What the hell is wrong with ABC News

First, a continuation of the post from yesterday.

It appears that despite the wranglings, press releases, hyperbolic nonsense, and the intervention of Senator Jim DeMint, the religious right lobby against part of the stimulus package that they say discriminates against Christians has failed:

Right Wing Zombie Lies Fail in Senate February 5, 2009 - God Bless America.

This next issue isn't exactly lgbt related per se, but it gives a good reason why it's difficult for us to win the p.r. argument:

ABC: Obama Is Hypocritical For Limiting Wall Street Pay While Having A ‘Lavish Lifestyle’:

Yesterday, President Obama instituted a pay cap on bailed out businesses after it was revealed that Wall Street doled out an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses last year. “If the taxpayers are helping you, then you’ve got certain responsibilities to not be living high on the hog,” he explained.

In what appears to be an attempt to call Obama a hypocrite, ABC’s Scott Mayerowitz “reports” today that the President also has a “lavish lifestyle.” Under the title: “Obama’s Perks: Private Jet, Chef Tax-Free,” ABC notes that Obama earns $400,000 dollars a year and even has a private jet

Unbelievable. And here I thought Obama was the President of the United States and leader of the free world who will constantly be on call for at least four (I'm hoping eight) years.

Must have been my mistake.

The big question is will the religious right and other conservatives actually run with this article? Or will they show restraint for a change.

The religious right and the precision of their lies

Earlier this week, while I speculated on the power of the religious right echo chamber, People for the American Way did me one better.

The organization is following an actual case demonstrating just how the religious right is able to successfully push distortions and lies.

The following increments is taken from PFAW's Religious Right Watch:

ACLJ Demands Non-Existent Threat Be Stripped from Stimulus Bill - Feb. 3, 2009 - The right wing American Center for Law and Justice inaccurately claims that President Obama's stimulus package contains a threat to religious activities on colleges and universities.

DeMint Lends Voice to Bogus Controversy Over Stimulus Bill - Feb. 4, 2009 - My Senator from South Carolina, Jim (gays shouldn't be allowed to teach) DeMint gets involved.

Bogus Stimulus Outcry Grows as Liberty Counsel and TVC Hop on the Bandwagon - Feb. 4, 2009 - the Liberty Counsel and the Traditional Values Coalition get involved. Also, the lie gets a shout-out from Fox News due to this unbelievably biased framing of the issue - "Democrats in Congress have declared war on prayer, say conservative groups who object to a provision in the stimulus bill that was passed by the House of Representatives last week. "

ACLJ's Zombie Lie Becomes Official Right Wing Talking Point - Feb. 5, 2009 - Now the Family Research Council gets involved.

The Zombie Lie Lumbers On - Feb. 5, 2009 - And now the Christian Anti-Defamation League get involved. You remember that group, don't you? They were the ones who accused President Obama of bashing Christians simply because he has a different view of the religion.

Sen. DeMint Spews Zombie Lies on Senate Floor, Compares Opponents to George Wallace - Feb. 5, 2009 - And now, Senator DeMint has been handed the ball and he is running with it. By the way, the defintion of irony alert - South Carolina Senator DeMint evoking the image of a racist George Wallace while the Confederate Flag hangs at the SC State House along with a statue dedicated to a virulent racist (Ben "Pitchfork" Tillman) who bragged on the Senate floor about murdering African-Americans.

And that, my friends, is how it is done.

While I certainly can't give the religious right points for integrity, they get a '10' in precision.

See how they lie

Jeremy from Good As You pointed this out and I just want to piggyback on it.

Yesterday, I wrote how Peter LaBarbera is going on another crusade against an alleged bondage/sadomaschistic event at a hotel.

Usually LaBarbera goes after gay subcultural events and tries to use them to generalize about all lgbts.

However, this event in question has to do with heterosexuals, not lgbts. Even LaBarbera's screechings about the event emphasizes this point.

But today comes the news that this doesn't stop World Net Daily from proclaiming the following:

Another homo-sex-fest set for hotel'

Winter Wickedness' to include 'sadomasochistic perversion'

What can you say about a "Christian" news source that will tell such a blatant lie?

Say it with me now - GO AWAY SALLY KERN!

I never did like the controversy regarding Oklahoma legislator Sally Kern.

I didn't like the way she consistently relied on bad information from Paul Cameron and the religious right to make her case that lgbts are as bad as terrorists.

I didn't like the way she hid behind her so-called Christian religion when questioned about her comments.

And most of all, I didn't like how the lgbt community pretty much let her get away with it.

We wasted time speculating on whether or not her son was gay or talking about what Ellen DeGeneres said about the situation. The fact that Sally Kern was a good example of how the religious right flim flams guillible people of faith into believing the worst about lgbts was a point that got lost in all of the controversy.

