Rusty DePass, South Carolina GOP Activist, Says Escaped Gorilla Was Ancestor Of Michelle Obama
By wildwildwest | June 14, 2009
South Carolina GOP activist and former chairman of the state elections commission Rusty DePass has apologized for saying a gorilla that escaped from a zoo was an “ancestor” of Michelle Obama.
The controversy started when FITSNews, a local politics Website, obtained a screengrab of DePass’s comment on Facebook.
After an aide to state Attorney General Henry McMaster detailed the escape of the gorilla from Columbia’s Riverbanks Zoo, DePass responded with a comment: “I’m sure it’s just one of Michelle’s ancestors - probably harmless.”
DePass later admitted to WIS News that he was referring to Michelle Obama and said, “I am as sorry as I can be if I offended anyone. The comment was clearly in jest.”
DePass, who was a county co-chair for Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 campaign, supported the push to impeach President Bill Clinton in the late 90s, writing in an op-ed for The State, “Do Republicans have higher moral standards than Democrats?”
~do we need more proof that Republicans are racists?~ wild
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Joseph Bruno, Former NY GOP Leader, Now Supports Gay Marriage
By wildwildwest | June 14, 2009
(The Associated Press - NEW YORK) Former State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said he now supports legalizing same-sex marriage, a change of heart that could influence Albany lawmakers.
The 80-year-old, who retired last year as the state’s most powerful Republican, said he now sees the issue as a civil right.
“As a Republican, I believe in personal freedom,” Bruno said in a written statement. He said support of the measure by Democratic Gov. David A. Paterson, a friend and longtime collegial adversary in the Senate, helped him change his mind. Two years ago, Bruno blocked a version of the bill that the Democrat-led Assembly had passed.
“I opposed same sex marriage largely because the overwhelming majority of my caucus opposed it,” Bruno stated. “However, that view really does conflict with the rights that are afforded all of us.”
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New! blu cigs! Smoke ‘em anywhere!
By wildwildwest | May 4, 2009
Blu Electronic Cigarettes can be “smoked” anywhere; in bars, planes, hospitals… and they’re much cheaper than regular cigarettes! About $1.25 per pack! (I smoke, and we’re paying about $5.00 a pack in my area) So, try a starter kit today! You will be glad you did! There is no harmful tobacco smoke, no tar, none of the bad things that cause lung disease. This way you can get your nicotine fix anywhere you happen to be! Click the link to read more about this new, exciting product!
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Outrage!
By wildwildwest | April 28, 2009
“Outrage” Documentary: Activists Outing Gay Conservatives
The Huffington Post | Megan Slack | 04/28/09 05:56 PM
“Outrage,” a new documentary from filmmaker Kirby Dick, takes issue with the secret lives of closeted gay politicians — especially conservative Republicans who outwardly oppose gay rights.
The film, which premiered last week at the Tribeca Film Festival, features tell-alls from men who say they’ve had relationships with various Republicans, including Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Bush strategist Ken Mehlman and former Senator Larry Craig.
According to Magnolia Pictures, “Outrage” is a “searing indictment of the hypocrisy of closeted politicians with appalling gay rights voting records who actively campaign against the LGBT community they covertly belong to.”
In the documentary, Dick lambastes the mainstream media for not better investigating the politicians’ “hypocrisy” and double lives. He told New York magazine that the film explores “the issues surrounding closeted politicians and their hypocrisy in voting anti-gay — and how these people have harmed millions of Americans for many years.”
“Outrage” premieres May 8 in five cities, including Washington, D.C.
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I’m Gay and Iraqi: Please Help Me!
By wildwildwest | April 24, 2009
The situation for gay Iraqis has never been more dire: With reports of torture, “anal gluing,” and murder coming out of the Middle East, is the U.S. surge to blame for this sudden explosion of antigay violence?
Click the byline to view more stories by this author.
An Advocate.com exclusive posted April 22, 2009
COMMENTARY: “I am gay and I am Iraqi, please help me.”
