GOP Voter Suppression Billboards Up In Ohio and Wisconsin

You just knew the Teapublicans in their racist desperation to defeat President Obama wouldn't put all their political eggs in the passing of voter ID suppression laws basket knowing there was a possibility they would get struck down in the courts. 

They had Plans B,.C and D as well in the works to accomplish their goal of making President Obama a one-term POTUS by jacking with the coalition of senior, students, non-whites and white liberal progressive voters that swept him into office in 2008.

The GOP cranked up their voter suppression machinery and prepared for the November 6 election by training and planning the deployment of partisan poll watchers looking for voter 'iiregularities'.  Their True the Vote vigilantes were filing lawsuits and browbeating election boards trying to challenge registrations.   In addition to training their True the Vote vigilantes to harass people in Black and Latino precincts, in other GOP controlled states such as Florida the were attempting to pass voter ID voter suppression laws and illegally trying to purge people from the voting rolls less than 60 days before this critical election.

Why?  In order to shave off enough votes to swing states to the Romney-Ryan ticket.

It fits with the Republican motto: If you can't beat 'em, cheat 'em.

The latest reprehensible Suppress the Vote activity is these billboards paid for by a shadowy foundation that are popping up in African-American and Latino neighborhoods in Ohio and Wisconsin.  They are designed to 'scurr' people into not casting ballots in this critical presidential election.



The billboards in question are owned by Clear Channel, a conservative leaning media corporation that has been owned by Bain Capital since 2008.  Clear Channel's radio stations right wing talkers Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and others..

It also shouldn't surprise you that fourteen directors of Clear Channel since 1994 have donated over $700,000 to Romney campaigns since 1994, with much of the money being donated in this current presidential election cycle..

ColorofChange has a petition up demanding the billboards be taken down, which they are refusing to do..

Stay tuned to see what happens with those billboards.  Speaking of those billboards, don't let them dissuade you or anyone else you know in your 'hood who is eligible in this election to bumrush the polls and cast your ballots to fire the Republicans who arrogantly tried to suppress your precious right to vote. 

Like Rev. Al said in his MSNBC commercials promoting his show, I stopped being scared of the boogeyman before I exited elementary school and I'm damned sure not 'scurred' of Republican True the Vote bullies trying to suppress my vote.   And may I remind you misguided conservapeople that harassment of voters is a punishable felony offense.

In fact the more you Tea Klux Klanners engage in this anti-American behavior the more you're pissing me off and ensuring I'm showing up to cast that ballot.  Take your soul to the polls and a few friends with you. 

But it's just another concrete example of why African-Americans and increasingly Latin@s have no love for the GOP.. 

Rosie Perez Smacks Mittens In Video

"Being Latino wouldn't win you the election, but saying jokingly that you wish you were may actually lose it for you."  Rosie Perez

Rosie Perez in a new video calls out Mitt Romney for the joke he made that was caught on the infamous 47% video.

He joked he would have an easier time in this election if he were Latino and Perez humorously reminds viewers of all the "Hispanic presidents" from "Jorge Washington to "Jorge Bush, uno y dos."

"Oh my goodness, what if you were just a little bit gay, Mitt? Think of all the advantages that would provide. No, wait for it. What if you had a vagina? If you were a gay Latina this election would be in the bag for you. Unfortunately, for you Mitt, you were cursed with the hard-knock life growing up as the son of a wealthy governor and auto executive," says Perez, as she wipes away fake tears.

She also bluntly says why he has little support in the Latin@ community.   "Your policies suck."





You know Rosie, that's the same reason a large majority of African-Americans ain't voting for Willard either.

Besides, we like the African-American family that currently occupies that nice house our ancestors built with their unpaid labor at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and want them there until January 20, 2017..

Critical Second Presidential Debate Tonight

The format is a town hall style one with CNN's Candy Crowley as the moderator and 80 undecided voters,  but the stakes are even higher as Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama square off in the second of their three presidential debates at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY.

The polls are back to being tied after Mittens lied his way to a bump in them after their first debate in Denver and VP Joe Biden eviscerated Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) in Thursday's vice presidential debate.

Add to this situation the fact we already have early voting going on in several states including the must win one for Romney of Ohio.    Texas gets to join the early voting party starting on October 22, the date of the last presidential debate in Florida.

We will see later tonight which 'Multiple Choice Mitt' shows up tonight.   Will it be the moderate one who has been MIA for the last two years as he tried to secure the Republican nomination or will it be the 'Severely conservative' one? 

