Still no word from Savonarola on the latest recruit to his Sodomy Club

"Christianist" hate blogger Sunlit Uplands- who got all stiffy about Rep. Eric Massa's resignation under a claim of sexual harassment by a male staffer- is still maintaining a vow of silence about homophobic CA state Senator Roy Ashburn, who got popped for DUI leaving a gay bar in Sacramento with another man. For somebody who dishes the "sodomite" label at the drop of a - well, never mind- Savonarola has an unusual tolerance for the people he fears most as long as they vote his way.

And by all accounts Ashburn was the sort of Christianist Savonraola loves- supine and closeted and self-hating.

100 politicians, 1 hour for lunch, one a month. Reform!

Senator Evan Bayh, who did nothing to change the culture of the US Senate all the years he was a member, and who, now, dismayed, says his solution to the body's disfunction is to quit- and SC Senator Lindsey Graham, who is adopting Uncle Grumpy's erractic lack of principle as the Old Grump goes Bircher- now have out their heads together and think the Senate would work better if all 100 members (or, at least, the ones not mostly residing in hospitals and nursing homes) had lunch occasionally to "discuss issues."

Senator Jim plays Florida kingmaker- again

Senator DeMint says he wants to pick the next GOP presidential nominee. He says he was wrong about Mitt Romney last time out, but- in his role as Florida's third senator- he's all moist about Jeb Bush.

Mezzanine or Lido Deck, Mr. Travolta?

When you join a religion that argues for immortality, and its founder has been dead since 1986, well...that's the definition of stupid:

Raised as Scientologists, Christie King Collbran and her husband, Chris, were recruited as teenagers to work for the elite corps of staff members who keep the Church of Scientology running, known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org.

They signed a contract for a billion years — in keeping with the church’s belief that Scientologists are immortal. They worked seven days a week, often on little sleep, for sporadic paychecks of $50 a week, at most.

But after 13 years and growing disillusionment, the Collbrans decided to leave the Sea Org, setting off on a Kafkaesque journey that they said required them to sign false confessions about their personal lives and their work, pay the church thousands of dollars it said they owed for courses and counseling, and accept the consequences as their parents, siblings and friends who are church members cut off all communication with them.

At last, an explanation

Power Line sums up the SC right-wing blogdom:

As John has said, the easiest way for a Republican to make news is to criticize another Republican. It's equally true that the easiest way for a conservative to make news is to criticize another conservative.

Clueless

"Christianist" hate blogger Sunlit Uplands denounces "sodomites" even as he appropriates gay religious images:

It's why they call it Twitter

Wolfe Reports has a nice post about what a fan 2009 Virginia goobercandidate Creigh Deeds is of a band called Drive-By Truckers.

The other day we read a post about how most Tweets by politicos are complete wastes of time, citing as an example that Deeds Tweeted more about his musical prefs than his transportation policy

Which is, in some part, why Deeds isn't governor of Virginia.

Somewhere, Dick Cheney is leering, and Mrs Cheney is writing another 19th century western novel with lesbians in it

A woman objects to having a bunch of rejected hamburger flippers look at her naked as part of  the  price of flying.

Daddy and his boy toy, coming to SC. Who'll call Mrs. DeMint to let her know the game is up?

I'm running for something, I'm just not sure for what yet

The Folkster says whatever office token Tim Scott wants to run for- lieutenant governor first- no, wait , I'm not getting any traction, I think I'll run for Congress instead- he's all over.

Slut. Looking for a consulting fee?

Fogly defends liberal public radio host, end times to follow shortly

Boy Fogle's paymasters must be on vacation. He's defending radio host Garrison Keillor from the John Birch Society.

An Internet where no one ever challenges you: how ideal.

Boy Fogle's McCarthyite urges seem to be catching on in China:

Chinese Cyber Justice

06 MAR 2010 10:23 PM

Tom Downey profiles online vigilantes:

Human-flesh search engines — renrou sousuo yinqing — have become a Chinese phenomenon: they are a form of online vigilante justice in which Internet users hunt down and punish people who have attracted their wrath. The goal is to get the targets of a search fired from their jobs, shamed in front of their neighbors, run out of town. It’s crowd-sourced detective work, pursued online — with offline results.

