Replies to post #194239 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Christian group says demon sex makes you gay



A Christian magazine warns that homosexuality is caused by sex with succubi -- and that's just the beginning

By Tana Ganeva, Alternet
Monday, Nov 26, 2012 01:10 PM CST

This article originally appeared on AlterNet [ http://www.alternet.org/christian-group-says-demon-sex-makes-you-gay ( http://www.alternet.org/christian-group-says-demon-sex-makes-you-gay?paging=off ) (with comments)].

The reigning scientific consensus on sexual orientation is that it’s an inherited, biological trait, but that’s just because scientists don’t know how to party. A far sexier explanation has been offered up by Christian magazine Charisma [ http://www.charismamag.com/spirit/spiritual-warfare/15889-can-you-be-raped-by-the-devil ], which conducted its own investigation into the origins of homosexuality to reveal the real culprit: sex with demons.

“Can demons engage in sexual behaviors with humans?” the magazine asks. Why yes, they can! At least according to the article’s primary source, a former stripper-turned-ministry leader named Contessa Adams. Adams shares her decades-long struggle with demon sex, sparing no horrible, sexy detail:

These spiritual rapists, as Adams describes them in her book, Consequences, often prey on people by performing sexual acts through nightmares and erotic dreams. Some people become so dependent upon these demonic experiences that they actually look forward to them.

“Anybody that has been attacked by them will tell you … they’re worried [that] they could not find that pleasure with mortal people,” says Adams, who claims she was once possessed by sexual demons.

The two most identifiable sexual demons are the incubus, which is a male sexual demon that traditionally assaults women, and the succubus, which is a female sexual demon that assaults men. Sometimes they also lure people into homosexual behavior.

Adams says the succubus spirit that used to attack her confused her so much that she contemplated becoming a lesbian.

Then God came along and ruined everything, I mean saved her, putting her on the path to righteousness and helping others who are (naked) wrestling with their own sex demons.

But demons aren’t just about getting laid. They’re wreaking havoc all over the place, in addition to the mischief they’ve wrought on confused Christian genitalia.

The primary demon fighter in the modern Christian world is the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a global network of Charismatic Christian ministries devoted to Dominionism, the idea that they must take over public institutions in order to save America and the world from … demons (and gays, of course). NAR is ridiculous, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t powerful, with millions of followers worldwide and domestic and international political relationships ranging from Senator Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich [ http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/05/04/863577/-GOP-Senator-Brownback-s-Condo-Mate-Lou-Engle-Supports-Vicious-Antigay-Bill ] to heads of state in Uganda.

Bruce Wilson, who’s reported on the movement for years, tells Alternet, “for the apostles and prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation, demon powers, and also divine curses — incurred by human unfaithfulness to God’s plan, are at the root of virtually any and all conceivable misfortunes, from crime trends, drops in the stock market, and declining SAT scores, to headaches and dandruff. I mean that literally.”

The movement broke into mainstream political coverage a few times in recent years: once, when reporters obtained footage of a bizarre ceremony involving Sarah Palin, and also during the interminable Republican primary when Rick Perry, long-rumored to have wrestled a few sexy gay demons himself [ http://gawker.com/5868489/all-your-rick-perry-gay-sex-rumors-collected-in-one-handy-book ], hosted a massive prayer rally organized by two NAR ministries.

NPR reported at the time that the Perry rally was modeled on the prayer events of the Call, a NAR group founded by apostle Lou Engle. As Rachel Tabachnik, who’s done extensive reporting on NAR, told NPR [ http://www.npr.org/2011/08/24/139781021/the-evangelicals-engaged-in-spiritual-warfare ], “The apostles teach what’s called ‘strategic level spiritual warfare’ [because they believe that the] reason why there is sin and corruption and poverty on the Earth is because the Earth is controlled by a hierarchy of demons under the authority of Satan.”

Here are just a few places you might encounter Satan’s minions.

1. Detroit

The last thing Detroit needs is a large-scale demonic invasion. Fortunately, all the people of Detroit had to do to beat back the forces of hell was join the New Apostolic Reformation movement’s giant prayer-a-thon.

In 2010, Engle held a prayer rally in Detroit. Engle, who seems to know how to move tickets, warned Detroit’s citizenry, “If we actually have the Call and you don’t sustain prayer ongoing you open a vacuum for demons seven times worse to come in … if black and white can’t move together in prayer and sustain it, forget it — let’s not even go there, you get demons seven times worse.”

The goal was to convert the state’s Muslims to Christianity. In a YouTube clip filed [ http://www.islamophobiatoday.com/2011/10/28/christians-pray-for-jesus-to-invade-muslims-dreams-before-michigan-becomes-an-islamic-state/ ] prior to the rally Engle explained that the prayers would send Jesus into Muslims’ dreams, which sounds like way less fun than a visit from a sex demon.

2. The Financial Markets

For obvious reasons, it doesn’t seem like a giant stretch that financial markets are run by evil demons, but still — here’s a theory on global financial instability, outlined by Bruce Wilson:

Van Nuys, California-based megachurch pastor Jack Hayford, current head of sex scandal-embroiled GOP Senator John Ensign’s religious denomination, has endorsed a theory proposing that a supernatural mechanism drove down Japanese stock market prices during the early 1990s: the Japanese emperor’s alleged sexual intercourse with a “sky goddess” who, according to the theory, might be a succubus.

3. Inside Your Head

C. Peter Wagner, influential NAR leader, blamed demons for his headaches, writing in a 1996 book called Confronting the Powers[ http://www.cephas-library.com/apostasy/trafficking_with_demons.html ]:

“Beginning in the early ’70s I suffered severe headaches for 10 consecutive years. It was so bad that at one point I had no relief from pain at all for 70 days and 70 nights. No available painkiller could stop the headaches. Then in 1983, John Wimber received a rhema word from God that the root cause of my headaches had been a demon and that I was to drive it out myself rather than ask someone else to do it for me. I obeyed. I cast out the demon in the name of Jesus, and I have not suffered any such headaches since that day.”

4. Among Native Americans

Territorial demons are standing in the way of the mass evangelization of Native Americans, according to NAR teaching (chronicled in a glossary on Talk 2 Action [ http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/8/6/135752/1937 ], a blog that tracks the extreme religious right). Getting them out of the way involves atoning for past mistreatment of native populations with apology events and also breaking invaluable artifacts. Rachel Tabachnik explains;

The apologies appear quite sincere and result in multiethnic and multicultural partnerships. However, the process of reconciliation is for the purpose of taking “Christian dominion” over other religions, ethnic groups, and belief systems. It requires renouncing of former cultural practice and artifacts which can not be absorbed in evangelical practice, as demonic. The Transformations videos reenact a number of examples of destruction of native artifacts, and leaders have claimed that their prayers resulted in spontaneous destruction of buildings and icons of other religious practices.

5. Your Towns and Cities, the Entire World

The main strategy Charismatic Christianity has brought to demon-fighting is so-called spiritual warfare or spiritual mapping. The idea is to find demon-infested geographic locations and pray the evil spirits away. According to Bruce Wilson, “Prayer-walkers pray for unknown city residents and they are also encouraged to map and and take notes on alleged ideological enemies, who are held to be under demon influence.”

Occasionally this involves the following questionable use of public resources, as Wilson writes, “Components of the prayer-walking and demon-deliverance ideology are being incorporated into the police practices of Orlando, Florida and Peoria, Illinois, in novel and factually challenged efforts that partner local Christian churches with police departments of those cities; teams of church members, with police backup for safety, walk high-crime areas and try to pray down violent crime and murder rates.”

But why stop there? Bruce Wilson has documented [ http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/1/15/134445/911 ] the massive global effort of the International Transformation Network, linked to the larger NAR project. Characteristically, participants in the ITN believe homosexuality is caused by demons that must be eradicated. “The ITN is one of several global efforts operating under the ‘transformation’ brand, that are re-engineering along theocratic lines cities and even entire nations.” writes Wilson.

