I Didn't Say It ...

Prince Harry, on Sussexit:

“…I must say that I can only imagine what you may have heard or perhaps read over the past few weeks. So I want you to hear the truth from me, as much as I can share, not as a duke or prince but as Harry, the same person that many of you have perhaps watched grow up over the last 35 years but now with a clearer perspective … The U.K. is my home and a place that I love. That will never change. I’ve grown up feeling supported by so many of you and I’ve watched as you welcomed Meghan with open arms as you saw me find the love and happiness that I’d hoped for all my life … I also know that you’ve come to know me well enough over all these years to trust that the woman I chose as my wife upholds the same values as I do. And she does. And she’s the same woman I fell in love with. We both do everything we can to fly the flag and carry out our roles for this country with pride … Once Meghan and I were married, we were excited. We were hopeful and we were here to serve. For those reasons, it brings me great sadness that it has come to this. The decision I have made for my wife and I to step back is not one I made lightly … It was so many months of talks after so many years of challenges and I know I haven’t always gotten it right but as far as this goes there really was no other option. What I want to make clear is, we’re not walking away. I hope that helps you understand what it had to come to, that I would step my family back from all I have ever known, to stake a step forward into what I hope can be a more peaceful life. I will always have the utmost respect for my grandmother, my commander in chief, and I am incredibly grateful to her and the rest of my family for the support they have shown Meghan and I over the last few months … I will continue to be the same man who holds his country dear and dedicates his life to supporting the causes, charities and military communities that are so important to me.”

This is a man who watched his mother tortured and murdered by the media, and then sees that same media go after his wife in the most vile ways. And he chooses to step away to save his wife and family from the pain his mother went through.

I say, Good job, Harry.

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Kellyanne Conway, _____’s cryptkeeper, on impeachment and MLK:

“I’ve held my opinion on it for a very long time, but when you see the articles of impeachment that came out, I don’t think it was Dr. King’s vision to have Americans dragged through a process where the president is not going to be removed from office, is not being charged bribery, extortion, high crimes and misdemeanors.  I, this morning, was reading some of the lesser-known passages by Dr. King and I appreciate the fact that we as a nation respect him by giving him his own day.”

SerIously. She’s calling up MLK, a man her own boss would deem less than, to talk impeachment.

Fuck off, lapdog.

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George Conway, husband of _____ cryptkeeper,  Kellyanne Conway, on _____’s lawyers:

“The depths to which _____’s lawyers will go to make these deceptive arguments. I mean they’re treating the American public, they’re treating the Senate, like they’re morons. It’s just outrageous. I’m deeply saddened. It’s very upsetting. And this is a moment I think of reckoning. Not just for the country and for the rule of law and for the Constitution. It’s a very specific day of reckoning for the Republican senators who took this oath, and the Republican Party generally. Are they going to stand for lies instead of truth? Are they going to stand for gaslighting instead of reality? Are they going to just do the bidding of this one man and put his interests over those of the country? That’s what this is about.”

Too bad your wife can't, or won't see that.

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Phil Bryant, GOP governor of Mississippi, on what might happen if Mississippi elects its first Black senator since reconstruction:

“I intend to work for [Cindy Hyde Smith] as if the fate of America depended on her single election. If Mike Espy and the liberal Democrats gain the Senate we will take that first step into a thousand years of darkness.”

Racist much? I mean, I know it’s Mississippi, but still.

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Lindsey Graham, on ____”s mood as he faces the Senate trial:

“His mood is to go to the State of the Union with this behind him and talk about what he wants to do for the next, rest of 2020 and what he wants to do for the next four years. He is very much comfortable with the idea that this is going to turn out well for him. The one thing he talks to me constantly about is, what does the next president do after this if this is successful? He does not want to legitimatize the attack on the presidency.”

Oh ma’am, he’s not the least bit concerned about the next president or the one after that. He’s concerned about his image and his brand and his money.

Your only concern is latching onto men in power because you have none of your own.

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Michael Moore, filmmaker and activist, on the New York Times endorsement of both Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar:

“We shouldn’t run one woman. We should run two women. The president and the vice president on the ticket will be two women. Let’s just double down on this. Let’s just double down. All the pundits will go, ‘oh no, you can’t do that. They’ll never get elected now.’ Oh yeah? I’ll tell you right now, every woman’s gonna vote. And every young person’s gonna vote. And anybody, anybody who’s part of any group that has had the boot on their neck for most of their lives because they belong to a particular ethnic group, a particular gender, a particular age group, everybody who knows that feeling will come out and be for that.”

I can see that happening.

And I’m down for it.

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Vacation Post: Mississippi's Solution To Guns Is More Guns

Shortly after signing that heinous Hate Bill into law, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant quietly signed the Mississippi Church Protection Act.

