Nigerian now collecting funds for reversal of Omaha LGBT anti-bias law

Two weeks ago, a petition request with the City of Omaha to put the city's anti-bias law to a popular vote was filed by a group calling itself the Omaha Liberty Project. The organization includes a board member of the Nebraska Family Council, William Femi Awodele; its leader is a local Tea Party activist, Patrick Bonnett, owner of Encore Financial Services, Inc. of Omaha.
     The domain names "OmahaLibertyProject.com/.net/.org all take internet users directly to the page below, which solicits donations and identifies the sponsoring organization as "Christian Couples Fellowship International," run by William Femi Awodele, a Nigerian immigrant.
     Not a single page of Christian Couples Fellowship International website currently functions properly except the one in which marriage-improvement DVDs for troubled heterosexuals (which cost up to $70) may be ordered.
     Mr. Awodele evidently likes to get right to the point without burdening users of his websites with unnecessary distractions.

Below: the only page you see when you surf to OmahaLibertyProject.com or .net or .org:

Above: Awodele, who isn't a lawyer, failed last Spring to persuade the City Council not to adopt Omaha's LGBT anti-bias ordinance after arguing that gay people don't fit the legal definition of a minority — despite the fact that they have employment protection in about 170 US cities — and that a study by the University of Nebraska Medical Center indicates they have too much money to be considered a legitimate minority, anyway. He had more to say but was cut off because his time management skills were insufficient to comply with the council's five-minute rule.

The Ruth Institute needs to hire this woman!

NSFW. Roger Ebert, who tweeted this video, notes that the "guest" is the speaker's mom and further noted that he "regarded this video in fascination and awe."



What AKSARBENT learned from this video

• All penises are not created equal
• Don't let every man hit the bottom of your vagina... 
• (from Guest:) They don't know about the bottom...
• A woman can be screwed into slavery by a man using his penis as a weapon to break her ass down
• This can actually reduce her to a cum freak
• You don't want to let everybody spank you and talk to you all kind of ways
• Alexyss K. Taylor may not have a PhD and a master's degrees to put on her wall in academia, but she has "a master's degree in being used by men, being played by men"
• (from Guest) A girl ain't got a chance!

The gulf between reality and Mitt Romney's promises and public statements

Rachel Maddow airs another installment of her tally of Mitt Romney's mendacity...


...while Barney Frank recalls Romney's duplicity, hostility and indifference to the legitimate aspirations of gay residents of Massachusetts when he was that state's governor.


(Both clips via JoeMyGod)

Iowa Family Leader: where Iowa Nice goes to die

Like Hitler complaining about the rudeness of the French, here we have Tamara Scott in Bayliss Park in Council Bluffs complaining that lawyers and voters defending Justice David Wiggins against relentless character assassination by her No Wiggins campaign are getting "personal" — moments before her Trash-Wiggins road trip buddy, Bob Vander Plaats, ticked off a list of the nastiest anonymous Judicial Review comments about Judge Wiggins that he could find. (Props to a gay-friendly photographer who shall remain nameless.)



AKSARBENT took a little poetic license with the video editor, and if we went too far, we can only blame the bad influence of the Family Leader's example, namely that 15-word smear of Justice Wiggins plastered on their huge red bus (paid for with lots of out-of-state money from the secretive National Organization for Marriage) and repeated four or five times in their YouTube smear below

Vander Plaats' Trash-Justice-Wiggins Iowa bus tour outnumbered in Cedar Rapids 150-30 by detractors who jeered so loudly he was hardly heard

Reporters Trish Mehaffey and Dave Franzman said hecklers sympathizing with the pro-Wiggins Iowa Bar Association bus on the other side of Cedar Rapids' Greene Square Park were so boisterous that "It was difficult at times to hear Vander Plaats and others of the anti-retention group" because of boos and yells directed at the Iowa Family Leader's "NoWiggins" bus. Sample sentiments: "Vote Yes," "Who's paying for the bus?" and "It's about equal protection, Bob, read the constitution."
     On Thursday, the two buses roll into Council Bluffs, the second most important stop on the tour. Although "CB," population 62,000, is only Iowa's seventh-biggest city, it is part of a metropolitan area which also includes the Nebraska cities of Omaha, Bellevue, Papillion, Ralston, and Millard — the largest population center in Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota, with TV, radio and print media that have tremendous reach into Western Iowa. 

Below: Iowa Family Leader tries to persuade voters to dump Justice Wiggins via a Big Lie YouTube smear.

The New Normal hits its stride

NBC's first-out-of-the gate gay-themed sitcom is already as much a hoot as the tartest of the Desperate Housewives episodes. Golden touch producer/director James Burrows' Tiffany Network counterpart, Partners, will have a high bar to clear, AKSARBENT thinks, to best this series. Good thing for CBS they're not opposite each other.
     An excerpt from Tuesday's episode, which we saw on NBC's website (commercial free!):

Andy Williams dead at 84 of bladder cancer in Branson, Missouri

Williams had a big hit in Can't Get Used To Losing You with its marvelous pizzicato introduction, but it was his smash cover of "Moon River" that led to his long-running NBC variety show.

Williams, who popularized the Osmonds on his TV show, got scandalous payback and collateral ridicule when his ex-wife, Claudine Longet, shot the ski instructor with whom she had been having an affair.

Below, Williams performs the filthiest pop hit of the 1950s, Lollipop, with the Chordettes, whose schtick was that they were basically a female barbershop quartet. 



Yes, those were the Everly Brothers at the end of the clip, seemingly wishing they were anywhere else. Here they are, singing Love is Strange into the same microphone:

Double-talk from Omaha's archbishop about anti-gay LGBT petition drive

Well-known Omahan Marlon Brando, who
didn't fool around, except when he did. If
you know what we mean...

Executive summary: Hey padres, this is your boss speaking! In case this memo gets out, I want to make sure it doesn't incriminate me in respect of coercing you to cooperate with the antigay initiative, but if you wanna help, you could do so by scheduling information nights (wink, wink), handouts (nod, nod) and letting petitioners have access to your parish events, not that I would publicly compel such a course of action, mind you. Capiche?

