Huckabee: Ignore SCOTUS — The Law — If It Lets Gays Marry

Poor Mike Huckabee; I mean, he quit his job at Fox Not News to wait by the phone in case God called and told him to run for President, but God’s been busy giving AIDS to babies in Africa, or something, so what’s Mike gonna do now?

Well, he’ll talk to anyone and everyone who will listen and say the most non-Presidential things ever, as he did this week when he talked with conservative radio host and law professor Hugh Hewitt to shill his new “book”, God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy — wait, is it a cookbook, a bible or a gun nut anthology?

He also talked about how to break the law in this country, you know, if you don’t agree with it. Huckabee told Hewitt he is "angry" about the way states and governors are just bowing down to the U.S. Supreme Court on the issue of same-sex marriage:

"If the federal Supreme Court rules that same sex marriage is protected under the 14th Amendment, you still have to have Congress and the President act to agree with it, because one branch of government does not overrule the other two. This idea that a judge makes a ruling on Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning same sex marriage licenses are being given out, that’s utter nonsense, because there’s not been any agreement with the other two branches of government."

Clearly, Huckleberry has no idea how ‘law’ works, which may explain why God hasn’t picked up the phone yet. But Hewitt, a law professor who studied law and not just god and Grist, or some crap, schooled Huckabee on a little something called the Supremacy Clause which establishes that the federal constitution and federal law generally take precedence over state laws, and even state constitutions.

Which is why, when the courts rule, the states follow the law. You’d think Huckabee would have remembered that when he was governor of Arkansas, but he might have been too busy playing with his guns or his guitar.

Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister who is, at this time, still waiting to hear from God, also told Hewitt that when it comes to same-sex marriage, "there does come a point at which I think we have to take a stand. I may be lonely, I may be the only one, but I’m going to stand absolutely faithful to the issue of marriage not because it’s a politically expedient thing to do, because it isn’t. I’m going to do it because I believe it is the right position, it’s the Biblical position, it’s the historical position."

And that’s the exact same argument that was used to support slavery and bans on interracial marriage and we know how that worked out.

Let me make this queer: Huckleberry thinks he can be President and yet he is basically saying that if you don’t like a Supreme Court ruling, a law, in fact, then you should just be able to ignore it.

That’s so Presidential, Mike, and just one more reason why God is  busy watching a Real Housewives marathon on Bravo and not dialing your number at the Crazy House.

via NCRM

MY SOTU Thoughts

I get it, I do. The State of the Union address is generally kind of a pep rally for one party or another; the chance to crow about what you’ve done, and what you want to do. And I get that it’s almost always partisan, with the side that doesn’t have the White House sitting there stone-faced while the President speaks.

Both sides do it, I get that.

But what I don’t get is how, while Obama was speaking last night and talking about how far we’ve come in the last six years — the economy, jobs, healthcare, the War Based On Lies In Iraq — is why the GOP sat on their hands. I mean, they couldn’t even be bothered to clap for the fact that the economy is better than it was, that the jobs outlook is better than it was, that millions of people who’ve never been insured before now have healthcare.

They couldn’t even be bothered to applaud for America, for Americans, because the guy in charge while all this was going on is a Democrat and, yes I’ll say it, a Black Democrat at that.

It sickened me to see Orange Is The Old Boehner sitting their smug and disinterested when the President talked about rebounding from a recession; sure there’s work to be done, but we are better off than we were in 2008 after the Bush Regime, and yet Boehner cannot even be happy with that.

It sickened me to see Paul Ryan not even bother to show a modicum of respect for the President because he’s a member of the ‘other’ party. Why not cheer that things in America are improving? Why not cheer all that your party has done to make things better for—

Oh, yeah, maybe Ryan and Boehner and Paul and the rest of those Republicans couldn’t cheer for the successes of the Obama president y because they tried to thwart him at every turn.

Or maybe they couldn’t cheer because he schooled them …

 “I have no more campaigns to run …”

And there was a smattering of GOP applause because, they know, if he did have the option to run again, he’d wipe up the floor with them, again, and then he said:

“I know, because I won both of them.”

The GOP was served in that moment, and it was priceless.