At first I thought it was extra protection to keep The Gays out of churches lest we either spontaneously combust or convert some parishioners to our evil lifestyle but that wasn’t the case.

No, this new bill is to allow churches to legally have armed security if they choose and Phil Bryant, who uses fear to push his Hate Agenda, said he signed the bill because "churches deserve protection from those who would harm worshippers."

Except maybe a gay church because ….

State Representative and Republican Andy Gipson who authored the bill and is a minister — I guess that’s as separate as church and state get in Mississippi — said:

“I wish we lived in a world where this bill wouldn't be necessary."

Um, we would live in that world, you asshat, if you Republican politicians would stop taking bribes from the NRA to push their agenda and legislated for We The People and not We The Gun Lobby.

Clarion Ledger

ISBL Asshat of the Week: Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant signed Protected LGBT Hate into Law today making him the ISBL Asshat of the Week.

That is all. Let the boycotts begin ....

Hate Bills: Bad News, Good News

Those darned religious Freedom Restoration Acts [RFRAs] are everywhere.

Georgia tried to legislate discrimination using the Bible, and their governor, Nathan Deal, vetoed the bill … using the very same Bible as his reasoning for not allowing discrimination. And North Carolina Republicans did it, and their GOP governor, Pat McCrory, signed it into law instantly because, he thought, that would stop the argument; tell that to the long list of multi-million dollar corporations  demanding he repeal the law and the dozen or so states and cities that are no longer traveling to his state, including, perhaps, the federal government.

So, is that gonna stop any of these other states from trying to pass hate Bills.

Not Mississippi — where I was born, but moved from at age six months before the stupid stuck.

The GOP-dominated House of Representatives in that state voted last Friday to advance what many say is the most hate-filled anti-LGBT legislation in the country. The vote — 69-44 — sent the bill, which had already passed in the Senate, to Governor Phil Bryant, though a last ditch effort by the more reasonable thinking Democrats … Vote Blue! Vote Blue! … caused a delay requiring another vote today. This effort might give enough time for the people in Mississippi who believe in treating everyone equally a chance to convince Bryant, who hasn’t said he’ll sign the bill but has said he believes people of faith need “protection”, not to sign the Hate Law.

House Bill 1523—the Hate Bill—protects individuals, religious organizations, and certain businesses who cite religion as a reason to deny LGBT Mississippians services, and would keep them safe from government retribution. It also allows those who use faith as a weapon the right to deny LGBT citizens access to counseling services, foster care, and adoption services; religious wingnuts county clerks can also recuse themselves from issuing same-sex marriage licenses. The bill protects businesses that provide photography, poetry, videography, disc-jockey services, wedding planning, printing, floral arrangements, dress making, cake or pastry, artistry, wedding-venue rentals, limousine, car-service rentals, jewelry sales and services, or similar marriage-related services from having to do business with The Gays.

In addition, the government also could not penalize a religious organization for denying housing, employment, or services. And it protects people who believe “sexual relations are reserved” to opposite-sex marriages, and that being male or female is “objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth” and enforces sex-specific policies for employee or student dress or grooming, or concerning access to restrooms, showers, dressing rooms, or locker rooms.

It protects those who decline treatments, counseling, or surgeries related to sex reassignment or gender, identity transitioning, psychological, counseling, or fertility services. 

It’s just a complete anti-LGBT hate bill because Mississippi has no law banning LGBT discrimination.

Those on the side of Hate say this is just about same-sex marriage, and allowing people of faith not to have to do business with same-sex couples, but, um, why then does it include provisions for adoption, or fostering children? Why bathrooms and locker rooms and housing and employment discrimination? Why does it allow faith-based discrimination — an oxymoron if I ever heard one — in medical services?

It’s simple … because Gay.

Again, we can hope that Governor Bryant goes the way of Georgia Governor Nathan Deal or the way of Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe who, last week, also vetoed a so-called “religious freedom” bill that came across his desk:

“This legislation is … bad for business and creates roadblocks as we try to build the new Virginia economy. Businesses and job creators do not want to locate or do business in states that appear more concerned with demonizing people than with creating a strong business climate. Legislation that immunizes the discriminatory actions of certain people and institutions at the expense of same-sex couples would damage Virginia’s reputation for commonsense, pro-business government. We need only look at the damage these types of laws are doing in other states to understand the harm this bill could bring to our Commonwealth and its economy.”

Good on McAuliffe and good for Virginia, though i kinda wish he'd said he vetoed the bill because hate is wrong and not because it's bad for business and the almighty dollar; but money is king, you know.

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All of this nonsense, and there are more laws like this everywhere, just waiting to be passed, makes me wish I owned a business and could then operate my business by deciding who I would and would not serve.

