Health care petition drive signs up GOP donors

Political consultants Joe DiSano and Joe Munem offered more ammo for their theory that the petition drive to stop 32 million Americans with no health care insurance from getting it and place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to exempt Michigan from the historic health insurance reform law is little more than an exercise to build a mailing list of Republican supporters and contributors for the upcoming election.

The Astroturf “tea parties” are a Republican effort, and on their April 24 pod cast, the Republican and Democratic strategists connected the dots to show the petition drive is an effort to collect names and addresses the Republicans can solicit support and money from.

DiSano and Munem first floated that theory earlier this month, and in talking about the Republican primary in Michigan’s 9th Congressional district for the chance to run against U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, they again floated that theory.

Perennial candidate Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski and Paul Welday are the Republicans in the race. DiSano and Munem made the point that Glenn Clark, the Republican Chair of the 9th Congressional District who is supposed to neutral, is working for Strategic National Consulting, a Republican political consulting firm owned by Chuck Yob.

Raczkowski is a client of Strategic National, so how can Clark be neutral? Clark is also, apparently, the chair of the Oakland County Tea Party,” what ever that is.

One things political consultants do is collect and sell to candidates lists of supporters and potential donors. That’s exactly want Clark is doing with this petition drive, and he is directly getting the names right from the petitions.

Anti-gay hate group wants the state to forfeit $400 million if state protects bullying

LANSING -- The Michigan Legislature is burning the midnight oil on Thursday evening and Friday morning to enact the "Race to the Top" package of bills that will position Michigan to receive up to $400 million in federal funds through President Barack Obama's "Race to the Top" program that requires states to enact major reforms to receive the funds.

However, the anti-gay hate AFA of Michigan spent Thursday afternoon instructing their members to bombard lawmaker’s office over possible language in the bills that will require schools to adopt a policy that prohibits harassment or bullying at school, as well as prohibiting the harmful and potentially deadly bullying from telecommunications devices. Somehow, the homophobes are upset because it extends protection to students who may be gay.

The disgusting letters come directly from an AFA press release. Chief homophobe Gary Glenn said his group is "hopeful that Republican state senators won’t allow themselves to be bullied by homosexual activist groups and House Democrats into caving in on this matter of principle in hopes of a payoff from federal tax dollars being dangled by the Obama Administration."

The Race to the Top package does a number of things. It would expand the number of charter schools by allowing current charter school operators to open new charter schools, provide a path for alternative teacher certification and it stipulates that districts with at least 25 percent of their students in the lowest achieving 5 percent of buildings in the state would be run by a CEO appointed by the state superintendent.

Separate versions passed the House and Senate earlier thinks month, and a conference committee consisting if three members of the Senate and three from the House are meeting to reconcile the two versions and come up with a compromise. Once that happens, each body will give it an up or down vote. There can be no amendments or substitutes, and if rejected the bills are dead.

Negotiations have been on and off most of the day, and they are expected to go into the early morning hours.

Apparently, the AFA is claiming language in House-passed version is similar to Matt’s Law. So, if it remains in the conference report, the AFA wants us to miss out on $400 million just because we want to protect gays from violence? That’s simply disgusting.

Matt's Safe School Law is named after Matt Epling, a popular East Lansing middle school student who committed suicide as a result of bullying in school, and it would require public school districts in Michigan to establish bullying policies. It has passed the House with bipartisan support, but the Senate refuses to take it up.

Anti-gay hate group fights against protection against violence for gays

LANSING – It’s amazing the hoops right-wingers will jump through to deny rights to the gay community.

We saw a perfect example Wednesday at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee where Republicans voted against House Bills 4835 and 4836 known as the hate crime bills. The bills would increase the penalties for crimes committed because of person's bias toward another person or group based on race, disability, gender, religion, sexual orientation or other reason. The rub for right-wingers is that it dares to protect gays, a group that has suffered the most violence in recent years.

The measure was approved during the last Legislative session in the House, but, like most bills, died when the Senate failed to take them up.

