 |
| Leyva, working it |
 |
| Zanetti, winning it |
...Ross cites Larry the Cable guy’s joke as part of what he’s learned to armor himself against, “I get a lot of flak from critics for being homophobic, but lemme tell you somethin’…I think having invited Jeff Ross here tonight proves how much I love the queers,” fails to live up to Ross’s roast standards. What ends up being revealing about that joke is precisely its dishonesty: Larry isn’t willing to declare himself either gay-friendly or a homophobobe, so he employs a “some of my best friends are” ruse that ALSO doesn’t reveal anything true about its subject.Dan Whitney is known for his homophobic Larry the Cable Guy character (more a reflection of himself than any cable guy AKSARBENT ever met) — a font of second-rate humor with which he has separated millions of dollars from Bubbas all over the USA.
They take things way too seriously. It's like I always say, there's different kinds of styles for different kinds of people. I may not be for that guy. . . . He might like a comedian that somebody else thinks is racist and homophobic. . . . You have to have thick skin if you are going to do this, because once you get successful, you're a target.Obviously, Chick-fil-A brain is too busy nailing himself to the cross to acknowledge the simple truth that he has made a career out of pandering to people even dumber than he is by cynically using his platform to target the people they hate.
Pauls' support of HB 2260, which allows individuals the right to sue for perceived “religious discrimination” under local non-discrimination ordinances that afford protections to LGBT citizens and her comments insinuating that LGBT people can't be trusted with children elicited this reponse from Democrat Annie Kuether, who also sits on the Judiciary Committee:Representative Pauls is another one of those anti-choice Democrats that pervades the Kansas political landscape. She has served in the Kansas Legislature since 1992 and has used her time there to sponsor numerous anti-choice bills. She wrote a law prohibiting same sex marriage in the state, backed the successful state constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage, and blocked the attempted repeal of Kansas’ antiquated sodomy ban....This time around, Jan Pauls and her “religious freedom” have earned her a Democratic primary opponent, and that primary opponent is gay.
Erich Bishop is a member of the Kansas Equality Coalition, a gay rights organization that has waged a full on political war against Pauls for her public statements, votes and actions against the gay community.
This bill was introduced last year by those that don’t agree with same sex marriage, now here we are again same bill, same language, but we’re talking about freedom of religion. This isn’t about freedom of religion, it’s about freedom to discriminate. I believe that it’s severely overstepping the separation of church and state and the right of local control.State Party Chair Joan Wagnon seconded that:
“In the last couple of weeks HB 2260 has gotten a lot of press attention and has caught people up in a controversial discussion about what it means. It is about civil rights and it is targeted at members of the gay community. It just seems to me to be wrong, in fact, it is repugnant and hateful. We don’t support the passage of legislation that takes away human rights. One of our legislators, Jan Pauls, has been outspoken on this issue and she has supported these issues... but I need to make it clear that what the KDP (Kansas Democratic Party) believes. We believe in our platform and we do not support HB 2260.”
 |
| "Do you feel lucky, punk?" |
"All you have to do is tell the truth and say you're gay and they'll kick you out,” she said.
The mission's executive director, Rev. Harold Youtzy, denies that staff members refused to help anyone based only on their sexual preference. He said their policy is that people agree to the group’s values. If they don’t, they can’t stay there, Youtzy said.