They seem to have unresolved personal issues

Gay rights activist Will Folks, who claims he's on the right side of legislating equality, doesn't call for more openness in public life when it comes to the resignation of NY congressman Eric Massa, accused of sexually harassing a male staffer. Public figures wouldn't act like a tea kettle blowing off steam if they could just be themselves without opponents- including closeteers of their own- didn't make who they are an issue.

Nah...Sunlit Uplands' Mini-Me just wants a Republican- by definition, homophobic- elected to replace Massa.

What comes to mind is, lying sack of...well, when it comes to FITSy and gay rights, you needn't finish the sentence.

(As is the case with Palmetto Scoop, it's remarkable what you get when you type "gay" into Folksy's search engine. Like a post about USC football.

DeMintitmen go international?

Tory parliamentary candidates have undergone training by a rightwing group whose leadership has described the NHS as "the biggest waste of money in the UK", claimed global warming is "a scam" and suggested that the waterboarding of prisoners can be justified.

At least 11 prospective Tory candidates, an estimated seven of whom have a reasonable chance of winning their seats, have been delegates or speakers at training conferences run by the Young Britons' Foundation, which claims to have trained 2,500 Conservative party activists.

The YBF chief executive, Donal Blaney, who runs the courses on media training and policy, has called for environmental protesters who trespass to be "shot down" by the police and that Britain should have a US-style liberal firearms policy. In an article on his own website, entitled Scrap the NHS, not just targets, he wrote: "Would it not now be better to say that the NHS – in its current incarnation – is finished?"

Blaney has described the YBF as "a Conservative madrasa" that radicalises young Tories. Programmes have included trips to meet neo-conservative groups in the US and to a shooting range in Virginia to fire submachine guns and assault rifles.

My God, look at that tie

Cotton Boll Conspiracy, which peers a sharp eye at SC banking institutions, doesn't seem to scrutinize other sources when it serves his/her purpose. Example? If Bob Williams' (who ran an unusually nitwit campaign for WA gov 21 years ago) Evergreen Freedom Foundation says so, it must be true.

More economic development news

After arriving back to Charleston with more than 400 sick passengers struck with a norovirus, the Celebrity Mercury sailed back out on February 27 with 1,900 new passengers. Since then, 55 passengers have fallen ill.

The Post and Courier reports the illness seems to be another stomach bug. This specific cruise voyage was delayed for one day so crew members could make sure the ship was fully sanitized before any new passengers boarded.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the symptoms of the passengers on the last voyage were nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps.

Whatever it takes

Another principled stand by Congressman Permatan:

Washington (CNN) – An Alabama congressman has managed to inspire a certain level of political bipartisanship, but not in a way that will make his colleagues jealous.

Former Democratic Rep. Parker Griffith rocked the political world in December when he switched parties and announced he would seek re-election as a Republican.

And now, only a few months later, his decision has prompted an unlikely coalition to form that is opposed to his re-election.

Democrats, Republicans and politically likeminded groups aligned with both political parties announced they will protest a fundraiser scheduled for March 8, in Huntsville. The headliner: House Minority Leader John Boehner.

Huntsville Tea Party, Left In Alabama, Athens-Limestone Tea Party Patriots, AAMU Democrats Student Club, The Dale Jackson Show, North Alabama Healthcare for All, Madison County Republican Executive Committee, and the Limestone County Republican Executive Committee issued a joint statement Friday announcing their intent to protest.

The involved parties share a goal, but have vastly different motivations. The Huntsville Tea Party said they will use the event to send GOP leaders the message that Griffith isn't their first choice.

"We are sending a message to the national Republican establishment: stay out of our primary," said Christie Carden, founder of the Huntsville Tea Party. "We also want to support the true conservative candidates that Tea Party activists and the local GOP have gotten behind ... We're pushing back against the political machine."

She was just napping. For decades. But we'll have fun- and a coma.

The frontrunner in The Most Opportunistic Press Release of The Year campaign:

Terri Schiavo, a woman left severely brain damaged after collapsing at age 26 under mysterious circumstances in 1990, was killed in March 2005, in spite of her family’s strenuous fight to prevent the court-ordered removal of her feeding tube and water. The order was made at the behest of her husband, who had guardianship of his disabled wife at the same time he was committing open adultery against her.

A medical autopsy conducted after her two-week-long death by dehydration, revealed that Terri could have lived at least another 10 years with proper care, had a strong heart, and was in fact just brain-injured.

Bobby Schindler told LSN that “Terri could have been taken anywhere. All she needed was a wheelchair. She was simply a woman with a brain injury that needed to be cared for.”