Dear Father,

You will soon learn from the local media about an effort that is underway to repeal the City of Omaha's sexual orientation anti-discrimination ordinance. The sponsor of this initiative - the Heritage Coalition - must collect 12,000 signatures from October to November to place the ordinance on the spring (2013) mayoral ballot.  The sponsor believes that if given the opportunity, Omahans will vote to repeal this ordinance.

Representatives of the Heritage Coalition may try to solicit your support. As pastor of your parish, you are free to exercise your discretion in determining if and how you want to involve yourself or your parishioners in this effort which addresses an important moral issue. Examples of your involvement may include speaking about the issue in your parish, giving petitioners access to your parish events, scheduling information nights at your parish to discuss the issue, providing informational handouts to your parishioners, etc. If you and your parishioners choose to participate in this petition drive, I ask that there be no undue disruption of parish liturgies, nor distraction from the important moral issues at stake in national and state elections this fall.

You can contact Deacon Tim McNeil if you have questions about this ballot initiative. In the meantime, thank you for the care you provide the souls entrusted to you.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Archbishop George Lucas

(Sources)

Iowa hate radio: toxic WHO talk show host Jan Mickelson, who joked with Rep. Tom Latham about pistol-whipping nuns advocating for the poor, now agrees with Iranian president on gays

Source

Yesterday morning, WHO host Jan Mickelson said he agreed with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments to  Piers Morgan, when Ahmadinejad equated homosexuality to stealing and told Morgan that being gay is ugly.
     Earlier this year Mickelson got a laugh from Rep. Tom Latham when he asked the Iowa GOP congressman: “There’s a bus full of nuns headed towards Washington to lobby against the Ryan plan,” Mickelson said during a conversation with Rep. Tom Latham “Do you have any power to pull the nuns on the bus over and pistol whip them?”
     Mickelson was referring to the National Catholic Social Justice Lobby (NETWORK), an outfit of Catholic Sisters who recently came under Vatican scrutiny for focusing too much on issues like social and economic justice, rather than fighting abortion and marriage equality. The nuns spoke out about the fact that Ryan’s proposal would disproportionately hit low-income Americans.

Hugh Grant is out for marriage but not gay, as Stephen Fry may or may not have insinuated

British comedian Stephen Fry may have engaged in a bit of calculated confusion in his vague tweet, which briefly roiled some of Hugh Grant's distaff straight fans.



More:

Kansas City: Freedom From Religion Foundation billboard gets in Catholic church's face over gay marriage

Here's the press release:

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has placed a bold 14x48-foot billboard bulletin saying “Ban Marriage Between Church and State” in Smithville, Mo., in America’s heartland. FFRF’s bright purple billboard, adorned with a background rainbow, is hard to miss. It was placed to counter a nearby billboard message saying “1 Man, 1 Woman, Forever,” in downtown Smithville put up by Catholic Radio.
     FFRF’s newest billboard slogan, affirming the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, can be found on Highway 169 one mile north of Highway 92 in Clay County.
     According to Smithville’s official city website, it has a population of about 8,400, is a suburb of Kansas City, Mo., and is within commuting distance of St. Joseph, Mo. Smithville Lake is part of a 7,700-acre Army Corps of Engineers recreational lake and park that attracts about 170 bald eagles. That same city website advertises 14 churches.
     FFRF launched its newest billboard slogan (adapted from one of FFRF’s popular bumper stickers) at the request of Matt Gaines, a member of FFRF and resident of rural Smithville.
     Gaines said he feels the Catholic-sponsored sign is offensive to gay couples — and even to anyone who has gone through a divorce:
     "To denigrate other people's relationships or the decisions they have had to make with their outdated religious dogmas is simply shameful," said Gaines.
     Said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor: “The only organized opposition to marriage equality comes from the Religious Right. Mormon, Roman Catholic and fundamentalist Protestant churches and organizations have spent hundreds of millions to amend state constitutions to ban gay marriage in the name of Christianity. Religious dogma must be kept out of our secular laws.”
     Gaylor thanked Matt Gaines, not only for helping to locate the billboard, but for donating toward the costs. FFRF places billboards where local members request them and help make it possible.
     FFRF is a 501(c)(3) educational charity with more than 18,500 nonreligious members nationwide, including more than 270 in Missouri. FFRF began a national billboard campaign in the fall of 2007, and has since placed hundreds of secular slogans on billboards in more than half the states. FFRF functions as a state/church watchdog, ending many constitutional violations through legal work and litigation.

(Via Queerty)

Quotes of the Day — subject: Bob Vander Plaats

From Under the Golden Dome, 5/31/11

Just recently @Crazy_BobVP was created to poke fun at
Iowa’s poodle trainer. The accounts tweets are harmless
jokes, such as the user’s post “That’s funny, I don’t
remember telling @MittRomney that he is allowed to
come to Iowa this month” or “If the rapture takes place
on Saturday the Capturing Momentum Tour will begin at
noon on Tuesday at the pizza ranch by the pearly gates.”
But sometime recently, the account was suspended by
Twitter for impersonation.
     After looking into Twitter’s Impersonation account
suspension process, filing a report to cancel an account
is a drawn out process that could take as long as a week
to complete. And the person filing the report has to
provide, among other things, a fax of his/her driver’s
license and a signed letter requesting the account be
deactivated.  To sum it up, Cry-Baby Bob had to take a
lot of time out of his ‘busy’ day of hunting RINOs and
traveling to Pizza Ranches to make sure this harmless
parody of him was silenced.  This shouldn’t come as a
surprise to anyone who knows the history of this spoiled
little infant that is disguised as a politician in big-boy
clothes.
     Even Congressional candidate Christie Vilsack has a
parody account: @FakeChristieV. Her tweets include
“The welcome sign in Primghar, ‘Where men are men
and the sheep are nervous.’  WHAT KIND OF SICK
FUCKS ARE WE DEALING WITH HERE?!!!” and
“Algona means ‘toothless bastards’ in Norwegian.
They’re living up to your name today, good God.
#listeningtour”
     These accounts are still active because the politicians
they joke about have realized that mockery is part of
being in the public spotlight. Bob “Hissy Fit” Vander
Plaats should realize that he cannot stop the satire
that will follow him everywhere, especially when he
surrounds himself with musket-toting Tea Party
activists and says that the Government needs to cut
spending while his organization took $3 million from
in federal grants.
     Crazy Bob appears to have plenty of time on his hands,
so I’d like to encourage everyone to create their own
Bob Vander Plaats parody account.  You’ll know you’ve
won when Bob decides to spend a week working to get
the account deleted.  Then just start up a new one!
And lastly I would like to give Bob a bit of advice: if you
can’t take a joke, get a real job, stop saying crazy things,
and stop parading around the state holding tea party
rallies at Pizza Ranches.