A contact of mine told me he came across this comment in an e-mail. The only thing more extraordinary than the message was the location. He was sitting in the U.S. embassy in Baghdad when he read it.
My contact said he was reaching out to me because things were “heating up” for gay men in Iraq. Over the years, he said he’d received several e-mails from gay Iraqis that came through the U.S. embassy’s website — they are a “single source of frustration, because I feel completely helpless and heartbroken reading stories about an Iraqi that is sending an e-mail probably just a few miles from where I am sitting in the embassy, and telling me that there is a militia coming just down the block and they have a list.”
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A Gay Cop’s Struggle
By wildwildwest | April 20, 2009
By T.J. Wilham
Copyright © 2009 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
Matt Wolke worked for one of the toughest police departments in the country for more than two years and was never ridiculed for being gay. Then he came to New Mexico.
Four years ago, when Wolke and his partner, Pat Davis, were going through state law enforcement certification, someone in the class made a wisecrack about how there were too many gays in New Mexico.
“I held my tongue and didn’t say anything,” he recalled. “I wanted to keep my job. I had never experienced anything like that before.”
Wolke, 30, is now one of the most respected members of the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department. And he recently joined the “boys club of all boys clubs” — the SWAT team.
Wolke says he is the first man in the department’s history to be openly gay.
“Matt is an excellent cop and a good person,” Sheriff Darren White said. “That’s all that matters. That’s all that should matter.”
But it wasn’t. Not at first. Gaining acceptance in his first few months on the job was anything but easy.
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National Organization for Marriage Creates Fake Ad for Fake Problems
By wildwildwest | April 16, 2009
from HRC BACK STORY
YES, THEY TRIED IT: HRC today called out the National Organization for Marriage for producing a lying television spot that’s set to run on CNN, the Fox News Channel, and MSNBC in the coming days. In the ad, actors make long disproven claims about marriage for lesbian and gay couples. HRC spokesperson Brad Luna lets them have it: What’s next for the National Organization for Marriage? Will they hire legendary infomercial pitchman Ron Popeil to hawk their phony agenda? This ad is full of outrageous falsehoods—and they don’t even come out of the mouths of real people. According to sources, the phony ad is set to run eight times per day in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and California. Watch their crazy ad below:
To learn more, go to:
National Organization for Marriage Creates Fake Ad for Fake Problems
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I’m shocked and dismayed!
By wildwildwest | April 7, 2009
April 07, 2009 from
The Advocate Focus on the Family Employee Snared in Online Sex Sting
Click the byline to view more stories by this author.
Authorities in Colorado say they have apprehended a Focus on the Family employee suspected of arranging to have sex with an underage girl he met online.
The suspect, Juan Alberto Ovalle, 42, began chatting online Thursday with someone who told him she was a girl younger than 15. The contact was actually an undercover female police officer.
Ovalle, a resident of Colorado Springs, works for a Spanish-speaking arm of Focus on the Family and narrates Scripture for CDs, according to the Denver Post.
During the first online exchange, according to an affidavit filed with the Jefferson Country District Attorney’s Office, Ovalle asked the contact, “Do you like older guys?” and “Would you like to meet me?”
The next day, says the affidavit, Ovalle logged on to find the officer portraying the child and told her he was home and “horny.” He confirmed that her mother was working, and after asking for her phone number and address, he asked her to tell him what she liked when having sex. He described his preferences in graphic detail.
Ovalle was arrested on Friday when he appeared for the rendezvous. He is scheduled to be formally charged on Thursday with two felony counts of criminal attempt of sexual assault on a minor and Internet luring of a child. He is being held in the Jefferson County Detention Center on a $25,000 bond.
“We’re shocked,” said Gary Schneeberger, a spokesman for Focus on the Family.
