Forward…

http://endablog2.wordpress.com/

Twins, Twins, Twins…

There are these twins:

And now there are these twins:

Seriously:

[U.S. Rep. Allen West (R-Theocracy of Lame Late-1980s Haircuts)] said “he’s heard” up to 80 U.S. House Democrats are Communist Party members, but wouldn’t name names.

Yes…

Seriously.

ENDA, R.I.P.; Trans People, What are Those? – HRC Goes Full-Tilt Marriage Derangement Syndrome

Not to mention white and non-trans:

Chad Griffin, the Los Angeles-based political consultant whose central role in the Proposition 8 lawsuit turned him into a national LGBT rights figure, has been named president of the Human Rights Campaign.

…

Griffin will remain on the board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the organization he co-founded in 2009 to organize, publicize, and fund the Prop. 8 lawsuit. Bruce Cohen, a fellow AFER board member and an Academy Award-winning producer whose films include American Beauty and Milk, applauded the announcement, saying that Griffin’s new position “makes a very strong statement on behalf of HRC that they chose him to lead.”

“Chad thinks big. And then he goes out and accomplishes his goal,” Cohen said. “If AFER is any blueprint, then I think we have exciting things to look forward to….

And all of them will be all gay marriage, all the time.

HRC’s executive search, a very private process over the past few months, “included the consideration of over one hundred diverse and extremely well-qualified candidates from the worlds of business, academia and activism,” according to a Friday HRC news release.

Over 100 “diverse” candidates yet magically they ended up with a white guy whose only connection to what the Scampaign claims that its mission is, based solely on the turds floating to the top of the Rhode Island Avenue Cesspool this morning, involves gay marriage. 

Per Queer Channel Media:

Griffin has had an extensive career fighting for progressive causes. According to his bio on AFER’s website, Griffin is founding partner of political and communications strategy firm Griffin-Schake, and taken on the tobacco and oil industry while pushing forward with issues such as equal rights, clean energy, universal health care, stem cell research and early childhood education.

His bio states he was responsible for spearheading Proposition 87, California’s Clean Alternative Energy Initiative; Proposition 10, which provides $600 million each year to early childhood education; and Proposition 71, which enables billions of dollars to flow to stem cell research.

…

Mark Glaze, a principal of the Raben Group, which works on LGBT issues, said Griffin is “a great choice” for the role.

“He’s smart, he’s strategic, he has the kind of sizzle that you’d want in a movement,” Glaze said. “His work on AFER has been a model of effective advocacy, which isn’t easy given the crowded field of groups doing LGBT work.”

But what points to a history on T?  And, while we’re at it, what points to much of a history on gay other than gay marriage  – I mean beyond being an “executive producer” on the documentary Outrage?  Yes, it was a decent film, but are we to presume that “issues such as equal rights” encompasses at least one thing of relevance to the lives of working-class Ts and LGBs for whom work and housing are light-years ahead of marriage as a priority?

Color me unimpressed.

According to Pee Wee’s peep:

When I decided to begin the next chapter of my career, I could not have imagined a better successor as president of the Human Rights Campaign. Just a few minutes ago, the HRC’s Board of Directors appointed Chad Griffin, a brilliant visionary and strategist, as the organization’s next president. While you know him as the mastermind behind the federal lawsuit to overturn California’s Proposition 8, Chad’s spent his career taking on the toughest fights against entrenched, well-financed interests. He’s passionate about our equality…

Please provide your definition of “our.”

Chad Griffin has the leadership qualities critical to propel our movement for equality forward and I am so proud that he will succeed me this June leading HRC.

A native of Arkansas and a veteran of the Clinton White House, Chad was inspired by young people in taking on this new endeavor. He told the board this morning, “All over this country in big cities and small towns, there are families and young people who long to be accepted for who they are, and who want be treated with the same dignity and respect as everyone else. Today’s generation of young people, and each generation hereafter, must grow up with the full and equal protection of our laws, and finally be free to participate in the American dream. As HRC president, I’ll approach our work with a great sense of urgency because there are real life consequences to inaction.”

Gee, Chad…

How did the “consequences” regarding “inaction” on ENDA in 2009-10 affect you personally?

What’s that?  You don’t really need ENDA?  Yes, we can tell.

With your support, HRC has won historic victories over the past several years. In addition to passing marriage equality in New York, the District of Columbia, Washington and Maryland, repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, and convincing the Obama administration to stop defending DOMA, HRC also spearheaded successful efforts to pass hate-crimes protections, secure equal hospital visitation rights for same-sex partners, and much more.

And we can tell that Pee Wee doesn’t really need ENDA either.

 I know that you’ll continue to be there as Chad fights to propel our movement forward.