Schindler said that his family recognized that “this issue was much larger than Terri and our battle to save her life.” For this reason they founded Terri’s Foundation to educate the public about the situation faced by disabled persons like his sister, who are not actually facing an “end-of-life situation,” but just need food and water to survive.

“We’re protecting families and we are trying to educate the public on the issue, because it is so widely misunderstood,” said Schindler. “We are talking about people that are not dying, that could quite possibly live a normal lifespan – as they said Terri quite possibly could have – and they are only being sustained by food and water.”

Schindler said he had heard that “anywhere between 50,000 to upward of hundreds of thousands of people with similar brain injuries to Terri” are living in the United States and are potentially vulnerable to the treatment Terri received.

The concert is also being sponsored by Priests for Life and the Whole Life Initiative.

A partial list of pro-life leaders and individuals in attendance include: Jill Stanek, Pro-Life Blogger; Joe and Ann Scheidler, Pro Life Action League; Father Thomas Euteneuer, Human Life International; Jennifer Gerioux, One More Soul; Attorney David Gibbs, Christian Law Association; Brother Paul O’Donnell, Franciscan Brothers of Peace; along with members of National Right to Life Committee, Priests for Life, I AM WHOLE LIFE, and Life Issues Institute.

Schindler said they have yet to schedule a “recognizable or celebrity-type MC,” but they hope to find one soon.

 “We’re just urging people to come. It’s gonna be a fun night and we need your support,” said Schindler.

Well, that explains everything

Most people would probably find it flattering to be called the brains behind the president of the United States. But notKarlRove, the former senior adviser to President George W. Bush who has been called “Bush’s brain.”

The nickname, bestowed on Rove by Bush critics, isn’t a compliment to him but rather an insult to his former boss, Rove told TODAY’s Matt Lauer during an extensive interview he granted in conjunction with the publication of his book, “Courage andConsequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight.”

“I’ve known him for almost four decades. He is a really smart person. To suggest that I was his brain is derogatory about him,” Rove said in a preview of the interview that ran Friday on TODAY.

Read more:http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35723068/ns/today-today_people/#ixzz0hOfFtpYy

It's hard being tough on crime but not willing to pay for keeping them locked up. Some dare call it hypocrisy.

Another brainwave from SC Republicans: criminalize everything, then let them out early because raising taxes is as unthinkable as, well, nothing:

Some prisons may have to be closed and inmates released early, state prisons director Jon Ozmint has warned lawmakers for years, citing cuts in his agency’s budget.

Now some legislative leaders say they are ready to consider that option, arguing they have to find a way to stop deficits at the agency amid a state budget catastrophe that is likely to be much worse next year.

The numbers are stark, and they make a compelling argument. The political leaders, however, know they have to delicately balance the economics against the possibility of a backlash from citizens who don’t have an appetite for ending some inmates’ punishment early.

“I think it’s something we have to take a serious look at,” Rep. Dan Cooper, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told The Greenville News

. “We’re looking for $350 million to run that agency, the fourth-largest expense. And it’s just going to get bigger, so we need to find some alternative to incarceration.”

What's not to like about a group whose core values are Parenting, Commerce, Marriage, Culture, Learning, Faith and Stewardship? Preach morals and make money!

Palmetto Family tells teens sex is great but you'll regret actually getting any. Curiously, they don't claim it makes you gay.

Oh, wait- that's because it's a choice.

The Caffeine Curve

Daniel J. Cassidy harbors "sodomites" when they vote his way

How much longer till "Christianist" hate blogger Sunlit Uplands notices the latest member of his party's big and burgeoning Sodomy Club?

"We need to preserve traditional values for the future of our children. Children must be raised with morals and principles. As a society, we must provide them with a secured and loving environment that allows them to flourish."

Those are words of California state Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) at a rally he sponsored to protest the dangers of gay marriage back in 2005.

Ashburn has now taken a "leave of absence" from the day job after getting picked up on a DUI after leaving a gay night club on Wednesday morning. Ashburn of course was a longtime opponent of gay rights and gay marriage in particular. So just how anti-gay was Ashburn's public record? Justin Elliott's tallies up the votes and positions.

Mouth open, eyes shut.

Boy Fogle fluffs Senator Lindsey Graham.

Relentlessly focused on serious issues

Another reason to take Will Folks seriously when he scolds SC politicos.

