Saturday, December 31, 2011

I Ain't One To Gossip, But.....



Oops, Gaga gets sued for being a monster employer.
Jennifer O’Neill, Lady Gaga’s former personal assistant has filed suit against Monster Mother ALLEGING that she was overworked and underpaid.
O'Neill, 41, worked for Lady Gaga for just thirteen months, even going on tour with her, and is now saying she put in 7,168 hours of unpaid overtime and is owed more than $380,000 for catering to Gaga’s eccentric demands around the clock. She is upset because she had to ensure "the promptness of a towel following a shower” and act as a “personal alarm clock to keep [Gaga] on schedule.”
Hmmm, you had to make sure there were towels in the bathroom and get Gaga where she needed to be, on time? Um, Jenny? Honey? Isn't that's what a personal assistant does, hon?
And for that she was paid $75,000 a year, and took it happily, though now she's saying she got no meal breaks or any sleep--for a year!??!--had to make sure Gaga had ‘the availability of chosen outfits’.
Poor dear. She got 75K to travel the world with a superstar, pick out towels, tell someone nap-time is over, and pick out Gaga's clothes. My.Heart.Bleeds.


Oh, this makes me sad. Not.
Mel Gibson, devout Catholic and adulterer, and Robyn Gibson’s divorce is finally final. They'd been married for 30 years, and she stuck by him through his cheating, drunkenness, anti-Semitic rants, arrests and affairs. So, why did it take so long to finalize this divorce?
Big money. see, Mel and Robyn didn’t have a prenuptial agreement, so she was legally entitled to half of everything he earned during their marriage. Some $800 million.
Robyn, the mother of seven Mel's eight, maybe nine, children, is walking away with half his fortune in what is considered the biggest divorce payout in Hollywood history.
And it seems like some of his wealth has already been transferred to Robyn, since she has recently taken sole ownership in two Malibu homes worth a combined $22.5 million. As for film residuals, Robyn is entitled to half of every future check Gibson receives for the rest of his life.
Four-hundred-million to spend thirty years with 
alcoholic, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, homophobic, asshat Mel Gibson?
It should'a been more.


It looks like Sinead O’Connor wanted to outdo Kim Kardashian in the marriage sweepstakes, and she pulled it off. She stayed married to Barry Herridge for a whopping sixteen days.
Sadly, though, the marriage ended when Sinead went prowling the streets looking for drugs and new hubby Barry, who is a drug counselor, got a wee bit pissed off.
Sinead claims the marriage was sabotaged early on by the “interference of certain people” but then admitted Herridge had been left “frightened” by her mad search for cannabis on the night they got married: “We ended up in a cab in some place that was quite dangerous. I wasn’t scared--but he’s a drugs counsellor. What was I thinking?....Then I was handed a load of crack. Barry was very frightened--that kind of messed everything up a bit really.”
Ya think?


Lots of rumors going around that newly good girl--at least according to her probation report--Lindsay Lohan would be hosting a New Year's Eve party.
Cracky say what?
But then media-whore-mama Dina called all her gossip sites and said the truth was that Lindsay was turning down all sorts of offers to whore herself out as a party hostess because she's so newly clean and sober and wants to stay that way.
Uh-huh.
So, of course, it turns out Lindsay actually is hosting a New Year’s boat party in Dubai, alongside other A-list.....A-list, now that's funny...stars like Pamela Anderson and former cricket player Allan Lamb.
Sounds fun, eh? Lindsay, drunk and high off her ass on a boat?

Friday, December 30, 2011

Just A Thought: US Budget Made Easy

Click to emBIGGERate:
source

Tyler Perry Is Selling His Queen-Sized Salute To Jesus Mansion


I was clued into this one from Round-The-Way gay, Neal, and , while I think I have a way with words, I let the writer of this piece speak for himself.

From The Real Estalker:
No matter how you slice it, dice it, bend it or turn it inside out, Tyler Perry is a real estate size queen. Thanks to an informant we'll call Georgia Peach, Your Mama has learned that the cross dressing actor/writer/director of scorchingly successful plays, films and boob-toob programs (House of Payne, The Family That Prays, Why Did I Get Married and all those Madea movies just to name a few) has recently listed Avec Chateau–his gigantic Fairburn, GA mansion–with an asking price of $3,695,000. 