Imagine the outrage if Bob’s Bridal Boutique catered only to atheists and gays; imagine the Christian outrage, the “How dare he”, if I decided I’d pick and choose who bought my cakes, or whose wedding I photographed or to whom I sold a tuxedo.

Imagine the Christians going nuts about that. Imagine the outrage if I opened a diner and  refused to serve Christians at the counter; if I had a special drinking fountain because I didn’t want Christians and wingnuts and Republicans drinking from the same one as the regular folks. Imagine a Christian being forced to sit at the back of the bus.

Imagine.

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JoeMyGod
NCRM
Washington Blade

ISBL Asshat of the Week [Again!]: Louie Gohmert

Earlier this year,  Louie Gohmert, the republican Congressman, and ISBL Asshat of the Week winner, stepped up to endorse Arizona’s failed “right-to-discriminate” bill for challenging attempts to “establish the religion of secularism.”

You know, the Don’t Serve The Gays Because The Baby Jesus Said So bill.

And I imagine Louie cried himself to sleep the night that bigot, homophobe, liar, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vetoed the bill, but now Louie’s wide awake because Mississippi done passed a Hate Bill masked as a Religious Freedom Bill.

In fact, sitting alongside fellow homophobe, bigot, and asshat, the Family Research Council president, Tony Perkins, Gohmert said he was “so proud of Mississippi and what they’ve done.”

You know, using the Bible to hide their hatred and intolerance and prejudice and discrimination because, ain’t that why the Bible was written?

And then good old boy, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant came on the show to sit with Louie and Tony and share the hate, and Louie called the anti-gay law “a wonderful example of real freedom” …

And stop. Funny, I grew up in an America where Freedom did not mean discrimination, religious or otherwise. And begin …

Then Gohmert attacked the LGBT-rights opponents of the bill as intolerant: “You’ve seen it first hand, there is nobody more intolerant in this country than those that are screaming for tolerance. Christians are not intolerant but whoa, goodness these people that have their leftist agenda that are so intolerant so thanks for having the courage to stand up.”

And stop … again. You see, The Gays are intolerant of allowing people to refuse to serve us, to sell us things, to perform their business functions for us, as long as they use the Bible as their shield. 

But if Christians aren't intolerant, then please to explain why didn’t those Christians in Washington sell their flowers to the gay couple for their wedding? Why didn’t that Christian baker in Colorado bake a cake for that same-sex wedding? Why didn’t that Christian photographer take pictures of a happy same-sex couple getting married?

In-tolerance.

Louie Gohmert—to Governor Bryant: Governor, we are so proud, you have set such a wonderful example of real freedom. You’ve seen it first hand, there is nobody more intolerant in this country than those that are screaming for tolerance. Christians are not intolerant but whoa, goodness these people—

Governor Bryant: It is the world of bizarro.

Louie Gohmert: These people that have their leftist agenda that are so intolerant so thanks for having the courage to stand up.

Governor Bryant: You’re quite welcome, thank you sir.

I find it laughable that these men can sit there and discuss how they’ve signed laws allowing one group to discriminate against another, and then calling the discriminated party the intolerant party.

But, like I said, you don’t want my business because of my sexual orientation, please post a sign in your window; or, as they’re doing all over Mississippi now, post a sign that says you will not discriminate against anyone, and that’s the store I’ll walk  into.

I’m totally buying what they’re selling, and totally going to love it when the day comes that the Louie Gohmerts and the Tony Perkins’ and the Phil Bryants are sitting on the sidelines wondering how the world passed them by.

via IssueHawk

For more on Louie, from right here at ISBL see:

Louie Gohmert Is A Complete Moron

Louie Gohmert: Quite Possibly The Most Ignorant Human being On The Planet

This Week In Wingnuttiness

Louie Gets The Prize For Being A Delusional F%K

Asshat of the Week

I Didn't Say It....

Chris Evans, on marriage equality:

"Are you kidding me? It's insane that civil rights are being denied people in this day and age. It's embarrassing, and it's heartbreaking. It goes without saying that I'm completely in support of gay marriage. In 10 years we'll be ashamed that this was an issue."

Oh, I'm ashamed right now, Chris.

Cher, honoring her son Chaz as he received GLAAD's Stephen F. Kolzak Award:

"I'm here because Chaz has the most courage of almost anyone I know. The other day I was having a big meltdown--like you do--and Chaz was saying are you going to come to the thing, and I went God, you know, Chaz, I'm not doing well right now. And she, or he--what? it's 42 years--and he texted me and said 'I've turned into a very understanding smart man, you can call on me.' And so that made me feel so good...(to Chaz) You are the most courageous person I know."

Way to go, Cher.