The campaign against Iowa’s judiciary by Bob Vander Plaats is funded by out-of-state money, the speakers are from out of state, and the buses are from out of state,” she said. “It is simply an exercise in the use of PAC money and special interest money and out of state interests.

— Attorney Christine Branstad, Gov. Terry's niece, quoted in GavelGrab

It says nothing in the federal constitution about same sex couples being allowed to marry, However it says nothing about marriage between conventional couples either....In fact the Federal constitution says nothing about marriage being a right at all. So how is giving same sex partners the right to Marry a attack of a conventional couples rights, when they have no mention of having the right to marriage in the Federal constitution either? Vander Plaats is a nutcase with his own personal agenda.

— Kevin Griffiths, in a comment to the Des Moines Register

So, by upholding the Iowa constitution and allowing same sex marriage, I am going to lose all my freedoms. I will lose more of my freedoms if Rick Santorum and Bob Vander Plaats get their way.

— Stephen Brubaker, in a comment to the Des Moines Register

Constitutional scholar Rick Santorum explains why Iowa's Supreme Court overstepped its bounds — because article three of the US constitution is smaller than articles one and two!

Since Bob Vander Plaats thinks it's ok to take Justice Wiggins' words completely out of context and plaster them on a flaming red forty-foot bus, AKSARBENT thought we'd do something similar (in yellow) to Rick Santorum's participation in the Iowa Family Leader's smear-Wiggins junket in Des Moines on Monday. Except that we're misrepresenting Santorum far less than he and his are distorting Wiggins' words:

It's very simple to understand what the role of the courts is, as far as the power that was given them; the authority that were [sic] granted by our founders in the constitution... the founders were very clear that the court's role was limited. How do we know this? Well, read the constitution... Article one was put first... Second is article two... Read that article! Much shorter than article one... Third was the judicial branch — a very small, I might add, article [interrupted by applause!]... Our founders understood that the role of the court was not to be the one that was to be pre-eminent.

Now a cynical person might conclude that since the founders enumerated fewer constraints on the Supreme Court, resulting in a shorter article, that they were actually giving it more power — the last word, if you will. But such people are probably judicial anarchists who favor the color red. Oh wait...
 

Vogue issues a correction

Jesse Ventura addresses Minnesota's referendum to ban gay marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships

He might as well have been talking about Bob Vander Plaats and the Iowa Family Leader's scorched earth misuse of Iowa's judicial retention mechanism, on its way to subjecting marriage equality in Iowa to a popular vote. By the way, the surveys in Minnesota regarding marriage equality are much grimmer than the polls in Washington State and Maine, which show the electorate leaning toward endorsing the idea.


(Cara Schulz via GoodAsYou)

Like Lazarus, Christian political hustler Ralph Reed, has risen from the disgrace of his role in the Jack Abramoff scandal and is now exciting Minnesota and Iowa homophobia, through an antigay marriage referendum in the former state and an antigay judicial recall in the latter as a means to profitably build up his new political organization.
      From the New York Times:

...The Faith and Freedom Coalition, formed in 2009, is Mr. Reed’s attempt to do the same on the right.

     To identify religious voters most likely to vote Republican, the group used 171 data points.

      It acquired megachurch membership lists. It mined public records for holders of hunting or boating licenses, and warranty surveys for people who answered yes to the question “Do you read the Bible?” It determined who had downloaded conservative-themed books, like “Going Rogue” by Sarah Palin, onto their e-readers, and whether those people also drove pickup trucks. It drilled down further, looking for married voters with children, preferably owners of homes worth more than $100,000.

      Finally, names that overlapped at least a dozen or so data points were overlaid with voting records to yield a database with the addresses and, in many cases, e-mail addresses and cellphone numbers of the more than 17 million faith-centric registered voters — not just evangelical Protestants but also Mass-attending Catholics. The group is also reaching out to nearly two million more people who have never registered to vote.

     ...In addition to its presidential election turnout campaign, the group plans to focus on two state ballot measures: a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in Minnesota and an effort to recall an Iowa Supreme Court justice who voted to legalize same-sex marriage in the state.

      Mr. Reed and his allies agree that social issues alone will not turn the election.

No Wiggins bus tour: Sioux City Journal joins Des Moines Register in excoriating Vander Plaats, Iowa Family Leader

Read the entire editorial in the Sioux City Journal here.

...Regardless of their views about gay marriage, Iowans should understand: The independent foundation on which a strong court system is based is at risk of being weakened in our state. The kinds of organized campaigns we have witnessed in 2010 and again this year to drive out judges as political retaliation for a ruling establishes an unsettling precedent for a future in which the infusion of political ideology routinely will force Iowa judges to raise money and wage political campaigns to stay on the bench. These questions arise: Will judges begin to consider the political ramifications of rulings? Will judges become beholden to special interests and their cash?
     Once you open the door to politics, it's hard to close it. Today, Vander Plaats is unhappy about an "activist" court decision; tomorrow, the leader of some left-leaning political organization may be upset about what he or she perceives as an "activist" ruling and seek payback - and the cycle will continue.
     We subscribe to the narrow view of retention votes. Judges should be removed from the bench only for reasons of malfeasance or gross incompetence, not for political retribution. Removing Ternus, Baker and Streit didn't overturn the controversial 2009 court decision and removing Wiggins won't either. Defeating them is meant to punish them and warn others.
     Those Iowans who wish to make gay marriage illegal would be better-advised to focus their energy on electing more state legislators who agree with them this fall in anticipation of pushing a constitutional amendment through the General Assembly.
     According to Vander Plaats, he's working to restore integrity to our court system. In our view, he's doing the opposite - sucking integrity out of it.
     By voting to retain Wiggins, Iowans will reject this political power play and send a message of opposition to the short-sighted, misguided injection of politics into our state's judicial system. We are hopeful of just such an outcome. (Via OneIowa.org)

Related: In his story about the dueling bus tours, Ron Marasco of WOI-DT chronicled what may well be the dumbest statement by an Iowan to find its way into print yesterday:

"Judge Wiggins legislated from the bench when he joined the Varnum decision," said Pella resident Lyle Horman.  "But the other reason is that according to the lawyers who participated in the Iowa Bar Association survey, more than 36% of them felt that Judge Wiggins should not be retained."