I'll take a paycheck, any public paycheck

74 years old and retiring from Congress because his entire district was lined up to run against him, SC Rep. Henry Brown just can't live without a job where he can order other people around.

Black women marrying? No wonder DeMint's up on his desk.

The Daily Dish demonstrates how marriage equality is, in part, just another code word for white, straight, moneyed, privilege:

Dan Savage counters those who say that marriage equality should not be a priority for poor minorities:

Wealthy gay couples—whatever their color—can hire lawyers to draw up wills and powers of attorney and jerry-rig some of the protections of marriage. Full marriage equality will allow all gay couples—regardless of color, regardless of economic resources—to access all of the protections of marriage. Marriage equality is a social justice issue.

Towleroad on the photo:

[DC residents] Sinjoyla Townsend and Angelisa Young, partnered for 12 years, were thefirst couple to receive a same-sex marriage license. Young said that "It's like waking up Christmas morning."

The crazier the better, and none too soon.

Please God, please, please, please, please...put loons like this in charge of the GOP.

Daniel J. Cassidy, SC's moral scold, is happy to look the other way when "sodomites" are Republicans. Care to explain the diff, Savvy?

"Christianist" hate blogger Daniel J. Cassidy was up on his hind legs the other day about the "collusion" of the media in not naming a former Wisconsin mayor as a Democrat when he was sentenced to prison for sex offense.

Waldo's betting SC's moral arbiter won't, however, be forthcoming about the latest in the long- and growing- list of 'mos on his team. Hypocrisy is not, it seems, an offense he feels a need to confess to (h/t Joe.My God):

At least two California newspapers and the openly gay mayor of West Sacramento knew anti-gay state Sen. Roy Ashburn was gay and yet they said nothing. On Wednesday, Ashburn was arrested for DUI while leaving a Sacramento gay bar in the company of as yet unidentified man.

Last summer an editor at Ashburn's hometown paper, the Bakersfield Californian, heard that a Sacramento paper was about to out him. So they called him and asked him point-blank if he is gay.

His response: "Why would that be anyone's business? Including The Californian's? "I think there are certain subjects that are simply not relevant and this is one of them. It has no bearing on the job I do." During the course of our conversation I listed several instances in which a politician's sexual orientation, or even just their sexual activity -- straight or gay -- would be relevant. If Ashburn were a staunch anti-gay activist but was secretly gay, I said, that would be a legitimate concern to his constituents. Ashburn agreed but said he didn't believe he had been such an activist. I pointed out he had voted conservatively on gay issues throughout his career. Yes, he said, but he'd done so on almost all social issues. He represents a conservative district and votes as his constituents would want him to, he said. Several political organizations have ranked Ashburn's voting record as extremely unfriendly to gays. (I'm not sure where those organizations rank Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, a Democrat, who initially voted against all gay issues for much the same reason, but since has turned a new leaf.) And Ashburn did organize a "Traditional Family Values" rally in 2005 to drum up support for a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The Californian decided that Ashburn's sexuality wasn't "relevant." The unnamed Sacramento paper apparently did too and never published. To recap: It's not relevant that a state politician with a 100% rating from an anti-gay group is gay himself. Can you fucking BELIEVE that? And it turns out that the openly gay mayor of West Sacramento has known about Ashburn for a long time.

Christopher Cabaldon, the openly gay mayor of West Sacramento told KOVR he has spotted Senator Ashburn at gay hot spots a number of times. According to Project Vote Smart, Ashburn's has consistently voted against gay rights legislation including no on recognizing out of state same-sex marriages, no on creating a state recognized Harvey Milk Day, and no on expanding anti-discrimination laws. "To live a secret life and at the same time be attacking the people who you're one of but are too ashamed to admit, that's hypocrisy," said Cabaldon to KOVR CBS 13.

That hypocrisy apparently didn't bother Mayor Cabaldon enough to actually fucking say something. And you know that if Cabaldon knew, many other queers in Sacramento knew. If I lived in West Sacramento, I'd want to have a long angry talk with my mayor.

At this moment, I'm not so interested in the detestable Roy Ashburn and his pathetic defense of "I was voting the way my constituents wanted." Because to my mind, the biggest story here isn't Ashburn's closeted homosexuality and anti-gay voting record. As we all know, that is a story we have seen a hundred times. And will see a hundred times more. The REAL story here is the media's collusion and the conspiracy of silence on the part of our own people. Folks, when you knowsomebody is actively working day and night to thwart the rights of your FAMILY, of your PEOPLE, you fucking say something.