And it was priceless that he made mention of marriage equality, after being the first sitting president to advocate for same-sex marriage; it was priceless that he became the first president to mention of transgender and bisexual, brothers and sisters during a State of the Union address.

It’s priceless, because his approval numbers are up, and will probably continue to go up, and things will continue to change and we will see marriage equality across the country, and we will see LGBT rights expanded and we will see the GOP sitting on their hands, doing nothing, offering nothing, complaining about everything.

Obama isn’t going to sit this one out, these last couple of years; he’s going to continue working for us …

Unlike the other guy.

Sunday Funnies: The Rest

Random Musings

After the terrorist attack that left several people dead last week, this week satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo issued a new magazine, with yet another caricature of the prophet Mohammed on the cover.

Translation: All is forgiven.

The magazine, which normally sells around 30,000 copies a week, had an initial run of three million, which was subsequently upped to five million after copies were being snapped up all over the place.

Freedom of Speech lives. Je suis Charlie.

So, the other night I was watching Marry Me, a moderately funny show created by the same guy who created the very funny, and sadly canceled, Happy Endings. Still, Marry Me is good, and there are some bits of irreverence and truly funny moments like …

The week’s episode was about couples having a ‘show,’ a favorite show they watch together. And it was about how, maybe, half the couple watched the show without their other half, but what made me giggle was the gay dads on the show, and how they watch TV.

The one gay dad, Kevin, played by Tim Meadows, watched his ‘couples’ show without his husband, also Kevin, played by Dan Bucatinsky, because Dan’s Kevin was always asking so many questions that Tim’s Kevin couldn’t watch the show.

That’s me and Carlos.

We’re watching a show and Carlos will say, Oooh that’s a nice lamp or I thought she was dead or Wasn’t he in that movie we saw? You know, that movie? And I will have to stop the DVR, answer the question and then try to catch up with the story.

So, I made Carlos watch the scene and told him that was us, and he said, Which one are you?

I’m the black guy! I said. I’m black!

I imagine our neighbors wondered what the hell was going on in The Big Gay House.

PS Carlos said, Was there a Black guy?

Oy.

Good news on the Gays In Ads front: Tiffany has released a new print ad that is chic and clean and beautiful, featuring a gorgeous couple who is newly engaged.

The only difference is that the couple is composed of two men, making them the first gay couple ever featured in a Tiffany’s engagement campaign. Even better, the couple in the ad is a real-life New York couple.

The march goes on ….

Okay, so I watched Empire on Fox last week, Now, I am not a particular fan of rap or hip-hop so I wondered if I’d like the show that was dubbed Nashville Goes Hip Hop. But, it was also called Urban Dynasty so I was intrigued. 

Plus there were some hot mens in the piece, like Jussie Smollett and Rafael de la Fuente, who play a gay couple, and Trai Byers who is a piece of prime beefcake.

It also stars Taraji P. Henson in a standout role as cookie; Cookie is a spitfire, fresh from prison, wanting what’s hers and when Henson is onscreen you don’t see anyone else. She is amazing.

Sadly, it also stars Terrence Howard, playing smug and smarmy.

Check it out for the beefcake and stay for Cookie.

So, Pope Francis will be visiting the Philippines soon and with so many people on the streets, and so many traffic enforcers — some 2,000 — needed to keep things running smoothly, there was the question of what to do when nature calls? Leave your post and head for the loo? Oh hell no.

Those 2,000 traffic enforcers who will be on duty during the Pope’s visit will be required to wear adult diapers, according to Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino, who even encouraged people waiting to see Frankie to also wear diapers.

Oh lord. Imagine the changing tables in the restrooms. Oy.

In WTF news: McCleish Christmas Benham, the passenger who went on a drunken, violent, anti-gay rampage caught on video at DFW International Airport last fall will pay just $474 in fines.

Benham assaulted two people while yelling anti-gay epithets, before other passengers tackled him to the ground and he was arrested. He was charged with public intoxication and simple assault.

He had pleaded no contest — meaning he admitted he was guilty — but failed to appear in court which lead to the fines. The lesson learned: beat up a gay in an airport while shouting homophobic slurs and you just pay a fine. 

Don’t mess with Texas … better yet, don’t go to Texas.

Oh, the showtune queen in me is all atwitter.

