Quote of the Day

"Obviously gay marriage is not fine with me."—Texas Governor Rick Perry.

OBVIOUSLY. Because, in addition to being garbage governor of the great state of Texas, he is also a Semi-Professional, Full-Tilt, World-Class, Grade-A, Award-Winning, Multi-Multihyphenate Dipfuck of Epic Proportions.

To provide some superfun context for this quote, Perry was "clarifying" previous remarks about same-sex marriage being legalized in New York, which sounded like he might whooooooooops actually support it. Heavens to Mergatroyd!

Texas Gov. Rick Perry wants you to know he isn't fine with gay marriage.

In an interview with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins he hedged controversial comments made at a dinner in Aspen last week when he said, "Our friends in New York six weeks ago passed a statute that said marriage can be between two people of the same sex. You know what? That's New York, and that's their business, and that's fine with me."

"I probably needed to add a few words after that 'it's fine with me,'" Perry admitted to Perkins Thursday.

And he repeated his commitment to the 10th amendment as well as his conviction that marriage should be between a man and a woman. "It's fine with me that a state is using their sovereign rights to decide an issue. Obviously gay marriage is not fine with me. My stance hasn't changed."

So, make no mistake, people: Rick Perry is STILL A BIGOT!

Obama Asks Court to Keep DADT a Little Longer

Ugh. Despite the Pentagon having suspended separation of LGB troops under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in compliance with a court order, the Obama administration is now asking the federal appeals court "to reconsider its order" because: "The Armed Forces are moving forward expeditiously to prepare for the repeal of [DADT] in a fashion that Congress and the President consider the most effective way possible, and consistent with the nation's military needs," but the court order "cuts that process short and overrides the judgments of Congress and the President on a complex and important question of military policy."

For fuck's sake.

The case has put the Obama administration in an unusual position of supporting a repeal, but at the same time filing court motions to prevent it from happening faster than planned. Military officials suggest the policy compliance changes eliminating "don't ask, don't tell" could be finished in a few weeks.

More for fuck's sake.

There is conceivably a legitimate reason for the Obama administration trying to thread the needle to be simultaneously in support of the repeal of DADT while arguing to delay it: The military may be, as it does preparedness training, discovering that there's enough hostility toward LGB troops to warrant delaying the repeal for their protection until the hostility is neutralized, either through sensitivity training or discharges.

If that is the case, however, the Obama administration and the military need to say so. Because, if that is the reason for the delay, and they're refusing to articulate it out of some misguided attempt to protect the American people from evidence of the existence of homophobia in the military (lulz we are aware!), the silence is just serving to shield hatred and haters.

If that is the case, the Obama administration the the military really shouldn't concern itself with the delicate feelings of gay-hating dipfucks and tell some truth about the fact that it's violent bigotry which is holding up the process.

[H/T to Shaker cim.]

Marcus Bachmann Defends His Clinics

[Trigger warning for homophobia, classism.]

This Star-Tribune article in which Rep. Michele Bachmann's husband defends the clinics they co-own, at which patients can receive "reparative therapy" to degayify them, is getting a lot of attention, and deservedly so, because Marcus Bachmann's explanation—"Is it a remedy form that I typically would use? ... It is at the client's discretion. ... We don't have an agenda or a philosophy of trying to change someone."—is manifest horseshit.

It's hardly worth comment that someone who would even consider "reparative therapy," whether as a standard procedure or only at the client's request, is a bigoted dipfuck without any decency. The noest of all the doys.

So I'm going to highlight this other piece of the article, in which Marcus Bachmann also defends the clinics having accepted federal funds:

In Michele Bachmann's campaign appearances, the Sixth District congresswoman has touted the family's counseling business in references to job creation and entrepreneurship.

Critics say her harsh words about government spending are hypocritical given the state and federal payments that go to Bachmann & Associates.

The Associated Press has reported that the clinics have accepted at least $30,000 in state payments and $137,000 in federal payments. Much of the money was for services to people in Medicaid-backed programs.

Bachmann said federal and state subsidies flow to his business because it doesn't discriminate against patients in subsidized health-care programs.