Hmmm, let's do the math here, Mr. Horman. If 36% of the Iowa Bar doesn't think Wiggins should be retained, then 64% do. May we remind you, Mr. Horman, that if your cheerleader, Bob Vander Plaats, had achieved an approval rating that high among the electorate, he would have been elected instead of losing when he ran for governor in 2002. And in 2006 when he quit to join his primary challenger on a lower rung on the ticket — and lost. And in 2010 when he ran for governor again — and lost.

Hugh Hefner, watch your back

Unlike younger rappers, this one does a lisp riff just for the fun of it and not in the service of any homophobic agenda because at 83 he is so over that.

Is your debit/credit card broadcasting its number to thieves? Paypass, Paywave and Blink cards vulnerable

Over a billion unencrypted debit and credit cards equipped with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) have been issued. Any card marked Paypass, Paywave, or Blink can broadcast your number a short distance without being swiped.

In Pella, Iowa, fed-up Bar Association members ridicule judiciaries of home states of carpetbaggers Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum

Journal Express photo: Steve Woodhouse

This year, the 8000 members of the Iowa State Bar Association aren't taking Bob Vander Plaats' new  assault on the independence of the state's judiciary lying down. They're following the Sioux City demagogue around with their own bus. Here is what happened (with several photos and video) in Pella today, as reported by Steve Woodhouse of the Journal-Express.

The representatives of the bar also mocked Santorum and Gov. Bobby Jinadl of Louisiana, who will join the No Wiggins tour later this week. They said Iowa's judiciary is ranked in the top 10 by the US Chamber of Commerce while Pennsylvania (Santorum's home state) and Louisiana rank very low...
     (The Supreme Court) didn't impose same-sex marriage on anyone," Guy Cook, President-elect of the Iowa State Bar Association said. "The Iowa Supreme Court imposed the Constitution on some legislation that was unfair."

National Organization for Marriage may lose statewide referenda in both Maine and Washington State... wonder how they'll spin it

Matthew Stone, of the Bangor Daily News reports that "The Maine People’s Resource Center found 53% of voters saying they would vote “yes” on a ballot question asking, “Do you want to allow the State of Maine to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples?” Forty-three percent of respondents said they planned to vote “no,” while 4% of voters were undecided."

The 53-43 edge for same-sex marriage supporters is a narrower one than previous polls, though the resource center’s survey is the first to ask voters the exact question they will see on the ballot in November.
     Maine Secretary of State Charlie Summers, also the Republican candidate for Maine’s Senate seat, finalized that wording at the end of July. Polls taken in June, before the question’s wording was finalized, found greater levels of support for legalizing same-sex marriage.
     A poll by the Portland firm Critical Insights conducted June 20-25 found a 57-35 edge for same-sex marriage supporters, and a survey conducted by the MassINC Polling Group for the Boston public radio station WBUR June 13-14 found 55 percent of voters supporting the same-sex marriage initiative, compared to 36 percent opposing it. The Critical Insights survey asked voters, “Do you want to allow same-sex couples to marry,” and the WBUR poll asked voters if they supported a law that would allow same-sex couples to marry and “protects religious freedom” by not requiring clergy to perform same-sex marriages.

In Washington State, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Referendum 74, approving same-sex marriage,:

...is ahead 52-40 percent with 8 percent undecided. Its lead has edged up from 49-39 percent in July. The measure would ratify legislation, passed last February and signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire, making Washington the seventh state to legalize marriage equality.

Kerrey Senate campaign: Deb Fischer's lead cut from 28 points to 10

Here's the press release:

The Omaha World Herald survey is clear evidence that momentum is on our side. In mid-June the Fischer campaign released their own survey claiming to be 28 points ahead. Now that lead has been cut to 10.
     Deb Fischer is playing dodge ball with Nebraskans offering nothing but empty slogans and an indefensible budget plan that would be an economic disaster for our state. The more people learn about Deb Fischer, the less they like.

Supporter Sarah Palin (left) and Nebraska senate candidate
Fischer, who had nothing to say to a Lincoln radio station
about Mitt Romney's "47%" remarks during a fund raiser at
the lavish Florida estate of a private equity manager whose
Long Island sex parties are notorious in the Empire State.

Here's how the Kerrey campaign reacted to Fischer's no-show at the Nebraska Rural Health Association’s annual conference on rural health:

The NRHA invited, “those who share the common bond of an interest in rural health” to attend. State Senator Deb Fischer was invited and had confirmed her participation; however, she did not show up to the event.
     “Fischer’s snub to the NRHA is no surprise,” offered Paul Johnson, Senator Bob Kerrey’s Campaign Manager. “She is playing dodge ball with Nebraskans.  She knows that her budget would require a 29% cut out of Medicare. She knows that means a rural economic loss of over $170 million in Nebraska and over 3,500 jobs lost due to the impact on rural hospitals. Hospitals would close. Rural healthcare would end as we know it and the lives of Nebraskans across the state would be harmed.  Clearly, Fischer decided today was not the day to be honest with the voters of Nebraska.”
   ...Senator Kerrey also addressed the League of Nebraska Municipalities at its conference in Kearney, Nebraska. Senator Fischer was also invited to that event but refused to attend.  “Another example of Fischer playing dodge ball with the public,” Johnson noted.