As usual the hearing brought out the anti-gay hate group the American Family Association (AFA) led by homophobe Gary Glenn. He said the bill should not include protections for homosexuals or transvestites. He presented his usual biased and debunked testimony, like the bills will censor people and religious expression. He continues to use the debunked example of a grandmother in Philadelphia arrested for a hate crime.

Brian Mackey, Washtenaw County prosecutor and spokesperson for the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, testified in favor of the bill. He prosecuted one of the first hate crimes when the law went into effect in the early 1990’s. He said the bill in no way infringes on the 1st Amendment’s freedom of speech or religion.

“This takes no one’s rights away from anyone, and it hurts no one,” he said.

Glenn claimed the bills are only intended to make the gay lifestyle acceptable and mainstream. Mackey denied that.

“I don’t base my decision on who I prosecute on what the Triangle Foundation says,” he said. “I’m bound by the law, and that’s how it should be.”

Unlike the current law, the bills would ensure the conviction would be based on the perpetrator's intent, not on the actual status of the victim. Mackey said it’s the offender who makes the choice, not the victim.

“I can be attacked by someone who mistakes my sexual orientation,” he said. “Mr. Glenn can be attacked by someone who mistakes his sexual identity.”

Mackey brought up Livingston County’s racist past it cannot shake with the story of former resident and Klan member Robert Miles, who lived in rural Cohoctah Township north of Howell, in the 1970s and ‘80s. Mackey prosecuted an associate of Miles’ who helped him tar and feather a pro-integration high school principal. On the surface, it might seem like a harmless prank until you realize why it happened; to intimidate more than just the principal.

Mackey used another example of simple graffiti that is just destruction of property, but if the person wrote something like “Hitler didn’t finish the job,” then the person has assaulted the entire community.

“You should be convicted for what you really did,” he said.

What’s really telling is the numerous groups in support of the bills, and they include the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, The Michigan Department of State Police, the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, The Triangle Foundation, the Mt. Pleasant Area Diversity Group, The Women’s Commission, The Advisory Council on Asian Pacific Affairs, The Michigan Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Board, The Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, the Michigan Protection and Advocacy Services, The Anti-Defamation League and the Grand Rapids Community Relations Committee.

Those in opposition, just two: the American Family Association and the so-called The American Decency Association.

The bills were passed out of committee, and should be taken up in the House very soon.

Anti-gay hate group does not want gays to be protected from intimidation

The anti-gay hate group the American Family Association (AFA) of Michigan is busy spreading misinformation and insisting gay people not be protected from intimidating and hate crimes.

The AFA, led by homophobe, Gary Glenn, has had their supporters flood Michigan legislative offices with letters written by the AFA railing against House Bills 6340 and 6341 that addresses hate crimes. The bills were approved last week by the House before it broke for its two-week break, and it now goes to the Senate for consideration. The AFA falsely claims it supports censorship, it discriminates against religion and it gives gays special treatment and protection. Although the bill covers hate crimes committed because of ethnicity, race, disability and gender, it’s the protection it offers to gays that sets them off.

It's very similar to the objections raised about Matt's Safe School Law that would require public school districts in Michigan to establish bullying policies. In fact, it mentions those bills, HBs 4162 and 4091, in the letter.

"As with recent "bullying" legislation, HB 6341 segregates victims of certain crimes into special "protected class" categories -- including "sexual orientation" (homosexual behavior) and "gender identity" (cross-dressing) -- and then doles out special enhanced protection based on membership in those categories."

HBs 6340 and 6341 would increase the penalties for crimes committed because of person's bias toward another person or group based on race, disability, gender, religion, sexual orientation or other reason. According to the bill analysis, "A person is guilty of ethnic intimidation if he or she maliciously, and with specific intent to intimidate or harass another person because of that individual's race, color, religion, gender, or national origin, caused physical contact with another; damages, destroys, or defaces any real or personal property of another; and/or threatens, by word or act, to do one of the fore-mentioned acts."