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Word from the Porn Belt: Do as I Say, Not as I Do
By wildwildwest | February 27, 2009
from firedoglake
By: Phoenix Woman Friday February 27, 2009 2:01 pm
From the File of Things That Really Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone Who’s Been Paying Attention to American Culture, we have this:
A new nationwide study (pdf) of anonymised credit-card receipts from a major online adult entertainment provider finds little variation in consumption between states.
“When it comes to adult entertainment, it seems people are more the same than different,” says Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School.
However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.
“Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by,” Edelman says.
It turns out that Utah is the nation’s leading consumer of broadband pornography. Which is deliciously ironic news considering that Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, a godbotherer of the Mormon persuasion, just spent a few weeks stonewalling the Senate Judiciary Committee with his hissy kabuki over the nomination of David Ogden for Deputy Attorney General. Why? Because Ogden — GASP! — worked for pornographers! (That’s what Orrin Hatch calls it when somebody does legal work on First Amendment issues and Playboy magazine is footing the bill.)
Hatch, who apparently doesn’t care that his silly hypocrisy is hurting America by keeping Obama from filling the gaps left by the departed George W. Bush, never seemed to mind the fact that his former Senatorial colleague and fellow Republican Phil Gramm himself dabbled in the financial side of the soft-core porn industry.
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This video will break your heart…
By wildwildwest | February 15, 2009
“Fidelity”: Don’t Divorce… from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.
Have you heard that Ken Starr — and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund — filed legal briefs defending the constitutionality of Prop 8 and attempting to forcibly divorce 18,000 same-sex couples that were married in California last year? The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in this case on March 5, with a decision expected within 90 days.
The Courage Campaign has created a video called “Fidelity,” with the permission of musician Regina Spektor, that puts a face to those 18,000 couples and all loving, committed couples seeking full equality under the law.
Please watch this heartbreaking video now. If you have the same reaction that I did, please help me spread the word by sharing it with your friends and family ASAP:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/Divorce
The more people who see this video, the more people will understand the pain caused by Prop 8 and Ken Starr’s shameful legal proceeding.
After you watch the video, please join me and over 250,000 people who have signed a letter to the state Supreme Court, asking them to invalidate Prop 8 and reject Starr’s case.
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Anti-Gay AFA Has Their Panties in a Wad Again
By wildwildwest | January 30, 2009
Gay Obcessed Don Wilmon Has Her Panties in a Wad Again
January 28, 2009 by James Hipps
Don’t they ever stop with their hate, intolerance and bigotry…all in the name of Christianity? Now the American Family Association, Donald Wildmon’s anti-gay, anti-anything that’s not white, Christian and scared of them group has begun harassing the folks at PepsiCo. This time because of an ad that has aired in the UK which they claim promotes the Gay Agenda.
Pepsi however didn’t seem to concerned as Wildmon stated their response to his concerns were “condescending”.
Of course the AFA has launched a boycott of the Pepsi company, but it doesn’t appear to have made an impact.
Way to go Pepsi! The real Gay Agenda loves you!
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Bubba the Love Sponge Takes On the Gay Agenda
By wildwildwest | January 30, 2009
January 30, 2009 by James Hipps
As I was driving towards my office this morning, I heard a popular radio personality, Bubba the Love Sponge, use the word “fag” while advertising an event. Being an activist for equality, I recognize the dangers and harm that are caused by the use of this word, as it perpetuates hate and bigotry. The use of such words, especially by someone who is listened to nationwide, also sends a message to others that it is OK to use the word. I find the word to be a derogatory term, whether or not the intent was or not, especially since so many have been beaten and killed while being called this word.
I decided not to let this one slide, so I called to lodge a complaint with the program manager, and found myself live on the show. Listen to what he had to say to my objection by clicking the play button below.
PLAY (the original post from gayagenda.com)
What’s your opinion?
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Update: Kerekes (Joe) sentenced to life in prison without parole
By wildwildwest | January 4, 2009
Harlow Cuadra (above)
Joseph Kerekes
I just found this article, don’t know why more people haven’t been talking about it…
By Michael Sisak
Staff Writer
Published: Monday, December 8, 2008 4:02 PM EST by CitizensVoice.com
WILKES-BARRE - Joseph Kerekes, one of the two men charged with the January 2007 killing of Bryan Kocis, was sentenced just after 1 p.m. today to a mandatory term of life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and other charges.