There have been rumors that a  movie version of the hit Broadway musical Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz  going around ever since the show opened eleven years ago, but now, well, it seems like it may actually happen.

Producer Marc Platt has said that a film version of Wicked could be in theaters by next year … even if the movie hasn’t been officially greenlighted yet. Steven Daldry, who directed The Hours, is said to be on board, but we, and by we I mean me, er, I, need to remember that it took 30 years to get Les Miz from stage to screen, and 27 years to get Into The Woods on film.

Still, 2016? I’m getting in line now with my Wicked t-shirt, my Wicked cap, and my Wicked mug.

Yes, I am that queen.

Out west, the Ninth Circuit of Appeals has denied Idaho Governor Butch Otter’s petition for an en banc review of the court’s decision to strike down Idaho’s same-sex marriage ban.

Still, Otter has promised that he would continue to fight against marriage equality in Idaho until he was left with no other options.

Good luck with that … dick.

In other movie news, Matt Bomer, My-Husband-In-My-Head and recent Golden Globe winner for the Normal Heart, is set to play closeted gay actor Montgomery Clift in a new HBO film.

Clift starred in classic films like The Heiress, Red River, From Here to Eternity and Judgment at Nuremberg. He died of a heart attack in 1965 at the age of 45.

It should be a great pairing of Bomer and Clift.

Again, the queen in me cannot wait!

In the wake of the attack at Charlie Hebdo last week, Congressman Randy Weber, of Texas of course, Tweeted a disgusting attack on President Barack Obama, offending what appears to be the vast majority of people who saw his tweet:

Of course, Weber was just goose-stepping along with Fox News by dragging the President through the mud for not marching in the Paris Unity Rally last weekend—and for the record, I think Obama should have been there, but I would never have compared him to Hitler, you know, because I’m not an asshat.

Weber left his stupid Tweet up for almost a day while people replied to him, calling him out on his ridiculous behavior, and then he apologized … kind of:

“I need to first apologize to all those offended by my tweet. It was not my intention to trivialize the Holocaust nor to compare the President to Adolf Hitler. The mention of Hitler was meant to represent the face of evil that still exists in the world today. I now realize that the use of Hitler invokes pain and emotional trauma for those affected by the atrocities of the Holocaust and victims of anti-Semitism and hate."

He didn’t mean to compare Obama to Hitler in a Tweet in which he compares Obama to Hitler?

Siddown Weber, you’re just another racist Texas congressman who spends most of his time kissing the ass of Fox News.

Oh, and where was your apology to the man you offended most of all, the President?

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

In other political news, the 114th Congress took office this week and the Lunatics Running The Asylum, AKA Teabaggers, no time in introducing plethora of f**kery, like:

Rep. Steve King, Iowa, introduced a resolution to repeal the Sixteenth Amendment, which authorizes Congress to levy income tax. King also introduced a resolution to repeal the Affordable Care Act … again!

Rep. Mo Brooks, Alabama, introduced a resolution to authorize Congress to sue to the president for "actions inconsistent" with his duties regarding immigration laws.

Rep. Tom Rice, of South Carolina … sigh … introduced a resolution to authorize the House to sue any member of the executive branch who "oversteps their authority" regarding immigration laws. 

Rep. Robert Anderholt, also Alabama, introduced a resolution to repeal any executive order regarding immigration reform and "restore" such actions to the federal legislature.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Virginia, introduced a resolution to "terminate" the Internal Revenue Code.

Rep. Andy Barre, Kentucky, introduced a resolution that would limit members of the Senate to serving two consecutive terms and limit members of the House to serving six consecutive terms; okay, I like that one.

Rep. Trent Franks, Arizona, introduced a resolution to make it a felony punishable by five years in prison to perform an abortion on a woman carrying a "pain-capable" fetus.

Rep. Todd Young, Indiana, introduced a resolution to raise the threshold for classification as a full-time worker from 30 hours per week to 40 hours per week, which would mean the end of mandated health insurance for everybody who works fewer than 40 hours, which means F**K you Middle class..

It’s gonna be a rough couple of years with the Rightwingnuts in the House … and Senate.