Also, a person who hung or displayed a noose on property; displayed a burning cross or displayed any symbol that is historically or generally understood as intended to intimidate or threaten would be eligible to be charged. Last year in Michigan, there were 28 convictions for ethnic intimidation under a similar law.

The letter uses a debunk incident as a reason to oppose the bills.

"Such legislation has also proven to be a serious threat to religious freedom in other jurisdictions such as Philadelphia, where a multi-racial group of citizens in 2005 was arrested and prosecuted intimidation" because they read Bible verses out loud on a public street during a "gay pride" festival in the city."

They are actually referring to a 2004 incident where 11 members of the group Repent America, an organization that dedicates a large chunk of their time to protesting pro-gay events. they are not as bad as the Westboro Baptist Church, but they share some characteristics.

The incident continues to be misrepresented, and it has been debunked on Snopes. What happened was that they were using a bullhorn to drown out a stage performance with anti-gay shouts during Philly's annual Outfest, which led several people on-site to confront them. This then led the police to ask them to move in order to prevent any potential violence, but they refused -- which then and only then led to them being arrested for such charges as failure to disperse, possessing an instrument of crime (a bullhorn), obstructing a highway, criminal conspiracy, and disorderly conduct. Under Pennsylvania's hate crimes law they were also later charged with "ethnic intimidation" -- but in order to receive this additional charge, they had to first engage in behavior that the officers found unlawful.

However, when the charges were contested in court, it was ultimately determined that no hate crime law had been violated, and the charges were dismissed.

That has not stopped so-called Christen groups like the AFA from using the incident to further their agenda. This is not the first time conservative religious groups have misrepresented an incident to further their cause, and the most recent example occurred at Mount Hope Church in Delta Township on Nov. 9 where the church's claims did not match the police report.

The assault of so-called Christians on gays is disturbing, like the banning of gay marriage in California financed by the Mormon Church.

Anti-gay AFA hate group targets another award-winning composition

Legislative offices in Lansing, at least the one I work in, have been getting bombarded with this e-mail from constituents. The letters are word for word exactly the same, and the only thing that is different is the name and address. It shows why conservatives hate drama and the arts because clearly they have no imagination.

Rightwing Nutt
1313 Mockingbird Lane
Midland, MI 48160

April 27, 2007

The Honorable State Representative
Michigan House of Representatives
PO Box 30014
Lansing, MI 48909-7514

Dear Representative Representative:

The Saginaw News reported April 14th that my family's tax dollars are being used to pay
illegal theater presentation of a play that promotes homosexual activity and includes full-frontal nudity in a public facility not limited to adults only.
Here's how the Saginaw News described it:
"A play 'clearly no community theater north of Detroit would touch' opens a two-weekend run Friday night at Saginaw Valley State University. ..(I)t's also in R-rated territory and suitable only for ages 16 and up...It's subtitled as a 'gay fantasia' and...deals with homosexuality and the HIV/AIDS crisis in its early days. ... It needles Republicans...It also includes full-frontal male nudity and the use of the F-word in every
way possible...'We are the only theater in mid-Michigan that can get
away with it because while we want people to come see this show, we're not tied to ticket sales to survive.' ...(Director Richard) Roberts says the Saginaw/Bay area has 'a huge gay population' that likely will attend the show." See the full article here: http://www.mlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/entertainment-1/117654624374
380.xml&coll=9
At a time when Michigan is facing a severe budget deficit, and you're looking opportunities to cut wasteful or abusive use of our state tax dollars, here is a good place to start. Please take whatever steps are required to eliminate the use of my tax dollars to pay for this offensive and perhaps even illegal presentation by a state-funded institution.
Please keep me informed of what you do about this. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Rightwing Nutt

This trash is apparently an alert from the anti-gay hate group known as the American Family Association (AFA) of Michigan, led by hatemonger Gary Glenn. Livingston County residents are all too familiar with this group’s underhanded tactics because they helped another anti-gay hate group, known as the “Love” PAC - (Livingston Organization for Values in Education), try to ban some similar award-winning books, including one by a Nobel Laureate. It led to an actual investigation by the FBI.