Kerekes entered into a plea agreement with Luzerne County prosecutors late Sunday night and affirmed his plea just after noon today during a hearing before Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.
Olszewski accepted the plea after more than an hour of questions for Kerekes, gauging his understanding of the process that led to the agreement, and the sentence that he faced.
Olszewski sentenced Kerekes to the mandatory life sentence and a combined 56 months to 112 months in state prison and 24 months probation to be served consecutive to the life sentence.
Since Kerekes will serve a life term, the additional time was a formality that could be considered if Kerekes petitions a future governor for a pardon, Olszewski said.
Kerekes, 34, and co-defendant Harlow Cuadra, 27, faced the death penalty and were scheduled to stand trial Jan. 5.
The plea agreement materialized after a pretrial hearing on evidence suppression last Thursday, with details and documents being worked out over the weekend and into this morning
Kerekes and his attorneys met with prosecutors at the state police barracks at Wyoming and gave a statement “to develop a factual basis for the plea,” Assistant District Attorney Michael Melnick said.
Kerekes told prosecutors he and Cuadra viewed Kocis, a rival producer of gay pornographer, as an “impedement to the expansion of their pornography business,” Melnick said.
“They decided to eliminate and kill Bryan Kocis,” Melnick said.
Kerekes completed a written guilty plea colloquy and signed a plea agreement that also bears the signatures of his attorneys, John Pike and Shelley Centini, and prosecutors.
Kerekes stood with his attorneys and prosecutors as he affirmed his plea, nodding and saying “yes” as Olszewski read each of the six charges to which Kerekes had agreed to plead.
Kocis’ family watched from the jury box on the left side of the courtroom as Kerekes entered his plea. District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll and First Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Tokach looked on from a section of chairs behind an empty defense table on the right side of the room.
Beside the murder charge, Kerekes pleaded guilty to charges of criminal conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to tamper with physical evidence, tampering with physical evidence, theft by unlawful taking.
Check back to citizensvoice.com for updates throughout the day.
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Phelps Religious Clan Protests Trans Mayor
By wildwildwest | November 30, 2008
| Protest in Silverton |
“The counterprotesters outside City Hall in this Marion County town Monday significantly outnumbered the protesters who inspired them: three young women and a man from a Kansas church, here to register their disdain for the recent election of the nation’s first openly transgender mayor, Stu Rasmussen. The quartet spread out along one side of North Water Street, feet planted on American flags spread on the sidewalk and hoisted large laminated posterboards on each arm. Double-sided and easy to read from passing vehicles and local television trucks positioned half a block away, the signs offered assorted damnation — ‘Barack Obama = Antichrist,’ ‘God Hates You,’ ‘You’re Going to Hell’ and ‘Fag Media Shame.’”
h/t to WickedGayBlog
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Anderson Cooper (In A Swimsuit!) Races Michael Phelps
By wildwildwest | November 29, 2008
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Vanasco: Obama caving on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?
By wildwildwest | November 22, 2008
Vanasco: Obama caving on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?
By Jennifer Vanasco, editor in chief, 365gay.com 11.21.2008 4:23pm EST
This is what I was worried about.
According to the Washington Times, Obama’s team is saying that even ASKING for a repeal of the ban on open gays in the military may not happen until 2010. First, he wants to build consensus.
Fair enough.
But it seems to me that consensus is already built - or at least as much as it’s going to be. Earlier this week, 104 retired generals and admirals called for DADT’s repeal.
A former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff spoke out against DADT in 2007. So did a former Secretary of Defense. 143 members of the House have co-sponsored a bill to overturn the policy; a bill approved by the House Committee on Armed Services.
We know the US military needs more soldiers to fight the two wars we are engaged in - last year alone, 627 servicemembers were dismissed under the DADT. The military needs servicemembers and gays want to serve.