Property records we accessed indicate Mister Perry purchased the unimproved parcel in April of 2001 for just $62,661 and proceeded to build a massive monument to his success and money. A 2004 article in Ebony magazine quotes Mister Perry on his big ol' house in Fairburn saying, "I wanted this house to be vast. I wanted to make a statement, not in any grand or boastful way, but to let people know what God can do when you believe." Queen, pleeze. If anyone were to ask Your Mama–and of course no one did– it's just ass-inine for Mister Perry to classify his desire for a hotel sized house as a glorification of God. Do you think Jesus lived in a damn mansion with more rooms than disciples? Come on now.


Anyhoo, located on rural Cedar Grove Road (sometimes knows as Highway damn 70), the 17,252 square foot behemoth of indeterminate architectural pedigree sits on an 11.4 acre parcel surrounded by much more modest homes. Listing information indicates the sprawling "L" shaped mansion includes 6 bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms including a 4,000 square foot master suite that features a sizable sitting room, a giant bedroom in which the bed sits, natch, up on a pedestal two steps up from the inlaid wood floor, and dual custom fitted closets overlooking the elaborately fitted master bathroom. Listen puppies, Your Mama don't begrudge Mister Perry his screaming success and we allow that people with fat bank accounts are free to live any which way their mountains of money will buy. However, Your Mama can't help but think there's something, well, vulgar about having a master suite which measures more than twice the size of the average American home. Do any of the children really think Jesus, a man who hung around with thieves and prostitutes, would have had a 4,000 square foot bedroom?


Other lavishly decorated rooms–where were reportedly done up and did over by Mister Perry hisself–include a double height foyer with a swerving, dizzy making mahogany staircase and a large sculpture of a horse that for some reason appears to be leaning against the wall. A ballroom sized "grand salon" has 20+ foot ceilings and a chandelier about as big as the Hyundai his housekeeper drives to work and additional sitting and entertaining rooms include another double height room with a quartet of brown tufted leather chairs and sofas and yet another double height room with scarlet colored walls, beige carpeting and floor to ceiling windows flanking one of the homes seven wood burning fireplaces. A person could take down the Tioga State Forest burning up wood in all them hot boxes. 

A double height paneled library accommodates another large chandelier and a vertigo inducing spiral staircase leading to a gallery lined with book shelves. The dining room sports vermilion colored walls and yet another colossal crystal chandelier while the double height gore-may kitchen has been painted the brightest of yellows which, quite frankly, makes for an unharmonious aesthetic marriage with the mahogany cabinetry, taupe colored marble floors and black granite counter tops.

A home gym lined with floor to ceiling mirrors ensures Mister Perry can watch himself work out from all angles, and a home thee-ayter with eight red velvet seats and crimson colored walls has quite naturally been installed. Presumably this is where Mister Perry runs and re-runs his bank account filling films in which he plays the argumentative and gun-toting matriarch Madea.

The walled and gated grounds include a long driveway leading to a large circular motor court with, you got it, a fountain in the middle. The back side of Avec Chateau includes a vast terrace with both a fireplace and a fire pit, not one but two prayer gardens, a man-made waterfall, tennis court, several small ponds, a three tier outdoor amphitheater for impromptu performances, a circular spa and a negative edge swimming pool that spills down into yet another water feature.


Both Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter go apoplectic just thinking about the yearly heating and cooling costs of a house like this. All those double height rooms ensure the heating and cooling systems are working over time all the time and the immense lawns and landscaping guarantee a team of mowers, trimmers and weeders be on the property several times a week. We know, some of you sassy children are gonna say a person who can afford a house like this does not worry about the running costs, but we do not want to hear it because, judgement or not, we think this is simply too much house and property for one man.


But Mister Perry, being the real estate size queen that he is, clearly thinks differently because he's reportedly packing his chandeliers and moving to an even more monumentally sized mansion off Paces Ferry Road in the suburbs of Atlanta that is sited on 17 acres overlooking the Chatahootchie River and is reported to measure in excess of 30,000 square feet. Dayum! Keep in mind children, Mister Tyler lives all by his lonesome. Could there be anything more depressing and lonely than rattling around a 30,000 square foot suburban mansion? Alone? No, we don't think so either but we're sure any discomfort Mister Tyler might feel is offset by his belief that his new mega-mansion, like his old mega-mansion, is a paean to the power of God. Whatever.

