__
Dave Weigel at Slate reports that “The Gay Republican Presidential Candidate (Whom You Never Heard of) Calls it Quits“:
Karger, a successful Republican strategist who’d come out of the closet and quit working for other candidates, had launched a quixotic campaign with one real purpose: Hounding the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for its support of gay marriage bans…
Gay Republican activists didn’t take Karger seriously. GOPround, the press-savvy gay Republican group, took pains to criticize a campaign that, by taking up the libertation label, made it look like gay rights were hopelessly marginalized inside the party. But Chris Barron, co-founder of GOProud, reacted to the Karger exit with strange new respect. “Congrats to Fred,” said Barron. “I don’t think he was ever running for President, I think he was running to prove a point and to make a statement. It’s fair to say that he succeeded in doing both.”
Well, Mr. Karger never overestimated his own chances. There are “fringe”, unserious, issue-humping candidates on both sides in every presidential campaign (the unspeakable Randall Terry is running as a “pro-life” Democrat). But then there are the GOP’s totally Very Serious, MSM-respectable candidates… like Rick Santorum, now a prominent spokesperson for the Romney campaign. (The difference between Terry and Santorum is some millions of Koch-funding, plus the fact that Sanctorum only discusses jailing women who use birth control and murdering health-care providers of “abortificants” as a theoretical.)
And because the GOP is a Serious Party for the adults in the room, GOProud has endorsed Mitt Romney.
Seriously!
***********
Apart from Republican cognitive dissonance, what’s on the agenda for the start of the semi-official start of summer?
David Koch
I didn’t know Cole was a cartoonist.
This is actually pretty good. It’s witty, poignant, and has talent.
http://obamadiary.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/114267_600.jpg?w=655
Jewish Steel
Today I trolled wingnuts on FB and got them to agree that:
ACA encourages poor people to get sick
There should be minimum income requirements for voting
Obama takes from the military to give the government (?)
Finally, my favorite:
“Illegals” should donate organs to qualify for citizenship.
Baud
I hope you’re all sitting down–
Politifact reported an actual political fact:
TooManyJens
I’m still laughing at #AspenIdeas. I didn’t realize it was more than just BJers who mock the shit out of that thing.
#AspenPickUpLines is pretty good too.
Raven
It’s hotter than a well diggers ass in the Mohave!
Nellcote
Oh sure, blame it on the libertations.
TooManyJens
@Nellcote: I blame it on the libations.
Valdivia
@TooManyJens:
oh please tell me some :)
wonder if they work!
Chris
@Baud:
Is it just me, or is this last event actually motivating the media to do something other than the “good-news-for-John-McCain” dance? On Yahoo and Google, the only headlines I saw all through yesterday were in the “huge win for Obama!” variety.
TooManyJens
@Valdivia: https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23aspenpickuplines
And… I suspect it depends on your definition of “work.”
beltane
@Chris: That’s all I saw, too. And being that many low-info voters get their news from headlines on Yahoo and Google, this is probably not good news for John McCain.
Baud
C’mon baby, both sides do it.
#AspenPickUpLines
Valdivia
@TooManyJens:
thanks. Drezner is pretty funny.
I don’t think they work but they made me laugh.
@Baud:
you win. :D
Mnemosyne
I’m going to repeat my slightly depressing bleg from down below: if anyone in the Chicagoland area knows of a good nursing or convalescent home in the Oak Park/River Forest area, please let me know. My father-in-law managed to fracture his back and they’re not going to be able to care for him at home because he of course lives in a second-floor apartment in a building with no elevator, so he’s going to need to find a bed somewhere that has nursing care for at least a while.
What makes this depressing is that it will probably end with him in hospice since he already has a brain tumor whose treatment is incompatible with treating a back fracture so, yeah. Not a good day for the family.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: I have some friends in that area; I will ask them if they know of anything. Good thoughts.
Baud
@Chris:
I think a momentous event shakes them loose from their standard operating procedure. I don’t think it’ll last.
Valdivia
@Mnemosyne:
I unfortunately have no help I can offer except many hugs. So sorry to hear this.
JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left
Anyone hear from John Cole lately? Apparently there’s something called a progressive derecho going through WV right now, headed towards VA, and it looks like a pretty massive and dangerous storm.
I hope John is safe at home with the pets.