They have taken a particular interest in Uganda. “For the Transformation movement, which claims homosexuals are possessed by demons and that prayer and faith healing have cured thousands of HIV and AIDS cases in the nation, Uganda is a prototype.”

“For over a year ITN representatives have been at work to setting up a training network spanning approximately 14,000 evangelical churches in Uganda, and ITN’s head Africa representative states.”

Copyright 2012 Tana Ganeva

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/26/christian_group_says_demon_sex_makes_you_gay/ [with comments]


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Mallory Owens, Alabama Lesbian, Allegedly Attacked By Girlfriend's Brother During Thanksgiving Dinner (GRAPHIC)

Posted: 11/26/2012 4:57 pm EST Updated: 11/27/2012 3:27 pm EST

An Alabama woman is recovering after allegedly being attacked by her girlfriend's brother over Thanksgiving weekend.

Though details of the case are continuing to emerge, NBC affiliate Local 15 reports [ http://www.local15tv.com/news/local/story/Family-Woman-Viciously-Beaten-Because-She-is-Gay/HdSsnJiQrEuBYg63RtQLiQ.cspx ] that 23-year-old Mallory Owens is being treated for injuries following a Nov. 22 assault by Travis Hawkins Jr. Owens, who was reportedly attending Thanksgiving dinner at the family home of girlfriend Ally Hawkins (Travis' sister) at the time of the attack, suffered multiple skull fractures and crushed bones, and had metal plates put under her eyes because of her injuries, according to reports.

Hawkins, Local 15's report notes, has been charged with second degree assault, though it remains unclear what may have prompted the attack.

Al.com cites [ http://blog.al.com/live/2012/11/woman_beaten_on_thanksgiving_b.html ] Owens' sister, Avery Godwin, who says it wasn't the first time Hawkins had attacked Owens: "He never liked Mallory and Ally to begin with. Mallory would never do anything to hurt anyone."

She added, "He should've been charged with attempted murder."

Echoing those sentiments was Kristi Taylor, Owens's mother, who says that Owens was attacked because she is gay, according to WKRG.com [ http://www2.wkrg.com/news/2012/nov/26/family-teen-beat-sisters-girlfriend-being-gay-ar-5051599/ ].

"She was invited over by the family to eat Thanksgiving. I did not want her to go, I begged her not to go, knowing how the family felt about her. But she said, 'They're trying to be nice.'"

"The first time he attacked her with a pipe and hit her in the back of the head and on the back a few times," she is quoted by Fox 10 TV as saying [ http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/crime/man-arrested-for-thanksgiving-assault ]. "People stepped in to help then."

A photo reportedly showing Owens in the hospital

has since been posted on Facebook [ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4666444535535&set=a.2205073602800.252531.1126175480&type=1&theater ]. "It is reported that the accused attackers family stood by, did not intervene, and have threatened the [victim's] family," the user wrote.

Meanwhile, an attorney said [ http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/crime/man-arrested-for-thanksgiving-assault ] the Hawkins family "regret what happened" to Owens, but denied the accusation that the attack was a hate crime in any way.

LGBT I POV reports [ http://lgbtpov.frontiersla.com/2012/11/27/watch-alabama-da-says-brutal-beating-of-lesbian-is-not-a-hate-crime/ ] that because Owens has no medical insurance, a fund has been set up to help pay her medical bills at any Regions Bank: "According to Evelyn Mitchell of Regions Corporate Communications, 'An assistance fund has been set up to benefit Mallory Ann Owens,' and the public can “call 1-800-REGIONS for information on locations or bank by mail donations."

Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/26/mallory-owens-alabama-lesbian-thanksgiving-anti-gay-attack_n_2194044.html [with embedded video report, and comments]


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Petition Calls For Barclays, Citibank To Condemn Uganda's 'Kill The Gays' Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Some of the thousands of children are seen demonstrating against homosexuality in Uganda's capital city Kampala, Friday, Jan. 22, 2010. The UN Special Rapporteur on health, Anand Grover, warned at the time that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is "not only a violation of the fundamental human rights of Ugandans, but will also undermine efforts to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support." Homosexuality is already criminalized through Uganda.
11/27/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/petition-uganda-kill-the-gays-barclays-citibank-anti-homosexuality-bill_n_2199820.html [with comments]


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Salvation Army's Red Kettle Holiday Campaign Takes Heat From Gay Rights Activists



Posted: 11/26/2012 11:11 am EST Updated: 11/26/2012 3:23 pm EST

With the holiday shopping season in full swing, the Salvation Army's Red Kettle campaign is once again coming under intense scrutiny [ http://americablog.com/2012/11/vouchers-to-download-and-give-to-the-salvation-army-anti-gay-bigots.html ] from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates.

America Blog is asking LGBT shoppers and allies to give downloadable "vouchers" to Salvation Army bell ringers in lieu of cash in an effort to let the organization know that "bigotry is not a Christmas value," according to blogger John Aravosis.



"The Salvation Army discriminates against gay people, and discriminating donors should find another charity this Christmas than evangelical bigots who advocate against our civil rights," Aravosis writes. "And not just that –- they’ve actively lobbied against pro-gay policies in a number of countries as well."

Of course, it isn't the first time the Salvation Army's conservative view of homosexuality [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/25/salvation-army-red-kettle-lgbt-community_n_1113358.html ] has been brought to attention. "The Salvation Army has a history of active discrimination against gays and lesbians. While you might think you're helping the hungry and homeless by dropping a few dollars in the bright red buckets, not everyone can share in the donations," Bil Browning noted on The Bilerico Project [ http://www.bilerico.com/2011/11/why_you_shouldnt_donate_to_the_salvation_army_bell.php ] last year. "The organization also has a record of actively lobbying governments worldwide for anti-gay policies -- including an attempt to make consensual gay sex illegal."

Indeed, as Browning pointed out, the group's position statements reveal a somewhat rigid outlook on LGBT lifestyles. "Scripture forbids sexual intimacy between members of the same sex," one statement reads. "The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life. There is no scriptural support for same-sex unions as equal to, or as an alternative to, heterosexual marriage."

Earlier this year, an Australian Salvation Army official sparked international controversy after he implied in an interview [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/26/andrew-craibe-salvation-army-official-gays-put-to-death_n_1628135.html ] that LGBT people should be put to death, noting that it was "a part of our belief system."

"You know, we have an alignment to the Scriptures, but that’s our belief," Major Anthony Craibe said in the interview. You can listen to audio, courtesy of Truth Wins Out's John Becker [ http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2012/06/26448/ ], below:

[audio embedded]

Salvation Army spokesman Major Bruce Harmer then quickly released a statement [ http://salvos.org.au/about-us/media-centre/documents/ResponseJOYFMqusFINAL.pdf ] distancing the organization from Craibe's "extremely regrettable" remarks, noting that members do "not believe, and would never endorse, a view that homosexual activity should result in any form of physical punishment."

Harmer went on to note: "The Salvation Army believes in the sanctity of all human life and believes it would be inconsistent with Christian teaching to call for anyone to be put to death. We consider every person to be of infinite value, and each life a gift from God to be cherished, nurtured and preserved."

Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/26/salvation-army-gay-rights-voucher_n_2192085.html [with comments]


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Gay ‘Conversion Therapy’ Faces Test in Courts


"Saying the abuse made you gay is terrible. Once I accepted that I was gay, I was able to focus on the more serious problem of a history of sex abuse." CHAIM LEVIN
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times


"I was encouraged to develop anger and rage toward my parents. The notion that your parents caused this is a horrible lie." MICHAEL FERGUSON
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: November 27, 2012

Gay “conversion therapy,” which claims to help men overcome unwanted same-sex attractions but has been widely attacked as unscientific and harmful, is facing its first tests in the courtroom.

In New Jersey on Tuesday, four gay men who tried the therapy filed a civil suit against a prominent counseling group, charging it with deceptive practices under the state’s Consumer Fraud Act.

The former clients said they were emotionally scarred by false promises of inner transformation and humiliating techniques that included stripping naked in front of the counselor and beating effigies of their mothers. They paid thousands of dollars in fees over time, they said, only to be told that the lack of change in their sexual feelings was their own fault.