How long till SC adopts the same?

Fresh  from his decision to strip public employees of protection from being fired for being gay, VA Gov. Bob McDonnell's successor as Attorney General is now pressuring all the state's colleges and universities to do the same.

Somewhere, John Birch is laughing his ass off

Jonathan Chait considers the GOP clown car's lurch to the right:

Romney is a useful marker in the frightening right-wing turn of his party. The GOP has been moving rightward for the last thirty years, but that shift has dramatically accelerated just since the fall of 2008. After Obama won the presidency, Republican officeholders and conservative pundits decided almost-unanimously was that the party's failure had stemmed from being too moderate.

The sudden ideological isolation of Romney is a case in point. During the 2008 GOP primary battle, he took a lot of heat for his former socially liberal positions. But his health care plan in Massachusetts attracted very little controversy. It was a classic moderate Republican plan, and one could very easily imagine Romney implementing something like it -- which is to say, something resembling the Obama plan -- had he won the presidency. Now it's seen as socialism, if not the end of American freedom. Likewise, the Bush administration and most Republicans favored TARP, but it, too, is now widely seen among Republicans as some dystopian attack on free enterprise ripped straight out of an Ayn Rand novel.

Romney's dilemma is compounded by the fact that he had to abandon some of his liberal social views to run for president in 2008. This gained him a reputation as a flip-flopper, which he's largely managed to put behind him, but he can hardly afford to do the same thing again this cycle. He's trapped with a 2008 issue profile running in a far more radical 2012 party. I think at this point it would take an enormous fluke for Romney to win the nomination. (Flukes do happen, of course -- see McCain's crazy path to the 2008 nomination -- but I consider Romney a decided longshot.)

The bum's rush

Actor Sean Penn, long thought a radical, has unleashed his FITS News/Sunlit Uplands sympathies.

People his Sunday School class wouldn't approve of not welcome. Apparently only some South Carolinians deserve freedom and to take the government back-- for themselves.

Mr Donehue, who runs the SC GOP website, is now regulating its content:

That’s why we are launching our new SCGOP guest blog “Take America Back.” This is your forum…a place to share the ideas that can fight big government and restore American freedom.

You can start blogging now by sending your content to wesleydonehue@gmail.com.

Ground Rules

1. Campaign entries are limited to 1 per week and must be issue based.
2. Attacks on SC Republican candidates or elected officials will not be published.
3. Blog post content may be written, audio, or video based.
4. Blog posts may be cross-posted on other blogs, but we prefer original content.
5. Obviously no vulgar content will be posted.
6. All posts are subject to the approval of the SCGOP staff.

Small signs of progress as the old pass on. The GOP could take notice.

More on the retirement of the aged Northern Ireland bigot Ian Paisley:

When I lived in Northern Ireland, Paisley was everywhere. He was on television calling the Pope the Antichrist. He was Saving Ulster from Sodomy. He was saying “NO!” to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. He was preaching free Presbyterianism in the vast red brick church I passed twice a week on my way to play rugby. He was even in our living room. My father, the U.S. Consul to Northern Ireland, hosted Paisley and other politicians for dinners and teas at our residence, Ardnavally.

On one of these occasions, I was introduced to Big Ian, as he was often called. I’ve never forgotten his commanding physical presence—not just his height and bulk, but also his face: the angled jowls, like the flaps of a tent; the crowded, jutting teeth, and the big, succulent lips; atop his head, the combed silver quiff. And then there was the voice, deep and beguiling. It had the unstoppable torque of a tractor. He had a practiced politician’s ease with small talk, asking me about school and rugby. I came away from the meeting thinking, Well, he seems nice enough.

Those are my memories, but much has changed since then. The Belfast Agreement, power-sharing, compromise, and Paisley as the First Minister of Northern Ireland. (Even in the old days, he was respected as a great provider for his constituents.) By e-mail, I polled old schoolmates on the response in the province to Paisley’s retirement. I was told that the reaction has been one of fondness. One friend, a former police officer, wrote, “Though most reports referred to him as ‘controversial,’ they never stepped into the old ‘preacher of hate’ area.” Even Paisley’s one-time nemesis, Gerry Adams, wrote an affectionate appreciation in the Guardian this week. In retirement in Kansas, my father likewise had mixed feelings: “I have lots of memories of him, though I am not sure which ones to emphasize…. Paisley’s strategy of stirring up anxiety actually worked well in the long term,” he admitted.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2010/03/big-ian-steps-down.html#ixzz0hKSA5HTW

Mr. Cassidy's Family Values Sodomy Club is peeved

"Christianist" hate blogger Sunlit Uplands is beside himself because marriage equality has come to the District of Columbia.