.
kindness
I don’t know…maybe back when the Republican party had some moderates and a few liberals I could have seen Republicans accepting and working for gay rights. Now though? Jesus, you have to ask? With that bunch of Teahaddists running around you’d think aligning yourself with a party that thinks you should be jailed for gay sex….They remind me of Jews for Hitler. That’s all I can say.
Jewish Steel
@Mnemosyne: Ugh, that is a bummer. We had to do much the same with my uncle last fall but he was way up in the NW suburbs so I don’t think that would be much help.
So sorry.
PeakVT
@Mnemosyne: Best wishes.
maryQ
I sent this to my local paper. Please consider doing the same.
Hi,
I’m new to the area and I really appreciate how your paper keeps us informed with the issues that affect our community. Please keep up the great work.
I have an idea for a story I would like to see.
I just read an interesting piece in a newspaper in Michigan written by a small business owner whose business has benefitted from provisions in the Affordable Care Act.
http://www.heritage.com/articles/2011/12/16/opinion/doc4eeb9eaa64a5f481469341.txt
This brought to mind another story by an individual who has also recently benefitted from the provision regarding pre-existing conditions
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/06/opinion/la-oe-ward-in-praise-of-obamacare-20111206
Also, as many parents of 18-26 year olds have been allowed to continue to cover their children, the coverage for this group has dramatically increased
http://www.gallup.com/poll/147422/fewer-year-olds-uninsured-2011.aspx
It seems like there could be some great local reporting here. Perhaps you can find people who have benefitted from the new law, and tell their stories.
For balance, of course, you could look for people who have had their loved ones’ lives terminated by Death Panels. I personally don’t think that you will find such people, but I will remain open-minded while the evidence comes in.
Wishing you a happy Independence Day,
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Baud: No one could have predicted. Seriously, who would ever have expected that junk site to report an actual political fact?
TooManyJens
@JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left: He’s OK. Just posted a picture of the sky to Twitter. Sounds like maybe the storm missed him but he got a pretty sunset out of it.
@Mnemosyne: I’m really sorry to hear that. Best to you and your family.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Mnemosyne: All I can offer is good thoughts, but your family will have plenty from here.
JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left
__
__
@Mnemosyne: My sympathies. Best wishes.
@TooManyJens: Thanks, Jen.
.
lamh35
Magic Mike was really good! Not as much stripping as expected, but Ladies def go see it! I will say this all the guys were hot, but man Matthew McConaufhey Is.aging.well!!!!
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh35: You crack me up – in a good way.
Mnemosyne
Thanks, everyone. When he was first diagnosed, they thought he would have about six months based on the type of tumor it was, and it’s been two years, so we’ve already had way more extra time with him than any of us dared hope.
Still, it’s hard to take that hospice step and decide that further treatment would be worse than the disease.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: When do you need to make a decision? It might be a couple of days before I hear from the people to whom I reached out.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
He’s probably going to be in the hospital through the weekend, so I don’t think they’re planning to move him until Monday at the earliest.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Okay, I’ll let you know if I hear of anything. Keep your chin up.
lamh35
@Omnes Omnibus: actually I’m serious. there was way more to it than just stripping. I’d say the 35% of the movie are “strip” acts, but the other 65% is a really good story.
It was full of ladies of course and gay boys (I went with my gay besties) and IT.WAS.FULL! There were lines to get into the theatre jsut to get on the escalator that leads up to theathre actually.
Even with the stripping, I’d actually say that the movie is worth a view even for straight guys.
Redshift
@TooManyJens: It just roared through the DC suburbs, so I doubt he got it before sunset. It was pretty bizarre. Winds that sounded like nothing I’ve heard before, then constant lightning and sheets of raid. We still have power though (only a bunch of flickers.)
Oh, maybe I spoke too soon; that last lightning stroke was pretty close.
gbear
The Secretary of State in MN is stirring up a hornet’s nest by renaming the constitutional ammendment that’s going to be on the ballot this fall to ban gay marriage:
This won’t be pretty but I hope Ritchie prevails. Ritchie is one of the very good guys in MN when it comes to protecting people’s rights.
Jamie
@Mnemosyne:
My thoughts are with you. I had to deal helping with things with a relative in decline a few years ago. He was lucky, having very good, union based health care. That gave him several more years to take care of his (very traditional) family.