In California, so-called ex-gay therapists have gone to court to argue for the other side. They are seeking to block a new state law, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September and celebrated as a milestone by advocates for gay rights, that bans conversion therapy for minors.

In Sacramento on Friday, a federal judge will hear the first of two legal challenges brought by conservative law groups claiming that the ban is an unconstitutional infringement on speech, religion and privacy.

Since the 1970s, when mainstream mental health [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/mentalhealthanddisorders/index.html ] associations stopped branding homosexuality as a disorder, a small network of renegade therapists, conservative religious leaders and self-identified “life coaches” has continued to argue that it is not inborn, but an aberration rooted in childhood trauma. Homosexuality is caused, these therapists say, by a stifling of normal masculine development, often by distant fathers and overbearing mothers or by early sexual abuse.

An industry of “reparative therapy” clinics and men’s weekend retreats has drawn thousands of teenagers and adults who hope to rid themselves of homosexual urges, whether because of religious beliefs or family pressures.

But leading scientific and medical groups say that the theories of sexuality are unfounded and that there is no evidence that core sexual urges can be changed. They also warn that the therapy can, in the words of the American Psychiatric Association, cause “depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior” and “reinforce self-hatred already experienced by the patient.”

Those conclusions will be at the center of the coming legal fights in the state and federal courts.

In the spotlight in New Jersey are a counseling center called Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, or Jonah; its co-founder Arthur Goldberg; and an affiliated “life coach,” Alan Downing.

Mr. Goldberg helped found Jonah in 1999, after he finished serving a prison sentence and probation for financial fraud he committed in the 1980s. The group describes itself as “dedicated to educating the worldwide Jewish community about the social, cultural and emotional factors that lead to same-sex attractions,” and says it “works directly with those struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions,” including non-Jews.

While many Orthodox Jews consider homosexual relations to be a violation of divine law, Mr. Goldberg’s group has no official standing within Judaism, and many Jews accept homosexuality.

Neither Mr. Goldberg nor Mr. Downing is licensed as a therapist, so they are not subject to censure by professional associations.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a rights group based in Montgomery, Ala., is bringing the suit on behalf of four former patients and two of their mothers, who say they paid thousands of dollars not only for useless therapy for their sons but also for more counseling to undo the damage.

“The defendants peddled antigay pseudoscience, defaming gay people as loathsome and deranged,” said Sam Wolfe, a lawyer with the group.

The suit, filed in Superior Court in Hudson County, calls for monetary compensation and for a shutdown of Jonah.

Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Downing did not respond to telephone and e-mail requests for comment.

One former patient in the suit, Michael Ferguson, 30, who is now a doctoral candidate in neuroscience at the University of Utah, sought help from Jonah in 2008. He tried to battle his homosexuality, he said, when he was a practicing Mormon who believed that only those in a heterosexual marriage could achieve eternal bliss.

Mr. Ferguson attended a retreat called Journey Into Manhood, where he shared what he called his “dark secret” with 40 other men. To be accepted among men who were also struggling with homosexuality was euphoric, he said, but that temporary high was not the promised first step toward becoming heterosexual.

After months of $100 therapy sessions with Mr. Downing at Jonah’s offices in Jersey City, and after suffering from depression that led him to see a licensed psychotherapist elsewhere, Mr. Ferguson said, he realized that he was not changing.

“It becomes fraudulent, even cruel,” he said in an interview. “To say that if you really want to change you could — that’s an awful thing to tell somebody.”

“I was encouraged to develop anger and rage toward my parents,” he added. “The notion that your parents caused this is a horrible lie. They ask you to blame your mother for being loving and wonderful.”

Another former patient in the suit, Chaim Levin, 23, grew up in an Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn where, he said, being gay seemed unthinkable.

Referred to Jonah by a rabbi when he was 18, Mr. Levin began attending weekend retreats at $650 each. For a year and a half, he had weekly private sessions with Mr. Downing as well as weekly group sessions. He quit, he said, after Mr. Downing had him remove his clothes and touch himself, saying it would help him reconnect with his masculinity. Mr. Goldberg has defended Mr. Downing’s methods as sometimes appropriate for men dealing with body image problems.

But Mr. Levin called the episode “degrading and humiliating.”

Mr. Levin said that he was sexually abused by a relative between the ages of 6 and 10 and that Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Downing blamed the abuse for his homosexual attractions. “Saying the abuse made you gay is terrible,” Mr. Levin said. “Once I accepted that I was gay, I was able to focus on the more serious problem of a history of sex abuse.”

Many of the same issues surrounding conversion therapy will be argued before federal judges in California as therapists, some represented by Liberty Counsel and others by the Pacific Justice Institute, seek to prevent the state ban from taking effect in January.

Responding to the accusations of constitutional violations, a brief by the California attorney general’s office cited the extensive professional literature that discredits conversion therapy and said the new law barred harmful conduct but not speech or religion. Since the ban applies only to licensed therapists, religious counselors will not be affected.

Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional expert and dean of the law school at the University of California, Irvine, said, “The law is clear that the government can prohibit health care practices that are harmful or ineffective.”

If the court accepts the scientific evaluation put forward by the state, he said, “the government is likely to prevail in the end.”

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Related

California Is First State to Ban Gay ‘Cure’ for Minors (October 1, 2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/us/california-bans-therapies-to-cure-gay-minors.html

‘Ex-Gay’ Men Fight Back Against View That Homosexuality Can’t Be Changed (November 1, 2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/us/ex-gay-men-fight-view-that-homosexuality-cant-be-changed.html

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© 2012 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/us/gay-conversion-therapy-faces-tests-in-courts.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/us/gay-conversion-therapy-faces-tests-in-courts.html?pagewanted=all ]


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The War on Men — Straw Feminism 101


Work-life balance.
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

By Alexandra Petri
Posted at 04:03 PM ET, 11/26/2012

If you want to understand “Straw Feminism,” look no further than this piece on FoxNews.com by Suzanne Venker about the War on Men [ http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/11/24/war-on-men/ ].

This article appears in the dictionary next to the words “Straw Feminism.” Venker’s image of feminism hits all the high (low?) notes. This is the nightmarish menace that marches fulminatingly in the dark streets, illuminated only by the fitful light of a burning bra. It articulates all the darkest fears about what women's equality has wrought.

Feminism, you see, is the reason why there are no Nice Men Who Will Marry You. Feminism frightened them once when they were children (as this wondeful cartoon illustrates [ http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=341 ]). It was the nasty thing they saw in the woodshed. You, young lady, were foolish enough to think you might manage to pursue your dreams and simultaneously get married and have children. That was your mistake. And that is why you are single. Blame those terrible firebreathing females in the 1970s who removed you from your proper place — above men, on a pedestal, where you should return as quickly as possible.

Women should not be equal, exactly. We are so different. We belong on pedestals, or something.

If such feminists exist, I have never seen one in the wild. But the myth is potent.

The titles of the writer’s past books [ http://www.amazon.com/Suzanne-Venker/e/B001K7VY7K ] — “The Flipside of Feminism: What Conservative Women Know — And Men Can’t Say” and “7 Myths of Working Mothers: Why Children and (Most) Careers Just Don’t Mix” — suggest what the general tenor of her piece is likely to be. And the piece itself does not disappoint.

To understand what I mean, here are a few excerpts from the piece.

As the author of three books on the American family and its intersection with pop culture, I’ve spent thirteen years examining social agendas as they pertain to sex, parenting, and gender roles,” she notes. “During this time, I’ve spoken with hundreds, if not thousands, of men and women. And in doing so, I’ve accidentally stumbled upon a subculture of men who’ve told me, in no uncertain terms, that they’re never getting married. When I ask them why, the answer is always the same.

Women aren’t women anymore.

Aha.

What a coincidence. In the past 13 years, I, too, have spoken with hundreds, if not thousands, of men and women. And I wasn’t even writing a book about anything. Some of this was at dinner parties.