Again, Pee Wee – please provide your definition of that word, because I suspect that it is not the same as mine or even most Ts and even non-trans LGBs.

He is uniquely qualified to lead HRC into the future.

Hmmmm…

A white gay man with DC connections whose clear top priority is gay marriage.

Tell ya what, Pee Wee…

While you’re putting a post-it note in that lexicon by the word “our,” go ahead and stick one by “uniquely,” because I suspect that your definition of it also may have emanated from inside a black hole of insanity.

Meanwhile, back at what used to be the Advocate:

“In Washington, there’s a deep institutional bias against doing anything that would rock the boat. But we’re fighting for our lives and for our freedom, and as far as I’m concerned, you’ve got to rock the boat,” said Richard Socarides, who served as a White House special assistant during the Clinton administration. “I think Chad is someone who’s proven that he’s willing to do so….

The problem is: The Rhode Island Avenue Cesspool is an oganization that has proven that it isn’t – and the same people who let Pee Wee feed at the $300+K/year trough for seven years while lying to the people who the Cesspool claims to speak for are the people who made the call on hiring Mr. Gay Marriage now.

Of course, its just dumbass us trans scum who have seen the Cesspool for what it really is, right?

In the line-up of corrupt people and corporations who populate the rogue’s gallery related to Wall Street’s pillaging of the world economy, you’d have a hard time coming up with more perfect villains than Goldman Sachs (GS) and its CEO Lloyd Blankfein.           

There does not appear to be any depth which would seem too low for Goldman Sachs to sink in pursuit of tainted profits, and for which Blankfein could not offer some justification for doing do.

…

So imagine everyone’s surprise when none other than our own Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced that it was making a deal with the devil in the form of a partnership of sorts with Blankfein. Under the banner of its American’s For Marriage Equality effort, HRC got a video in which Blankfein issues some late-to-the-party bromides about marriage equality.           

What do GS and Blankfein get from the deal? Goldman Sachs, one of the worst corporations in the world, gets a listing as a Bronze Partner (still well under Platinum, Gold and Silver partners). But, most of all, Blankfein and his company get to be humanized at very little financial cost and without a single bit of evidence that it will change its financial dealings that helped to bring the world economy to its knees and bankrupt untold numbers of other non-profits that have gone out of business since the economic meltdown began.

…

Joe Solmonese and HRC prove once again to those of us who’ve defended them all these years against charges of being soulless corporate and political shills how wrong we may have been in dismissing HRC critics as not understanding politics in the real world.

…

Solmonese has a history of this sort of thing, not least when he was at Emily’s List and allowed (then) closet case founder Ellen Malcolm to endorse anti-LGBT political candidates under the guise of real world political decision-making. At that time I gave Solmonese a pass, even though his justifications didn’t completely pass the smell test.           

I’ve decided, however, that the Blankfein decision is the deciding factor in turning me from a staunch HRC supporter into someone who will now scrutinize its every move with a more critical eye toward what is best of our community, as opposed to what makes HRC and its functionaries feel important.           

As for Solmonese, who is leaving to be one of many co-chairs of the Obama re-election campaign: good riddance to self-serving political trash.

A giltter-ridden manifesto from Fister Limp Wrist?

No, its from that well-known radical queer anarchist…

Jeff Epperly of Bay Windows.

That Jeff Epperly.

Now, I’m not in the illusion-land of Gay, Inc.’s that are willing to give equal consideration to trans women when it comes to hiring or the fantasy land of an ‘Equality’ Maryland that gives a damn whether trans people live or die or the lysergia land of a Maryland Legislature that contains any members that have any intention of expending any energy on a trans bill after pushing through a gay marriage bill…

No, I live in reality.

I know that if HRC suddenly did everything that the Epperlys of the workd wanted for the Epperlys of the world and for the Epperlys of the world alone, then Epperly wouldn’t give a flying fuck about a shindig for wall street criminals (much less whether working-class Ts and LGBs live or die), but…

right now…

his op-ed in the current Bay Windows is what it is…

and we all know that HRC will continue to be what it has always been.

This blog post is peaceable activity intended to express a political view and/or to provide information to others.

Spot the (Real) Bullshit

I didn’t send it as racist, although that’s what it is. 
  – George W. Bush-appointed, Montana U.S. Chief Judge Richard Cebull on his e-mail suggesting that President Obama possibly could be the product of a sexual encounter with a dog.

I didn’t shoot them as bullets, although that’s what they are.
   – T.J. Lane, accused Ohio school shoooter, spinning via jailhouse Tweet.

This blog post is peaceable activity intended to express a political view and/or to provide information to others.

Impeachment Time!

From TPM:

Montana Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull, a George W. Bush nominee, admitted on Wednesday that he forwarded a racially-charged email implying that President Barack Obama might have been the product of a sexual encounter between his mother and a dog.