And you can bet President Obama will be ready to rumble tonight after being caught off guard by the surprise appearance of Multiple Choice Mitt.

Break out the snacks and get ready for one interesting 90 minutes of television that will have a bearing on who has the lead going into the final 2012 presidential debate in Florida.

Romney's Bigot Base

Had someone try to argue the point with me on my Facebook page last week that race wasn't a part of this 2012 election cycle.   If you believe that, you're as clueless as Stacey Dash.

Have you been hearing the dog whistle racist comments the Romney-Ryan team make on a regular basis?

If you haven't the bigot base of the GOP definitely has.  So have non-white American voters.  The only reason this election is even this close is because of 'gentleman' like this t-shirt wearing supporter of the Romney-Ryan ticket who forgot his pointed white hood before heading to this rally .

So if this picture pisses you off, do something about it.  Bust your ass to ensure the Obama family doesn't leave the White House until January 20, 2017.

Handle your electoral business on November 6 (or whenever early voting kicks in for you) so that POTUS 44 gets 4 more years in office and Mr Bigot and his friends are forced to watch a replay of this picture on January 20.

2012 Vice Presidential Debate Wrapup

Okay squishy liberals, you can calm the f@$k down now.   Vice President Joe Biden handed Congressman Paul Ryan his behind in their debate at Centre College in Danville, KY last night.

You conservafools disagree with that assessment?   Wasn't it y'all who said just last week if you're complaining about the moderator your side lost the debate?   

Y'all were attacking Martha Raddatz before she even sat down at the table to ask her first question.   When your laughable (pun intended) rationale for declaring Ryan the winner is because Biden was 'smiling too much' and 'rude', yeah right.  

Vice President Biden was combative, took him to school on foreign policy and called Ryan out on his kill Medicare voucher plan.   The vice POTUS also repeatedly whacked him with the Romney 47% remark and reminded people that Ryan said something just as damaging in that 30% of the Americn people were 'takers'.

One of the best moments of the night was while Ryan was railing about the stimulus and how 'horrible' it was, Biden busted him with the revelation that he'd written two letters on behalf of his district asking for that stimulus money.   

Can you say 'hypocrite' boys and girls?   Thought you could.    That took Ryan from the Land of Policy Make Believe real fast on that subject.


Ryan also admitted that their ticket wants to kill Roe v Wade, which may prove problematic over the next 26 days with women voters in light of the vice POTUS reminding people the next president gets to select some Supreme Court justices who may determine whter Roe v Wade statys the law of the land.

But most importantly, Biden's win slowed the momentum that was starting to build  for the GOP after Denver and now sets President Obama up nicely for Tuesday's town hall debate on the Hofstra University campus.

Way to go Joe!

2012 Vice Presidential Debate Tonight

It's the Thrill In Danville, KY at 7 PM CDT, aka the Vice Presidential Debate between Vice President Joe Biden and challenger Rep. Paul Ryan.   Hopefully this will be more fun to watch than seeing last week's first presidential debate in which Mitt Romney lied for over and hour and a half and the POTUS admitted on the Tom Joyner Morning Show yesterday he was too polite in not responding to the non-stop lying.Mittens was doing.

While presidential debates usually don't determine who wins the election, this one may have the potential to do precisely that.   It's also going to be one that is watched by much of the American populace.

The 90 minute debate at Centre College will cover foreign affairs and domestic policy topics. Unlike last Wednesday’s presidential debate where both candidates stood behind podiums on a stage, in this debate, both candidates will be seated at a table for this discussion.

And hoping debate moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC doesn't allow herself to get run over and bullied ilike Jim Lehrer did.

Got Mentioned In A Jill Stein Interview

You know people are reading your blog when you get mentioned in a question posed to one of the alternative presidential candidates. 

The Green Party's Jill Stein has been mentioned by some of the far left folks as their preferred presidential candidate, and in this interview with Peter J. Reilly I get mentioned along with our odious vanillacentric cis privileged trans oppressor.  

There's a portion of the Stein interview in which he brings up the specious women's spaces argument being pimped by Bug and her Whyte Radfem Womyn Gone Wyld.  

Why I'm On Your Behinds To Vote

Today is the last day in CO, FL, OH, NM, PA and Texas that you can register to vote for the upcoming 2012 presidential election cycle. 

You regular readers have probably noticed I've been frequently posting news and updates about unjust voter suppression laws being overturned by the courts, impending registration deadlines and who to call and how to report it if the True the Vote Teapublican azzholes try to commit a felony and intimidate you from casting your ballot.