I have never, though, stumbled on a subculture of men who told me in no uncertain terms that they were never getting married because women weren’t women any more. I did once run into a guy who’d watched “The Crying Game” and had to go rethink a lot of things about his life, but that was it. In general, if you run into a man who tells you he intends never to marry because There Is Something The Matter With Women These Days, the actual reason is that he is a jerk.

Consider the converse. If I told you that I would never marry because “you so seldom find a man who is truly a man, bestriding a horse with a well-turned ankle in his doublet and hose,” you would squint at me and start backing away, and you would not mourn my departure from the Eligible Pool nor tell men that they needed to reshape themselves in the image of what I wanted.

But let us return to the words of the article. How have women changed?

In a nutshell, women are angry. They’re also defensive, though often unknowingly. That’s because they’ve been raised to think of men as the enemy. Armed with this new attitude, women pushed men off their pedestal (women had their own pedestal, but feminists convinced them otherwise) and climbed up to take what they were taught to believe was rightfully theirs. Now the men have nowhere to go.

Aha. Well. There you have it.

How is it that women have changed? More visible ankle? Fewer hope chests? More voting and owning property?

No. It was the pedestal. We got off our own pedestal.

That was our first mistake.

Unexamined, the idea of being on a pedestal sounds pleasant. People lay wreaths at your feet. The view is nice. But after a while the stylite’s existence pales. You discover what being on a pedestal entails: remaining decorative and immobile.

Stop climbing and taking the men’s things. Shoo! Back! Back to your pedestal! Possibly women weren’t angry until they read this article, but now, if I am anything to go by, they are practically irate.

She goes on:

“It is precisely this dynamic – women good/men bad – that has destroyed the relationship between the sexes. Yet somehow, men are still to blame when love goes awry. Heck, men have been to blame since feminists first took to the streets in the 1970s.”

Yup, that’s what it was. Women good. Men bad. Whenever feminists see a successful man, they seize him and fling him to the curb and kick him with their sensible loafers. She concludes this argument:

“Men want to love women, not compete with them. They want to provide for and protect their families – it’s in their DNA. But modern women won’t let them.”

Nope. We won’t. Men come home to their families with their earnings and offer to help with parenting, and women hit them with their own much fatter, larger paychecks and shout, “HOW DARE YOU!” We do not want to, but there are feminists standing behind us, menacingly, holding shoes aloft.

And then the men very sadly and slowly crawl back to their caves. Every day we see this playing out over American households. Men hold doors open and women slam them in their faces.

Also, I’m really not sure her description of DNA is scientifically accurate.

Back to the column:

“It’s all so unfortunate – for women, not men. Feminism serves men very well: they can have sex at hello and even live with their girlfriends with no responsibilities whatsoever.”

Straw Feminists live in this land where someone can approach you and say “Hello” and suddenly you find yourself having sex with him. It is a magical place. Other denizens include unicorns, leprechauns, and Those Kids Who Are Having Rainbow Parties and Trying A Weird New Drug Made From Construction Paper.

Also, not sure that’s what “You had me at hello” meant but, well — let’s just keep going.

“It’s the women who lose. Not only are they saddled with the consequences of sex, by dismissing male nature they’re forever seeking a balanced life. The fact is, women need men’s linear career goals – they need men to pick up the slack at the office – in order to live the balanced life they seek.

So if men today are slackers, and if they’re retreating from marriage en masse, women should look in the mirror and ask themselves what role they’ve played to bring about this transformation.

That’s the solution. Women need to spend more time looking in the mirror and less time not being on pedestals.

Fortunately, there is good news: women have the power to turn everything around. All they have to do is surrender to their nature – their femininity – and let men surrender to theirs.If they do, marriageable men will come out of the woodwork.”

Oh lord.

That’s what feminism threatens, after all. It’s the End of the Marriageable Men. It’s a bunch of Angry Women yelling at men who are just trying to be nice, but men are now sick of being yelled at, and so they are going to respond by not marrying ANYBODY. See what you’ve done, Feminism? Feminism, you are the reason there are no nice, marriageable men anywhere around. When Kelly’s boyfriend dumped her, Feminism, that was on your head.

In short, everybody get back to your quilting.

Maybe she has a point. Maybe the Nice Eligible Young Men They Used To Have Back in 1790 are going extinct. The traditional Husband, Patriarch of the Family, to whom the wife was supposed to submit is sliding out of fashion. If that’s the only model you’re looking for, the pickings are indeed slimmer.

But I don’t think the answer is to turn back and “submit to your femininity” and reduce men to the role of bringing meat to the cave.

She riffs on statistics from Pew, which note that since 1997, the percentage of 18-34 year-old men who list having a successful marriage as one of the most important things in their lives has dropped by 6 percentage points (from 35% to 29%) while among women 18-34 it has climbed (from 28% to 37%). Sure, there’s a gap, which is a change from 15 years ago.

But overall, Pew notes, “The shares of working-age women and men who say having a successful marriage is “one of the most important things” or a “very important” thing in their lives exceed 80% now, just as they did in 1997.” And the totals for men and women are within one percentage point of each other.

The mistaken assumption of all this is that a balance between work and life is something only women want. The contrary is true. The Pew study did demonstrate that women are doubling down, placing a higher value on all of the above: parenting, marriage, and careers — but so are men, especially when parenting is concerned. “Having it all” is not just for ladies any longer.

Maybe that’s the War on Men. Perhaps, in the War on Men, the Subculture of Men Who Insist In No Uncertain Terms That They Will Not Marry Because Women Are Doing It Wrong is, indeed, the first casualty. But I’m not sure it’s a loss.

© 2012 The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/post/the-war-on-men--straw-feminism-101/2012/11/26/0ae5c158-37da-11e2-b01f-5f55b193f58f_blog.html [with comments]


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Is there a war on men?



Fox News contributor Suzanne Venker tells men to blame feminism for their downfall

By Aaron Traister
Monday, Nov 26, 2012 11:44 AM CST

I’d like to thank Fox News contributor Suzanne Venker for having the balls to write about the War on Men this weekend. It was an important story and I want to share my important opinion about it.

Suzanne Venker was right about what’s got me — the American Male — down. Three words: Increased competition. And feminism. Since this crazy feminism stuff really started getting popular (thanks, Mom) and ladies have started acting (and smelling) like dudes, I’ve been withdrawing from higher education, from family, even from some parts of the labor force. (I want to make it very clear that I’m withdrawing, not quitting; quitting sounds way too harsh.)

But can you blame me for withdrawing? I’m so tired and angry about feminism and the increased level of competition I have to deal with at school, at home and in the workplace that it’s just easier to not even bother competing at all. Instead, I spend my mornings pulling bong rips on the couch while catching up on reruns of “Boy Meets World.” But then I catch one of the later episodes where Topanga clearly asserts her dominance over a neutered Cory and I’m back where I started before I decided to get stoned and not leave the house.

But then I get filled with rage because I can’t even have some “me time” and just enjoy “BMW” without confronting the ugliness of the gender-subverting feminist agenda. Fucking Topanga.

I’m a white dude who went to college; aren’t I entitled to a little success? Isn’t it enough that I have a B.A. from Goucher? Haven’t I paid my dues?

Sure, I want to succeed in school, home and the workplace, but in order to do that I need a lot of people to just gimme some room and slow it down a little. It’s like I used to tell the exchange students at Goucher, “You don’t need to go to every class, bro, that’s not how we roll in the USA.”

When I accomplish something I want to do it at my own pace in a less crowded field. That way I won’t be so distracted or under so much pressure and I can be sure of the quality of my accomplishment. The first people who should leave that field are the ladies who don’t belong there in the first place, and are obviously getting in the way of me setting some sort of amazing record (we’ll talk about the exchange students and scholarship kids at a later date).

Think about how it was back when ladies embraced their femininity. My grandmother spent every day in the kitchen making liver and butter for my grandfather’s dinner after he got home from a long day at the Boulder Lifting Factory. They had a great relationship where each of them knew their place, was totally fulfilled, and slept in different rooms.