“A little boy said to his mother; ‘Mommy, how come I’m black and you’re white?’” the email forwarded from Cebull’s official court email address on Feb. 20 read, according to the Great Falls Tribune. “His mother replied, ‘Don’t even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you’re lucky you don’t bark!’”

The federal judge’s email called the joke “a bit touching” and said he wanted all of his friends to feel what he felt when he read the email. “Hope it touches your heart like it did mine,” he wrote.

Now, the money shot:

Cebull said he showed “very poor judgment” by forwarding the email and said it was “not intended by me in any way to become public.”

Yes, his “poor judgment” (Get it?  Poor judge-ment?  He’s a – wait for it – a JUDGE!) was in sending it to someone who might somehow let the forwarding trail with his e-mail address on it leak to the public.

But wait!

He’s not done!

He’s going for a second money shot….

He added that he “did not forward it because of the racist nature of it” although he acknowledged it was racist.

“The only reason I can explain it to you is I am not a fan of our president, but this goes beyond not being a fan,” Cebull explained to the newspaper. “I didn’t send it as racist, although that’s what it is. I sent it out because it’s anti-Obama.”

If he actually believes that there is daylight between the two – particularly given the “Hope it touches your heart like it did mine” personalization – then he has just proven that he is incompetent to hold any public office.

He should be impeached, but we all know that the only thing that the christianist majority in the U.S. House is likely to do is to pass a resolution declaring him to be a free-speech martyr for putting up with the shitstorm that is deservedly headed his way.

a George W. Bush nominee

Remember…

Remember…

Remember…

Remember…

Remember….

This blog post is peaceable activity intended to express a political view and/or to provide information to others.

History! Repeated! Maryland Trans People Fucked Again!

No more appropriate moment of zen than:

…worked like a charm!
        – The old gang from 2001

Scanning a Scampaign ‘List’

The Shamvocate has out a speculative list of who might be in line to occupy the Throne of Drone inside the Rhode Island Avenue Cesspool.

Reached by phone, HRC spokesman Michael Cole-Schwartz declined to give details on when a successor to Solmonese may be announced or who may be among the finalists for the job. Multiple outside sources, meanwhile, speculated that the following LGBT leaders could fit the job description to run the 1-million-member-plus organization.

The list?

• Patrick Guerriero – former Log Cabin Republican head
• Brian Ellner – served as a “senior strategist for the Human Rights Campaign during the multi-coalitional, bipartisan effort New Yorkers for Marriage Equality” which fucked over trans people by enabling gay wants to trump trans needs and ensuting that New York will never add trans rights to its immoral 2002 law which gave gays and lesbians the right to discriminate against trans people. “He ran a very successful campaign, and it’s the biggest thing [HRC] has been involved in in awhile,” a source said.
• Queen Elizabeth III – seriously. at least according to this list
• Chad Griffin – “cofounder for the American Foundation for Equal Rights—the backer of the lawsuit against Proposition 8, which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unconstitutional earlier this week”
• Sean Eldridge – “Eldridge left Columbia Law School to work as communications director for Freedom to Marry, where he served as political director during the successful effort to pass the marriage equality bill last year. “
• Chuck Wolfe – executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund
• Kevin Jennings – founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network and served as assistant deputy secretary for the Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools
• Randi Weingarten – president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers,  someone whose screen presence is so nauseating that I can’t stand listening to her even if she’s saying something that I agree with, and – the icing on the cake – current partner of Hilary Rosen.

So, here’s what we have: A list that is all but completely cloroxed; two women – neither trans but one who would be a re-animation of an era of trans-exterminative doublespeak (remember the 2001 declaration that Maryland had become, via enacting a gay-only rights law, a “discrimination-free zone”?) and the other the current partner of the other’s obnoxious, transphobic corporatist ex; a Republican; some Marriage Derangement Syndrome-pushers; and a couple of other re-treads.

Transphobic gay political incest at its most diseased.

Yes, taking the Shamvocate at its word, this isn’t the actual list; allegedly, there is a trans person being considered – not a trans woman, of course.  However, even if the Rhode Island Avenue Cesspool’s actual list is a bit less white and a bit less trans-exterminative, what does this say about the Shamvocate regarding what it was willing to throw together as a list?

Gay Marriage Greed, Part 2012

What gays who already have the right to discriminate against trans people want, gays who already have the right to discriminate against trans people get:

Gender Rights Bill Stuck in Senate

With marriage equality front and center, the proposed Maryland gender identity nondiscrimination bill has been pushed to the sidelines

Countdown to the rabid Marriage Derangement Syndrome-addled transphobes declaring me to be homophobic and against gay marriage even though I’ve been saying ‘way to go!’ to states such as Washington that did not rape trans people whilst lying to them about being willing to go back and address trans needs before addressing more gay wants, 3…2…1….