No on Wiggins campaign: Here's what happens when you go down the Bob Vander Plaats road...

Florida's Republican Party declared on Friday that they will
work to unseat the state supreme court justices who
blocked Gov. Rick Scott's plan to suppress minority voting.
(Via JoeMyGod)

Bob Vander Plaats and Iowans For Freedom (IFF), the political hit squad of the Iowa Family Leader, are taking their roadshow of character assassination (see above video) targeting Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins, all over the state this week, literally being followed by the Iowa State Bar Association, which hired its own truck.
     The result of Vander Plaats' cynical campaign to abuse Iowa's judicial retention process with the help of well-funded, secretive out-of-state carpetbaggers like the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), Rick Santorum and Bobby Jindal, is that the Iowa Supreme Court is being packed with middle-aged white male Republicans appointed by Terry Branstad to replace the judges IFF is methodically picking off.
     Predictions by critics about the danger posed to judicial independence by partisan demagogues like Vander Plaats is now coming true. Exhibit A: Florida.
     KMA reports that Cynthia Moser, president of the 8000 lawyers and judges of the Iowa State Bar Association — oldest in the country — expects local lawyers to speak in many of the cities where the dueling bus tours will stop.
     “I think obviously 2010 was a turning point for all of us who saw what happened to three exceptionally talented and dedicated Supreme Court justices,” Moser told KMA. “I think it was a galvanizing event.”
      Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum will tour with the bus troupe starting Monday and former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will join on Wednesday.

The odd Mexican colonies of Romney's ancestors

No, nobody in the recent past of Mitt's extended family has ever gone on a killing spree, but the Mormon colony in Northern Mexico into which Mitt's father was born constitutes a rather unusual heritage for a candidate as hard-nosed about immigration as Romney is.

Ted Koppel's wordless reply to Bill O'Reilly's absurd assertion, 'I still think that I'm doing something noble'

It comes at the very end of the clip, but watch the entire discussion anyway.

More Saturday Night Live: 'Ann Romney' gives her critics what for; Ellen DeGeneres never married a car

Oh, by the way, at the end of the Fox and Friends sendup, SNL runs, at warp speed, a crawl of "disclaimers" by Fox "fact checkers." They're too fast to read in real time, so AKSARBENT typed them out for you...

The Bible was not a movie first.
Iowa City never elected Mayor McCheese.
Allegra is not a religion.
Jeremy Lin was traded, not deported.
The sun and the moon do not high-five as they pass each other.
Vaginas don't look like that.
A dead person's skull does not contain their memories.
Ron Paul is one person.
The Atlanta Hawks are a team, not an infestation.
Ellen DeGeneres never married a car.
Benedict Arnold was not a character on Diff'rent Strokes.
A wind turbine has never cut off the head of a pretty girl in a convertible.
The Tasmanian Devil is not the president of Tasmania.
Star Wars is essentially a work of fiction.
Al Gore never claimed to invent Nintendo.
Hawaii does not rotate every six months.
Neil Armstrong was not the first person to moon someone.
The Keystone Pipeline is not filled with Keystone Light.
Swiss banks are not "full of holes."
Camp David does not have a sister camp called Camp Denise.
Oogielove is not a sexually transmitted disease.
They did not name Mars after the Mars Rover.
Monica Lewinsky was never in an internment camp.
Six comes after five.
Kim Jong-Un is not the CEO of Yahoo.
Left-handed people cannot read your thoughts.
Lobsters are not "ocean spiders."
Cat Fancy is a magazine, not a man/cat dating site.
The U.S. Postal Service never released a Kesha stamp.
"F" is not a blood type.
Parsley is not one of the Spice Girls.
Usain Bolt is not a new action movie starring John C. Reilly.
LIBOR is not a giant praying mantis.
Old Navy is not one of the armed forces.
The letters in "Massachusetts" cannot be rearranged to spell "same sex marriage."
Crabs don't breastfeed.
Animal Planet is not an acceptable nickname for Telemundo.
Marco Rubio does not play for the Timberwolves.
Al Jazeera is not the cohost of "Tool Time."
Babies never skip ahead" to being 10.
Angela Merkel is not a palindrome.
You can't outrun polio.
The Negro League is not "back and better than ever."
Latin Inches is not the Mexican metric system.
The Russian national anthem is not the U.S. national anthem played backwards.
Rocky never fought Lassie.

Unlike Obama, Señor Romney didn't play by the rules in Miami — and neither did his supporters

Mitt Romney was accused of layering dark markup on with a
trowel for his visit with the Hispanics, but Univision's Maria
Elena Salinas said he used the same makeup artist she did and
that Romney did not ask for seconds. Wonkette speculated
that he may have had a boys' night out at the tanning salon
with John Boehner.

The contrast between wild enthusiasm for Romney and cool silence for Obama at the University of Miami's candidate forum was an optical and audio illusion orchestrated by Romney, Inc.
     Maria Elena Salinas, one of the Univision anchors who moderated the forums, told BuzzFeed that tickets for each forum were divided between the network, the respective campaigns, and the University of Miami (which hosted the events) — and she said both campaigns initially agreed to keep the audience comprised mostly of students...
     But... the Romney camp realized there weren't enough sympathetic students to fill the stands on their night — so they told the network and university that if they weren't given an exemption to the students-only rule, they might have to "reschedule."
     The organizers relented. One Democrat with ties to the Obama campaign noted that Rudy Fernandez, the university official charged with coordinating the forums, is a member of Romney's Hispanic steering committee. Fernandez did not respond to BuzzFeed's questions about whether he gave preferential treatment to Romney's campaign.
     ...Romney's team was allowed to bus in rowdy activists from around southern Florida in order to fill the extra seats at their town hall...
     Salinas said both candidates ultimately had partisan crowds at their forums, but that Romney's non-student activists ignored instructions to hold their applause.
     "We were a little bit thrown because it was supposed to be a TV show, it wasn't a rally," Salinas said of the outspoken Romney supporters. "It was a little bit of disrespect for us."
     Obama's campaign, meanwhile, stuck to the original parameters... The result was a quiet, well-behaved crowd — and a lot of no-shows.
     ...Romney himself almost pulled the plug on the whole thing minutes before the broadcast, Salinas said.
     While introducing Romney, ...Jorge Ramos noted that the Republican candidate had agreed to give the network 35 minutes, and that Obama had agreed to a full hour the next night....
     Apparently, Romney took issue with the anchors beginning the broadcast that way, said Salinas, and he refused to go on stage until they re-taped the introduction. (One Republican present at the taping said Romney "threw a tantrum.")