My (white) immigrant grandpa spent all day lifting boulders and heaving them to and fro. Sure, it was hard work and his vertebrate were the consistency of stale marshmallows by the time he was 50, but competition had nothing to do with his choice of work. He did it for the lifting and heaving. And clearly, he worked so hard because he wanted to have a grandson who only had to work when he was ready and felt secure in his position and was guaranteed not to be bothered by other people with their own gender incorrect ideas about achieving success getting in the way. Look, I don’t want special treatment but if I’m going to compete I want it to be on a level playing field with people from the same background who look a lot like me. That’s called being fair.

Does having increased competition make Usain Bolt a better, more focused runner? Of course not. Have the brothers Manning made Tom Brady a better quarterback? I doubt it. If you ask any of those guys they’ll all tell you it’s the success and winning that’s the fun part, not the struggle and hard work and challenge of getting to be the best. I bet if you ask Tom Brady he’ll tell you he wishes the Manning brothers were dead, or at least back at his house baking him cookies (no homo).

Look, increased competition didn’t make America great, America was great because of our freedom. So let’s free me of all this hostility and depressed lethargy and allow me to find my true masculine nature by sending women back to the kitchen, so I can turn off this “Boy Meets World” marathon, get off the couch and make America great again.

Copyright © 2012 Salon Media Group, Inc.

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/26/what_this_guy_needs_to_succeed_less_competition/ [with comments]


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10 Ways to Surrender to Your Femininity

November 27th, 2012
http://www.babble.com/babble-voices/casa-de-chaos-ciaran-blumenfeld/2012/11/27/10-ways-to-surrender-to-your-femininity/ [with comments]


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House GOP committee chairs named, all white men
November 27, 2012
As House Democrats are proclaiming 2012 the year of the minority because for the first time white men will not make up the majority of their caucus when the new Congress assembles in January, Republicans have a long way to go to get to that point.
House Speaker John Boehner released the proposed recommendations for chairmen in 19 of the 21 House committees - powerful posts that set legislative agenda and priorities in respective issue areas - and there's not one woman or minority on the list.
[...]
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-34222_162-57555284-10391739/house-gop-committee-chairs-named-all-white-men/ [with comments]


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Lamar Smith, Global Warming Skeptic, Set To Chair House Science Committee

11/27/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/lamar-smith-global-warming-house-science_n_2200408.html [with comments]


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Gun Enthusiast Kills 17-Year-Old for Playing Loud Music; Lawyer Says He Acted "Very Responsibly"


Jordan Davis (L) was shot and killed by Michael Dunn (R) this Friday in Jacksonville, Fla.

Another “Stand Your Ground” death?

By Alyssa Figueroa
November 27, 2012

Michael David Dunn, 45, was in Jacksonville, Fla., this Friday for his son’s wedding, when afterward he decided to stop at a convenience store with his girlfriend. Four unarmed teenagers were in an SUV near where Dunn parked. After Dunn’s girlfriend went into the store to buy a bottle of wine, Dunn made a comment to the teenagers about their music being too loud. An argument ensued, and then Dunn, a gun collector, pulled out his gun and fired at the SUV between eight to nine times. Two shots hit and killed 17-year-old Jordan Davis.

Jacksonville homicide Lt. Rob Schoonover said [ http://m.jacksonville.com/news/crime/2012-11-26/story/brevard-suspect-pleads-not-guilty-slaying-wolfson-student ]:

Our victim was shot a couple of times. …They were listening to the music. It was loud; they [other teens] admitted that. But I mean that is not a reason for someone to open fire on them.

When his girlfriend returned to the car, Dunn drove off, admitting to her that he “fired at these kids.” After hearing a news report that someone died in the shooting at their Jacksonville hotel, the couple returned to their home to Brevard County, Fla. Witnesses of the shooting took down Dunn’s license plate number, which, on Saturday, helped police find Dunn’s house, where he was then arrested.

According to Schoonover, after his arrest, Dunn told Jacksonville detectives, “he felt threatened and that is the reason he took action.”

Dunn is being held without bail, and will be transported to a jail in Jacksonville to face charges of murder and attempted murder this week. On Monday, he pleaded not guilty in Brevard County court.

His attorney, Robin Lemonidis, said:

It will be very clear that Mr. Dunn acted very responsibly and as any responsible firearms owner would have acted under these circumstances.

Jacksonville Attorney Gene Nichols, however, said that although Dunn will most likely make a “Stand Your Ground” defense based on his statements in court, it’s a tough case to make.

He said:

Mr. Dunn is going to have to answer the question, 'Why did you not call the sheriff's office? If you are reasonably protecting yourself, why did you leave the scene, get in the car, and the next day, flee the jurisdiction of Duval County?' … There's no indication that Jordan or anyone else in that car had a gun, there's no indication that they were any threat to Mr. Dunn.

Davis’s death comes about a week after a Florida task force found [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/stand-your-ground-law-florida-tast-force-report_n_2130345.html ] that the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law is mostly fine as is and recommended only small changes. Florida governor Rick Scott created the task force after the death of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in April. The task force made their conclusions despite research that shows “Stand Your Ground” laws actually increase [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-hemenway-phd/stand-your-ground_b_2119322.html ] homicides.

In response to the task force’s findings, Benjamin Crump, the attorney who represents Martin's parents, had told [ http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/stand-your-ground-panel-keep-self-defense-law-inta/nS5yj/ ] the Palm Beach Post two weeks ago:

We all believe it’s asinine that you can pursue someone, that you can be the aggressor and then shoot an unarmed kid and claim you were standing your ground. … Until we fix this law, there are going to be a lot of asinine claims of 'Stand Your Ground' when there’s another Trayvon Martin.

Copyright 2012 Alyssa Figueroa

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/gun-enthusiast-kills-17-year-old-playing-loud-music-lawyer-says-he-acted-very


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Cope Reynolds, Arizona Gun Store Owner, Rails Against Obama And Sees Business Surge


11/27/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/cope-reynolds-arizona-gun-store-owner_n_2198131.html with comments, and the following video embedded]

*

Politicians, do NOT lie to me!!

Published on Jun 24, 2012 by Cope Reynolds

Off-the-cuff rant by Cope Reynolds at a Tea Party rally in Show Low, AZ April 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty6v4-W60fY


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30 Tenn. courthouses get threats about bombs

Written by Jordan Buie
10:22 PM, Nov 27, 2012

Bomb threats at 30 courthouses across Tennessee on Tuesday forced employees to evacuate and local law enforcement agencies to respond to what one sheriff’s department’s deputy chief said amounted to domestic terrorism.

Around 10 a.m. Tuesday, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency received a phone call that a bomb had been placed in a local courthouse.

By 3:30 p.m., 30 courthouses had received bomb threats, said agency spokesman Dean Flener.

“We take bomb threats very seriously,” he said. “We get bomb threats throughout the year, sometimes at schools and sometimes courthouses.”

But Flener said it was unique for so many bomb threats to take place in a single day.

Nine bomb threats were reported to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency from West Tennessee, seven from Middle Tennessee and 14 from East Tennessee. Counties in West Tennessee that received the threats included Benton, Carroll, Chester, Crockett, Decatur, Gibson, Hardin, Hardeman and Shelby.

As of 3:30 p.m., 19 of the 30 bomb threats reported were cleared, Flener said.

A little after 10 a.m., a phone rang in the Crockett County Courthouse in Alamo. A clerk answered and the caller said there was a bomb in the building and that it would be detonated, said Eric Uselton, chief deputy for the Crockett County Sheriff’s Department.

A man who works in the Crockett County Emergency Management Agency office said the courthouse was immediately evacuated and locked down. He said members of the sheriff’s department walked through the building and searched the courthouse for anything unusual.

At the end of the work day Tuesday, the courthouse was still closed. The Emergency Management Agency worker said bomb dogs will be brought in to survey the area, and people may be asked to go into their offices individually to look for anything suspicious.