Today the Iowa Republican Party Chairman, AJ Spiker released a statement calling on Iowa voters to oust Justice Wiggins in the November election. Justice Wiggins is the only justice up for a retention vote this year who served in 2009 when the court unanimously ruled in favor of marriage equality with the Varnum v. Brien decision.In 2010, largely bankrolled by out-of-state groups and led by Bob Vander Plaats, a successful campaign was waged to oust Chief Justice Marsha Ternus, and Justices Michael Streit and David Baker.Statement from One Iowa Executive Director Donna Red Wing:“This latest move by the Iowa Republican Party is an outrageous assault on our courts. By calling for the ousting of Justice Wiggins, they have made it clear that justice is not at the center of this campaign. Instead, it is politics at its worst.In 2009, the Iowa State Supreme Court honored the Constitution and made a fair and reasoned decision when they unanimously ruled in favor of the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian couples. The Iowa State Supreme Court has always valued the individual rights and equal protection of its citizens. The Varnum decision was another example of the values that Iowans hold dear: the values of fairness and justice.Iowa is a better place because of marriage equality. We are a state that values all families, not a state that supports a constitutional ban on marriage for loving and committed couples. We are a state that values fairness and justice, not the corrupting influence of politics and money.Iowans deserve better than this.“
I would read drafts of things that he wrote, too, and we talked endlessly about the craft of writing.Also from CNN, this, from native Nebraskan Dick Cavett:
He really did seem to know everything there was to know about this. Once, for instance, I was sitting with him and said: “I'm writing a novel in which two characters talk about Kierkegaard for about 20 pages. Can I get away with this?" With a twinkle, after a slight pause, he replied, "You can do that. But only if these characters are sitting in a railway car, and the reader knows there is a bomb under the seat."
Like all writers (it's almost safe to say) he was a big drinker. (See Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Cheever, Mailer, et al.) I once startled Gore by saying I'd just read that each drink kills more than 10,000 brain cells. He paled. "But you've got billions of brain cells," I reassured him. Gore responded: "But I've had billions of drinks."
In my notorious show known now through the ages as "Cavett's Mailer/Vidal Fight," there was a particular answer of Gore's to a challenge by Norman Mailer that actually got applause for, I think, its simple elegance: Gore had gotten a laugh, a feat difficult for Mailer to achieve. The exchange went:Mailer: Why don't you try to talk just once, Gore, without yuks? Why not just talk to me instead of talking to the audience?Hard to imagine Mitt Romney fashioning that sentence.
Vidal: Well, by a curious thing we have not found ourselves in a friendly neighborhood bar, but both, by election, are sitting here with an audience, so therefore it would be dishonest of us to pretend otherwise (applause).
All our video and pictures came from news-spotters inside the mall. We did contact the mall for permission to bring our own camera inside but were denied.
Eugene Delgadio, head
of SPLA-designated anitgay
hate group Public Adovcate
of the United StatesParty spokesman Sean Braisted said officials are trying to figure out what the party can do beyond condemning Clayton."We aren't taking any options off the table at this time," Braisted said in an email. "He does not speak for the Democratic Party."In 2008, the party stripped a state senator who had sided with Republicans in a legislative leadership vote of her 19-vote primary win on the grounds that Republican involvement made the outcome "incurably uncertain." Last month, a federal court upheld the action.The Democrats and the state attorney general's office argued that the primaries are a party function and not a state election, so courts generally cannot get involved in disputes over who is named as the nominee.
 |
| KMTV |
 |
| KMTV |
 |
| Lara Giddings |
Because federal marriage laws were amended by former Prime Minister John Howard in 2004 to define marriage as between a man and a woman, it was possible for states to argue that the federal marriage law did not cover same-sex couples - and they were free to legislate for them.Tasmania Premier Lara Giddings today vowed Labor would legislate it as early as this year.
"It basically means regardless of what happens federally, same sex couples will likely to able to marry on Australian soil, possibly as early as this year," he said.In a statement to the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group, constitutional law expert, Professor George Williams, said the power to make marriage laws is shared by the Commonwealth and the states.He told them if the Commonwealth refuses to make a law for one type of marriage - in this case same-sex marriage - that power falls to the states.A private members bill on gay marriage is widely expected to fail in the federal parliament when put to a vote later this year.
The lunch-hour crowd at the food counter – swelled by back-to-school shoppers taking advantage of the start of the Iowa sales tax holiday – seemed similar in numbers to other fast-food restaurants in the food court. Customers at the restaurant declined to be interviewed...