Mister Perry, who was once called the most bankable actor in Hollywood by Business Week magazine, does not just confine his God glorifying real estate to Atlanta and also owns a few premium properties in Los Angeles including a newly built and aggressively modern residence at the top of Blue Jay Way for which he reportedly paid $9,600,000. Also in his portfolio of prodigious properties is a 22-acre tract of land in the hills above Beverly where he once planned to build a 22,000 square foot Tuscan style monster mansion but for reasons unknown to Your Mama scuttled the project soon after the foundation had been laid. That property was previously on the market for $15,000,000 but seems to have disappeared from the MLS. 

I Didn't Say It........

Newt Gingrich, on being middle class while getting a $1.6 million paycheck and having a seven-figure line of credit at Tiffany:
"We don’t come out of a background where we can buy a seat or buy, as Mayor Bloomberg did, buy the mayorship of New York. I mean if you look at how much he spent, he just wrote a check and bought it. I think that’s very dangerous to the future of American democracy. My dad served in the Army for 27 years; I was a college teacher. I’m a middle class person."

Middle class apparently means a net worth of some $20 million dollars because that's how much Newty is worth.
I will be taking a short break as i am now fully aware that I am living well below the poverty level, at least by the Gingrich Standard.

Tim Wildmon, head of the American Family Association, thinks the Baby Jeebus discovered America:
"If Jesus Christ had never been born, you would not be reading this column. If Jesus Christ had never been born, there would be no United States of America. After Jesus left this earth, Christianity spread from the Holy Land to modern-day Turkey to Greece and Italy and then covered the rest of Europe. In fact, Christopher Columbus wrote that his discovery of the New World was inspired by '...the Holy Spirit, because he comforted me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures.' Indeed, if it were not for Christmas, we would not be living in the greatest country and most generous country in the history of mankind."

Okay, so Columbus was "inspired" by the Baby Jeebus. That doesn't make this BabyJeebusLand, nor does it make this a Christian country.
And for the record, Jeebus wasn't born on December 25th. That date was stolen by Christians.

Michelangelo Signorile, writing for Huffington Post, on Miss Ricky Perry's promise to reinstate DADT if elected:
"This week Rick Perry told a 14-year-old openly bisexual girl who questioned him after a town hall in Decorah, Iowa, that he doesn't believe gays should serve openly in the military because 'homosexuality is a sin.' I sure hope young Rebecca Green saw the iconic image days later of two female Navy petty officers, Marissa Gaeta and Citlalic Snell, sharing the first same-sex kiss at ship's return. Because that sweet and wonderful photo is the future. And Rick Perry is the ugly and wretched past that we can hopefully move on from after this hideous GOP primary campaign."

I think about young girls who think they can't join the military because they're girls. Then there are the young girls who grew up under DADT and thought they couldn't join because they were gay.
Now, young girls, gay and straight, are well-aware that they can do whatever they want, and with pictures like the one of Marissa Gaeta and Citlalic Snell, they now see that they are no different.
Electing someone like Perry who will shatter their dreams just because they might be gay is an insult.

Cardinal Francis George, retreating slightly on his claim that gays are like the KKK:
"Obviously, it's absurd to say the gay and lesbian community are the Ku Klux Klan, but if you organize a parade that looks like parades that we've had in our past because it stops us from worshipping God, well then that's the comparison, but it's not with people and people - it's parade-parade."

I've never been to a KKK parade, but I've been to my share of Pride parades, and I have never seen one that tells anyone they cannot worship God.
To the contrary, Pride parades are about feeling what you feel, and not being ashamed.
Whether you're gay or Christian or gay and Christian.

Linda Harvey, from her World Net Daily countdown of the top ten worst events in homofascism in 2011:
"And the No. 1 abuse of homosexual activism in the United States in 2011, was the implementation of the repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' allowing open homosexual behavior in our military. No one can yet know how damaging the repeal of the ban on sodomy will be – we can only guess – but there's no question that it will damage the character of our armed forces and undermine their effectiveness. Dare I say the obvious? We need non-effeminate men in the military. Does anyone really believe that a prancing drill sergeant won't detract from readiness? Where women are serving, they should be women of high character, not those who embrace homosexual conduct and publicly declare a 'sin' identity. These folks have truly lost their way, their shame, their innate sense of God's touch on and design for their lives."

Wow, Linda Harvey is so wrapped up in her own bigotry and hatred, and outright stupidity.
Prancing drill sergeants?
I think Linda Harvey might just be a little upset because she couldn't join the military, or the LPGA. Or bowl.
Just sayin'.

