Buttigeig, Ellison and Brazile Resist Hair Furor

I’ve written about South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg before—South Bend Mayor PeteButtigieg: Why Coming Out Matters and Could Pete Buttigieg Be Our First GayPresident?—but now, as a candidate for chair of the Democratic National Committee [DNC] Buttigieg gets noticed again for standing up to, and taken on, President _____ calling him “a draft-dodging chickenhawk president":

“I’ll be damned if we’re going to have a draft-dodging chickenhawk president of the United States — who thinks he’s too smart to read his own intelligence briefings — ordering the people I served with back into another conflict because he can’t be bothered to do his job properly.”

Again, Pete is an openly gay man—not that it really matters, but it does—who was deployed to Afghanistan while serving in the Navy Reserves, while Hair Furor received five deferments from the draft—four for educational reasons and one because his feet hurt. Buttigieg is annoyed that a man who ran from service seems so intent on creating fear in the world so more of our men and women can be put in harm’s way. He says that now is the time for Democrats, and We The People, need to “tap into the moral outrage” that is gathering steam across the country and resist and march and vote and end this presidency of fear and hatred and intolerance and bullying.

Other Democratic candidates criticized Trump as well ... with Representative Keith Ellison calling _____ "misogynistic." Ellison also condemned recent immigration raids after reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials detained several hundred people this week:

"We've got to be in solidarity, we've got to be with them. We’ve got to be on the line, carrying the sign.”

The DNC’s interim chairwoman, Donna Brazile, similarly spoke out against the raids on Saturday.

“For the last few days, in communities across our country, some of our neighbors heard a knock at their door. Peaceful, hard-working people were asked for their papers. Some were torn from their homes, leaving mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters behind. This is not happening in some faraway dictatorship you have trouble finding on a map. This is happening here, in our America. And we have to keep working, keep fighting and keep speaking out until it stops.”

Undocumented immigrants were arrested this week in Atlanta, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and an ICE official called the raids an “enforcement surge” coming on the heels of two executive orders signed by _____ last month on immigration enforcement; one ended the “catch and release” policy that allowed people who crossed the border to return to Mexico without being arrested, while the other order called for construction to begin on the $50 billion U.S.-Mexico border wall. 

All for fear; fear spread by a man who ran from the draft via his father’s money and power, and who now thinks every dark-skinned person who speaks differently, looks differently, worships differently, lives differently—in countries where the president has no business dealings of course—should be rounded up and captured because they re the enemy.

They are not ... the enemy lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Buttigieg. Brazile. Ellison. Three Democrats who are standing against the president loudly and clearly, and demanding that we all ...

Resist.

The Hill

I Didn't Say It.....

Madonna, on her process of choosing a mate:

“It’s about finding a man you can look up to, and comparing them to archetypes that I obviously adore—John Travolta in ‘Saturday Night Fever,’ Bruce Lee, Abraham Lincoln. I name people who I look up to and admire. I compare the object of my affection to all these people.”

Is it just me, or did anyone else realize that two of her choices are ALLEGEDLY gay men?

Rethink MDNA.

Barack Obama, on the Trayvon Martin case: 

"I think about my own kids. and you know, I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this. And that everybody pulls together, federal, state and local, to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened. so I'm glad that not only is the justice department looking into it, I understand now that the governor of the state of Florida has formed a task force to investigate what is taking place...My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he would look like Trayvon. and, you know, I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened."

I don't understand all the uproar over his comments.

Newt said he was race-baiting, but, um, if you;re a Black man and a young Black teen is murdered, wouldn't you think, 'Hey, that could have been my son.'

I think Newt is the one playing the race card.

Adam Savage, Mythbusters host, on atheism at the Reason Rally:

"I have concluded through careful, empirical analysis and much thought that somebody is looking out for me. Keeping track of what I think about things, forgiving me when I do less then I ought, giving me strength to shoot for more than I think I am capable of. I believe they know everything that I do and think and they still love me and I’ve concluded after careful consideration that this person keeping score is me."

Isn't it funny, in this day and age, that we are still discussing freedom of, and from, religion. Haven't we moved beyond the idea that all people must think alike.

If Savage believes he is repsonsible for his own life, choices, destiny, and someone else thinks that God, or gods, or goddesses, or, whomever, is responsible for their life choices, shouldn't we all just let it be?