You know what else? DADT is expensive. In February 2006, a University of California Blue Ribbon Commission concluded that so far, it has cost the government (meaning, us, the taxpayers) $363 million.
Don’t Ask is a failed policy. The only people who don’t think so are homophobes.
I understand what Obama is trying to do here. He’s trying to avoid a Clintonesque debacle like the one that gave us DADT in the first place.
But of everything we’re fighting for, DADT seems like it’s the least controversial and would make the most sense. If this isn’t even being looked at until 2010, then when is he going to start making good on his campaign promise of federal civil unions? When (if) he’s re-elected?
I’ve got a better idea. Why doesn’t Obama name a gay person - like Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer, say - as Secretary of Defense? That would signal real change - and give gays and lesbians real hope.
from www.365.com/blog
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My boy Justin as a backup dancer for Beyonce?
By wildwildwest | November 16, 2008
Justin had to back out of a gig as the host and musical guest of “Saturday Night Live,” but he did stop by SNL last night during “Weekend Update.” He did a quick rendition of how a show hosted by him would have gone in two minutes flat. That was followed by (this clip) Justin, in high-heels and a leotard, as a backup dancer for Beyonce. (for those who didn’t see it)
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go Jesse, go Jesse, go Jesse!
By wildwildwest | November 14, 2008
Go Jesse!
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Hasselbeck, Shepherd still advance skewed View on California’s Prop 8
By wildwildwest | November 13, 2008
Summary: On ABC’s The View, co-hosts Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd again promoted the falsehood that without the passage of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, members of the clergy could be jailed for refusing to perform same-sex marriages. In fact, neither Proposition 8 nor the California Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry had anything to do with members of the clergy.
During the November 10 edition of ABC’s The View, co-hosts Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd again promoted the falsehood that without the passage of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, members of the clergy could be jailed for refusing to perform same-sex marriages. Hasselbeck again referred to a Swedish priest who she falsely claimed was jailed “for not wanting to perform a marriage ceremony.” And after being confronted with language from the California Supreme Court majority decision stating that clergy members will not be required to perform same-sex marriages, Shepherd suggested that that there is an “other side” to the issue. In fact, neither Proposition 8 — which sought to overturn the California Supreme Court’s May 15 ruling that affirmed the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry — nor the Supreme Court decision itself had anything to do with members of the clergy.
As Media Matters for America documented, on November 6, Shepherd said: “I don’t want to know that my pastor — because, you know, the church is preaching against homosexuality, and I don’t want to know that my pastor could be jailed.”
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judge judy on obama and gay marriage
By wildwildwest | November 12, 2008
She can be a bitch, but displays love and compassion for gays and lesbians in this clip from CNN
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A Doctor, a Mutation and a Potential Cure for AIDS
By wildwildwest | November 12, 2008
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - HEALTH
A Bone Marrow Transplant to Treat a Leukemia Patient Also Gives Him Virus-Resistant Cells; Many Thanks, Sample 61
By MARK SCHOOFS
The startling case of an AIDS patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia is stirring new hope that gene-therapy strategies on the far edges of AIDS research might someday cure the disease.
The patient, a 42-year-old American living in Berlin, is still recovering from his leukemia therapy, but he appears to have won his battle with AIDS. Doctors have not been able to detect the virus in his blood for more than 600 days, despite his having ceased all conventional AIDS medication. Normally when a patient stops taking AIDS drugs, the virus stampedes through the body within weeks, or days.
Dr. Gero Hütter isn’t an AIDS specialist, but he ‘functionally cured’ a patient, who shows no sign of the disease.
“I was very surprised,” said the doctor, Gero Hütter.
The breakthrough appears to be that Dr. Hütter, a soft-spoken hematologist who isn’t an AIDS specialist, deliberately replaced the patient’s bone marrow cells with those from a donor who has a naturally occurring genetic mutation that renders his cells immune to almost all strains of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
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