Newt Gingrich, on a possible Vice President for his team:
"I am a great admirer of hers and she was a remarkable reform governor of Alaska, she’s somebody who I think brings a great deal to the possibility of helping in government and that would be one of the possibilities. There are also some very important Cabinet positions that she could fill very, very well. I can’t imagine anybody who would do a better job of driving us to an energy solution than Gov. Palin, for example. Tell her that she would certainly be on the list of one of the people we would consider."

Hey Newt?
Two words: John McCain.
She did wonders for that ticket so go ahead and pick her and prepare to lose.
Wait....you'll never be the nominee anyway.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Random Musings

I remember it was this time last year when Ii heard about a new TV show. A vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost become roommates. And it isn't a comedy. 
It was Being Human and I watched the first episode or so and just couldn't get into it.
Cut to December 26th, and SyFy is running a day-long marathon of Being Human, season one. I start watching, and watching, and watching.....until I find I have spent the entire day and most of the evening watching.
It returns this January for season two.
DVR set.
PS Sam Witwer? Hot vampire. And he doesn't glitter.


I watched The Kennedy Center Honors because one of the honorees was Meryl Streep, and I just adore La Streep. But I found something quite interesting as I watched.
Anne Hathaway can do the splits in an evening gown.
Patti LuPone is a goddess.
James Taylor still sings like a dream.
But, mostly, I discovered that Michelle Obama is one of those rare First Ladies that actually shows emotion in public, rather than sitting icy and stone-faced beside their husbands.
As people sang, she sang along; as people praised the honorees, she got a little teary-eyed. She clapped, sang, laughed and smiled throughout the show as no other First Lady has ever done.
I.Love.Her.



Some folks, however, do not, and take great strides to be rude to her.
Republican congressman, and asshat, Jim Sensenbrenner has decided to question Michelle Obama's body shape. You know, because Mrs. Obama wants the nation's children to be less obese. But, Sensenbrenner has no sense, because he was overheard talking on the phone, retelling an incident in which he said about Michelle Obama: "She lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself."
Yup, he did. And Sensenbrenner has room to talk, since, according to that picture up there, he has a rather large posterior....on his head.
Of course, Sensenbrenner is just piggy-backing---get it? Piggy?--on something said by that other fat gasbag of health and fitness, Rush Limbaugh, who said in February: "The problem is, and dare I say this, it doesn't look like Michelle Obama follows her own nutritionary, dietary advice...I'm trying to say that our First Lady does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue or of a woman Alex Rodriguez might date every six months or what have you."
I guess Michele Obama is not the kind of women that Limbaugh likes to envision when he's choking his fat tiny chicken.
Seriously, though, the First Lady is working to get kids to eat healthier and these two tubbies are name-calling? Who do they think they are? Me?
Sensenbrenner's spokesperson has responded: "Mr. Sensenbrenner was referring to the First Lady’s healthy food initiative. He doesn’t think the government should be telling Americans what to eat. While he may not agree with all of her initiatives, he plans to contact the First Lady’s office to apologize for his comments."
And why don't you have a salad with her while you're at it, asshat?



Running for president is hard. So much to do and say, and remember.
Oops. Former House Speaker Newt "Serial Adulterer" Gingrich failed to qualify for Virginia's March 6 Republican primary because he did not submit the required 10,000 signatures.
He was probably too busy schtupping the next Missus Gingrich...or Tiffany's was having a sale. Allegedly.
And then we find out that Texas Governor Rick "I'm A Christian And I Hate Gays" Perry also fell short of the 10,000 signatures of registered voters required for a candidate's name to be on the primary ballot.
Seriously. Who's running their campaigns?



It's no secret that I am neither a fan of the Catholic Church or the Pope, but sometimes, sometimes, Pope Benny says the most idiotic things and I am left nearly speechless.
Last week, Pope Benedict XVI decried the increasing commercialization of Christmas during his televised Christmas Eve Mass, and he urged the faithful to look beyond the holiday's "superficial glitter" to discover its true meaning.
He doesn't like the commercialism of Christmas.
Catholic say what? I.Agree.With.The Pope?
But then he added that thing about the "superficial glitter" and proved what an out-of-touch despot he is. See, he said that while wearing a headdress fit for a Vegas showgirl, bejeweled and be-glittered. He said that while wearing a robe of the finest fabrics, and shoes from Prada.
Hey Benny, if you really wish to decry the commercialism of Christmas, or the glitter of the holiday season, maybe you ought to thin  out your own wardrobe before opening your yap. Oh yeah, and fix that child-raping priest problem, eh?