I'm also writing posts about what's at stake in this November 6 election.  I will continue to frequently do so until the day after it happens.

If you're asking why I'm on your behinds to vote, I'm about to tell you.

African-American men got the right to vote via the 15th Amendment to the Constitution in 1870 and African-American women via the 19th Amendment in 1920.   While we African-Americans on paper had the Constitution backing up our right to vote, in reality grandfather clauses, literacy tests and poll takes effectively shut us out of the electoral process until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The first election I eagerly got to participate in was the 1980 presidential one between President Carter and Ronald Reagan.  My first Houston mayoral race in 1981 was the historic one in which I got to cast a vote for our first female mayor in Kathy Whitmire.  I stood in line in the rain in 1983 to participate in my first Texas gubernatorial one in which I helped to vote Mark White into the governors mansion and kick Republican Bill Clements out and in 1990 when I proudly cast my ballot for Ann Richards in 1990.

And I remember the pride I felt when I was able in 1997 to elect Houston's first African-American mayor in Lee P. Brown and four years ago when I cast my ballot for President Obama. 

But I'm on your behinds to vote because it's your way to own your power and help determine the people who will be entrusted with the power to govern us at our various government levels.

I'm on your behinds to vote because people like President Lyndon B Johnson used his political capital to get the 1965 Voting Rights Act passed

I'm on your behinds to vote because too many people like Rep John Lewis (D-GA) fought, shed blood, took beatdowns and in some cases died for you to take your butt to your nearby polling place and take a few moments out of your day to cast a ballot  in each and every election.


And yes, from time to time you get the opportunity to help make history in the process.

Your vote is your voice in this political system.  All the marches, Occupy whatever events, blog posts and seminars will not change the system if you have a problem with the way we are governed.   Taking your behind to a polling place and actually casting a ballot for candidates running for office will. 

The first step to that is making sure you're registered so you can do so, and then participating in each and every election cycle, not just presidential ones..

So if you aren't registered, get busy doing so.
    

Liberals: Chill The F%@K Out

I know y'all wanted the knockout blow for this 2012 presidential election in last night's Denver debate (and so did I), but did y'all really think Romney and company were going to roll over and play dead after all the money and dirty GOP politricks they invested in trying to win this election?  

Did you think that President Obama was going to have an easy time with a person in Mitt Romney who has repeatedly demonstrated that he will lie and say anything to get elected?

If you're being honest with yourselves, nope.

Remember, when we woke up yesterday morning the POTUS was leading in all 9 battleground states, the news was good coming from Nate Silver and they were starting to cast early voting ballots in Ohio yesterday morning. 

Relax. Last night's debate performance isn't going to change the fact that non-white Americans know that a Mitt Romney presidency won't do squat for them and we will be bumrushing the polls as we're doing in Ohio right now to make sure it doesn't happen.

Women, college students and seniors know Mitt in the Oval Office want do shyt for them.  We Black people haven't forgotten Mitt and his party doesn't care for us and we'll be voting accordingly.


We already know what Mitt really thinks about those of us Americans not in his and Ann's tax bracket and the 47% video reminding you peeps of that isn't going anywhere for the next 34 days.  

This is what we're up against in terms of Romney's base.




And liberals, remember, President Obama is still a #POTUSwhileBlack.  He can't allow himself to be seen as the 'Angry Black Man' that Mitt was trying to goad him into becoming last night.  A first debate loss doesn't determine the outcome of the overall presidential election. Ask President Kerry and President Mondale about that.  

So don't go into panic mode. 

There's the vice presidential debate October 11 and a town hall format style one on the Hofstra University campus October 18 that will probably favor the president because those questions will come from the audience with the final one happening on October 22, the day I and other Texans will begin casting early voting ballots.


So to say this in Samuel L. Jackson speak: Liberals; chill the f%@K out and go the frack to sleep.  We have 34 more days before this is over.

You'll need to wake up in a few hours more determined to have the president's back and be more energized than ever to fight for the November 6 win that we know this country needs.

This 2012 Election Is STILL About The Supreme Court

As much as the pundits will try to make this election about the economy, I submit this election is about a far more important factor the media pundits aren't talking about in terms of the Supreme Court.

I bring this subject up because in a few hours another term of our nation's highest judiciary body starts and runs through June 2013.   Just as in the last term, there will be some contentious subjects such as Section V of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, same gender marriage, Prop 8 and affirmative action that come up to be argued in front of the 5-4 conservative leaning Roberts Court.