But- in keeping with his hypocrisy calling the President a "thug" while clinging to his Bush sinecure as an "advisor" to the US Civil Rights Commission- Savonarola's crying crocodile tears. He- and the Archdiocese of Washington- are just using the gay tribe as a pinata. They gave up adoption services voluntarily- prior to that they were happy to take government money to fun the same program they could run- and can still run- privately. On their own dime. No government interference at all.

And their latest move- to deny all their employees spousal benefits- is just a page taken from the playbook of the racists of the 1950s, who shut down schools and public amenities rather than integrate them. That's not principle. It's just bigotry.

Which must be why Sunlit Uplands is standing up for it.

No link- find it yourself.

The consultant/bloggers, in a feeding frenzy

Somebody must think J. Gresham Barrett (R-Running for Governor) is serious. Wolfe Reports has still more on the ad attacking him and his response.

More progressive ideas

The Republican legislature in South Carolina may be a village idiots' convention- voting to make teachers take five unpaid days instead of raising the sacrosanct nation's-lowest cig tax; making teachers take unpaid leave while voting to give a Hilton Head golf course $10m to salvage its PGA tournament; they're working on eliminating taxes for corporations; and now they're thinking it might be bad for bidness to revoke the 1951 law requiring people who want to overthrow the government to register with the state and pay a $5 fee.

Opinions for hire

One of the fun things about blogging in SC is trying to figure out the intramural squabbles between the consultant/bloggers of the Republican service class.

Waldo's previously noted how Palmetto Scoop is both for and against the Teabaggers, depending- his wet finger in the air- depending on whom they detest. When they detest Congressman J. Gresham Barrett (R-Running for Governor), Scoopy says it's a good thing.

Except for the complication of Senators Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham both trashing the current attack ad on Barrett. Fogle's a Graham fluffer, you see.

Now FITS News is tracking the Barrett ad to a consultant to goobercandidate Nikki Haley, who's the preferred successor to Luv Guv Mark Sanford, for whom FITsy worked until he had some, well, issues, and who's now peeved that Mrs Sanford didn't mention him in her confessional.

Of course, if you read the FITSygram carefully, there's no substance at all to the report, but that's part of what makes reading the bloggers for hire so much fun.

Just old men, slapping each others with lilies.

Typical Republican

FITS Hack is whingeing about how small bidness would have to kick in for health care reform, but he doesn't give two slaps about how the SC legislature has decided if you're unemployed- and therefore have no money- you have to pay income tax on your unemployment comp.

Vice President Kaine! Vice President Kaine!

Here's the real story Boy Fogle couldn't be bothered to track down in his rush to report that Chief Justice Roberts would resign (and the impeccable source he got the story from):

UPDATE: The Radar retraction begins as follows: “Despite considering resigning from the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts will stay on the bench, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned.”

Was the “despite considering” language disingenuous on Radar’s part? Or did the original tipster not tell Radar what actually happened (perhaps out of embarrassment)?

"Want a piece of chocolate?"

Boy Fogle thinks the SNL presidential reunion vid was funny but- as one would take for granted- completely misses the point of making it.

It's the perfect Daniel Cassidy trifecta: cathedral choir boys, the Pope, and 'mos.

More bad news for "Christianist" hate blogger Sunlit Uplands: explain this one:

"Put on some music, swallow a Viagra, and adelante!" That's the headline in Europe today following reports that a papal aide used an intermediary in an elite Vatican choir to solicit young male choristers and seminarians for prostitution. Police wiretaps are expected to result in charges against Angelo Balducci, 63, a Papal Gentleman, as lay attendant are called, and the former chairman of the Holy See's Public Works Department, which is itself caught up in a corruption investigation. According to police, Balducci regularly contacted Chinedu Ehiem Thomas, a Nigerian man who sings in St. Peter's Cappella Giulia, to engage the sexual services of young male members of the choir, along with seminarians and undocumented immigrants seeking residency status. The Cappella Giulia is the official choir of the St. Peter's Basilica and performs at many solemn Vatican functions not involving the pope, who is accompanied by the Sistine Chapel choir. Ehiem, 40, who goes by the nickname Mike, and his assistant Lorenzo Renzi, 33, allegedly arranged for prostitutes for Balducci several times a week. The two men are said to have operated a network of aspiring young priests, choir members and sometimes recruited foreigners seeking to secure their immigration status. The scandal now envelops Balducci, a well-known and powerful local figure who is married with two children, who despite all this is said to have taken remarkable risks in setting up sexual liaisons even in Chigi Palace, home of the Italian prime minister, or immediately after a private audience with a cardinal. In 72 pages of transcribed wiretaps, Ehiem tells Balducci about one possible candidate:  "Angelo ... I'll say no more. Two meters (6-foot-7), 97 kilos (250 lbs.), 33 years-old and completely active (top)." In later calls, Ehiem offered fewer details: "I have a situation in Naples." "I have a Cuban situation." "I have a German who just arrived from Germany." "I have two black guys." "I have the soccer player." "I have the dancer from RAI," the Italian TV network. Some of the young men were seminarians or attended ecclesiastical colleges in Rome. On one occasion, Balducci is heard saying, "He, when does he have to return to the seminary?" In one wiretap from last December, Renzi is heard explaining the rules of engagement: "You'll get up to 2,000 euros ... Do not touch his balls. You need the money. Put on some music, take out the [inaudible], swallow the Viagra, and adelante!" The Nigerian singer was dismissed Wednesday from the Cappella Giulia choir by Cardinal Angelo Comastri. Vatican sources denied the involvement of either priests or seminarians in the scandal. Balducci's religious fervor and persistence in the shadow of power have proven crucial aspects of the "gelatinous system" denounced by the judge investigating the awarding of lucrative public works contracts.

Bad news for FITSy, Scoopy and Savonarola

Nearly half of all Americans live in a state or municipality that recognizes same-sex couples' relationships. 

Approximately 140 million Americans live in the 15 states and Washington, D.C., as well as the dozens of cities and counties that recognize couples through marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships, according to Box Turtle Bulletin.

D'oh!

Jonathan Chait explains how congressional Republicans don't understand the reconciliation process they claim flowed directly from George Washington's forehead:

One of my guidelines to understanding the world is, when confronted with strange behavior, never assume malice when ignorance is available as an explanation.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

FITS News' Will Folks has an odd fixation with gubernatorial candidate Dwight Drake and imagined hairiness.

Could it have something to do with Folksy's bald, jowly, skimpy goatee-ness?



Pre-baseball capness.

Tip it, he says. Tip it good.

Boy Fogle, "earning media" during the workday despite his claim his blog is purely private and has nothing to do with his paymasters' political consulting bidness, props up, and then knocks down, his own, cribbed, story that the Chief Justice will won't resign.

Scoopy's "source," Radar.com, is noted for departments headed "Pop Culture", "Videos," Giveaways," and- appealing to his tendency to bromance, "Beauty" and "Style." Just the sort of  source we'd all go to for news about the United States Supreme Court ("I'm Biff Biffster, Radar.com's Supreme Court and Beauty Correspondent, giving you the latest on whether Justice Sotomayor's roots are showing during oral argument").

This whopper is right up there with Boyo's "insiders" who assured him VA Gov. Tim Kaine would be vice president and nobody in the state of Virginia had a clue what to do if he resigned.

Comedy Central really needs to option Foglie. There's little funnier than a "pundit" spouting bullshit and claiming it's caviar.

No bids required

The Carolinas tradition of "loot and shoot" fundraisers has gone nuclear under the RNC's high school student council campaign plan:

The Republican National Committee is planning to raise $60,000 at a fundraiser next month at the North Carolina compound owned by the company formerly known as Blackwater.

According to the RNC fundraising presentation I wrote about yesterday, the committee will hold a gathering of its "Young Eagles" -- major donors under 40 -- at the U.S. Training Center in Moyock, North Carolina April 16, an astute reader points out.

The center, which offers training courses to civilians, law enforcement, and the military, is owned by Xe Services, the embattled private military company formerly known as Blackwater, whose ties to the Republican Party helped made it central to the Bush Administration's operations abroad.

The RNC document doesn't say what the donors will be doing at the North Carolina compound, which describes itself as the nation's "premier weapons and tactics training facility."

Toaster oven in the trunk, no doubt

Here's an update on the Sodomy Club initiation Sunlit Uplands won't tell you about while beating his breast in the Temple about others.