Dr. Robert Spitzer, whose study of gay reparative therapy is heavily cited by anti-gay groups, apologizing for it:

I believe I owe the gay community an apology for my study making unproven claims of the efficacy of reparative therapy. I also apologize to any gay person who wasted time and energy undergoing some form of reparative therapy because they believed that I had proven that reparative therapy works with some 'highly motivated' individuals."

Takes some folks a long time to come around to admitting they've been an asshat, but when they do we should say Thanks.

Thanks.

Phil Bryant, Republican governor of Mississippi, on what the Democrats one mission is:

"Even if you believe in abortion, the hypocrisy of the left that now tried to kill this bill, that says that I should have never signed it, the true hypocrisy is that their one mission in life is to abort children, is to kill children in the womb."

Yes, as a Democrat the only thing I care about is electing Democrats who want to kill babies.

I'm thisclose to burning my Mississippi birth certificate.

Tom Batiuk, Funky Winkerbean cartoonist, on planning a month-long storyline that focuses on a gay student who wants to go to prom:

“It struck me that whenever I sit in classes at Midview High, which I still do, my overall impression is that the younger generation’s attitudes toward gays is more open and accepting than their predecessors. It’s not perfect, but it shows promise for an emerging generation that will bring this issue [intolerance] to an end. I wanted to take those two opposing viewpoints to reach across that divide of intolerance.”

First Archie gets a gay friend, and now Funky.

When, oh when will Cathy come out?

Newt Gingrich, thrice-married adulterer, speaking out for the same-sex marriage ban in North Carolina:

"Marriage between a man and a woman is at the heart of our civilization. It's a belief that is now under attack, yet it's at the very core of defining who we are. That's why I urge you to vote for the initiative right here in North Carolina. The chance to vote for a referendum to declare clearly that marriage is between a man and a woman....This is part of the same great process this year that's involved with President Obama, and that's involved with the whole danger of what's happening to our basic beliefs. There's an effort by radicals at every level to change who we are, to change what America is and to change for our children into a future that I think will be much worse. This is your chance to turn out and vote and vote for preserving America, and to vote for preserving a very basic institution."

I will give him props, of a sort, for being able to stand up in front of anyone and say marriage is between one man and one woman.

But then that's what asshats do. Ignore their own hypocrisy. And lie.

Josh Hutcherson, accepting GLAAD's Vanguard award and expressing his weariness of having to use certain words to describe people: 

"I'm so sick of saying the words gay and lesbian. Can we just — people. I'm so tired of that. One day I want my son to come home from school and be like, I found this guy and I love him. And I'm gonna be like yes, you do, and that's okay."

We have to get through admitting who we are, before we can simply exist as people.

There will always be differences, in gender, age, skin color, language, religion, and sexual orientation, that need to be embraced.

I get what he's saying, but when we realize that we are all so very different and yet so very much alike, we can make these changes.

Jennifer Tyrrell, the Ohio den mother who was removed by the Boy Scouts for being gay, at the GLAAD awards:

"There was an outcry from the parents who were beside themselves about this and the total disregard that I have to tell my 7-year-old son that his mother can no longer participate in his scouting adventures. Cruz wasn't raised to discriminate. He doesn't understand. I taught all my scouts, just accept people for who they are. I hope that my story will help other kids and parents stand for these values....One of my parents texted me a few days ago and said, 'I want to thank you for bringing awareness to my prejudice. I'm ashamed of the way I used to feel about gay people.' And I thought to myself, 'if that's the only person that I have changed, then that's huge.'"

It's funny that the BSA wants to help young men build character while they, themselves, discriminate.

You can't teach character if you don't have it.

President Barack Obama, speaking at Washington's Holocaust Memorial:

"We must tell our children about a crime unique in human history… The one and only Holocaust — six million innocent people — men, women, children, babies — sent to their deaths just for being different, just for being Jewish. We tell them, our children, about the millions of Poles and Catholics and Roma and gay people and so many others who also must never be forgotten. We must tell our children… But more than that, we must teach them. Because remembrance without resolve is a hollow gesture. Awareness without action changes nothing. In this sense, ‘never again’ is a challenge to us all — to pause and to look within.”

We can never forget who dies, and why they died.

If we forget, it might just happen again.

Kim Kardashian, on how she handles people who say mean things about her on Twitter:

"I love writing them back. People will write me, “My phone battery lasts longer than Kim Kardashian’s marriage,” and I’ll write back, “Oh, which phone is that?” When people are so stupid, you just have to have fun with it. Someone [without a profile photo] will say I’m fat, or a hairy Armenian, and I’ll write back, “Oh, that egg picture of yours is so gorgeous.”

So, she hates people who say dumb things to her and responds like that?

Her brains are all in her ass.

How is it that she has a reality show and not a comedy show?

She funny.