Uselton said he has never seen bomb threats occur in multiple counties in such a short amount of time. He referenced recent reports that similar statewide bomb threats have occurred in other states.

Associated Press reporter Adrian Sainz wrote Tuesday that Tennessee is the fourth state to fall victim to multiple “bomb hoaxes.”

Sainz reported that 28 courthouses were targeted in Oregon, as were several government offices in Nebraska and Washington just this month.

“I’ve never seen anything in multiple counties like this,” Uselton said. “This is one form of domestic terrorism.”

Uselton said the Alamo Courthouse should be open by regular business hours this morning.

The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security assisted local law enforcements, but local agencies are the primary investigators for the bomb threat cases, said Kevin Crawford, a spokesman for the safety and security agency.

No arrests were made and no bombs were found as of Tuesday afternoon, Flener said.

Jordan Buie, 425-9782

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2012 www.jacksonsun.com

http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20121128/NEWS01/311280008/30-Tenn-courthouses-get-threats-about-bombs [no comments yet]


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'Gun Dorms' At University Of Colorado Do Not Attract Any Students

11/26/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/26/cu-g_n_2193123.html [with comments]


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Former Florida GOP leaders say voter suppression was reason they pushed new election law

Former GOP chair, governor - both on outs with party - say voter fraud wasn’t a concern, but reducing Democratic votes was.

By Dara Kam and John Lantigua
Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
Updated: 9:58 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012 | Posted: 7:00 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012

A new Florida law that contributed to long voter lines and caused some to abandon voting altogether was intentionally designed by Florida GOP staff and consultants to inhibit Democratic voters, former GOP officials and current GOP consultants have told The Palm Beach Post.

Republican leaders said in proposing the law that it was meant to save money and fight voter fraud. But a former GOP chairman and former Gov. Charlie Crist, both of whom have been ousted from the party, now say that fraud concerns were advanced only as subterfuge for the law’s main purpose: GOP victory.

Former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer says he attended various meetings, beginning in 2009, at which party staffers and consultants pushed for reductions in early voting days and hours.

“The Republican Party, the strategists, the consultants, they firmly believe that early voting is bad for Republican Party candidates,” Greer told The Post. “It’s done for one reason and one reason only. … ‘We’ve got to cut down on early voting because early voting is not good for us,’ ” Greer said he was told by those staffers and consultants.

“They never came in to see me and tell me we had a (voter) fraud issue,” Greer said. “It’s all a marketing ploy.”

Greer is now under indictment, accused of stealing $200,000 from the party through a phony campaign fundraising operation. He, in turn, has sued the party, saying GOP leaders knew what he was doing and voiced no objection.

“Jim Greer has been accused of criminal acts against this organization and anything he says has to be considered in that light,” says Brian Burgess, Florida GOP spokesman since September.

But Greer’s statements about the motivations for the party’s legislative efforts, implemented by a GOP-majority House and Senate in Tallahassee in 2011, are backed by Crist — also now on the outs with the party — and two veteran GOP campaign consultants.

Wayne Bertsch, who handles local and legislative races for Republicans, said he knew targeting Democrats was the goal.

“In the races I was involved in in 2008, when we started seeing the increase of turnout and the turnout operations that the Democrats were doing in early voting, it certainly sent a chill down our spines. And in 2008, it didn’t have the impact that we were afraid of. It got close, but it wasn’t the impact that they had this election cycle,” Bertsch said, referring to the fact that Democrats picked up seven legislative seats in Florida in 2012 despite the early voting limitations.

Another GOP consultant, who did not want to be named, also confirmed that influential consultants to the Republican Party of Florida were intent on beating back Democratic turnout in early voting after 2008.

In 2008 Democrats, especially African-Americans, turned out in unprecedented numbers for President Barack Obama, many of them casting ballots during 14 early voting days. In Palm Beach County, 61.2 percent of all early voting ballots were cast by Democrats that year, compared with 18.7 percent by Republicans.

In 2011 Republicans, who had super majorities in both chambers of the legislature, passed HB 1355, which curtailed early voting days from 14 to eight; greatly proscribed the activities of voter registration organizations like the League of Women Voters; and made it harder for voters who had changed counties since the last election to cast ballots, a move that affected minorities proportionately more than whites. The League and others challenged the law in court, and a federal judge threw out most of the provisions related to voter registration organizations.

Various voter registration organizations, minority coalitions and Democratic office holders are now demanding investigations either by state or federal officials.

On Oct. 26, The Post published a story citing a deposition by Florida GOP General Counsel Emmett “Bucky” Mitchell IV in litigation between Florida and the U.S. Justice Department over HB 1355. Mitchell described a meeting near New Year’s Day 2011, in which he was approached by GOP staffers and consultants to write the bill that would become HB 1355.

He said the meeting had followed other conversations with those same GOP officials and consultants since the fall of 2010.

Crist said he was asked to curb early voting

Crist said party leaders approached him during his 2007-2011 gubernatorial term about changing early voting, in an effort to suppress Democrat turnout. Crist is now at odds with the GOP, since abandoning the party to run for U.S. Senate as an independent in 2010. He is rumored to be planning another run for governor, as a Democrat.

Crist said in a telephone interview this month that he did not recall conversations about early voting specifically targeting black voters “but it looked to me like that was what was being suggested. And I didn’t want them to go there at all.”

About inhibiting minority voters, Greer said:

“The sad thing about that is yes, there is prejudice and racism in the party but the real prevailing thought is that they don’t think minorities will ever vote Republican,” he said. “It’s not really a broad-based racist issue. It’s simply that the Republican Party gave up a long time ago ever believing that anything they did would get minorities to vote for them.”

But a GOP consultant who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution said black voters were a concern.

“I know that the cutting out of the Sunday before Election Day was one of their targets only because that’s a big day when the black churches organize themselves,” he said.

GOP spokesman Burgess discounted Crist’s statement to The Post.

“Charlie Crist speaks out of both sides of his mouth,” he said.

Former Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning, a Republican, has spoken favorably about HB 1355, because he believes its 12-hour early voting days — the law previously limited them to eight hours a day — give voters more flexibility to vote before or after work.

“But reducing early voting days does not attack voter fraud and given the longer days, it certainly does not save money,” Browning has said.

In a 2011 deposition in the litigation over HB 1355, Browning said that while he was always concerned with voter fraud, he did not see it as a large problem in the state and that was why he did not include any mention of it in his legislative goals for 2011.

“It wasn’t an issue that rose to the level to place it in our package,” Browning said.

Greer told The Post that people who attended the GOP’s behind-the-scenes meetings on early voting included: Andy Palmer, former state GOP executive director, now a Tallahassee political consultant; Bret Prater, head of party development; Randy Enwright of Enwright Consulting, a veteran Tallahassee political consultant; Jim Rimes, former state GOP executive director and now a consultant with Enwright; Kirk Pepper, a former top aide to House Speaker Dean Cannon; and Rich Heffley, a former top aide to Crist.

The Post contacted all of them. GOP spokesman Burgess responded for Palmer and Prater and also for Frank Terraferma, director of state House campaigns, who had been named in the Bucky Mitchell deposition as attending the meeting about the drafting of 1355.

“If what Greer said had happened, that would be wrong and he should have fired those men,” Burgess said. “Why didn’t he fire them? They said they were never in any meeting with Jim Greer of that kind. They never had meetings of that kind.”

The other four did not respond.

Ex-House speaker: Law meant to curb fraud

Cannon, who took over as House speaker in 2010, said he had no conversations about early voting with GOP strategists and that he believed HB 1355 was aimed at voter fraud.

“I don’t recall anybody talking about some tactical advantage or need to curtail early voting,” said Cannon, who has launched a lobbying business in Tallahassee since his term as a state representative ended this month.

But Crist, who extended early voting hours in 2008 by executive order to address long lines during that presidential election, said he was approached about early voting but told the GOP consultants and staffers that he would veto any proposed legislative changes that would reduce early voting.