It hasn't escaped my attention that there are four justices who are over 70 years of age.  Clinton appointed Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg (77) and Stephen Breyer (71) are past that age on the liberal progressive side.

Reagan appointed Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy (73) is a predominately right leaning swing vote, and reliably conservative Antonin Scalia is 74.    

The next president (and I pray it's a second term President Obama) could possibly get to appoint three and possibly four Supreme Court justices during his next term  and shape the direction and political orientation of it for the next thirty to 40 years.  

For you people who claim there's no difference between the two parties, nowhere does your rhetoric look more delusional and politically clueless than when it comes to what person is in the Oval Office picking Supreme Court justices and judges for the federal judiciary.

The last thing I want is a President Romney (yecch) advised by Robert Bork picking those justices.


I would rather have it continue in the liberal-progressive direction of being diversified as the trend has been under President Obama.  

We have already seen President Obama's first two picks be women in terms of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. 

I'd also like to remind people there has never been an African-American woman, an Asian of any gender, a Latino male or a Native American jurist of any gender selected to serve on the SCOTUS.

As a matter of fact President Obama's judiciary picks have been leaning heavily towards women and persons of color.   He has had appointed and confirmed a record 72 women to the federal judiciary in his first term with 29 of those women being non-white ones.   31 of President Obama's judicial picks were African-American, three were openly gay and there is no reason to doubt that pattern won't continue in a second Obama term

With a gridlocked Congress, the federal judiciary will become more important to advancing our human rights agenda.  With 90 federal judicial vacancies and four potential ones at the Supreme Court level diversity in the federal judiciary not only improves the quality of the decisions rendered by federal courts, it's a trend I want to see continue.

It's not only about the economy stupid, it's about the federal judiciary. and especially the political orientation the Supreme Court will take for the people in my generation for the rest of our lives.

Ponder that point as you enter the voting booth on November 6 or whenever during this month you get to cast your early voting ballots.

Samuel L. Jackson Wake The F&@k Up Ad

I've been trying to say it on this blog in a more diplomatic fashion to you misguided people who claim there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans. 

Yes, there most certainly is, and it's time for y'all to wake up to that reality.  .  

Samuel L. Jackson in this NSFW ad just tells it like it T-I-S is in terms of how critical this November 6 election is to our country.

The Trans Racial Political Divide Shows Up At SCC 2012

While I was owning my power inside I-495 AKA the Capitol Beltway, I thought about during some OUT on the Hill downtime that the Southern Comfort Conference was also going on in the ATL.   I've attended the 1999, 2000 and 2004 editions of SCC and it was undeniably a part of my trans activist evolution. 

Because at one point it was the largest trans gathering in the United States convention hierarchy, SCC has also been the backdrop of major trans political intrigue and drama.  The 2007 SCC convention was a major case in point of that . 

With its dates conflicting with OUT on the Hill and the increasing need for me to be in Washington DC for that event, it's highly unlikely I'll be back at another SCC unless I'm invited to do a keynote speech.

I've written SCC posts in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 but didn't this year.   I've talked about the irony of an overwhelmingly vanillacentric conference smack dab in a city considered the Black GLBT mecca.  I've noted the sincere attempts of the SCC board to diversify their attendance and one of their awkward moments brought on by that lack of diversity in 2008..  

My distinguished trans elder Cheryl Courtney-Evans attended the 2012 edition of SCC and reported in her abitchforjustice blog some of her observations about the sharp racial political divide that permeated this year's event over the looming presidential election.

So needless to say I was surprised, even shocked to find the reactions I got to my flier distribution...virtually every African American transgender person I offered one to, took it (some with the smile & "Obama in '12" comment). But I found that many of the Caucasians in attendance would refuse with a shake of the head (one telling me, "I'm not a fan of Obama's"), or just lay them down and leave them somewhere. It was during one of my 'smoke breaks' that I witnessed and heard comments from some Caucasian trans who were discussing a flier that was lying on a table between us from one of these "lay it down & leave it" occasions. "I really don't see what difference it's gonna make," she said, "they're both the same; they're gonna say one thing and do another after they're elected..."  WHAT??! Where have they been the last four years?? Hadn't they heard what one of their own had just said at lunch? (Also, I could see they were old enough to have seen at least three different presidents and their actions with regards to transgenders.)  Then I had to stop and think about who was talking...