It still was unpleasant. Ignore the shitty stuff. Treasure the time you have.
Cap'n Magic
@Mnemosyne: Sometimes doing nothing is the best course of action-lord knows what some kinds of intervention can do to make things worse.
Lets hope for the best outcome.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh35: The last movie that was remotely about stripping that I saw was Showgirls and I saw it in a second run theater that served booze – I still left. I am not willing to subject myself to that kind of pain again.
Redshift
@Mnemosyne: I’m not in the area, so I can’t offer anything except more sympathy.
We’re currently working on trying to get my in-laws into assisted living, greatly complicated by the fact that my mother-in-law has early-to-middle stage dementia and insists that they can take care of themselves and don’t need to go anywhere.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I had to check and see if my pseudonymous Gmail account is still active, and it is, so you (or anyone else) can email any leads to me at mnemosyne.muse at Gmail. Any and all leads greatly appreciated.
Cap'n Magic
@gbear: When the time comes, I’ll vote against this unwarranted intrusion by the MN state legislature to define who can enter into a lawful marriage.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Will do. No promises, but I anything I hear of will get passed along.
amk
@David Koch: Is it really our fat ass, lazy bum cole ?
TooManyJens
@Redshift: yeah, I was guessing on the sunset thing. He just said the sky was red.
Sounds like a hell of a storm from what I’m hearing from DC people. Stay safe!
lamh35
@Omnes Omnibus: aww man, it does a real disservice to compare this movie to Showgirls…lol.
It’s directed by Steven Soderbergh if that means anything and it is def not about the “stripping” only. To top that off, it actually got like 82% good reviews.
BTW, I’m not on some marketing team for the movie, I just really thought it was good.
TooManyJens
@lamh35: The only thing I know about that movie is that Matt Bomer strips. This is the only detail that anyone I know considers relevant. Frankly, I am sympathetic to their viewpoint.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh35: I am just messing with you. You still crack me up, but you introduced me to the Meters – so I am in your debt.
Suffern ACE
My nephew posted up a facebook pic mocking my parents’ 35 year old rotary wall phone that is in the basement. I don’t think my parents have ever moved from pulse dialing. But since the phone works, they don’t plan to start paying extra for touch tone. I have a question. Is there still actually an extra charge for touch tone dialing? And why on earth did my parents rent a phone instead of buying one. (The phone, if I recall correctly, was the first one my parents bought. The “upstairs” phone at the time they bought that basement phone 35 years ago was still a rental.)
Omnes Omnibus
@TooManyJens: If you ladies keep this up, I will feel compelled to talk about Eva Green. And no one wants that.
Mike in NC
The wngnuts will be celebrating this July 4 as the time when the Kenyan Marxist finally met his Waterloo at the hands of the Supreme Court! Or not…
Ash Can
@Mnemosyne: I know of at least one nice place in Glenview, but that’s kind of far if you’re looking at Oak Park/River Forest. Would it help to ask your father-in-law’s doctors? Or maybe you could ask our pal Emily Hauser. She lives in Oak Park.
danielx
@beltane:
Oh ye of little faith…everything is good news for John McCain, just ask Mark Halperin. Just like Mark says that everything that happens is a disaster for Obama.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/25/mark-halperin-barack-obama_n_1624785.html
As to Republican cognitive dissonance…
Definition: Cognitive dissonance is a discomfort caused by holding conflicting cognitions (e.g., ideas, beliefs, values, emotional reactions) simultaneously.
From what I’ve been able to discern, this is not a problem for Republicans in general and wingnuts in particular. It doesn’t exist, because they see no conflict between something being good or neutral when Republicans do it and being absolutely terrible when Democrats do the same thing. Really – there’s no conflict. Example: G.W. Bush runs up the deficit more than all other previous presidents combined while not paying for two wars and a massive Medicare expansion? No problem! Deficits don’t matter!
Obama adds to the deficit, for whatever reason? Bad bad bad! Obummer is out to destroy the country’s finances and take away our children’s future! And the list goes on, and on, and on.