“The people that worked in Tallahassee felt that early voting was bad, ” Crist said. “And I heard about it after I signed the executive order expanding it. I heard from Republicans around the state who were bold enough to share it with me that, ‘You just gave the election to Barack Obama.’”

It wasn’t until Gov. Rick Scott took office in January 2011 that the idea went anywhere. It passed the legislature that session and Scott signed it into law.

“I assume they decided, ‘It’s 2011, Crist is gone, let’s give it a shot,’” Crist said. “And that’s exactly what they did. And it is exactly what it turned out to be.”

Before signing the law, Scott said he wanted to make voting easier and to eliminate voter fraud. Recently, he asked Secretary of State Ken Detzner to look into problems with the November election and to recommend changes if necessary.

Purging of non-citizens off voter rolls discussed

Besides early voting, Greer said other issues discussed at the behind-the-scenes meetings were voter registration organizations, attempts to have Florida Supreme Court judges defeated at the polls and the purging of voters on the rolls who might not be U.S. citizens.

“There is absolutely nothing with their absolute obsession with retaining power that they wouldn’t do — changing the election laws to reduce early voting, to keep organizations like the League of Women Voters from registering people, going after the Supreme Court justices,” Greer said of his former colleagues.

HB 1355 greatly reduced the time voter registration organizations had to hand in registration applications and imposed hefty fines for any violation of the time guidelines, which forced the largest voter registration organizations to suspend activities, afraid they might incur fines they couldn’t afford. The League of Women Voters suspended its activities in Florida for the first time in nine decades.

A federal judge subsequently struck down those parts of 1355 and registration organizations resumed their activities over the summer of 2012.

The Division of Elections under Scott also issued purge lists for non-citizen voters, which several county elections supervisors have criticized as being filled with errors. The attempted voter purge resulted in several lawsuits against Scott’s administration, and nearly all of the state’s elections supervisors abandoned the effort in the months leading up to the presidential election.

And the Republican Party of Florida waged a campaign to defeat three Supreme Court justices this fall. Voters chose to retain all three.

Key dates

• 2006: Jim Greer becomes chairman of Florida Republican Party.

• 2007: Republican Charlie Crist takes office as governor of Florida.

• November 2008 — President Barack Obama wins Florida, in part due to Democratic majority in early voting.

• 2009 — GOP staffers and consultants begin talking about ways to inhibit early voting, according to Greer. Crist and two GOP consultants confirm.

• January 2010 — Greer, accused of stealing from GOP, resigns as chairman. Arrested six months later. Greer then sues party, saying it owed him money. Both cases are pending.

• Fall 2010 — Conversation begins between GOP staffers and consultants and Florida GOP General Counsel Emmett “Bucky” Mitchell IV about drafting legislation to reduce early-voting days, what would eventually become HB 1355.

• November 2010 — Republican Rick Scott elected governor.

• May 2011 — Scott signs HB 1355 passed by GOP-majority legislature. Parts of law later overturned by federal judge, but reduced days of early voting remain.

• November 2012 – Despite long lines at early voting sites, Obama re-elected president, Democrats pick up seven seats in Florida Legislature.

Staff researcher Michelle Quigley and staff writer Christine Stapleton contributed to this story.

© 2012 Cox Media Group

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/early-voting-curbs-called-power-play/nTFDy/ [with comments]


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Jim Greer, Ex-Florida GOP Chair, Claims Republican Voting Laws Focused On Suppression, Racism


Fl. Gov. Rick Scott (R) signed HB 1355 which shortened the early voting period for Florida voters.
(Photo by Steve Cannon / AP)

By Ian Gray
Posted: 11/26/2012 2:34 pm EST Updated: 11/27/2012 9:06 am EST

Jim Greer, the former head of the Florida Republican Party, recently claimed that a law shortening the early voting period in the state was deliberately designed to suppress voting among groups that tend to support Democratic candidates, the Palm Beach Post reports [ http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/early-voting-curbs-called-power-play/nTFDy/ (just above)].

“The Republican Party, the strategists, the consultants, they firmly believe that early voting is bad for Republican Party candidates,” Greer told the Post. “It’s done for one reason and one reason only...‘We’ve got to cut down on early voting because early voting is not good for us.’"

The HB 1355 law, which was passed by Florida's Republican legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Scott (R) in Nov. 2011, cut the number of early voting days from 14 to eight. It was publicly sold as an effort to reduce voter fraud and to save money, but Greer says that this was simply a "marketing ploy."

Greer served as Florida's GOP chairman from 2006 until 2010 when he was forced to resign after allegedly stealing money from the party. He was arrested and his case is pending.

Scott's predecessor, Republican-turned-Independent Charlie Crist, resisted efforts from Republicans to shorten the state's early voting period, citing reasons that mesh with Greer's claims.

In an interview [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/04/charlie-crist-rick-scott-florida-early-voting_n_2073661.html ] with The Huffington Post earlier this month, Crist said the new law is clearly aimed at curbing turnout among Democrats.

"The only thing that makes any sense as to why this is happening and being done is voter suppression," he said.

Crist added, "People have fought and died for our right to vote, and unfortunately our legislature and this governor have decided they want to make early voting less available to Floridians rather than more available ... It's hard for me as an American to comprehend why you don't make democracy as easy as possible to exercise for the people of our state. It's frankly unconscionable."

Greer also acknowledged that the effort to restrict early voting would directly affect turnout among Florida's African Americans, a demographic that consistently supports Democrats.

“The sad thing about that is yes, there is prejudice and racism in the party but the real prevailing thought is that they don’t think minorities will ever vote Republican,” he told the Post.

Greer went on to suggest that there was "absolutely nothing" state Republicans wouldn't do in following their "absolute obsession with retaining power."

Parts of HB 1355 were overturned by a panel of federal judges in August, partially due to its anticipated impact on minority turnout. The three judge panel ruled [ http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2012/0817/Court-Some-Florida-early-voting-plans-undermine-minority-voting ] that a "dramatic reduction in the form of voting that is disproportionately used by African-Americans would make it materially more difficult for some minority voters to cast a ballot than under the benchmark law.”

The court's ruling, however, only affected five of Florida's 67 counties [ http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/244225-florida-dems-applaud-court-decision-expanding-early-voting ] -- those covered by the section of the Voting Rights Act cited by the court in its ruling. The vast majority of Florida voters were subject to the shortened voting period.

Despite lines as long as nine hours on Election Day in Florida, Scott said he stands by the new law [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/09/rick-scott-early-voting_n_2101566.html ]. "Well I'm very comfortable that the right thing happened," he told WKMG Orlando [ http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Gov-Rick-Scott-on-early-voting-The-right-thing-happened/-/1637132/17333236/-/1d8ork/-/index.html ] after the election. He later promised to order a review [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/rick-scott-secretary-vow-changes-elections_n_2137964.html ] of electoral issues.

Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/26/jim-greer-florida-voting-laws_n_2192802.html [with comments]


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Rule of Law index: U.S. Ranks Low In Access To Justice Compared To Other Wealthy Nations



By Dan Froomkin
Posted: 11/28/2012 12:00 am EST Updated: 11/28/2012 12:22 am EST

Access to justice is a core American value. But a new survey of the rule of law across the globe finds that the U.S. ranks surprisingly low relative to its high-income peers in terms of access to legal counsel in civil disputes and equal protection under criminal law.

The "Rule of Law Index [ http://worldjusticeproject.org/blog/wjp-rule-law-index-2012-special-presentation ]," [to be] released Wednesday by the independent World Justice Project [ http://worldjusticeproject.org/ ], found that in some categories the U.S. even ranks below some developing nations, such as Botswana and Georgia.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, the survey's authors said the problems in the U.S. are primarily due to unequal access to justice based on race and class.

"In the U.S., socioeconomic level matters," said Alejandro Ponce, chief research officer for the World Justice Project. "Poor people are at a disadvantage in all these situations, as are ethnic minorities."

In the category of criminal justice, the U.S. ranked 26th among 97 countries, and in the bottom 20 percent of wealthy nations -- dragged down by low scores in the subcategory of equal protection.

