• Episcopal - Good and Joyful Things - Politics, Schmolitics - Theocracy Watch

    Equality Matters: Going Undercover At NOM’s Anti-Gay Student Conference Gives A Fascinating Glimpse Behind NOM’s Moderate Facade

    When Carlos Maza, a gay activist who monitors the National Organization for Marriage, the “moderate” anti-gay marriage group (let’s face it, the ANTI-GAY HATE GROUP) went undercover to attend one of their weekend training sessions, he found himself connecting with another attendee in a surprising way. Read the whole thing, it’s like a spy novel except with Leviticus-spouting Religious Right leaders trying to “turn” a roomful of impressionable college students, instead of Communist moles posing as tweed jacketed leather-patched college professors. Yeah, it’s that complicated. Also, take note of some interesting details: Many of the college attendees were from either…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Set Dressing: Coal Miners Lose Pay, Dirtiest Ones Used As Props At Mandatory Romney Rally

    Take a look at these two pictures. One is from the Plain Dealer article on this story, one is a screencap from Raw Story’s followup. As the miners and their families arrived, they looked like this (some may have been office workers and executives): Amercian coal miners stands with Mitt! Look at how hard they work, in their dirty work clothes and sooty faces! They are obviously real working Amercians! WASHINGTON, D.C. — When GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney visited an Ohio coal mine this month to promote jobs in the coal industry, workers who appeared with him at the…

  • Home Improvement

    Colorado RNC Delegates: 8 To Abstain But Stick Around For The Breakfast Special

    New category: quick news updates on my lunch breaks. This caught my eye earlier, and I think you should know I’m very disappointed. Disapointed! That there might not be a nice, juicy floor fight. Although former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has the GOP nomination for president sewn up, a number of Colorado delegates to the RNC in Tampa plan to abstain rather than cast a vote for him in the official roll call Tuesday. Six delegates who back Rep. Ron Paul of Texas — along with two who had pledged support to former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania before…

  • Blogs Wot I Read - Politics, Schmolitics

    Romney Social Media Staffer Bill Murphy Linked In To Fraudulent Profitable Tea Party Non-Profit

    This is juicy, if a little opaque to the non-Tweety, non-Bloggy, non-Facebooky clueless unlikely voter. The telling point is that he deleted his Linked In profile rather than answer tricky questions about whether his work for the organization would be part of his professional resume. Hat tip: OsborneInk Team Romney’s Social Media Director, Bill Murphy, is the former Director of the National Bloggers Club, a group under IRS investigation for soliciting donations while falsely claiming to be a non-profit organization. Although NBC filed incorporation papers in January, the organization is still absent from both the IRS and GuideStar charity databases.…

  • Home Improvement

    The View From My Office

    It’s a nice day today. David’s off today so he left to do a long bike ride with our friend Steve. It’s pretty steady today — calls coming in, stuff to do. Working from home is pretty awesome, and a lot less stressful. My morning commute involves cat activity and blackberry jam now… this morning I got up late, wandered into my office in my “Bear Loves Moose” nightshirt, and booted up. Ready to take a call… Hah, no. I’m in the habit of dressing, brushing teeth, brushing hair, and putting on my orthotic sneakers, because I’ve found that running…

  • Uncategorical Weirdness

    10 great places to try stand-up paddle boarding – USATODAY.com

    We saw people paddleboarding on our way through Montana to Glacier National Park, and rental shops too. Link: 10 great places to try stand-up paddle boarding – USATODAY.com Stand-up paddle boarding is making waves. The sport, which is has its roots in surfing, uses a board and paddle to scoot along the water, building strength and coordination. “It has caught on anywhere there’s a body of water,” says Matt Minich, editorial director of Bootprints.com, a weekly sports and adventure newsletter . He says the sport’s easier than surfing and can be mastered by most anyone. Some paddle boarders even do…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Report: Middle class lost significant financial ground over last decade | McClatchy

    In other words, from the beginning of the Bush administration, during which the erosion of middle-class income and the growth of super-rich income accelerated to a gap difficult to bridge. Obama has been hamstrung since day one, although he really should have abandoned bipartisanship when he had the chance in his first two years. Will the middle class remember who’s really to blame? America’s middle-class earners lost significant ground during the last decade as their incomes dropped for the first extended period since World War II, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. The decade also…

  • Connections

    Elderly Mom Still Advocating For Downs Syndrome Son, And Other Disabled

    There’s no better advocate for disabled kids and adults than fully engaged, lovingly encouraging parents. And when they’re no longer there for them, it’s up to the state — and some states are better advocates than others. From the moment Marjorie Sullivan Lee learned her newborn son, Kevin, had Down syndrome she became his advocate. Dismissing her pediatrician’s suggestion that Kevin be placed in an institution, Lee and her husband, John, decided Kevin would grow up at home with his five older siblings and be part of the community. That wasn’t necessarily the norm in 1960. Lee battled school officials…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Romney Came To Elk Grove Village To Accuse Obama (And Say Nice Things About Sikhs And Non-Radical Muslims Walsh Later Defamed)

    My church, St Nicholas Episcopal, is located in Elk Grove Village. We run a food pantry 3 Wednesdays a month. I think a lot of our guests would be very surprised to find themselves part of a “culture of dependency.” I think Romney’s appearance in the village, aside from its convenience to O’Hare, is less to do with doing a gun-and-run fundraising appearance and more to do with supporting Reprehensible Joe Walsh (R-Anthrax)’s campaign to retain his seat against the very formidable Tammy Duckworth (D-Gave Her Legs For Her Country). They had a face-off for the Trib editorial board— apparently…