Randy Thomas, a former vice-president of ex-gay group Exodus International, is now embracing the fact that he’s a big old queen and showing us, once again, that being gay is not a choice and reparative therapy is a sham. He says, now:

“I have read many stories of people who have ‘come out again’ or accepted they are gay after some time in the ex-gay world. Many of their stories are compelling and well-written. But, sometimes I wish they would get to the point right off the bat. Just say it and then tell the story. So that is what I am going to do: I am gay.”

I’d say Welcome Out, and I might give you a gift or two, but after all the harm you’ve inflicted by being a self-loathing closeted queer, you don’t need a gift.

You need to give us a gift and simply go away and be gay and quiet.

The Turtle is a Liar

Two things I will not abide by: lying, dumbass politicians and zucchini bread. Guess which one is on my mind today?

Y’all remember back in Ott-Eight when Barack Obama kicked John McCain’s* ass to the curb? I still feel warm and tingly thinking about that. I also feel warm and tingly when I think what The Turtle, AKA Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, said at the time … and I’ll paraphrase:

“Our one job is to make sure Barack Obama is a one-term president.”

He said it, I didn’t. And what’s worse than saying it is that he and the rest of his Angry Rich White Men Only Party, couldn’t even do that; Obama kicked GOP ass again in 2012, so The Turtle was wrong about that, though he was right about one thing: the GOP had one job during Obama’s first term and they would do, and did do, absolutely nothing else.

Unless you count the fifty-some-odd attempts to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act, which they couldn’t even do. Unless you count the government shutdown, for which We The People are now paying some $24 billion.

So, Mitch and his cronies did absolutely nothing for six years and yet, and it still boggles my mind, a lot of you voted them into power and even re-elected the dumbasses who sat on their cushy fat asses — when they weren’t on vacation — and did absolutely nothing. And now The Turtle is back to his old tricks of saying things that are untrue … okay, they’re outright lies …

Mitch McConnell is trying to rewrite his history of obstruction and failure by taking credit for the economic growth that has occurred under President Obama by saying this on the Senate floor:

“After so many years of sluggish growth, we’re finally starting to see some economic data that can provide a glimmer of hope. The uptick appears to coincide with the biggest political change of the Obama administration’s long tenure in Washington: The expectation of a new republican congress.”

Wait. What? All of this happened the Wednesday after the election last November? We suddenly went from Bad to better in the space of about twelve hours?

Siddown Mitch, your stupid is showing.

The facts are that the economy gained over 11 million jobs in spite of Mitch McConnell and his Angry Rich White Men Only Party’s efforts to keep the recession going; or does Mitchy expect anyone to really believe that the economy started improving back in 2011 because we knew the GOP would take control of Congress in 2014?

Mitch? Pull your head back inside your shell, your stupid is showing.

The GOP has done nothing in the last six years and with nothing to show for their hefty paychecks, free healthcare, paid vacations, they need to so-opt Obama’s victories and try to play them off as they own; but they can’t … except to those dumbasses who checked off the GOP box last November, and voted for a party that has done nothing for them — unless they’re rich and white and male — for far too long.

I could go on, but I’ll let DNC Communications Director Mo Elleithee respond to Mitch McConnell’s lunacy:

“Hahahahahahahahahahaha. That Mitch McConnell is one funny guy. He likes to remind people all the time that he’s not a scientist. Now we know he’s not a mathematician or an economist either. The fact is, under President Obama we’ve had 57 straight months of private sector job growth leading to nearly 11 million jobs added. All Republicans have given us is a government shutdown that cost the economy $24 billion. I get why he wants to take credit for the economic recovery. But maybe he should first do something to help contribute to it.”

Siddown Mitch, before someone turns you on your back and you can’t get up again.

Hmmmmmmm ….

*Correction, thanks to Anonymous
via PoliticusUSA

Jeb Fumbles On Same-Sex Mariage ... Again and Again

That darn Jeb Bush; he’s oh-so-presidential, or at least he’s trying to be.

As governor of Florida, he was against same-sex marriage even though he withheld his enthusiasm, and support, for the state’s 2008 campaign to rewrite the Florida Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman; but that was only because he left office in 2007.

However, in 2012, during a PBS interview, Jeb suggested that gay parents could be … could be … held up as role models, even as he added that “traditional marriage is what should be sanctioned” by the government. See, he was saying that The Gays are “okay” as parents but, you know, marriage? Oh hell no.