If the standalone restaurants were open, say 15.5 hours each, and the rest were open, say 8 hours, that works out to an extra 17.33 customers per hour. (Most McDonalds stores can easily serve 200 cars per hour.)Stand-alone restaurants: about 1000 (typically open 6:30 am to 10 pm, with some opening at 6)
Malls: about 320
Drive-thru only: 32
Hospitals, colleges, airports, biz cafeterias: 225
Lunch counters, Dwarf House, Truett's Grill: 23
A sampling of Cain's half-truths and whole cloth fabrications:He [Dan Cathy] did not say he was against gay marriage. He said he was for traditional marriage...Cain then went off on the video of a father of four (including two adopted special needs children) who was outraged by Chick-fil-A's corporate contributions to anti-gay hate groups and who "bullied" a Chick-fil-A drive-thru cashier by saying: "This is a horrible corporation with horrible values. You deserve better. You deserve better."
This is simply an attempt, on the part of the gay community, to try and leverage their beliefs on another institution, a private company, since they can't seem to get enough attention...
He is a bully to try to beat up on a young kid who's probably in school... He and others like him are the ones practicing hate... Here's one other thing that the jerk in the car didn't realize. Dan Cathy told me that they're going to take a lot of the excess profits that they got on that day and contribute it to the charitable organizations that they support in even bigger numbers.
What Herb Cain and Fox News didn't tell their viewers is that the man in question is now in hiding, having received death threats to his family by the very types who eat up Fox News and Herb Cain's spin. One more thing — for exercising his free speech and expressing his moral indignation to an employee of Chick-fil-A, he lost his job. The man's former employer, Vante, after canning him, said: "We hope that the general population does not hold Mr. Smith's actions against Vante and its employees." |
| NE GOP Governor Dave Heineman |
The AFA has pledged to: (1) add to its Community Advisory Board at least one resident of Burlington, who will be asked to provide recommendations on community needs and programming directly to AFA; (2) conduct, on at least an annual basis, interviews with Burlington residents and community leaders to assess community needs and programming; (3) provide periodic local programming for Burlington, including coverage of significant local news or cultural events; (4) provide for the broadcast of local public service announcements; and (5) maintain a toll-free telephone number between Burlington, Iowa and the KAYA (FM) main studio...If you live in Burlington, and notice that the American Family Association isn't keeping its FCC promises, why not let the FCC know?)
So sure, boycott Chick-fil-A because you don’t agree with the CEO. Will you change his mind? No. Will it change the amount of money my LGBT peers and I can earn? Probably. Boycotting Chick-fil-A doesn’t hurt the company. It hurts the employees. And it’s hard enough working for a place that doesn’t think you should get married. But it’s work. Don’t take it away because you feel righteous...
...That’s what I said four days ago. I meant it then. After today, though, I take it all back.
Ken Riter, of ProgressiveOasis.com, organized a 5-7 pm protest at 33rd and Farnam outside Mutual of Omaha Bank's food court yesterday.
In 1996, while managing the U.S. Senate campaign of Woody Jenkins against Mary Landrieu, Perkins paid $82,500 to use the mailing list of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. The campaign was fined $3,000 for filing false disclosure forms in a bid to hide the payment to Duke. Perkins has stated he did not know about the mailing list's connection to Duke.On May 17, 2001, Perkins gave a speech to the Louisiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a white supremacist group that has described black people as a “retrograde species of humanity." Perkins claimed not to know the group’s ideology at the time, but it had been widely publicized in Louisiana and the nation, just two years earlier.
 |
| Tony Perkins, left, of the Chick-fil-A-funded Family Research Council and Dave Bydalek, of Nebraska's Family First, which describes itself as "associated" with the FRC, an SPLA-designated hate group |
 |
| Chick-Fil-A fan displays a thumbs up — and his tongue — to a KMTV camera during an "Appreciation Day" for the heterosexual supremacist fast food chain. |
The author/celebrity had been ill for some time.