In the civil justice category, the U.S. got dinged because it lags behind in providing access to disadvantaged groups, the survey found. "Legal assistance is frequently expensive or unavailable, and the gap between rich and poor individuals in terms of both actual use of and satisfaction with the civil court system is significant. In addition, there is a perception that ethnic minorities and foreigners receive unequal treatment."

The survey illustrated the problem by comparing civil law practices in the U.S. with those in Finland, which ranked among the top five countries. "When facing a common civil dispute (in this case, an unpaid debt), most people in Finland, regardless of their socio-economic status, tend to use formal dispute-resolution channels, while only a few choose to take no action. The situation is quite different in the United States. While high income Americans behave similarly to the Finnish, low-income people act very differently—only a few use the court system (including small-claims courts), while many take no action to resolve their disputes."

One obvious difference: In many countries, legal services are much more widely available, and subsidized, for low income people.



In the years since the housing crisis began, this dynamic has had special resonance in the U.S., as relatively few homeowners have found satisfaction in using the legal system againt the banks that lured them into loans they couldn’t afford.

The U.S.'s highest ranking, in the category of open government, still placed it only 13th out of 97 countries worldwide. "The U.S. lags behind most of the Western European countries in all dimensions," Ponce said.

This is the third annual index by the World Justice Project, and since the first one came out in 2010 [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/14/access-to-justice-in-us-a_n_762355.html ], the U.S. rankings have remained weak.

"It remains very significant and the problem is that we do not see that government efforts or private efforts are making any dent in the problem," said Alejandro Botero, the project's executive director.

"We were very hopeful when the Obama administration launched the Access to Justice Initiative [ http://www.justice.gov/atj/ ] -- but we do not see any improvement yet," he said.

The survey's authors said they still see police discrimination against minorities in many countries. Nations in the Middle East still struggle with fundamental rights -- though there has been significant improvement in Morocco and Tunisia.

China continues to rank very poorly on issues including freedom of speech and assembly, government accountability and corruption. The five countries that ranked worst on fundamental rights were Pakistan, China, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe and Iran.

Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/28/rule-of-law-index-2012_n_2200765.html [with comments]


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[fuagf]

"Now, it’s true that investors might start to expect higher inflation some years down the road. They might also push down the value of the dollar. Both of these things, however, would actually help rather than hurt the U.S. economy right now: expected inflation would discourage corporations and families from sitting on cash, while a weaker dollar would make our exports more competitive."

[fuagf]

Quote of the Day: Simpson-Bowles is Terrible

By Ben Cohen
October 02,2012

Paul Krugman .. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/a-public-service-reminder-simpson-bowles-is-terrible/ .. on the deficit reduction plan that is widely regarded by serious economists as, well, frankly ridiculous .. http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/11/worst-things-about-simpson-bowles.html :

So, a public service reminder: Simpson-Bowles is terrible. It mucks around with taxes, but is obsessed with lowering marginal rates despite a complete absence of evidence that this is important. It offers nothing on Medicare that isn’t already in the Affordable Care Act. And it raises the Social Security retirement age because life expectancy has risen — completely ignoring the fact that life expectancy has only gone up for the well-off and well-educated, while stagnating or even declining among the people who need the program most.

Yes, I know, inside the Beltway Simpson and Bowles have become sacred figures. But the people doing that elevation are the same people who told us that Paul Ryan was the answer to our fiscal prayers.

Deficits, deficits, deficits. It is literally all the Right can talk about, and their only solution to it is to take an axe to public services while cutting taxes. Again, it’s worth repeating (for the billionth time) that there is no evidence tax cuts and spending cuts during bad economic times results in anything other than more economic pain. Case study in point: The whole of Europe.

Case closed.

http://thedailybanter.com/2012/10/quote-of-the-day-simpson-bowles-is-terrible/

See also:

Bernie Sanders Blows the Lid Off the ‘Bipartisan’ Plan To Cut Taxes for Corporations and the Wealthy
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[F6]

Fiscal Cliff Talks Bring Influx of Corporate Lobbying For Tax Perks For The Wealthy

By Zach Carter
Posted: 11/27/2012 2:58 pm EST

WASHINGTON -- As negotiations to avert the so-called fiscal cliff intensify, corporate lobbying groups are pushing key tax perks that benefit the wealthy. A coalition of financial institutions, fossil fuel companies, telecommunications firms and even the cigarette company Altria are teaming up to block a tax increase on dividends -- a policy that overwhelmingly aids the rich.

The corporate call for lenient policies on high-income individuals comes as lawmakers from both political parties call for higher tax revenue as part of any deficit-reduction package.

The corporate coalition, known as The Alliance for Savings and Investment [ http://www.theasi.org/about-asi/ ], is composed exclusively of corporations and lobbying groups. Major companies include AT&T, Verizon, Coca-Cola and Altria, while lobbying groups include two organizations representing Wall Street, another representing the natural gas industry and another that works on behalf of major electricity companies like Duke Energy, PEPCO and Consolidated Edison.

The group is currently running a misleading television ad urging Congress to extend the low tax rate on dividends that is currently set to expire at year-end. The ad portrays two retired seniors worrying that higher dividend taxes will evaporate their retirement savings. The group has also commissioned multiple studies by the accounting firm Ernst & Young suggesting that an increase on dividend taxes will harm seniors.

Watch The Ad [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTfEcATuIxw ]:

In fact, the low tax rate on dividends predominantly benefits the wealthy. When a company turns a profit, it can either hold onto its money to invest in new projects or pass on the money to its shareholders as a dividend. Provided this stock has been held for at least a few months and is issued by a U.S. company, these dividends qualify for the special 15 percent tax rate on capital gains, rather than the higher tax rate on ordinary income, which is currently 35 percent for the wealthiest Americans.

Most low- and middle-class people of all ages are invested in stocks through their retirement plans (401k accounts and IRAs). These accounts are exempt from taxes on dividends, regardless of the official tax rate. As a result, they would not be affected by an increase on dividend taxes. Only 18 percent of households reported even lightly taxed dividend income on their tax returns, according to a HuffPost analysis of official IRS data from 2009. Senior citizens with financial worries generally rely either on Social Security for their income, or on a combination of Social Security and a retirement plan. Most middle-class seniors affected by higher tax rates on dividends do not rely heavily on those dividends for their retirement security but rather on their 401ks, IRAs and Social Security payments.

Most low-tax dividends, moreover, accrue to the wealthy. Over 33 percent of such dividends go to millionaires, who comprise less than 1 percent of the population. More than 52 percent of dividends accrue to households making at least $250,000 a year, and over 72 percent to households that earn more than $100,000 a year.

Some of these people are retired but still make six figures or more each year.

The Alliance for Savings and Investment's ad does not specify how lawmakers should avert the rate hike, but the group's website [ http://www.theasi.org/ ] suggests they should do so by implementing a second tax boon for the rich.

In 2003, Congress gave dividends a favorable treatment as part of the Bush tax cut package, taxing dividends at the capital gains rate. As a result, Congress can alter the tax rate on dividends either by targeting dividends themselves or by raising the rate on capital gains.

Over 50 percent of all capital gains over the past two decades have accrued to the wealthiest 0.1 percent of taxpayers, according to The Washington Post [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/capital-gains-tax-rates-benefiting-wealthy-are-protected-by-both-parties/2011/09/06/gIQAdJmSLK_story.html ], while the richest 5 percent of Americans receive 80 percent of all capital gains.

The Alliance for Savings and Investment, which declined to comment for this article, is just one of several corporate lobbying groups that are pushing to include tax perks for the wealthy and large corporations in any deal to avert the fiscal cliff. The Campaign to Fix the Debt has organized dozens of corporate CEOs to advocate for $134 billion in tax breaks [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/25/deficit-reduction-council-fiscal-cliff_n_2185585.html ] for Fortune 500 companies as part of any deal to avert the fiscal cliff, according to an analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal think tank.

Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/fiscal-cliff-corporate-lobbying_n_2199313.html [with embedded video report, and comments]