Once again people, race matters, even in our little trans subset of society.  It's one of the reasons why NBJC and TPOCC exist.   Here's the rest of Cheryl's post for y'all to peruse.. 

Texas GOP, It's Payback Time In One Month

While I'm beginning another day of Owning My Power during this thrid edition of OUT on the Hill, my mind still is thinking about events back home and the significance of what happens thirty days from today's date.

What's happening in thirty days?   Glad you asked inquisitive TransGriot reader.

October 22 is the first day we Texans get to cast early voting ballots in this 2012 presidential election cycle and for you peeps who wish to join me, here's the info to get the election party started. . 

The Texas Republican Party not only worked hard to suppress mine and the votes of millions of non-white Texans, seniors, and Texas college students, they also pushed a 2012 party platform that has amongst its odious planks a call for the repeal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. 


I know which party values my vote and stood up for my constitutional right to cast it and which one did everything possible (and is still actively working) to suppress it, and I'll be voting accordingly on that date.

Thanks to the efforts of US Attorney General Eric Holder, a long list of allies and Section V of the 1965 Voting Rights Act law you conservafools claim is no longer necessary (yeah, right) all I'll need when I show up to vote on October 22 at one of those Harris County early voting polling centers is my yellow Texas voter registration card.

So yes, I already know what is on my agenda on that date, and it ain't voting for Mitt Romney or anyone with an 'R' behind their name.

Time To Run Up The Political Score

It's football season as you can tell by the jump in football related posts on my blog.  I've made it no secret that love of football is part of my Texan DNA and being a proud daughter of the Lone Star State.

When the University Interscholastic League, the governing body for Texas high school scholastic activities and its 'separate-but-equal' counterpart the Prairie View Interscholastic League were being integrated back in the late 60's-early 70's, you still had the stench of prejudice tainting many athletic and academic competitions persisting till the mid 80's between predominately Black and predominately white schools.

For those of us at predominately Black schools during that period, we not only wanted to win, but had a heightened incentive to prove we could successfully compete with the white kids and vanquish them.

In many cases we were the first groups of kids to get that historic opportunity, so we not only wanted to do well, but represent our community with class, pride, dignity and honor despite the sometimes shady officiating and jacked up rulings we'd get.  We'd also observed overt or covert cheating from the predominately white schools and referees that would be ignored.  We noted through previous examples of talented African-American high school squads (or integrated ones) that made deep playoff runs that if the game were close, the questionable calls or rulings would come down in favor of the predominately white school.     

So if we were in that situation, our mantra was to 'take the refs out of the game'.  In other words, if it was an officiated sport like football or basketball, the mission was to play well enough to not only avoid crucial penalties or fouls, but to run the score up to the point that a jacked up call or bigoted officials trying to shape the game in the white school's favor didn't determine the outcome because we were beating that predominately white school by a lopsided margin.

For a perfect example of what I'm talking about, see the movie Remember the Titans.    

It was why I had that mentality in 8th grade when I was captain of my History Prep Bowl team in junior high school it was 1st and 2nd place or bust.   Anything else was a wasted trip.  We also as the only Black school there wanted to prove we could compete and win the academic contest that conventional bigoted wisdom said we didn't have the 'necessities' to win.   We not only won that year, but won our matched in lopsided margins and earned a nice pizza party for our efforts.     

So how does this apply to the 2012 presidential race?   Pull up a chair and I'll break it down for you.

The narrative the corporate conservative controlled media has been trying to spin this entire election season is that the 2012 presidential election is close when even Stevie Wonder can see that Mitt Romney isn't qualified to be president of the United States, much less its commander in chief. 

The poll numbers since the conventions are starting to reflect that, and the conservanatives are starting to get restless.  President Obama has multiple ways to garner 270 electoral votes and get reelected, but the reality has always been the GOP has a narrower electoral vote path. If they don't get Ohio, and lose any of their Solid South states (think old Confederacy) like they are on track to do in Virginia, Florida and possibly North Carolina without grabbing from the Obama column Pennsylvania (which they tried to do with that shady voter suppression law) one of the upper Midwest states such as Wisconsin, Iowa or Michigan or some of the Southwestern swing states like Nevada, Colorado, or New Mexico, they're screwed.  

Now is not the time for our liberal progressive side to relax.  Since I'm bathing this political post in football analogies, we're just in the third quarter, we took the lead and the GOP side just made the equivalent of fumbling the ball Jacoby Jones style deep in their territory with that boneheaded cheap Romney political attack of the POTUS in the wake of four American diplomats losing their lives in Libya.