Then Maybe All Real Energy Should Be Focused on Trans Needs Instead of Gay Wants

Post Poll Shows Marylanders Split on Marriage Equality, Supporters Looking for Votes

But, I guess focusing on the real needs of people who don’t already have a right of legal redress when excluded from the machinations of the economy wouldn’t give those who do already have a right of legal redress when excluded from the machinations of the economy a chance to get their Republican on.

The four Republican New York state senators who voted for same-sex marriage last June are reaping a windfall from gay, liberal, and some conservative donors who support marriage equality, but virtually none of that money is flowing to the Democrats who provided the overwhelming majority of the votes for the bill — including those who, like the GOP supporters, switched their votes to yes or who live in highly contested districts.

What’s more, $100,000 of the money given to these four Republicans has already been passed through by them to the New York Senate Republican Campaign Committee to support anti-gay senators and help preserve the one-vote Republican majority.

Among the GOP senators, Roy McDonald of Saratoga pulled in $447,000 since voting for marriage equality, “27 times more than he had raised in the same period in 2009,” according to the New York Times. Similar amounts were donated to Republicans Mark Grisanti of Buffalo ($325,000), James Alesi of East Rochester ($400,000), and Stephen Saland of Poughkeepsie ($425,000).

The Times did not note that Democrats are getting stiffed. Democrat Senator Joe Addabbo, who represents conservative Howard Beach and switched his vote from no to yes, raised just 36,000 in the same period. Shirley Huntley of Jamaica, Queens, who also made a crucial switch to yes despite her strong religious misgivings about same-sex marriage, raised $7,500

“I’m disappointed, obviously,” said Democratic Senator Tony Avella, who raised $46,245 since his yes vote from conservative northern Queens. “I defeated someone who would have defeated marriage equality, and I made it a big issue in my campaign. I would appreciate the same amount of support.”

He beat anti-gay 40-year incumbent Frank Padavan in 2010.

“I got them to the spot where Republican votes made a difference,” Avella said.

And, of course, to the point where trans lives mattered even less than they already did.

Oh, but wait…

The money shot has yet to come.

Wait for it…

Brian Ellner, who led the Human Rights Campaign’s marriage equality effort in New York, was part of a group of 20 people who put together a fundraiser for the four pro-equality Republican senators. He did not respond to an email seeking comment on why no Democrats were included, but Fred Sainz, vice president for communications for the group, which is non-partisan like Pride Agenda, said, “It is especially important that Republicans are seen as being able to defend themselves” after supporting the LGBT community. “I don’t believe that there was any ill will intended against the Democrats who voted for it. It was more of a mistake of the mind than of the heart.”

SPLAT!

Gee, Fred…

Where did you get that last one – from Mitt Romney’s cliché factory nestled in the Shanghai suburbs and staffed by slave laborers?

Or…

Goldman Sachs received the HRC Award for Workplace Equality Innovation in 2011.

Never mind.

Veteran gay activist Allen Roskoff, president of the LGBT Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, said, “The Republican Party is going to use this gay money to run against our friends in the Senate. Where’s the logic in that? We are rewarding a party that gave us minimal support.”

…

The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), which has passed the Assembly four times, has been blocked by the Republican-controlled Senate and did not pass when Democrats had narrow control two years ago.

“We can’t do that without a strong, Democratic majority,” [Assemblyman Daniel] O’Donnell said of GENDA.

Because gay marriage was all that actually mattered then and GENDA actually does not matter now.

But what about Washington?

What about it?  No one begrudges dealing with the issue of gay marriage where those who will benefit from it don’t have the residual ability to discriminate against trans people.  Washington did the moral thing by dealing with the reality-based economic needs of all LGBT individual human beings first and then moving to the wants of those non-heterosexuals who might happen to be in relationships and might happen to want to solemnize those relationships.  No one is born in a relationship.  We are all born individuals.

Gay marriage was all that actually mattered in New York then and GENDA actually does not matter now.

Are the trans people in Maryland – and the non-trans people there who aren’t shills for Marriage Derangement Syndrome – paying attention?

Why Do Republicans Lie Incessantly?

Well, because when they tell the truth about what they really believe…

Mitt Romney appeared on CNN’s Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien this morning to gloat over yesterday’s win in Florida and instead told her he doesn’t care about poor people. Romney said his “current focus is not on the poor”….

Real people see and hear what Republicans really believe.

That’s not good for ‘da brand…

Not at all.

Next up: Mitt’s hour-long, prime time infomercial informing the American people about magic underwear, post-mortem baptisms, the extent to which his church thinks it has the right to control the lives of non-mormons via secular law, and the actual amount and location(s) of his money….

Not.