"It's low income. It's people who are on limited income," Bachmann said. "It is a lower-paying insurance. It's not a money maker. ... So, gee, we get criticized because we take it. And somehow they tie it all in, into my wife because she's the big proponent of less taxes and less programs and so forth.

"So, over and over the bell rings about how we take this federal money," he continued. "Oooh, how evil that is. And I say to you: 'No. It would be evil not to.'"

Setting aside the pathetic awfulness of that rejoinder which suggests David Brent has found a new gig as Marcus Bachmann's PR adviser, I'd like to note the dichotomy Bachmann sets up here: Their clinics can either take federal money, or turn low-income patients away. There is, of course, a third option, which is to treat low-income patients on a sliding scale of what they can afford, without any government subsidies.

But that, naturally, requires cutting into profits.

Now, it's fair enough if the Bachmanns don't want to give away their services for free, or for lower cost. The clinics aren't being run as a charity. But it's mendacious in the extreme to pretend that option doesn't even exist so that you can imply it would be "evil" to not accept government funds because you'd have to turn patients away without it.

And once again, the conservative theory of governance is undermined by conservatives.

The conservative philosophy of limited government (i.e. no social safety net) asserts that charity, philanthropy, faith-based orgs, and business should take care of people in need rather than the government. There are a lot of problems with this idea (starting with the fact that conservatives frequently determine that certain people aren't deserving of charity), but the biggest problem is that the very people who espouse this idea in theory tend to be unwilling to support it in practice.

The Bachmanns' religious ideology prescribes compassion over profits, and their political ideology prescribes bootstraps or charity over accepting government subsidies, but, when it came right down to brass books, the Bachmanns were downright secular socialists in order to protect their profits.

Quote of the Day

"I'm running for the presidency of the United States, and I'm here today to talk about job creation, and also the fact that we do have a business that deals with job creation. We're very proud of the business that we created."—Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Idiculous), responding to being asked if reparative therapy is conducted in the therapy center that she co-owns with and is run by her husband, Dr. Marcus Bachmann.

Pressed again, Bachmann replied, "Well, I'm here to talk about my run for the presidency of the United States. As I said, again, we're very proud of our business and we're proud of all job creators in the United States. That's what people really care about."

Whooooooooops! No, I'm pretty sure people actually care about whether you are making money off of "therapies" sought by people who are ashamed (or whose families are ashamed) of who they are because of institutional hatred of homosexuality and LGB people, a hatred culturally and legally promoted by you as an avowed anti-gay legislator who supports federal anti-gay legislation.

Apart from being evidence of your well-documented lack of decency, Rep. Bachmann, one might suggest that's also what the kids call a "conflict of interest."

Also: LULZ at your pride for "all job creators in the United States." Cool. I hope you'll donate to national job-creator Planned Parenthood, then, so they can HIRE MORE PEOPLE!

This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.

This WaPo profile [trigger warning for virulent gay hatred and misogyny] of GOP presidential wannabe Michele Bachmann (R-Etchinducing) and her husband, Dr. Marcus Bachmann, Professional Gay-Hater, is one of the most depressing things I've ever read.

They are terrible people with miserable lives who make other people's lives a misery because of their intensely stupid and exhaustively compassionless belief system.

If they weren't such influential assholes, I'd feel sorry for them.

Whoooooooooops

Whoops, CNN! Your article is about how companies "must proactively work to create a workplace culture that matches their workplace policies" and create a workplace environment that is LGBTQI-friendly not just "by policies but by the attitudes and behaviors of mid-level managers and co-workers."

But your headline is: "Why gays should come out at work."

Nope!

Servicemembers Still Being Discharged Under DADT

Despite the fact that President Obama signed legislation to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" 187 days ago (and counting), the Advocate reports today that the Pentagon has confirmed servicemembers are still being dismissed under the policy, because the "certification" loophole has allowed the military to drag its feet on implementing the change.

Outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates is leaving office this week, to be replaced by outgoing CIA chief Leon Panetta, who testified during his confirmation hearing earlier this month that he "will work closely with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to assess whether the elements for certification in the law are met before signing it myself." Which is so vague that it's essentially meaningless.