The new conservative purity test

Red State's Erik Erickson wants to read the Teabaggers out of the conservative movement, but believes there's still votes to be mined from the 'mos:

Bob Bennett, so intent on winning re-election in Utah cast as the social conservative he is not, insisted that he be the Republican point man on gay marriage in Washington, D.C.

Bennett sponsored a resolution that would force DC to put the issue to a referendum vote.

But did Bennett fight for the legislation and force the Senate to vote on it?

Nope.

Gay marriage begins in DC tomorrow. Thanks, Bob.

Oh, and thanks to Bennett’s bungling, Catholic adoption agencies in DC that refuse to handle gay adoptions are having to shut down.

Republican closet cases reclaim their lead

Let's see how Savonarola will handle the Sacramento story!


Happy News for "Christianist" hate blogger Sunlit Uplands, who blogged yesterday about the Democrats that they are-


The party of sodomy, socialism, abortion and war-


-and today whinged about-

This one's a particularly egregious example of party-ID dodging, even for those of us who are used to seeing the establishment media avoid mentioning the political party of almost any disgraced or troubled Democratic public official.

Former Racine, Wisconsin mayor Gary Becker, a Democrat, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for child enticement and attempted sexual assault of a child.

Here are the results of a Google News search on "Gary Becker Racine mayor" (without quotes) shortly after midnight.

California State Senator Roy Ashburn, who has "a history of opposing gay rights," was arrested in Sacramento early Wednesday morning for driving under the influence after a CHP officer spotted his SUV weaving in and out of traffic. According to the local CBS affiliate, Ashburn, a divorced father with four daughters, was with an unidentified male passenger. It's also being reported that he had just left Faces, a gay club in the Sacramento.

Ashburn issued this boilerplate apology:

"I am deeply sorry for my actions and offer no excuse for my poor judgment. I accept complete responsibility for my conduct and am prepared to accept the consequences for what I did. I am also truly sorry for the impact this incident will have on those who support and trust me – my family, my constituents, my friends, and my colleagues in the Senate."

We'll have to wait and see if he'll talk about this on his local radio talk show this weekend.

If this is true, Bryant and Ballentine are on borrowed time

The Daily Dish considers the downside of politicoblogging:

It seems to me that the chief barrier to bloggers getting elected to public office isn’t so much their typically introverted personalities or lack of access to money but the mere fact that we’ve accumulated a long paper (pixel?) trail of recording every fool thought that’s passed through our minds over the last several years. Even bright, thoughtful, decent types like Douthat and Klein — and Lord knows, Kaus and Joyner — have written things that would kill a campaign dead, dead, dead if it showed up in an attack ad.

Triangulation

Life is complicated for SC's Republican consultant/bloggers.


Boy Fogle slags on Teabaggers when they are bashing Senator Lindsey Graham, but cheers them on when they go after Congressman J. Gresham Barrett (R-Running for Governor) for voting for the stimulus bill.


So now an advocacy group is targeting Barrett for bringing home more stimulus pork than any other of the SC GOP congressmen who voted against it and then bellied up to the trough to get some.


Senator Graham is standing up for Barrett.


So is Senator DeMint:

South Carolina's two U.S. senators say a Washington advocacy group's ads about U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett and the federal stimulus package are off base.

Republican U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint said Thursday the ads unfairly characterize Barrett as a champion of President Barack Obama's stimulus spending.

The Americans for Job Security radio and television ads began running statewide since Monday and are to run two weeks.

The ads could be significant as Barrett seeks the Republican nomination for governor in a crowded field.

Stephen DeMaura is president of the Washington group and says Barrett is being singled out because he's brought more stimulus money to the state than other South Carolina congressmen.

Lebensraum redux

Greece should consider selling some of its uninhabited islands to cut its debt, according to political allies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Josef Schlarmann and Frank Schaeffler told Germany's Bild daily that the Greek state should sell stakes in all its assets to raise more cash.

Greek PM George Papandreou is due to meet Mrs Merkel in Berlin later this week for talks about the crisis.

Mr Papandreou has already announced a strict austerity programme.

'Affordable' islands

"Sell your islands, you bankrupt Greeks - and the Acropolis too!" says the headline in the Bild newspaper.

It sounds like the sort of daydream induced by too much ouzo, but the idea comes from two senior politicians in Europe's biggest economy.