Evidently, you can't copyright a flag

Malaysia, one of the less violent, but still revolting nations of Islam (See? AKSARBENT's provincial atheists don't just diss Christers) appears to have a very familiar-looking flag. Oh wait, theirs has FOURTEEN red and white stripes, not thirteen. Big difference!

The Tom Becka 'three people off the top of your head' litmus test of class discrimination: a guide for morons

KOIL, owned by NRG Media of Cedar Rapids, fulfills
its government licensing imperative to operate in the
public interest by offering a wide diversity of opinion to
its listeners, as exemplified by the above programming.

Related: Ben Gray: talk to the dialtone, Becka. 
Also related: The thread about Becka's harangue discussion with Ben Gray has mysteriously disappeared from Becka's facebook page after his "interview" got unusual traction in the blogosphere.

Tom Becka, to a facebook commenter: "If it (discrimination) was a major problem, you could name me three people off the top of your head..."
     Well, that was easy!
     Let's see how the casual recall approach to bias works in practice, shall we?
     Can you name three people who have had the crap beaten out of them by queer bashers? No? Well then, The Tom Becka Three-People-Off-The-Top-Of-Your-Head litmus test says, "Problem solved! (Or, more accurately, "This isn't a terribly important problem!")
     So what if the FBI says that gay people are more frequently the victims of hate crime than any other minority in the US — the Becka rule still applies, so you can just ignore evidence and statistics, buddy.
     And keep listening to KOIL and patronizing its advertisers, won't you?
     After all, Tom Becka patronizes you.

SNL and Bill Maher both mock undecided voters

Bill Maher got there first, immediately following his jab (1:50 mark) at Kate Middleton's visit to "Booby Island." (This one is NSFW.)

Obama rips Romney's latest, measly tax disclosure

Rachel Maddow had a withering critique of this from a different perspective on Friday night.


(Via Towleroad)

Austin, Texas Police Department makes an uncommonly good It Gets Better video

(Via Towleroad and JoeMyGod; for links scroll for blogroll at right)

And here's one from Iowa:

Editorial of the week: Rekha Basu in the Des Moines Register about sabotaging judicial independence

From Rekha Basu's piece on the Iowa Family Leader's statewide bus tour to get rid of an Iowa Supreme Court Justice:

...a couple of national Republican politicians are jumping on a bus — or is it a bandwagon? — to try to turn Iowans against an Iowa judge. This isn’t about you, gentlemen...
     This campaign is nothing more than blackmail. ...It’s a warning to future judges that if they vote a certain way, it could cost them their jobs.
     ...First, the Iowa Family Leader turned judicial retention elections vindictive. Then the Iowa Republican Party turned them partisan, when its chairman last month called on Republicans to oust Wiggins. Now politicians like Jindal and Santorum are turning them national, though they should have no dog in this.
     ...What do Jindal and Santorum even know about Wiggins or his nine years of Supreme Court rulings? Do they know how Iowa’s judicial selection system works...? Do they know that both the justice who wrote the marriage decision and the chief justice at the time of the ruling were selected by a governor of their own Republican Party?
     ...these outsiders are helping to destroy judicial independence in Iowa for a long time to come.
     ...None of that apparently matters to those who would help sink our state’s well-honed system of judicial independence to further their own political prospects in the nation’s first caucus state. Shame on them. And shame on us if we allow them to lead us down that path.

Rachel Maddow on Romney games revealed by today's release of his 2011 taxes

Iowa State Bar Association announces its own bus tour to shadow Iowa Family Leader Justice Wiggins character assassination roadshow

Related: Register columnist takes dim view of carpetbaggers Jindal and Santorum piling on to Vander Plaats' jihad.
     The ISBA’s Fair and Impartial Courts Committee’s action plan to defend all judges and justices who stand for retention in November was approved by the ISBA Board of Governors at its quarterly meeting Monday, and is being implemented immediately. To be successful, however, the plan needs help from all members.
      The approved action plan consists of a 'Yes Iowa Judges' tour to the same cities as those identified by the Family Leader organization led by Bob Vander Plaats, a postcard mailing campaign, a bumper/window sticker campaign and speaking engagements with civic and religious groups.
     Jeff Eckhoff of the Des Moines Register says the current version of the No Wiggins bus tour (listed below) will be the same for the lawyers’ tour. The Bar Association, which will also spend Friday in Ames (9 a.m.) and Iowa City (1 p.m.), has promised to tell the news media about its specific parking spaces a few hours before each stop.

Go here to verify times and locations of Iowa State Bar Association bus tour, listed below the NO ON WIGGINS TOUR.

NO ON WIGGINS TOUR:

Monday, Sept. 24
9:00 AM Des Moines, Iowa State Capitol, 400 Finkbine Dr.
11:00 AM Pella, Central Park, 720 Franklin Dr.
12:45 PM Ottumwa, Teal Drive off Wapello Street
3:00 PM Burlington, Port of Burlington Visitors Center, 400 N. Front St.
4:45 PM Muscatine, Riverside Park, Harbor Dr.

Tuesday, Sept. 25
9:30 AM Davenport, Living Water Family Church, 4706 NW Blvd.
11:45 AM Cedar Rapids
2:00 PM Dubuque, Washington Park, 351 W. 6th St.
4:30 PM Cedar Falls, PIPAC Centre, 1521 Technology Parkway

Wednesday, Sept. 26
9:30 AM Mason City, Central Park, 10 1st St. SW
12:15 PM Marshalltown, Susie Sower park, 60 N 2nd Avenue
2:45 PM Fort Dodge, City Square Park, 120 N. 5th street
4:45 PM Carroll, Southside Park, Bluff & Main St.