Although…why gay Republicans even exist is beyond me. Getting down to brass tacks, a good portion of their party’s base thinks the world would be a better place if gays were shoveled into ovens and some of that base isn’t shy about saying so publicly. I’ve got an in-law who is a gay Republican, and this person got absolutely furious when I said that and cited examples, like that yahoo preacher the other day who said all gays should be put to death. Maybe that’s the cognitive dissonance coming in…rules to live by: never discuss politics with in-laws if you want your life to go smoothly. That being said, the Jews for Hitler metaphor isn’t all that far off.
FlipYrWhig
@Suffern ACE: IIRC you were not even allowed to buy a phone until sometime in the 1980s. Then there were, I think, official stores only.
Todd
What’s up? I’ m about +8 and eyeing the bottle of Tuaca in the freezer. The fat sunofabitch of a cat just picked the living shit put of my two month old $900 reclining swivel rocker in order to get me to feed his fat ass, and I stupidly complied.
His ass is staying outside tonight.
Omnes Omnibus
@FlipYrWhig: Kids these days.
danielx
@JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left:
50 mph winds, temp dropped 25 degrees in 25 minutes. And fast moving, a couple of hours after it was in central Indiana it was on the OH-WV border.
lamh35
@Omnes Omnibus: Eva Green the Bond girl? She is beautiful ain’t she.
@TooManyJens: Matt Boner is a beautiful specimen, but…SPOILER ALERT: not much of Matt excpt a few butt shots, a few grinding dancing and a chest shot.
Like I said, the acutal “dancing” scenes were paced in between the storyline of “the stripper life” or whatever. still it was way better than Haywire. In Haywire, aside from the actually fight scenes, Haywire was REALLY boring. Magic Mike at least kept one’s interest between dance scenes.
Mnemosyne
@Ash Can:
My FIL’s nurse practitioner is recommending a couple of places, and my brother-in-law is a pharmacy manager, so he’s been polling the nurses and caregivers he knows, but it’s always better to have more than one recommendation (or to have everyone say, “You really should try this place”) so you have some idea of what you’re getting into.
Of course, a lot of this depends on who has room for him and who’s willing to take a Medicare patient without a lot of money for extras, so there’s that factor as well.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh35: Don’t get me started. She is beautiful and French. I recognize that I have a problem. It is the first step.
Mnemosyne
D’oh! If a front-pager is lurking about, may I be released from moderation? I stupidly named the type of store that my brother in law is a manager at.
Todd
Fuck it, am hitting the Tuaca.
Omnes Omnibus
@Todd: Hooray?
Maude
@Suffern ACE:
I pay for touch tone. I have a rotary dial phone that still works. My regular phone is a Western Electric touch pad desk phone. Thing is as solid as a rock.
Maude
John tweeted that his power is out.
Dee Loralei
@JGabriel, Statist Minded Ideologue of the Left: We had one of those in Memphis a few years ago, we call it “Hurricane Elvis”. Was incredibly destructive, just a perfect confluence of events. Several storm fronts arriving at the same place from different directions, and then just plowing through the city. Water was coming up from under my front door, driven only by the wind. Tons of wind damage. Terrifying stuff. Some areas without power for a month or more. Entire area of 1+ million people at a complete standstill for days.
My electricity was only out for like 30 hours, max. Other parts of the city for a month.
And a few years later we got a mad rash of tornadoes through the area. Even if I didn’t already believe that global climate change was real, I sure would have after those two things.
Straight line gale force, or hurricane force winds are scary. Stay safe folks.
David Koch
over/under on Tom Cruise marriages is 6.
I’m going over and betting he’ll end up with 7.
scav
I swear I saw trees swaying like seaweed and similarly underwater when the derecho went through Iowa City. Yes, I talked my way out of the store’s basement to peek.
Todd
@Omnes Omnibus:
Embarrassingly, I’ve just bought the 2005 Dukes of Hazzard movie off of iTunes, and am enjoying the shit out of it on my Apple TV module.
Don’t judge me. I’m drunk. I’m apt to watch the Wild and Wonderful Whites on Netflix next…
Todd
Embarrassingly, I actually rented the 2005 Dukes of Hazzard over ITunes, and am enjoying the shit out of it larger screen.
I’ll prolly watch the Wild and Wonderful Whites next….
TooManyJens
@lamh35:
Well hell, I think I’ve seen all that on Tumblr.
BruceFromOhio
Planned to watch Adele recorded live at Albert Hall, drink excessively, and maybe have a good cry after going for a walk to look at the moon.