I was glad when the controversy died down. One wonders if Kern was because she keeps making an ass of herself:

Speaking at the Clouds Over America conference, run and organized by the John Birch Society in Oklahoma City, Kern told a welcoming crowd that she found the elusive gay agenda between the pages of Marshall Kirk's and Hunter Madsen's 1990 book After The Ball: How America Will Conquer Its fear & Hatred Of Gays In The 90s. Its authors mostly argue in 432 pages that gays and lesbians will most likely be accepted once they are liked by the general public.

Oklahoma Gazette, the Oklahoma City alternative weekly, reports Kern spoke to a packed crowd.

“You know,” Kern said, “I've done a lot of reading on this. I wish I could describe to you their behavior. I will not because I would be redder than this suit. It's their behavior that we oppose.”

Here we go again. Gays are following a six point plan to take over America. It's a standard urban legend in religious right dogma.

From time to time, the religious right will claim that the lgbt community is using the book After the Ball as a sort of blueprint to allegedly force acceptance. Then they will point to certain incidents that somehow "connect all of the dots."

To a lot of us, these incidents (i.e. more visibility and a little more acceptance for lgbts and our families) mean nothing more than positive evolutionary steps of the human existence. To the religious right, these steps are the result of planning by a group of evil geniuses intent on conquest.

Apparently they got us mixed up with their efforts to ban same-sex marriage nationwide.

For the record, the vast majority of lgbts have never heard of After the Ball - not that it matters to Kern and folks who agree with her.

The real question is will our community finally bring more attention to the fact that the religious right is intentionally putting out bad propaganda about lgbts?

Somehow I doubt that this will happen.

To some of us, it's much more fun to focus on issues such as Kern's age or weight.

The religious right's Biblically nice rhetoric

First, one little matter.

I noticed Michelle Malkin saying that due to the Tom Daschle situation, President Obama's transition has been a disaster.

Oh stop it already. Like I'm actually shocked that Malkin is criticizing Obama. She would call his State of the Union address a disaster if he coughed briefly while giving it.

If she wants induce shock, she would give President Obama credit for something.

I don't think it's a big deal. Clinton had Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, Bush had Linda Chavez, and now Obama has Tom Daschle.

It happens and it's called getting a feel for the office.

Now onto other matters - I ran across a hilarious bit in One News Now by former Concerned Women for America spokesperson and now director of Cultural Affairs at Liberty Counsel and 2008 Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters Misinformer of the Year Matt Barber.

And what is he talking about? Why lgbt folks yet again in a piece entitled Homosexuality & the laws of moral physics.

So now being a phony expert gives one expertise in "moral physics." I guess it's not enough for the religious right to fake credentials in legitimate sciences; they are now creating imaginary ones.

Anyway, it's a rather long and ponderous piece of mumbo jumbo in which Barber cites Biblical texts talking about homosexuality (and naturally excluding the parts that say homosexuals should be executed, which is highly ironic seeing that he complains about people cherry picking the Bible).

But I noticed what isn't there. Where is the "homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle" lie that I have come to expect from folks like him? Where are the discredited studies or the studies taken out of context?

I know. Wishful thinking.

Paul Cameron and gerbils still have a place in religious right lies about lgbts.

But I think there will be some subtleties played from now on.

This emphasis on the "religious wrongness of homosexuality" will probably be a recurrent theme. And the minute that President Obama tries to push something pro-lgbt forward, count on the religious right to use this theme to get them over in the African-American community.

It's not as farfetched as one thinks. The minute hate crimes legislation or ENDA comes up, expect the religious right to put on their consoling faces and try to be the heterosexual black community's best friend (despite months of inferring that black folks are racists for supporting Obama). Expect them to exploit the idea that black folks are highly religious and therefore disapproves of homosexuality in a high number.

As a black gay man, I can tell you that the notion is bullshit. It's the inability to talk about lgbt issues in the black community that has led the notion to flourish. But that's irrelevant right now.

What will most likely happen next will be the following - the black community will be too proud to admit that it is being used and the lgbt community will be too angry to realize that the religious right is counting on it to behave irrationally. Neither side will unite against the common enemies of ignorance and fear.

This will thereby lead to the end result - black folks will be angry, gay folks will be angry, Obama will be humbled, the religious right will have more press, and lgbts of color like myself will end up feeling like Gloria Vanderbilt after that custody trial.

Geez, I almost miss the Paul Cameronesque rhetoric already.

Maybe we are getting to Porno Petey

Peter LaBarbera is on another one of his crusades about bondage events:

BREAKING STORY — Columbus, Ohio Holiday Inn Hotel Hosts ‘Winter Wickedness’ Perversion-Fest

But this one is different.

