Chambliss Promises to Keep Out ‘Activist Judges’

From Southern Voice:

Although Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) has avoided using anti-gay rhetoric in public campaign speeches, his promise to fight against “activist judges” is likely code for his opposition to gay marriage and other progressive issues, local gay activists said.

At a Nov. 13 rally in Cobb County that featured Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Chambliss said Georgia must be the firewall against “activist judges” who would legislate from the bench. Chambliss is in a Dec. 2 runoff with Jim Martin for a seat the Democrats want to win to add to their majority in Congress.

Like “family values” and “pro-marriage,” gay rights advocates said “activist judges” has joined the list of “code words” candidates use to tell their supporters they oppose gay rights.

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The Real John McCain - Not So Honorable!

From Stoppingthehate.com:

This is a pick of a real Maverick

At Fort McNair, an army base located along the Potomac River in the nation’s capital, a chance reunion takes place one day between two former POWs. It’s the spring of 1974, and Navy commander John Sidney McCain III has returned home from the experience in Hanoi that, according to legend, transformed him from a callow and reckless youth into a serious man of patriotism and purpose. Walking along the grounds at Fort McNair, McCain runs into John Dramesi, an Air Force lieutenant colonel who was also imprisoned and tortured in Vietnam.

McCain is studying at the National War College, a prestigious graduate program he had to pull strings with the Secretary of the Navy to get into. Dramesi is enrolled, on his own merit, at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in the building next door.

There’s a distance between the two men that belies their shared experience in North Vietnam — call it an honor gap. Like many American POWs, McCain broke down under torture and offered a “confession” to his North Vietnamese captors. Dramesi, in contrast, attempted two daring escapes. For the second he was brutalized for a month with daily torture sessions that nearly killed him. His partner in the escape, Lt. Col. Ed Atterberry, didn’t survive the mistreatment. But Dramesi never said a disloyal word, and for his heroism was awarded two Air Force Crosses, one of the service’s highest distinctions. McCain would later hail him as “one of the toughest guys I’ve ever met.”

On the grounds between the two brick colleges, the chitchat between the scion of four-star admirals and the son of a prizefighter turns to their academic travels; both colleges sponsor a trip abroad for young officers to network with military and political leaders in a distant corner of the globe.

“I’m going to the Middle East,” Dramesi says. “Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iran.”

“Why are you going to the Middle East?” McCain asks, dismissively.

“It’s a place we’re probably going to have some problems,” Dramesi says.

“Why? Where are you going to, John?”

“Oh, I’m going to Rio.”

“What the hell are you going to Rio for?”

McCain, a married father of three, shrugs.

“I got a better chance of getting laid.”

Dramesi, who went on to serve as chief war planner for U.S. Air Forces in Europe and commander of a wing of the Strategic Air Command, was not surprised. “McCain says his life changed while he was in Vietnam, and he is now a different man,” Dramesi says today. “But he’s still the undisciplined, spoiled brat that he was when he went in.”

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Remembering…..A Tribute to Matthew Shepard

It was ten years ago Today that an openly gay Wyoming college student by the name of Matthew Shepard was found tied to a fence, after being savagely beaten and left stranded. The beating was so brutal that a description of his injuries, even a decade later, is hard to imagine and difficult to listen to. Five days later, he was dead.

“His head trauma consisted of a massive blow to the right side of his head,” Rulon Stacey of Poudre Valley Hospital told reporters at the time. “It fractured his skull from behind his head in a horizontal fashion to in front of his right ear.”

The Laramie Police ruled it a hate crime.  An international outcry for tougher hate crime laws came shortly after.

In 2007, HR 1952, also known as the Matthew Shepard Act was introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy.  The bill would expand the1969 US Federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. The bill passed the senate, but was ultimately dropped due to opposition from conservative groups, such as the American Family Association and President George W. Bush.  John McCain was absent and did not vote on this bill!

Pulpit Politics and the Separation of Church & State

The organization founded by James Dobson, The Alliance Defense Fund, have laid plans to make political pitches for John McCain in churches across the nation this coming Sunday.

This Sunday’s in your face campaigning will challenge the 1954 IRS ruling stating any church which endorses a political candidate will lose its tax exemption. The ADF believes this ruling limits free speech.

Churches that follow IRS guidelines have a liberal platform regarding free speech. Pastors or laypersons can preach on issues of war, abortion. They can talk about gay and lesbian issues, gun control and the economy. Basically, no issues are off limits in the church. Churches are allowed to invite political candidates to speak just as Senators McCain and Obama did recently.

What a church or pastor acting in an official capacity cannot do is endorse a specific political candidate. If they do, they run the risk of losing tax exempt status. The ADF is pushing for churches to back their chosen candidate, and in this case, due to the anti-gay sentiment of James Dobson, that candidate would be John McCain.

The wall that separates church and state is already severely cracked. With this push from the ADF, the wall is sure to crumble. Don’t be afraid to contact the IRS with information about any church who is campaigning for a candidate. Don’t let James Dobson run this nation!

John McCain’s Chief of Staff - Mark Buse Outed!

A reliable source and friend has told Queers United that Mike Rogers of Blog Active, in 30 minutes will present video of the Roy Cohn Award being delivered to Mark Buse, Senator John McCain’s Chief of Staff and lobbyist on Capitol Hill who is a closeted gay person.

Read more at queersunited.blogspot.com, or at queerty.com.

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