her home to keep her safe. All four calls came Tuesday and each call mentioned the proposed employee non-discrimination ordinance. Someone also threw a dead cat on her lawn. Each phone call mentioned her support for banning discrimination against gays in city government. Distraught, Fullilove reached out to Jonathan Cole with the Tennessee Equality Project.

“She essentially said that they were threatening to kill her,” said Cole, who thinks the death threats are just another example of intolerance in Memphis. “It’s scary and our city needs to stand up to this kind of ugliness.”

Tennessee stand up to theocratic fascists?  I’m not holding my breath.

Why Can’t the MSM be This Honest and This Direct?

Oh, silly me…

Its the MSM after all.  News a priority?  Not over profits.

From Mike Whitney at CounterPunch:

The Conference Board’s confidence index dropped to a 5-month low of 50.4 from 54.3 in June. According to Bloomberg News:

“Sentiment may be slow to improve until companies start adding to payrolls at a faster rate, and the Federal Reserve projects unemployment will take time to decline. Today’s figures showed income expectations at their lowest point in more than a year, posing a risk for consumer spending that accounts for 70 per cent of the economy.

“Consumers’ faith in the economic recovery is failing,” said guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia, whose forecast of 50.3 for the confidence index was the closest among economists surveyed by Bloomberg. “The job market is slow and volatile, and it’ll be 2013 before we see any semblance of normality in the labor market.” (Bloomberg)

Confidence is falling because unemployment is soaring, because the media is lying, and because the Fed’s monetary policy has failed. Notice that Bloomberg does not mention consumer worries over “curbing the deficits”. In truth, the public has only a passing interest in the large deficits. It’s a fictitious problem invented by rich corporatists (and their think tanks) who want to apply austerity measures so they can divert more public money to themselves. In the real world, consumer confidence relates to one thing alone–jobs. And when the jobs market stinks, confidence plummets.

How long would Brian Williams keep his job if he spoke this reality on the Help General Electric Keep Its Defense Contracts Nightly Propaganda Dose?

Why Does Anyone Interview Log Cabin Republicans About Anything?

From a Queer Channel Media piece about Joe Solmonese’s toilet paper ENDA:

R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, dismissed the notion that Republicans were holding up ENDA in the Senate and said “only the current Senate majority leadership can truly answer” why ENDA isn’t on the calendar.

“Blaming the minority leadership for the majority’s disorganization and lack of planning this year is simplistic and, frankly, lazy,” Cooper said. “Both sides of the aisle are frustrated with the lack of activity.”

How about just going ahead and interviewing Tony Perkins and Lou Sheldon for some more ‘balance’, eh QCM?  Its bad enough that QCM interviewed Quisling McNothingburger – as if that head of the Quisling Quacktory speaks for any trans lifeform outside of the Court of the Quimson Quisling – but a clown from an organization that is inherently a joke (as opposed to the Quisling Quacktory; after all, in theory, an organization with ‘transgender equality’ in its name only becomes a joke via Quisling Contwowl)?  Is Chris Crain back on the payroll?

FINALLY!!!!!!!

From Crooks and Liars:

Shirley Sherrod plans to sue Andrew Breitbart for defamation

Weekly, er…, Double Standard

Someday, an alien race from outer space will document the Earth.  That documentation will likely include a dictionary of its various languages – including English.

When that dictionary is produced, the the words “lie” and “joke” will have the same illustration:

Fair and Balanced

The Fox ‘News’ logo by itself won’t suffice, given that its not the only practitioner of that fraud.  From They Gave us a Republic:

Matt Labash, of the neo-conservative Weekly Standard stated the right wing view on journalism accurately a few years ago: “We come with a strong point of view, and people like point-of-view journalism. While all these hand-wringing Freedom Forum types talk about objectivity, the conservative media likes to rap the liberal media on the knuckles for not being objective. We’ve created this cottage industry in which it pays to be un-objective. It pays to be subjective as much as possible. It’s a great way to have your cake and eat it, too: Criticize other people for not being objective but be as subjective as you want. It’s a great little racket. I’m glad we found it, actually.”

In the broadest sense, of course the American free press is “liberal.” The whole point of a free press in a democracy, after all, is to empower the masses by giving them access to information that enables them to both exercise political power and to hold a society’s business, professional, educational and cultural elites accountable. At the same time, a free press reflects the Enlightenment faith in human reason and the belief that truth is a journey and not a destination.

But what if you are wealthy far right reactionary, or a right wing movement, that doesn’t believe in these basic principles of a free and liberal democratic society? What if you do not believe in the Enlightenment “search” for truth since your “Truth” has already been found and has been codified in the orthodoxy of some religion or in the tenets of some political or economic ideology?

What if you do not believe in giving the masses political power but believe instead in the traditional castes and hierarchies that conservatives have always believed in throughout history, with effective power confined within the hands of safe and reliable conservative elites?

You wrap yourselves in the christian bible, starch your hair, starch your smile, fuck everything that moves (irrespective of your marital status), demonize all who have any non-marital and/or non-missionary-position sex, preach christian humility, engage in greed that would make King Midas projectile vomit, preach the sanctity of life, advocate policies of war that would make Hitler scratch is head out of confusion, preach the sanctity of the Constitution, advocate for judges who believe that the christian bible that you’ve wrapped yourself in supercedes the Supreme Law of the Land, and then you go on Fox ‘News’ and demonize anyone who accurately documents what you’re doing and how you’re doing it as ‘biased.’

Wal-Mart = Evil

A nice clearinghouse for info regarding one of the leading seeds of christofascism in America:

The Anatomy of the Walton Family’s Right Wing Agenda

With over $12 billion in profits in 2007, Wal-Mart is the biggest and arguably most influential corporation in America. The majority owners, the Waltons, are therefore also one of the most influential families with a net worth of more than $100 billion. Over the past year, we have conducted an exhaustive study of public records related to political giving by Wal-Mart and the Walton family in order to determine how this influence is used to affect politics. The conclusion is clear. The Waltons are strong supporters of an extreme right wing agenda.

There’s more – and its worth reading.