Oh Miss Ricky. The gift that keeps on giving.
Speaking in Iowa this week, Rick Perry said: “Every barrel of oil that comes out of those sands in Canada is a barrel of oil that we don’t have to buy from a foreign source."
He.Thinks.Canada.Is.The.51st.State?

Or, at the very least that it isn't a foreign country.
Or that we can just take the oil from Canada because, well, it's Canada.


Carlos was on the computer last night while I was reading in the living room and watching [again] Adele at Royal Albert Hall.
When it was over, I came into the office and told him I was going to bed, and he asked why i sounded all stuffy.
"I was watching Adele."
"And?"
"And crying. Are you happy? Adele makes me cry."
He looked at me like he had no idea who I am and I looked at him like he was a man with no heart.

That's Our Newt: Serial Adulterer, Serial Liar

Newt & Wife #1
When Newt Gingrich was just thinking about running for president, he did a slew of interviews where he talked about his messy divorce; well, his messy divorces. Folks said he did so because he thought that by bringing it up first, tackling it head on, so to speak, it would become a non-issue.

Um, wrong. See, not only do we all know that Newt was married and fucking around with a mistress, but then he divorced his wife to marry the mistress, on whom he began fucking around so he could divorce her and marry that mistress.
You know, the helmet-haired devout Catholic who fucked a married man and now stands like a Stepford wife at his side?

But what we are just learning is that, the story that Newt has been telling about Wife One isn't exactly true.

Newty says that it was his first wife, Jackie Battley, who initiated the divorce from him, and not the other way around. But now a confidant of Newt's has told CNN that Gingrich said he dumped Jackie Battley--his one-time high school geometry teacher--in 1980 because he felt she wasn’t “young enough or pretty enough” to be First Lady.

That's our Newt.

Newt & Wife #2
On his campaign website, Gingrich denies the often told story that he served Jackie divorce papers in the hospital where she had just had cancer surgery: saying, “It was [Jackie Battley] that requested the divorce, not Newt, and it was months before the hospital visit in question.”

Oops, not so fast. Newly revealed 30-year-old court papers show that Jackie Battley had asked the judge to reject her husband’s request for a divorce: “Defendant shows that she has adequate and ample grounds for divorce, but that she does not desire one at this time. Defendant does not admit that this marriage is irretrievably broken.”

Battley, who survived her cancer, has not criticized Newt publicly but, in one of her only public comments on the divorce, says “it came as a complete surprise.” She described being in the hospital after her third cancer surgery when he came to visit. “He wanted to discuss the terms of the divorce while I was recovering from the surgery. To say I gave up a lot for the marriage is the understatement of the year.”

That sure sounds like he asked for a divorce while she was undergoing cancer treatments, eh?

Newt & Wife #3
CNN also interviewed Newt Gingrich’s former friend, and congressional campaign treasurer Leonard Carter, who ended their friendship over Gingrich’s treatment of Jackie: 

"[Gingrich] said, ‘You know and I know that she’s not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of a President.’”

Carter also said Gingrich initially refused to pay alimony--a claim supported by the court papers--and a local church had to launch a food drive for Battley and her two daughters.

When Gingrich left Jackie Battley, he was schtupping a young congressional aide, Marianne Ginther, whom he married in 1981 on the heels of his divorce. He divorced her 19 years later after schtupping another young congressional aide, Callista Bisek, who is now his third wife, automaton and main campaign strategist.

Marry. Fuck an aide. Divorce. Marry the aide. Fuck an aide. Divorce. Marry the aide.

And then lie about it. That's our Newt.


