Guess Who's 2012 Agenda This Is?

1 – TAX REFORM - We support replacing the current tax code with the Fair Tax. The Fair Tax would treat everyone – gay or straight – equally. Until then, we support death tax repeal; domestic partner tax equity; cuts in the capital gains and corporate tax rates to jump start our economy and create jobs; a fairer, flatter and substantially simpler tax code.

2 – HEALTHCARE REFORM – Repeal of Obamacare; encourage free market healthcare reform. Allow for the purchase of insurance across state lines – expanding access to domestic partner benefits; emphasizing individual ownership of healthcare insurance – such a shift would prevent discriminatory practices by an employer or the government.

3 – SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM - The only way to permanent solvency in the Social Security system is through the creation of inheritable personal savings accounts. Personal savings accounts would give gay and lesbian couples the same opportunity toleave their accounts to their spouses as their straight counterparts.

4 - RESPECTING THE PROPER ROLE OF THE JUDICIARY - We believe our Constitution should be respected and that judges appointed to the federal bench should recognize the proper and appropriate role of the judiciary as laid out by our Founding Fathers.

5 – HOLDING THE LINE ON SPENDING – Standing up for all tax payers against wasteful and unnecessary spending to protect future generations from the mounting federal debt.

6 – FIGHTING GLOBAL EXTREMISTS – Standing strong against radical regimes that refuse to recognize the basic human rights of gays and lesbians, women and religious minorities.

7 – DEFENDING OUR CONSTITUTION – Opposing any anti-gay federal marriage amendment. Marriage should be a question for the states. A federal constitutional amendment on marriage would be an unprecedented federal power grab from thestates.

8 – EMPOWERING INDIVIDUALS TO DEFEND THEMSELVES – Protecting 2nd amendment rights. The answer to stopping bias motivated crime is not the Hate Crimes laws, instead we support empowering individuals to lawfully protect themselves.

9 – RESPECTING STATES RIGHTS – Supporting a strong 10th Amendment that limits the scope of the federal government and empowers states; repealing the federal Defense of Marriage Act and return power to regulate marriage and family law to the states.

10 – EDUCATION REFORM – The answer to the serious problem of bullying is not more federal intervention in education. Instead, we support empowering parents and families by supporting school choice initiatives and protecting the right of parents to homeschool their children.

That very admirable agenda is GOProud's, as director Jimmy LaSalvia explains:

The so-called “gay agenda” has been defined narrowly by the gay left. In contrast to the approach of the left, GOProud’s agenda emphasizes conservative and libertarian principles that will improve the daily lives of all Americans, but especially gay and lesbian Americans.

My hat's off to him. I am of a religious bent, so I think that the homosexuality is sinful, but I also believe that is a matter wholly between the individual and God. Gays should not suffer discrimination, and there is a large place open for them both at my table and under the GOP tent.

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Heh - Leather, Lace & RNC Donations

Someone combing through RNC's records found a $2,000 bill for entertainment at a lesbian BDSM nightclub in LA. Apparently, this was the final stop of an evening in which some RNC employees targeted big - and young - donors, taking them for a night out on the town. This is being played up - ridiculously - as some sort of scandal. Not every one in the Republican party is a social conservative and the mere fact that this place was themed for the lesbian leather crowd - well, so what. Having spent many a night in a gay bar (closest place to the Univ. library to walk to and get a beer - always a polite crowd) and a huge BDSM themed bar (cheap drinks, very - very eclectic crowd, and far less risque than one would imagine - taken there for my birthday and became a regular) my experience with them is that they are relatively innocuous. Indeed, it is all far less risque than a strip club or many a comedy show to which I've been. At any rate, this is being far overblown. Whoever is upset at this really needs to get a life.

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A Very Good Day At The Supreme Court

Hats off to the Supreme Court. They had a really good day. They stopped, at least temporarily, the sale of Chrysler to Fiat in bankruptcy court. They refused to hear a constitutional challenge to the military's "don't ask, don't tell policy." And they decided that Judges who take sizable campaign contributions shouldn't later sit in judgment of their benefactors.

First up, the challenge of some Indiana secured creditors to the Chrysler bankruptcy. Justice Ginsburg refused to rule on the merits of the challenge and, instead, issued an order halting the sale of Chrysler assets to Fiat pending further hearing on the matter. This from the Washington Post:

The decision buys the court time to consider objections filed over the weekend, and it comes as the clock is ticking. Fiat can back out of the deal if it is not finalized by Monday, and the government has warned that the only alternative would be to force the nation's third-largest automaker into liquidation, throwing the industry in turmoil and leaving tens of thousands of people without jobs.

The stakes may be higher for the Obama administration: If the court backs some of the claims, it could disrupt plans to rescue General Motors and weaken the government's hand in stabilizing the troubled economy.

"Every day that Chrysler remains in bankruptcy without consummating the sale threatens to postpone the resumption of production even further and to prolong the period of $100-million-per-day losses" financed by taxpayers, Elena Kagan, the U.S. solicitor general, said in a 26-page filing with the high court.

To be absolutely clear, the reason this matter has reached the Supreme Court is because the Obama administration has walked all over the constitutional and statutory rights of those people who invested in Chrysler. If the Obama administration had tried to come up with a fair plan to begin with, one that didn't favor the unions over Chrysler's secured creditors, they wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. And now, they are trying to strong arm Justice Ginsburg with the same crisis like atmosphere that arm twisted Congress into passing the largest spending bill in history without ever having read what they had voted on. A tip of the hat to Justice Ginsburg for refusing to cave in to this crisis mongering.