Thursday, Sept. 27th
9:30 AM Council Bluffs, Bayliss Park, 121 S. 6th St.
11:45 AM Sioux City, Sergeant Floyd Monument, 2701 S. Lewis Blvd.
2:30 PM Spencer, East Leach Park, Campground Entrance, 305 4th Street SE
4:30 PM Orange City, Windmill Square at 250 Central Ave NW

YES ON RETENTION TOUR:

(Exact locations and specific times to be added as they become available)

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24

Des Moines (west side of the State Capitol)  -  9:00 a.m.

Pella (Central Park, 720 Franklin Drive)  -  11:00 a.m.

Ottumwa (Ottumwa Park, Teal Drive off of Wapello Street)   -  12:45 a.m.

Burlington (Port of Burlington Visitor Center, 400 N. Front Street)   -  3:00 p.m.

Muscatine (Riverside Park on Harbor Drive)  -  4:45 p.m.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25

Davenport (Scott County Courthouse)  -  9:30 a.m.

Cedar Rapids (Greene Square Park, 400 4th Avenue SE)  -  11:45 a.m.

Dubuque (Washington Park, 351 W. 6th Street)  -  2:00 p.m.

Cedar Falls (Location TBA)  -  4:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26

Mason City (Location TBA)  -  9:30 a.m.

Marshalltown (Location TBA)  -  12:15 p.m.

Fort Dodge (Location TBA)  -  2:45 p.m.

Carroll (Location TBA)  -  4:45 p.m.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27

Council Bluffs (Location TBA)  -  9:30 a.m.

Sioux City (Location TBA)  -  11:45 p.m.

Spencer (Location TBA)  -  2:30 p.m.

Orange City (Location TBA)  -  4:30 p.m.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28

Ames (Location TBA)  -  9:00 a.m.

Iowa City (Location TBA)  -  1:00 p.m.

Jeremy Hooper, at GoodAsYou, has published the genealogy of Iowans For Freedom's YouTube smear against Justice Wiggins, which AKSARBENT deconstructed in a video of our own.

It all started back in February of last year, when National Review Online's Gary Marx posted a chopped up clip of Wiggins' remarks that ended immediately after the quote in question. Groups like the National Organization For Marriage then picked up on it, running the same truncated clip. And so true to the far-right's typical game of telephone, the spin became the "truth." 

Right-wing Omaha talk show host Tom Becka feigns ignorance of homophobia, Ben Gray hangs up on him, then Becka asks the dial tone, 'What'd I do wrong?'

Related: The Tom Becka litmus test of class discrimination!
Tom Becka, Omaha's most popular right-wing radio host, got so stupid interviewing Councilman Ben Gray, author of Omaha's LGBT anti-bias law, now under seige, that Gray had to bid him an early, unceremonious adieu.

Tom Becka, from facebook page

     Becka used to work at KFAB, but was fired when Bain Capital, a major stakeholder in Clear Channel radio, made some changes. Now he bloviates at KOIL.

The podcast is here.  At about the 3:55 mark:

Becka: ...There are people with agendas and politicians that will use it for votes when the reality is there's not a problem. There's all sorts of laws that are passed all the time by both sides, the left and the right of feel-good legislation, of laws that aren't necessary but because somebody has an agenda and some special group wants to get something through even though there's no need for the law. I mean, you'd agree with that, right?
Gray: Not necessarily, no. I mean that there's things that go on because people have different agendas. They do it all the time, but... I didn't do this because I have a specific agenda.
Becka: But yet you have no proof, there's no evidence of people losing their jobs because of their sexuality.
Gray: Yeah, there's been proof and documentation that was presented at the public hearing.
Becka: Well, how many? ...[When] the other side isn't there to defend themselves, I'm not sure that qualifies, do you?
Gray: You know... we passed a law... There has been documentation that there is discrimination that exists. It exists at all levels from the time you're a child to the time you're an adult. That has been documented and pointed out by several studies and several organizations. So, to assume that it doesn't exist would be purely... it would be stupid, quite frankly, because there's enough evidence that says that it is.
Becka: ...It [discrimination] doesn't stop with the government forcing something on businesses
Gray: Well, most businesses already have it as a policy...
Becka: Well then, why do you need the law?
Gray: For those that don't.
Becka: Because we can't allow people to make their own free choices?

From that point, Tom Becka's argument got so relentlessly ignorant that Councilman Gray had to tell him he was just being silly and not conducting a legitimate discussion. Finally, exasperated, Gray hung up and let Becka harangue the dial tone, to which a clueless Becka proposed the question: "What'd I do wrong?"
     Inexplicably, this podcast is posted on the facebook page of the Omaha Liberty Project, the group petitioning to kill Omaha's LGBT antibias ordinance, presumably as a bizarro means of persuading people that the law is unneeded.

Kansas Democratic LGBT Caucus files another ethics complaint against antigay House Democrat

The first complaint concerned her actual, vs. claimed, residence.
     Now Ryon Carey, chairman of the Kansas Democratic LGBT Caucus, has filed a different ethics complaint against notoriously homophobic Democratic Rep. Jan Pauls of Hutchinson.
     Pauls beat a gay LGBT opponent, Erich Bishop of Hutchison, In her Aug. 7 primary race in the 102nd House District, by just seven votes after provisional ballots were tallied, but her Republican general election opponent, Dakota Bass, also is an LGBT supporter who was a registered Democrat and a leader of another party caucus for progressives until June.
     The complaint alleges she improperly failed to publicly disclose her ownership of a duplex rental property, worth $44,000. Pauls said she didn't list the property because it never produced any income. Carey, a tax accountant, called Pauls' explanation "laughable," noting that Pauls used to be both a district court judge and a county prosecutor.
      Pauls says "outside agitators" want to derail her reelection.
     "One would wish that these people had a life," Pauls said. "But if you're their project, you're their project."

Antihomophobia ads to appear on football stadium jumbotrons in Australia

This after openly gay Yarra Glen footballer Jason Ball had launched a campaign urging the AFL to show anti-homophobia ads at stadiums and after nearly 26,000 people signed his change.org petition.