The can just keeps getting kicked down the road, and, per the Advocate, the discharges continue:

The Pentagon confirmed Monday that more service members have been discharged under "don't ask, don't tell" pending certification of the policy's repeal, with one individual's discharge approved as recently as Thursday.

A total of four airmen have been discharged under the policy in the last several weeks, Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez confirmed Monday.

...Defense officials had said that the separation approved April 29 was the only such discharge under DADT since late October, when the Defense Department limited authority for discharges to just five senior officials.

But in a statement, Harper confirmed the additional discharges since. "On May 31st, 2011, the Secretary of the Air Force approved discharges of two Airmen under the provisions of 10 USC 654 [the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy]," Harper said. "On June 23, 2011, the Secretary of the Air Force accepted the resignation of an Airman who asked to be separated under the provisions of [DADT]."

Harper said that all four individuals discharged had made voluntary statements regarding their sexual orientation and had asked to be "separated expeditiously."

So, basically, the military may not actively ask anymore, but if you tell, you're still getting kicked the fuck out.

Quote of the Day

[Trigger warning for homophobia, sexual violence, Christian Supremacy.]

"There isn't one single civilization that has survived that had openly embraced homosexuality. So you say, 'What's going to happen to America?' Well, if history is any guide, the same thing's gonna happen to us."—Pat Robertson, professional gay-hating wankstain, on his comedy show The 700 Club, after New York enacted marriage equality.

Earthquakes, floods, fire, brimstone, locusts, farts. Do shut up, Reverend Fucky.

I think we need to remember the term 'sodomy' came from a town known as Sodom, and Sodom was destroyed by God Almighty, and the thing that they practiced was homosexual activity, and even they tried to rape angels who came down there, so that's the kind of people they were. But, uh, beyond that, Jesus didn't—when He spoke of Sodom, he didn't say anything about the homosexuality; he talked about just the fact that business was as usual until God decided to destroy it. And he sent an angel down there, and he said to Lot and his family, 'Get out now 'cause I'm gonna destroy this whole area.' So, that's where sodomy came from. We use the term sodomy, and it means Sodom. What's it like? Well, we're heading that way as a nation. In history, there's never been a civilization ever in history that has embraced homosexuality and turned away from traditional fidelity, traditional marriage, traditional child-rearing, and has survived. There isn't one single civilization that has survived that had openly embraced homosexuality. So you say, "What's going to happen to America?" Well, if history is any guide, the same thing's gonna happen to us. [edit] It's not a pretty world we live in right now, and we need all of God's help we can get, and I don't think we are exactly setting ourselves up for his favor.

[Via Right Wing Watch.]

"Fierce Advocate"

[Trigger warning for homophobia.]

I don't know what's more shameful from the man who once said (with a straight face, pun intended): "It is no secret that I am fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans. It is something that I have been consistent on and something that I intend to continue to be consistent on during my presidency."—the absolutely pathetic assertion that his position on same-sex marriage is "evolving," which is such a blatant excuse for waiting to support same-sex marriage until it's politically expedient to do so, or the equally pathetic "state's rights" punt, despite the abundance of evidence that letting some states grant same-sex marriages in a republic where the federal government collects taxes and provides survivor entitlements (just for a start) but does not recognize same-sex unions of any sort is an untenable situation.

And aside from how comprehensively mendacious and politically inept and flatly fucking stupid these absurd positions make Obama look, they also make him look devoid of any trace of basic decency and compassion, a totally unprincipled and cravenly triangulating dipfuck of epic proportions on one of the most important social justice issues in the nation of which he's president.

To which he once pledged his "fierce advocacy." Snort.

And this garbage rhetoric on same-sex marriage is also, I will note, completely inconsistent with his trademark hopey-changey unity shtick—because endorsing states' rights to be institutionally divisive, both internally and among each another, doesn't even exist in the same galaxy as a vision of a unified nation with common purpose.

No, I'm not surprised by Obama's unfulfilled promises. I am just contemptuous at every occasion I am given to gander at what a catastrophic failure as an ally he really is.

You look like a jerk, Obama. You are a jerk. Gross.