source

Hospital Denies Visitation By Lesbian Partner

I've told this story a few times before, but in light of recent developments, it bears repeating.
Several years back, while we were living in Miami, Carlos was hospitalized for an appendectomy. While we registered him for admittance, the nurse asked who should be his contact number, and Carlos pointed to me. She asked, "What is his relation to you?"
Carlos said, "He's my partner." 
The woman seemed shocked, and muttered, "Oh." 
I was about ready to go off, because of her reaction, but mostly because Carlos was sweating, in severe pain, running a very high fever and we were stuck answering idiotic questions. But then the woman smiled, and told us that this was her first time using the "partner/significant other" key in admitting a patient. She then happily put down my name, my relation to Carlos as 'partner' and my home and cell numbers.
And while Carlos was in the hospital, I was treated by everyone, from nurses and attendants to his surgeon, as Carlos' very significant other. I was allowed to sleep in the room with him, I was kept abreast of all procedures, and, after the surgery, the doctor came looking for me to give me the update.
As it should be, right?
Not so, in Tennessee, where the chief executive officer of Rolling Hills Hospital in Franklin is set to apologize to Val Burke, a lesbian who was denied visitation rights with her partner because she wasn't 'family'.
Richard Bangert
Apparently Rolling Hills Hospital staff did not get the memo that this is offensive and rude, but that it is also a violation of new federal anti-discrimination guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last September.
Richard Bangert, that chief executive officer of Rolling Hills, says, “It was human error. They made a mistake. When I learned of it, I immediately met with my staff on Monday. We immediately made the change in terms of making sure that our policy was very clear.”
Um, Richard, that change should have been made in September. Everyone should have been clear in September.
Bangert has plans to meet with Burke: “I will apologize and work with her directly. I take it very personally. This is not representative of the hospital.”
So, what have we learned? There is still discrimination in regards to hospitalization and visitation rights for the LGBT community. And we learned that some hospitals, and some directors, instantly resolve the situation.
It's just sad that the situation had to happen at all.
Picture yourself trying to visit a loved one in the hospital and being told that, because you are the same-sex partner of the patient, you have no rights. or maybe you are the straight unmarried partner, and still are not considered 'family'. Think about that, about feeling helpless, if only for a moment until the hospital director steps up and fixes the issue.
No one should ever have to feel that unwelcome.


source

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Architecture Wednesday: By The Sea

After the Christmas whirlwind, maybe a little relaxation is in order. And where better to relax than by the sea, in an ancient building that pays homage to its past while embracing a minimalist future.
This historic residence in Old Jaffa, in Tel Aviv, sits just above the harbor, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The 1100 square foot residential home faces west, taking full advantage of sunsets on the sea.
And, while it is difficult to determine the buildings exact age, it is clear that it is hundreds of years old and has undergone many changes. The original idea was to restore the structure's characteristics--the stone walls, the segmented ceilings and the arches--including the exposure of the original materials, a combination of pottery and beach sand. 
The building has undergone a "peeling" process to expose its original state, but is, in fact, the surprisingly modern, minimalistic construction style that echoes the past.
Both the old and the new were combined, maintaining the qualities of each, to create new spaces that blend the styles together and intensify them to create contrast and tension between the different periods. 
The historical is expressed by preserving the textures and materials of the building, while the modern flavor is achieved by opening up the spaces, and altering the internal flow to a more open and free feeling. It's almost like a loft conversion, only from an infinitely older building.
The project succeeds in both honoring and preserving the historical and almost romantic values of the structure while creating a contemporary project, suited to its period. 


via Pitsou Kedem Architects

Perry Charges Taxpayers For Campaign Expenses

And he thinks he's a fiscal conservative?
At the beginning of his ill-fated--and it will be ill-fated because he'll never win--run for the White House, Texas Governor Ricky Perry went to California to raise money and appear in his first debate.
And he spent more than $32,000 in taxpayer money for travel and lodging in San Francisco, $4,400 to dine near the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum in Simi Valley, and another $6,400 for plane tickets to San Diego.
Paid for by the good people of Texas.
And that was when he was on a high, as far as public opinion polls went. Now, as he barely scrapes by with a 6% popularity rating, Perry continues to spend taxpayer money to run around and campaign, as much as $400,000 a month.
Aside from President Obama, Perry--the only sitting governor in the 2012 race--has the largest security contingent, and the only one on the Republican side financed by taxpayers.
Perry says it's completely appropriate for the Texas Department of Public Safety to pay for his security and called any criticism of his government-provided protection a “diversion,” saying that Texans benefit from his travels: “I’m going to be promoting Texas.”
No, missy, you're trying to promote Rick Perry to the office of president.
Texas state Representative, and Democrat, Jessica Farrar, believes Perry’s travels have been more of a black eye for Texas than a benefit, and while she feels Ricky deserves to have state-provided security said he should use some of the $17 million he has reported raising for his campaign to help defray the costs.
“If he’s promoting Texas, he’s been an embarrassment,” Farrar said. “He could have paid for this out of campaign funds, especially given that he’s asked the Texas taxpayers to tighten their belts."
They tighten their belts so he can spend $400,000 a month to travel.