But last year, in a speech to some Republican group, Jeb warned against the GOP being a party seen as against too many things … as in against everything … including being “anti-gay” because, you know, they might look like haters.

And so that fumbling and flip-flopping and saying nothing at all leads us to today, as Jeb thinks about thinking about running for President, and we find him still fumbling on the idea of The Gays getting married, especially, in Florida:

"It ought be a local decision. I mean, a state decision. The state decided. The people of the state decided. But it's been overturned by the courts, I guess."

A local decision? Oh, if the locality is the state; and what’s with the ‘I guess’? Doesn’t he know what’s happening in Florida, or maybe Jeb is reading the same newspapers that the Mama Grizzly Bore™ used to read.

So, so presidential; that darn Jeb. And because he came off as if he had no idea where marriage equality stood in Florida, and because his statement on Sunday made him sound less presidential and more like his idiot brother, his people decided that they needed to try again to have Jeb talk about same-sex marriage and try to come off less baboonish and cartoonish. So, Jeb sat down again, this time with the New York Times, to talk about The Gays and marriage again:

“We live in a democracy, and regardless of our disagreements, we have to respect the rule of law. I hope that we can show respect for the good people on all sides of the gay and lesbian marriage issue – including couples making lifetime commitments to each other who are seeking greater legal protections and those of us who believe marriage is a sacrament and want to safeguard religious liberty.”

See what he did there? He basically said the same thing he said on Sunday; he’s not at all a fan of same-sex marriage but that people should respect those pesky gays and lesbians who want equality as long as The Gays respect religious liberty.

Better? No. It’s just Jeb Bush trying out his message for his run at the White House in 2016, coming across as somewhat okay with marriage equality — if that’s what The Gays want — but making sure we all know that he’s not especially for it, and wants to keep religion at the forefront of the discussion.

He’s kissing asses and pandering to his base at the same time, y’all, and we have 22 months left of it.

via NCRM

Ted Cruz: Two-Time Equine Posterior Achievement Award Winner and an ISBL Asshat Winner

You gotta hand it to Ted Cruz. I mean, no one in Congress works harder at doing nothing than our visitor from Canada — who decided to become a US citizen so he could run from president … of his homeowner’s association because that’s as close to a presidential office as he’ll ever get.

But, while accomplishing nothing other than shutting the government down because he’s a pissy little brat, Ted has also been the recipient of several honors. He’s been an ISBL Asshat of the Week more than once, and just recently he won the coveted Equine Posterior Achievement Award, which is the People For the American Way’s annual prize for the country's most extreme right-wing politician.

And by right-wing I mean asshat, er, Horse’s ass. And it wasn’t even close! Cruz won by a 21-point margin repeating his 2013 victory, when he beat out the likes of Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin for the coveted award. Seriously. He’s more of a Horse’s Ass than those two! That’s a prize-winner if I ever saw one!

Ted Cruz bested MGB™ and Crazy Eyes by pulling another stunt that backfired … badly. He’d hoped to humiliate President Obama and congressional leaders by challenging a bipartisan budget bill as a way to show his anger over Obama’s executive actions on immigration, but, instead, his maneuver was handily defeated and gave Senate Democrats the opportunity to put several judicial and executive nominees up for a vote before Republicans took control of the chamber.

Thanks for helping the Democrats, Ted!

Ted’s previous Horse’s Ass win in 2013 was due to his spearheading the opposition to a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision by falsely claiming that the amendment would throw comedians in jail and muzzle pastors.

He also threatened civil disobedience to block the enforcement of LGBT rights measures, introduced new measures to prevent marriage equality, said same-sex marriage is “heartbreaking” and causes his heart to weep and alleged that LGBT rights laws will put pastors in prison.

Cruz also stood by lawless rancher Cliven Bundy , notorious for his racist remarks and refusal to recognize the U.S. government’s authority, while at the same time torpedoing the nomination of a noted civil rights attorney , whom he accused of “fanning…flames of racial tension.”

Cruz also wants to go to war with net neutrality , although he doesn’t seem to have a clue about what net neutrality actually means.

Ted Cruz, a Horse’s Ass and an ISBL Asshat; what an honor.

via RightwingWatch