The assault on “Angels in America” is eerily similar. The play won both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony award for Best Play in 1993. The HBO mini-series was the most watched made-for-cable movie in 2003, and it won both the Golden Globe and Emmy for Best Miniseries. But Mr. Glenn and conservatives don’t want you to see it.

The play accurately reflects the situation in the mid-1980s when little was known about the deadly disease medically, including how it was spread and contracted, and it was an instant death sentence that the federal government took little interest in or concern of. The objection by the AFA is because the play accurately portrays homosexual men as real human beings with feelings and families that love them, not because of any language or nudity.

The letter sent to Legislators completely takes the review of the play that ran in the Saginaw News out of context, and the link it provides does not even work. The director was clearly warning people who may be easily offended by real life and death that there is mature content in the play, and they may want to stay away.

I’m happy that the SVSU President is standing his ground and not canceling the play, realizing the university is a place for learning and the free exchange of ideas.

What does the AFA expects to accomplish with all of the letters to Legislators? Only about 37 percent, on average, of Michigan’s public colleges and universities budget’s come from state taxpayer funds, and the rest comes from tuition, grants, fees and alumni.

The Michigan Constitution also directs that the Legislature cannot dictate how those state funds are spent, and the constitution strictly leaves fiscal control up to the autonomous, elected governing boards of the schools.

House Republicans do the bidding of homophobic hate groups

You have to wonder exactly why and what Republicans are so afraid of about lesbians and homosexuals.

The discrimination they harbor against the gay community is baffling, and it drives a large part of their agenda. They embrace hatemongers like Ann Coulter and Gary Glenn who are clearly homophobic and discriminatory. The latest example of their discrimination is their opposition to the common sense, anti-bullying bill, House Bill 4162, introduced by Rep. Pam Byrnes, (D-Lyndon Township) and passed by the House almost along party lines 59-50 on March 28. It’s hard to believe 50 alleged elected leaders are kowtowing to the extreme rightwing hate groups and opposing the bill – known as Matt’s Safe School Law - because they say it promotes the homosexual agenda. I know it’s absurd but that’s the claim.

According to an Associated Press story in the Lansing State Journal, “Michigan law shouldn't formally recognize homosexual behavior, conservatives say, nor should gays get special protection. Republicans favor a broad ban against all bullying in schools.”

What caught my eye about this story - other than the ridiculous notion that homosexuals, who often face violent harassment and bullying, should not be protected - is that some of the 200 people who showed up on the day the bill was approved to lobby in support of the bill were from my high school, Monroe High School. I’m proud to be a Trojan.

De'Lea Cheatham braces for abuse every day.
The 17-year-old senior at Monroe High School says she frequently has been yelled at and shoved by other students because she's a lesbian. It began in middle school and has only gotten worse in high school, says Cheatham.
One student who supports the legislation is Ben Mathews, an 18-year-old senior at Monroe High and member of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance. Mathews says many students are bullied even if they’re straight but perceived to be gay or lesbian.

Veteran journalist Jack Lessenberry put it best in his blog, and he cut right to the chase. I guess 30 years of journalism experience will do that for you. Lessenberry has worked as a foreign correspondent and executive national editor of The Detroit News, reporting from more than forty countries. His writing has appeared in such national publications as Vanity Fair, Esquire, The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Boston Globe. He is also a professor of journalism at Wayne State University, and his freelance columns appear in The Metro Times, The Traverse-City Record Eagle and The Toledo (Ohio) Blade. He also has local ties to Livingston County, serving as the executive of Hometown Communications that includes all the Observer and Eccentric newspapers, as well as the Livingston County Daily Press and Argus before the chain was purchased by Gannett.

Lessenberry said it was a well-written law, and “anyone who grumbles about it imposing state control hasn’t read it. In a civilized society, this bill would be adopted unanimously. But in fact there are those who want to kill or weaken it. “

But there are bigots who are so blinded by their hatred and fear of anyone gay, or who might be gay, that they would rather put children’s lives at risk. There are also those who support the haters for cynical political reasons. Two Republican state representatives are fighting to make sure the bill does not protect people based on sexual orientation.