source

Just For Giggles: My New Years Eve Toast

Funny Link

F**k Michigan

Michigan's Republican Governor, and certifiable asshat, Rick Snyder, signed a new last week that prohibits public employers from providing partner benefits to unmarried partners of public employees--gay or straight.
Kary Moss, executive director of the Michigan ACLU: 
"The decision to take healthcare benefits away from families just in time for the holidays is mean-spirited and cruel. Governor Snyder had an opportunity to show real leadership and put an end to the political games; instead he approved an extreme policy that sets our state back, jeopardizes our economy and puts our families at risk. The bill serves no other purpose than to single out a small minority of people and deprive them of critical protections as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. We are prepared to challenge this law on behalf of Michigan families in the coming weeks."
Emily Dievendorf, policy director at Equality Michigan: 
"Governor Snyder's support for these bills is appalling. Today, the Governor told unmarried public employees that they could no longer care for their partners or children. He has put hardworking gay and lesbian couples and their children into harm's way by eliminating important health care coverage. He has spent the last two years talking about creating a welcoming state with a attractive business climate, and these bills fly in the face of those goals. All families in our state, including gay and lesbian families, should have fair access to health care coverage. Governor Snyder caved to the radical social agenda coming from the legislature. He has rejected our shared commitment to economic growth. In order to compete in today's global business environment, we must build a culture that prioritizes fundamental fairness. This law will only serve to hurt Michigan."
See, if you're not married in Michigan, you don't matter to the government. 
And since gay men and women cannot marry in Michigan they don't even get the option of choosing to matter or not.
Less than.
F**k you, Michigan.


source

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Just For Giggles: Outlet Sex Again!

Funny Link

A Kiss Is Just A Kiss.....Unless It's A Gay Kiss

We've all seen the picture, right? I mean it made all the papers and was plastered all over the web. I saw it, and my first reaction was "How sweet."

The two sailors kissing upon coming home from sea. How sweet, indeed, except that, for some, the idea that the two sailors were women was just too much to handle.

Virginian-Pilot reporter Corinne Reilly wrote the story of the two female sailors’ kiss, but when accompanied by Brian Clark’s photo, she found herself the recipient of all sorts of vile opinions:

“That photo is illustrious of why people instinctive know this country is rotting from the inside out. Whats next a close up shot of bestiality! Jim, Southern CA”


“Please spare me the deviant behavior. How much did the Human Rights Campaign pay you to do this ‘story’???”

But she did receive some letters from people who loved the picture, and shared in the joy of that homecoming:
“Thank you and your editors so much for the story of the 2 Navy women sharing the kiss. What a refreshing change to open to this story. At last, some progress on an agenda that should not be an agenda at all.”
Corinne Reilly says, "We’re in a Navy town and we cover ship homecomings all the time. We usually try to find new angles or zero in on individual sailors. In my mind, this story was no different, and I tried to write it as such, although I certainly expected that it would elicit far more reaction than most homecoming stories."

The story is no different. These women serve their country, my country, your country, and yet when they come home they should not be allowed to show their love for one another with a simple kiss?

Out in Washington state, the Seattle Times ran the photo right there on page one, and Times editor, Kathy Best says, "We got 12 calls and emails from print subscribers, a couple of whom threatened to cancel their subscriptions. The majority said they were not upset that we used the picture, but felt it was wrong to put it on the front page because it was offensive."

A kiss. Offensive.

In the online version of the Seattle Times, the photo and story generated more than 200 comments, ranging from “Go, Navy!” to: “I guess I’m getting too old. My respect for those in the military just went down a notch. My God we fell so far so fast. No honor left, just social engineering. How utterly depressing.”

But Kathy Best was not to be deterred in reporting the news, and telling that particular story, and she penned a letter to those Seattle Times readers who threatened to cancel:
Dear ________,
I’m sorry that you found the photo on today’s front page offensive. That was not our intention. We selected the photo because it depicted an historic moment for the U.S. military, vividly illustrating the end of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” era in a striking twist on the Navy’s “first kiss” tradition. 
As you know, treatment of gay and lesbian members of the U.S. military has been hotly debated for years, including at military installations around the Puget Sound region. As politicians and military leaders argued, the effect on individual soldiers and sailors sometimes got lost. This photo, which both our picture and news editors described as iconic, showed what the policy change meant at street level.
Part of our responsibility as a news organization is to reflect the reality around us, even if it might make some readers uncomfortable. We do not make those decisions lightly. We debated how and where to use this picture extensively. In the end, we felt the historic nature of the photo merited front page treatment. 
While you may not agree with this decision, I hope this explanation helps you understand it. We were not trying to push a political agenda. We were trying to show the real-world effect of a political change of policy.