Maggie Gallagher, on Starbucks refusal to came to her lumbering, blubbering hate machine, NOM:

"Starbucks has voluntarily decided -- as a corporation -- to associate its brand with a major political issue, the CEO just confirmed. I was in the room. I heard him. Customers across the world have a right to know that contrary to the promises made by the corporation in the Middle East and elsewhere, Starbucks does subsidize political causes. Drinking a cup of Starbucks coffee, sadly, means supporting gay marriage. Speak out, and stop being invisible to powerful men like Schultz. The business of America may or may not be business, but the business of corporations is to make an honest profit by serving all their customers well, both those who favor and those who oppose gay marriage."

Maggie's boycott has drummed up about 20,000 goosesteppers for hate, while nearly half a million have signed a petition thanking Starbucks for their pro-equality stance.

Oh, and their stock is soaring while NOM's is falling [see below].

Samuel Wurzelbacher, AKA Joe the Plumber, playing the Why is everybody always picking on me card like his idol:
"Remember how the leftwing media crucified Sarah Palin in the 2008 election? Well, now they've made Joe the Plumber their new target. Since winning my primary, the media has made it their number one mission to discredit my candidacy and annihilate my character. I've been painted as a bigot, told I'm not qualified to serve in Congress, and lectured on live TV as if I'm a schoolboy in the principal's office. No, I didn't earn a degree at Harvard, I haven't worked on Wall Street, and I don't make a six-figure salary. I'm a normal American, just like you. I served my country in the military and I've worked day and night to provide for my family. If that doesn't qualify a man to run for Congress, I don't know what does."

Poor Joe.
No, being in the military and caring for your family does not qualify you to run for office. At least not by themselves,
You also need a brain and a political stance, not just a few seconds left on your Fifteen Minutes of Fame clock.
Asshat.

Josh Elliott, Good Morning America anchor, on his father's coming out:
"When I was 13 years old, my dad came out and he died when I was 15, but for two years I got to see him as a man fulfilled and a man in full... I just want to say this: I took from him his love of storytelling; I took from him the importance of being an advocate for those who need it; and I took from him what it means to be a man."


Lovely.

Keith Ellison, Democratic Representative from Minnesota, on the recently revealed NOM strategy of pitting the Black community against the Gay community:
"Today, we learned from previously confidential documents that the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is intentionally working to divide Americans across racial lines to advance their political agenda. The exposed documents reveal that NOM’s ‘strategic goal’ is to ‘drive a wedge between gays and blacks – two key Democratic constituencies.’ Our nation was founded on the principle of liberty and justice for all people—regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. NOM is clearly opposed to these basic ideals that so many Americans hold dear. I call on people from all backgrounds to speak out against NOM’s agenda and vote NO on the anti-marriage amendment this November."


First Starbucks poured a Macchiato all over NOM and now they are crumbling beneath their own bigotry and hatred.
The mirror has two faces, Mags. And they're both repulsive.

Julian Bond, Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP, on the latest NOM scandal:

"NOM's underhanded attempts to divide will not succeed if Black Americans remember their own history of discrimination. Pitting bigotry's victims against other victims is reprehensible; the defenders of justice must stand together."


NOM. Using hate to gain some kind of bigoted foothold in their doomed fight to "protect" marriage..
Ain't gonna happen.

Mark Potok, Southern Poverty Law Center spokesman, also on the NOM scandal:
"Black folks, this is a message for you: The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the country’s preeminent group fighting against same-sex marriage, really, really likes you. They even want to make some of you famous! Have NOM’s principal leaders, former president Maggie Gallagher and current leader Brian S. Brown, stood up for African Americans before? Well, not so much. But it turns out that they’ve decided that you’re actually very important....NOM isn’t the first organization to use such cynical marketing ploys, schemes that seem to have little do with the interests of the people they claim to represent, and it certainly won’t be the last. But the revelation of its bald attempt to exploit black people and Latinos should help end the idea that NOM is an honorable group that would never engage in race-baiting. Because that is precisely what it has done."


It's one thing, NOM, to have an opinion, a political belief, a moral viewpoint. But to try and pit people against each other, hoping to prevail, is disgusting and hateful, and, well, totally you.