He calls Gary Glenn and his organization – the so-called “American Family Association” - a hate group. It was Glenn who gave Vicky Fyke, the leader of the anti-gay hate group known as “LOVE” PAC (Livingston Organization for Values in Education) and the former advisor of the Livingston County Teen Age Republicans, the ridiculous idea to have the FBI investigate books in the high school curriculum as pornographic.

They are doing the work of a hate group misnamed the American Family Association. It is spreading the lie that this bill’s real purpose is to “legitimize homosexual behavior and cross-dressing,” and that this will lead to increased cocaine use in children under thirteen.” You can read this garbage on their web site.

The real obscenity and crime is that the much needed-bill will die in the Republican-controlled, homophobic Senate.

School district appears to be caving to book burners

It’s a sad commentary on our world that a small-minded and very vocal minority of community censors may be getting their way, or at least changing the way things are done at Howell Public Schools.

The anti-gay hate group known as the LOVE group - (Livingston Organization for Values in Education) – started a book banning controversy some two months ago by trying to ban a book called “The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them.” Since then, they have also tried to ban Nobel Prize author Toni Morrison's first novel, "The Bluest Eye," and an acclaimed memoir written by Richard Wright in 1945, "Black Boy." Both books address social issues of blacks in 1940s America and have been used for at least two years in an American literature class. Local and statewide media quickly picked up on the fact that two of the three authors are African-American, reinforcing Howell’s image as a small-minded racist community.

The so-called “LOVE” group claim they object to the books because of the alleged profanity and references to drugs and sex acts.

After tabling the issue two weeks ago the issue is expected to be taken up Monday, led by so-called “LOVE” member and school board member Wendy Day, at the next school board meeting. However, in a report in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus today it appears the administration is caving and making some concessions to this small, but very vocal minority.

Howell Public Schools is moving toward including more parents in the process of approving curriculum. Marybeth Roose, the district's director of community education and district communications, said the district is planning to add some parents to the Curriculum Council, which approves all new or amended class material.
"Parents will definitely soon be included," she said. "Especially in the book review process."
The council has about 50 members, and while it is a "diverse group," she said, all of the members are either teachers or administrators — although some are also parents as well.
Exactly how many parents will be on the council has yet to be determined, Roose said.

That’s not a bad idea, but the simple fact is this group will not be satisfied with this concession. Any parent can – and always could - opt out of the assigned book and have their child read an alternative title, but that was also not good enough for this group.

To make it to be part of the curriculum, the book and other material has to go through a vigorous vetting process that includes a step-by-step approval process up the chain-of- command. All the curriculum is approved by a group of teachers from the particular school, a district wide subject-specific content committee, a district wide curriculum and assessment committee, the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and finally Superintendent Chuck Breiner.

Does anyone believe adding a couple of parents to the curriculum and assessment committee is going to satisfy this group of censors?

Another well-known anti-gay hate group - the American Family Association of Michigan, led by Gary Glenn – is threatening to sue the Board if it approves the books.

President Gary Glenn said a legal opinion from the national AFA found that distributing a book describing scenes of child rape — as one of the books in question does — violates child pornography laws.
He said he passed that opinion to (Vicki) Fyke, (leader of the so-called “LOVE” group and the advisor of the Livingston County Teen Age Republicans) who may decide to bring it to the attention of local law enforcement authorities.

To most people, comparing literate that won the Nobel Prize to child pornography is totally ridiculous, but not to Mr. Glenn and the so-called “Love” group. I finally got my hands on one of the books in question, "The Bluest Eye," and I am just beginning to read it.

But it just amazes me that our little community is trying to ban a book written by an author who won the coveted and prestigious international Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 for her work. The prize announcement says her work is “characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality." But we don’t want our young people to read her work. That’s just sad.