I hope you will reconsider your decision to cancel the paper. Just as we value lively debates in our newsroom about how to display news, we value lively debates with our readers about whether they think we’re doing a good job. We need readers like you who care enough to call us to account when you don’t think we’re doing our jobs well. It keeps us on our toes and helps inform the choices we make going forward.
Sincerely,
Kathy Best
Managing Editor, The Seattle Times
As it should be. It's just a kiss. A welcome home kiss. An "I've missed you so much" kiss. How is that wrong?


source

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stolen from JMG

Amy Koch Is All About "Family Values"

Amy "Family Values" Koch
It's stories like these that give me, and probably many of you, reason to think that all politicians are liars and cheats, and untrustworthy.
See, up in Minnesota, Amy Koch, Republican and state Senate Majority Leader, has resigned that position, and said she would not seek re-election in 2012 after allegations of “inappropriate relationship" between Koch and a Senate staffer” emerged.
Oh yeah, and Amy Koch is one of those 'Marriage Is Between One Man and One Woman, The Gays Can't Marry, Family Vaules' politicians.
Like Newt.
And, oh yeah, it was under Amy Koch's "Family Values" majority leadership that the Minnesota Senate voted to amend the state Constitution to declare that ‘a marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in Minnesota.’
And, oh yeah, Amy Koch, voted for the bill herself.
With that amendment having cleared the state House and Senate it will move to the voters of Minnesota next November. They will be asked to vote on whether their fellow citizens, of the LGBT variety anyway, should be [further] forbidden by law to marry the person they love.
Hmmm, Amy Koch thinks that the people of Minnesota should get a chance to vote who can get married and who cannot. I wonder how Amy would feel if we put her marriage to a vote. Oh, but it's too late for that. She can and did get married, and then voted to deny those rights to LGBT people, while having all kinds of inappropriate relations.
Again, is it any wonder we don't trust politicians?

BUT THEN.....
​The LGBT community of Minnesota has apologized to Amy Koch for ruining the institution of marriage and causing her to stray from her husband and engage in an "inappropriate relationship."
Michael "Anti-LGBT" Brodkorb
Cuz that's what we do, in Amy Koch's world, is ruin traditional marriage and stuff.The LGBT tongue-in-cheek apology comes right after Amy Koch issued her own apology, in which she expressed her deep regret for "engaging in a relationship with a Senate staffer." Now, Amy isn't one to kiss and tell--she's more apt to inappropriately relate and not tell, it is widely rumored to be former communications chief Michael Brodkorb, who lost several key GOP positions in the wake of the scandal.
And for a little more irony, Brodkorb also campaigned this year to put that constitutional discrimination amendment on next year's ballot forbidding gay marriage. 
So, then, here's the LGBT apology to Amt Koch for ruining her marriage:
Dear Ms. Koch,On behalf of all gays and lesbians living in Minnesota, I would like to wholeheartedly apologize for our community's successful efforts to threaten your traditional marriage.  We are ashamed of ourselves for causing you to have what the media refers to as an "illicit affair" with your staffer, and we also extend our deepest apologies to him and to his wife. These recent events have made it quite clear that our gay and lesbian tactics have gone too far, affecting even the most respectful of our society.
 We apologize that our selfish requests to marry those we love have cheapened and degraded traditional marriage so much that we caused you to stray from your own holy union for something more cheap and tawdry.  And we are doubly remorseful in knowing that many will see this as a form of sexual harassment of a subordinate.
It is now clear to us that if we were not so self-focused and myopic, we would have been able to see that the time you wasted diligently writing legislation that would forever seal the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman, could have been more usefully spent reshaping the legal definition of "adultery."
Forgive us.  As you know, we are not church-going people, so we are unable to fully appreciate that "gay marriage" is incompatible with Christian values, despite the fact that those values carry a biblical tradition of adultery such as yours.  We applaud you for keeping that tradition going.
And finally, shame on us for thinking that marriage is a private affair, and that our marriage would have little impact on anyone's family.  We now see that marriage is more than that.  It is an agreement with society.  We should listen to the Minnesota Family Council when it tells us that marriage is about being public, which explains why marriages are public ceremonies.  Never did we realize that it is exactly because of this societal agreement that the entire world is looking at you in shame and disappointment instead of minding its own business.
From the bottom of our hearts, we ask that you please accept our apology.Thank you.John Medeiros 
Minneapolis MN
Amy Koch Resigns Over Alleged 'Inappropriate Relationship'

LGBT Community Apologizes To Amy Koch