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Atlantic: Debunking Myths

admin — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:00:59 +0000

We’ve heard just about everything except the truth from the Republicans and religious right when it comes to President Obama. Some say he’s a Muslim (not that anything would be wrong with that), some say he’s a Socialist, blah, blah, blah!Well, there’s a great post on The Atlantic Wire that debunks the various myths surrounding the seemingly unpopular (at least with white, conservative, Christian Americans) President.

According to the post:

During the 2008 presidential campaign, admirers said that Barack Obama could be many things to many people. Since Obama took office, his political adversaries have put their own spin on that truism: Every week, it seems, there’s a new instance of someone trying to attach a divisive label to the president, often with little regard to whether or not it makes any sense. The Obama team has officially refuted claims that Obama is a Muslim and that he’s not an American citizen, but those are only some of the “Obama is an X!” charges put forth.

Read more at: The Atlantic Wire!

Obama Speaks to Kids, Right Wing Panics

James — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:00:16 +0000

The hysteria is understandable only if one grasps the larger context of hysteria that has gripped a vocal minority of the population. A group of Americans, often referred to as the “right wing nuts”, are incapable of accepting Obama as their president. These are the people who alternate between calling Obama a “fascist” and a “socialist”, without understanding the meaning of the words they spew with such venom and hate.

Read more at: Examiner.com!

Obama and Gay-Hating Cops

James — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:00:04 +0000

Barack Obama ate his own words responding to the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. when he said the police acted “stupidly” in arrested the prof. He’s since apologized for his language, because it looks bad if the White House calls local police names. So to make things all warm and fuzzy, Obama invited Gates and James Crowley, the Cambridge police sergeant who arrested him, to the White House to make nice. All over what can be boiled down to a scuffle between a cop and a man who forced his way into his own home. So how come Obama doesn’t open the White House’s doors to another cop-v-civilian encounter — that’s actually rooted in bias?

Read the rest at: Queerty!

Obama’s Surge

James — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:54:41 +0000

After six months in the White House, President Barack Obama is still looking good as he settles in. But he needs our help.

Some liberals have lost hope in Obama because he has failed to fulfill some of his campaign promises. He hasn’t closed Guantanamo. He hasn’t stopped the military from discharging gay service members. He hasn’t thrown Dick Cheney in jail. (OK, he never promised that, but we had hopes.)

We cut Obama some slack, considering that he was elected during the meltdown of the financial industry worldwide, amid warnings of an economic collapse that could rival the Great Depression of the 1930s. Wall Street demanded and got a bailout, first from the Bush administration and a bipartisan Congress last year. The financial wizards got a second helping from the Obama administration, which followed up with a $787 billion stimulus package that was approved by the Democratic Congress in February over the almost unanimous opposition of Republicans.

Obama’s Birth Certificate

James — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:00:43 +0000

The right-wing obsession about the authenticity of President Obama’s birth certificate still hasn’t died down. The nation may have 45 million people without health insurance and continues to watch its soldiers come home dead and maimed from Iraq and Afghanistan, but to some this is still a major issue worthy of sucking up the national conversation —- as you can see by California’s own GOP Rep. John Campbell’s appearance Tuesday on “Hardball.” Campbell, who has co-sponsored a bill requiring future presidential candidates to produce their birth certificates, gets a beat-down from Chris Matthews: “What you’re doing is appeasing the nutcases” Matthews tells him, and later, “You are feeding the wacko wing of your party.” Ouch.

Does Contacting Your Congressman Work?

James — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:00:27 +0000

In case you ever thought writing, calling, or emailing your representatives was a waste of time, take it from Steve Hildebrand, Barack Obama’s openly gay deputy national campaign director: “I don’t think our voices are as powerful as they should be. I think too many people in the gay community do not push their elected officials as hard as they should. If you had 20 gay people together in a room and asked how many of them actually have reached out and either called, e-mailed or sent a letter to their member of Congress over the last two months, I would say the vast, vast majority of them will have done nothing. My suggestion is that people need to become strong activists, that we need to multiply by hundreds the number of activists we have in the gay community. We need more voices, we need louder voices, and we need to tell politicians at every level we’re not willing to take their excuses anymore.”

Read more at Queerty!

It’s Time

James — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:05:58 +0000

This week Obama hosted GLBT movers and shakers to the White House. Not me. He is also still trying to bridge the gap between the GLBT community and the religious right in this country. Queerty asks why? I’ll tell you why. Because if you can convince a certain percentage of the religious right even to tolerate us, we can move forward to a much greater degree. Has anyone been paying attention to what happens in this country? A court says we have equal rights and in no time at all, a publicly-voted referendum takes those rights away. Wouldn’t it be great if a court decision or a legislative act stayed in place? The way that happens is if someone like Pres. Obama keeps talking about us and how we deserve respect and civil rights. Marching and protesting only get you so far. If a state like California and do a 180 on us, how can GLBTers in the rocky mountain and deep southern states get ahead?

Read more at Homodox!

Obama’s Stonewall

James — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:00:19 +0000

In 1996, when Barack Obama was running for the Illinois Senate, he was asked in a survey by Outlines, a gay community newspaper in Chicago, if he supported same-sex marriage.

Unlike most candidates, who merely indicated yes or no, Obama took the unusual step of typing in his response, to which he affixed his signature. Back then not a single state permitted same-sex marriage, and sodomy was a crime. Nonetheless, Obama took a position on the progressive edge of the Democratic Party, and he did so with unmistakable clarity: “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”

There is a great debate going on over whether or not President Obama has done enough in his first 5 months in office for the LGBT community.

I for one believe that as much as change is needed, the old cliche “change doesn’t happen overnight” is an old cliche for a reason. Our expectation as the LGBT community can’t be too high, and we certainly have to recognize our rights would be in great jeopardy if the McCain/Palin ticket won the election.

What are your thoughts?

Obama Offers DP Benefits

James — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:00:45 +0000

President Barack Obama, under growing criticism for not seeking to end the ban on openly gay men and women in the military, is extending benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees.

Obama plans to announce his decision on Wednesday in the Oval Office, a White House official said Tuesday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the president hadn’t yet signed the presidential memorandum.

Obama Annouces LGBT Pride Month

James — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:09:51 +0000

On Monday, President Obama declared the month of June as the office month of LGBT Pride. He has released an official statement on the White House website.

OK, so for all of you doubters, haters, and basically impatient people out there who waited through 8 years of George W. to blast President Obama in his first few months in office for not doing enough for the LGBT community (not like is plate isn’t overflowing with things to do and undo) it looks as though he has stepped forward and declared June the official month of LGBT Pride.