Can’t believe what Citizens United has done to us.
PeakVT
The local totebagger jazz host George Thomas has retired, and his last show was tonight. In some ways he was an awful radio host, but he loved the music so his shows were generally good.
Omnes Omnibus
@Todd: Dude. I mean, dude. You know what I mean, dude?
MikeJ
@lamh35:
I think of her as Eva Green from The Dreamers where they recreate the run through the Louvre from Bande à part and she gives that guy a blow job.
Redshift
@Dee Loralei: Yeah, we just watched a news update for the DC area. A million people without power in the immediate DC metro area. Multiple homes in my county (Fairfax) with roofs caved in by falling trees, and authorities helping people who are trapped.
Redshift
@Maude: Really? I could have sworn that the feds prohibited the phone companies from charging for touch tone years ago, since it costs them less to handle than rotary.
Omnes Omnibus
@MikeJ: Sure, she is a Bond girl, but she is so much more.
gbear
@BruceFromOhio:
Sounds like Adele puts on one heck of a show!
TooManyJens
@MikeJ:
…while running through the Louvre? That’s talent.
Omnes Omnibus
@TooManyJens: I think you begin to understand my interest in the lady.
TooManyJens
@Omnes Omnibus: I think I do!
gbear
@Redshift: In the 80’s, I had a touch pad phone that was switchable between pulse and tone operation. I used it on the pulse setting because it kept the phone bill lower. The first phone I had was purchased from Bell directly.
How many people on this blog grew up with a party line? When I was a kid we had one. You’d pick up the phone and strangers would be having a conversation. You couldn’t make a call until they were done (unless you were nervy enough to ask them to hang up so you could make your call).
PeakVT
Eva Green is gorgeous but I dislike the way she does her makeup for most public appearances. She is the money, though.
Omnes Omnibus
@gbear: Dude, how old are you?
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s also a question of where — I’ve met people who remember when the phone lines ran down fence posts out to the farm.
Todd
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hammered, man. Thinking all redneck and stuff. Even with massive drought and high temps, I’m up for fireworks or random gunshots.
gbear
@Omnes Omnibus: I turned 58 last monday. I grew up in a suburb of St. Paul that was at the end of the bus line. We weren’t out in the sticks.
Omnes Omnibus
@gbear: Happy belated birthday. I didn’t know anyone younger than my parents who had party lines. You are in MN? Did you grow up someplace really rural?
ETA: Okay then… Phones are weird.
gbear
@Omnes Omnibus:
Even The Kinks had to deal with party lines.
Omnes Omnibus
@gbear: The Kinks are my dad’s age.
ETA: You are between us.
gbear
@Omnes Omnibus: Yep, they’re old.
Dee Loralei
@gbear: My grandparents in rural OK had them, til sometime in the 80’s. I answered wrong calls and asked folks to get off the line so I could make a call. It wasn’t rocket science, and it wasn’t private. But it worked. You just couldn’t get private news on the phone. Very weird, if you were used to privacy.
ChrisNYC
I don’t know how prominent a spokesman Santorum is. There was a hilarious thing on the Corner today about how “sources close to Santorum” let it be known that Rick is getting ZERO assignments as a Romney surrogate, has no idea what his convention role will be (though he ASSUMES he’ll get a speaking spot) and has generally been completely ignored by Mitt’s people. More whining. Rick Santorum’s campaign slogan should have been “Pay attention to meeeeeee!”
Between the Paulites and Santorum and Trump the RNC is bound to be a total parade of crazies with Romney standing in the middle with his “I’m gonna throw up” smile on.
Z
I’ve never understood why it isn’t a bigger deal that Randall Terry, who employs a convicted terrorist (who, bonus, was talking with the guy who killed Kansas doctor George Tiller) has the ear of folks at the National Review and is widely quoted in mainstream media stories on abortion.
lafcolleen
@Mnemosyne: I don’t have a rehab/nursing home recommendation, but have you contacted the local senior center? Located right in Oak Park is AgeOptions – which is not itself a direct service provider, it is the funding organization – which does do intake and directs people to appropriate resources. Oak Park township does have a senior services agency that includes a caregiver specialist (who actually helps the individual(s) shouldering the caregiving concerns/responsibility because there are many issues that crop up for the caregivers as well as the one receiving care).
funding provided by the federal Older American Act.