LaBarbera is generally known for attending gay subcultural events (such as Folsom Street Fair), taking pictures of the most outrageous things he sees there, and then describing the events as indicative of the entire lgbt community.

So imagine my shock when I see that the event he has attacked this time (wait for it) has absolutely nothing to do with lgbts.

I kid you not. This alleged Winter Wickedness Perversion Fest seems to be strictly heterosexual.

Will wonders ever cease? And it brings up two points.

In the past, when Peter went on his jags about "homosexual perversion," he was accused of unfairly targeting the entire lgbt community. He would never talk about heterosexual subcultural events.

You think maybe he has taken the criticism to heart?

And one other thing. When talking about Folsom Street Fair and the like, he would use the events to generalize about the alleged perversions of homosexuality - thereby inferring that what he took pictures of was indicative of all lgbts, including those who have never attended Folsom Street Fair or any gay subcultural event.

His commentary today was free of such generalizations about the alleged "radical heterosexuals" or how heterosexuals are behind the "perversion of America."

It's an important point to remember when Peter does in fact try to use another gay subcultural event to stigmatize the entire lgbt community.

The religious right and the power of transference

A few minutes ago, I had a say what moment.

A say what moment is when someone says something so unbelievable that it renders you silent for a few minutes with your mouth open in shock.

Who was the culprit of this say what moment? Why my and your favorite anti-gay spokesperson, Peter LaBarbera. In a piece he wrote about the recent Creating Change conference, LaBarbera complains about a speech by Rea Carey of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

One of his points:

. . . thousands of left-wing, grassroots activists attend these annual “Creating Change” conferences; there is no parallel on the social Right for this scale of people and groups working closely together toward common goals. There are precious few organizing and political “how-to” conferences for pro-family conservatives. The Left eats and breathes politics; the Right is more distrustful of government, worse at politics, but more oriented toward God, family and church (the latter is obviously a good thing).

And thus, my say what moment.

Did LaBarbera actually say that there is no parallel on the social Right in terms of conferences and groups working together for their own agenda and the like?

Then what the hell were the Justice Sunday events in which religious right organizations whined about the courts?

Or Vision America, where pastors are "organized" to fight supposed "Godlessness,"

or those unbelievable Values Voters summits.

It's nice that LaBarbera seems to be fearful of lgbt power but his whining about organizations on his side of the so-cultural battle having no power is patently false, or to be less polite about it, a blatant lie.

At any rate, its a perfect segueway to what I wanted to write about today.

It always amazes me when I hear religious right spokespeople and organizations claim that lgbts are following some type of pragmatic plan to take over the country.

We should be so fortunate to be that organized.

I've come to the conclusion that whenever they accuse us of playing James Bond villian games, it's only to cover up just how skillful they plan and organize.

Follow me now:

The Supreme Court rules favorably for lgbts in a certain case.

One News Now, owned by the American Family Association, prints an article (biased, of course) against the ruling and quoting only so-called “pro-family” leaders such as Gary Bauer who claim that the ruling is a travesty on the country.

Other talking heads such as Michelle Malkin write columns falsely claiming that the Supreme Court ruled against them because of alleged biases of the justices. These columns are filtered
to other right-wing publications and blogs.

James Dobson (Focus on the Family) criticizes the ruling on his radio program, as does Tony Perkins (Family Research Council). Other articles are written trying to prove how the ruling will hurt America. More articles are written digging up speeches that the judges made, hinting on flimsy correlations between their ruling and so-called personal biases.

The blogs begin smear the reputations of the judges. Religious right code words (i.e. "activist judges") is repeated in columns, articles, and books.

The Traditional Values Coalition, the Family Research Council, and other so-called “pro-family” groups solicit donations making the claim that either the ruling will doom Christians and will lead to homosexuality being taught “as normal” to children or it will lead to criticizing homosexuality as being designated as a hate crime. They get people of faith who are gullible enough to believe their lies to write letters to their local newspapers (using a script of anti-gay industry talking points.)

Backdoor meetings are held and suddenly, Congressmen friendly to religious right causes begin to cite religious right talking points in speeches and on the floor of Congress.

So-called news programs (Fox News) begin debating whether or not judges have a bias against people of faith.

Talk show hosts such as Mike Huckabee have religious right spokespeople as the sole guests on their shows where they spew talking points unchallenged.

Events such as Justice Sunday fill the airwaves, scaring people of faith about a supposed plot to take away their liberties and their ability to worship.

And then they really begin to organize.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is how planning and organizing is done. And folks like Peter have cornered the market on it.