...The video clips, produced by No to Homophobia - a collective of gay rights and social justice groups - will be shown on the scoreboards before the games at ANZ Stadium and the MCG.
     Announcers at the grounds will introduce the ads by reminding fans that, ''discrimination in any form is never acceptable - whether it's on the footy field or in everyday life''.
     The AFL was criticised for not doing more to combat homophobia after St Kilda's Stephen Milne escaped with a fine and an education course, rather than a suspension, for calling Collingwood defender Harry O'Brien a ''f---ing homo'' during a game last month.

After suing Bachmann campaign over database use, home-school advocate files police theft report against her Iowa campaign manager

Barb Heki's lawsuit against the Bachmann campaign, claiming it used her database of Iowa homeschooler, then blamed her when exposed, gets a hearing Oct. 4th in Polk County (Des Moines) District Court on a Bachmann motion to dismiss.
     But Heki now has also filed a criminal complaint with the Urbandale, Iowa PD claiming Bachmann's Iowa campaign director, antigay Teabagger/state senator Kent Sorenson, stole the data from her laptop.

Out-of-control Sean Hannity now even berating McCain

After Sen. McCain refused to go along with Hannity's Libya/Egypt harangue, Hannity cut him off. As Mitt Romney's presidential aspirations flicker and dim, Fox News increasingly resembles a cornered, rabid badger.

Should you upgrade from a GH2 to a GH3? Watch this

Here's a promotional film Phillip Bloom shot for Panasonic on a preproduction model of the GH3. His impressions of the camera are here.

Red State Update: Jackie pulls a Clint Eastwood

Outdated, but still brilliant...

Soccer bomb tossed aside by player who thought it was debris, just before it exploded

During a 0-0 draw between Sepahan FC and Al Ahli at Shahr Stadium in Iran, Sepahan midfielder casually tossed aside what he assumed was a piece of debris. As soon as it landed, it blew up. The game went on. The person who threw the device onto the pitch remains at large.

Dan Savage: Romney 100%, not 47%, homophobic

End of Watch better than most cop buddy flicks

End of Watch, starring Michael Pena and Jake Gyllenhaal, is one of the best police movies in recent years, says Roger Ebert, echoing other enthusiastic reviews. "After too many police movies about officers who essentially use their badges as licenses to run wild, it's inspiring to realize that these men take their mission — to serve and protect — with such seriousness they're willing to risk their lives."
     To impersonate a cop on the big screen, Gyllenhaal says he spent five months training for a five-week shoot.
     AKSARBENT likes the boy-boy bickering in the film clip following the trailer.

Football bible Vogue hires Annie Leibovitz to pictorially fawn over Tim Tebow

Jon Stewart burns down Fox News: Chaos on Bullshit Mountain

Jon Stewart, in full flight, rips apart Fox News' desperate attempts to run interference for Romney's new insult to 47% of the United States of America, of which he allegedly wants to become president.

First it was arsenic in rice; now, scientists have linked genetically-engineered corn to rat cancer; Bon appetit!

French rats fed Monsanto's genetically engineered 'Roundup-
Ready' NK603 — a seed variety made tolerant to Monsanto's
Roundup weedkiller — died early: 50% of male and 70% of
female rats died prematurely, compared with only 30% and
20% in the control group, said the researchers.

Wednesday, France's government asked its National Agency for Health Safety (ANSES) to investigate findings by scientists led by Gilles-Eric Seralini at the University of Caen in Normandy which linked early rat mortality to having been fed Monsanto NK603 genetically-engineered corn or having been exposed to its companion insecticide, Roundup.
     Another Monsanto-genetically modified corn, "MON 810," will soon be sold in 4,000 Walmarts across the country. MON 810 has been genetically modified to include insecticides right inside the corn. Walmart will not label the corn as genetically modified.
     Monsanto is spending millions in California to defeat Prop. 37, which would require labeling of genetically modified foods.
     Monsanto Director of Corporate Communications Phil Angel: ''Monsanto should not have to vouch for the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job.'' — New York Times

Cats vs. Dogs debate now settled

(Via JoeMyGod)

Britney Spears wouldn't stop crying after her 24-hour marriage so Lance Bass shut her up by telling her he was gay

Video: Postmortem on the worst election scandal in the USA in 2012 (so far)

ES&S: "...our business has grown to
serve four countries, 41 states
with more than 4,000 election offices

Except for the defeat of Prop 5, an LGBT anti-bias referendum, Anchorage Alaska's rigged, old-style-Chicago election last Spring has received scant attention outside the state. Questions abounded about what appeared to be deliberate disinformation about voting registration by the Alaska Family Council, shortages of ballots in liberal precincts and the conduct of the company which counted the votes, ES&S.
     Anchorage's disenfranchisement of voters was undoubtedly the biggest election scandal so far in 2012. Mel Green (below in the black hoodie) of the gay website bentalaska.com covered the irregularities like an indefatigable pit bull, abetted by the efforts of Linda Kellen Biegel of Mudflats.net.
     Below is part three of their interview, televised recently on Alaska Commons.

Jim Minnery, of the Alaska Family Council
and of anti-LGBT group Protect Your Rights.
Minnery wrote an email blast/facebook
post telling people they could register and
vote on election day, even in precincts in
which they didn't live. Later he said he was
real sorry about that and blamed a city clerk's
office underling whom he couldn't name for
the bad info. What he didn't say was that
less than 45 days earlier, in another email
blast, he told voters to be sure to register
30 days in advance of the election (which
was true). Deceit may run in the Minnery
family — here's Jim's cousin Tom Minnery,
trying to fool Minnesota Senator Al Franken.

     Looking back, we discovered that AKSARBENT did several posts about this mess, including the Anchorage Election Commission's report recommending no independent investigation of rampant ballot shortages throughout city, the broken seals on voting machines, the election commissioner's claims of behing overwhelmed, despite the lowest turnout in the last 3 mayoral elections, 53 of 120 precinct locations running out of ballots, of frustrated voters giving up and going home without voting and of long-time poll workers quitting because of ES&S's demands for personal information (which gave the company an excuse to substitute their own workers and bill the city) and about apparent election tampering/fraud by the head of the Alaska Family Council, Jim Minnery.