In other big news from the Supreme Court, they knocked out a challenge to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gays in the military. They refused a petition for cert. This is in fact an issue of both social policy and defense policy - two areas were the Court should always defer to the Executive and Congress. The Court has no enumerated powers as to defense, and as to social policy, that is the whole purpose behind the legislature. Whether to allow gays in the military was clearly not at issue when the Equal Protection clause was passed, and therefore this question should not fall under the sphere of issues amenable to Supreme Court decision making.

Lastly, the Court decided, in a 5-4 decision, that Judges who are the recipients of substantial campaign contributions from a party should not sit on cases where that party is a litigant. The conflict of interest and appearance of impropriety are so obvious one would think that this one would be a no-brainer. And for five of the justices, it was. The liberal five. I can mark my calendar as the last time I found myself in agreement with the left of the Supreme Court was in the 1990's. It's a once in a decade type of thing. Alas, this is one of those rare occasions when I think Justices Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas got it wrong.

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A Missing Moral Compass

Secular socialism is not remaking society, it is destroying it. This is most evident in Europe, with the latest bit of insanity coming out of the Netherlands, where they have voted to legalize gay sex in public parks.


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This from the Telegraph:

Dutch council officials will permit gay sex in public areas but fine dog owners who let their pets off the leash in Amsterdam's Vondelpark.

Paul van Grieken, an Alderman in the Oud-Zuid district of the city, has startled many Amsterdammers, despite their famously liberal attitudes, with plans to allow public sex as part of this summer's new rules of conduct for the country's best-known park.

"Why should we try to impose something that is actually impossible to impose, which also causes little bother for others and for a certain group actually means much pleasure?", he said.

Amsterdam's beautiful Vondelpark in the centre of city draws hordes of summer visitors, families, skaters and joggers.

But the park's rose garden has become famous as a trysting spot for gay men looking for uncomplicated sexual encounters.

Mr van Grieken stresses that tolerance to "cruising" gays, aimed at protecting homosexuals from violence, will have "strict rules attached".

"Thus, condoms must always be cleared away, it must never take place in the neighbourhood of children's playgrounds and the sex must be restricted to the evening and night-time," he said.

The new park rules have the blessing of the Dutch police, who have urged all Dutch parks to follow Amsterdam's lead.

But Amsterdam's dog owners are less impressed. The new park code of conduct will set out stiff fines for dogs that are allowed to run around the Vondelpark off the leash.

"Research showed that many people find this disturbing," said Mr van Grieken.

One dog owner protested: "As long as the park has existed, we've been allowed to let our dogs run freely. It's outrageous that we will be punished from now on but public sex won't. If they can drop their trousers, why can't I let my dog loose?"

Read the entire article. Note for what it is worth that my objection to this is that they are allowig any sex in public parks, gay or otherwise. The fabric of Western Civilization is almost gone in many places in the West, it appears, and the only question is what will eventually fill the void? I suspect that it will be Islam and Sharia law, sooner rather than later. At which point, dropping one's trousers in the park for a gay tryst will be less a capital idea and more likely a capital offense.

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Larry Craig, the ACLU & Sex In Publc Restrooms

Its axiomatic that cases with bad facts make for bad law. And in that vein, there is the case of Senator Larry Craig (R-ID).

Craig, shown in the mug shot at left, continues to fight his conviction stemming from his solicitation of sex in an airport men's room. He pled guilty, then later tried to rescind his plea. The Court refused. But Craig hasn't given up - something for which only Leno and Letterman can possibly be thankful.

Now Craig has enlisted the ACLU to pursue his defense. Their argument is that, even accepting that Craig was soliciting sex from an undercover officer in the next stall, his acts were protected by a constitutional right to privacy.

Can you believe this inanity?

Craig was in a public restroom for God's sake. Even assuming he had a right to privacy when he sat down inside a stall and closed the stall door, the very essence of a right to privacy is that the person claiming the right acted reasonably to protect his privacy. When Craig acted with the intention that his sounds and acts would be witnessed outside his stall, he was clearly acting in a way that was not private.

Admittedly, the ACLU's argument is based on Minnesota Constitutional law and not the U.S. Constitution. I am not an expert in Minnesota law. That said, I cannot in the least imagine that there is a court in Minnesota or anywhere else in this nation that could conclude that their state Constitution would extend a right of privacy to sexual solicitations in a public place.

On more practical grounds, do we want to see something like this below when we enter a public restroom? Or far worse, do we want our young children exposed to it when we allow them to go into a public restroom?

Its one thing to tell the state to stay the hell out of one's bedroom. Its a different matter entirely to argue one has a constitutional right to bring their bedroom to the public.

Larry Craig is clearly willing to damage the fabric of our society in pursuit of his own ends. This is despicable. I could care less whether or not Larry Craig is gay - that has no bearing on his fitness to be in Congress. But his subterfuge, his poor judgment, and now his willingness to harm society do bear on that fitness. Larry Craig needs to end this travesty in the court system and resign his seat in the Senate.

As to the ACLU, for what little good they have done for society since their inception, the damage they have done to our nation in conjuction with activist judges is simply incalculable. This case is but one more example the ACLU's assault on American society.

You can find the article on the ACLU's defense of Senator Craig here.

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