Now is the time to not only get the killer instinct and go for the touchdown that puts this game away, but run up the political score.  It's time not only ensure the POTUS gets reelected, but build on our Senate majority and give Senate majority Leader Harry Reid a better one to work with now that Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Ben Nelson (DINO-NE) are gone.  

We only need to flip 25 House seats to take it back.  The  GOP has 77 freshman legislators, many of them notorious Teabaggers like Joe Walsh in Illinois and Allen West in Florida. . Let's do this and give John Boehner something to really cry about on January 3, 2013 when he has to hand the House leadership gavel back to a smiling Rep. Nancy Pelosi when the Democrats retake the House.    

Let's start the process of not only taking our state legislatures back, but ensuring we kick Republicans out of judicial seats, Attorney General posts and replace them with Democrats who will be more in line with fighting for the middle class interests than Republicans who lead toward corporate interests. 

In Texas we need to get control of our State Board of Indoctrination Education from the right wing nuts that have made us a national laughingstock in their brazen attempt to inject conservafool doctrines in our school curriculum. 

I haven't forgotten about that disgusting to me as a TK (teacher's kid) the plank in the 2012 Texas GOP platform that seeks to prohibit teaching critical thinking skills to Texas school children.  

We especially need to focus special attention on Secretary of State positions since they are the people that make the calls on voting rights issues.  As John Husted in Ohio proved once again, his knee-grow predecessor Kenneth Blackwell did in 2004 and Katherine Harris did in Florida in 2000 , we cannot trust Republicans to do the right thing on voting issues when they have that power.

We got work to to, so lets keep the starters on the field and keep scoring political TD's until November 7.

  

Rev. Dr William Barber's Open Letter To Clergy Pimping Wedge Issues

Rev. Dr William Barber, II is the president and CEO of the North Carolina NAACP and one of the leaders in the progressive coalition effort to defeat North Carolina's odious Amendment One.  

The Forces of Intolerance won that battle to enshrine hatred and discrimination in the North Carolina constitution. 

Now fresh off that victory, NOM is resorting to their documented wedge issue playbook and sending their star sellout knee-grow Patrick Wooden out on the NC Black radio airwaves to try to smear President Obama, his positions and attempt to sow discord between African-American and LGBT voters

Rev. Dr William Barber and the progressive side ain't having it.   He responded to the false ads featuring Wooden by writing this open letter..

***
Open Letter to Clergy Who Are Trying to Confuse African American Voters on Wedge Issue of Marriage Equality

While the NAACP does not endorse candidates for President of our nation, we vigorously debate the issues that should shape national, state, and local elections. And we will challenge those who attempt to mislead our communities. Some clergy are wrongly criticizing and distorting the views of the President on the issue of marriage equality. They are trying to confuse African American voters. They have a right to their opinions but to mislead demands a response. These clergy - whatever their motives - are woefully mistaken if they believe such tactics will work.

President Obama is President of the United States. His position as leader of all Americans represents the noble commitment he made by oath to all Americans when he took office. The President, a former professor of law, respects the 1st Amendment, which preserves the right of and freedom from religion. He, like the Constitution, recognizes that every church has the constitutional right to decide, depending on their faith tradition, how to address the issue of marriage within their ecclesiology. The President also respects the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which he also swore to uphold. This makes it his solemn duty to guarantee the "equal protection rights" of every citizen. Civil marriage is a right protected by the constitution, despite how one feels about what constitutes a marriage personally or religiously. The President swore to uphold the rights of all the people, not just some of us. His position is the same as Republicans like Dick Cheney.

Those who insist on distorting and criticizing the President for doing his sworn duty insult the Civil Rights Movement. These clergy ally themselves with the same extreme right organizations and people who have spent millions of dollars trying to overturn the 1965 Voting Rights Act, what most historians say was the most important achievement of the Civil Rights Movement. These clergy have allied with the same regressive forces determined to re-segregate and rob our public schools of adequate funding. These forces spend millions trying to block workers' rights to organize; trying to force minorities, the poor, the elderly, and students to spend money to obtain voter photo ID's to exercise their right to vote; trying to cut the time and opportunities to vote; turning their heads away from the gross racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
These are the same extremists who are stirring the pot about "gay marriage" and other code-slogans they dream up, all designed to divide and conquer the 99% who obviously can out-vote them. Their strategy is based on an arrogant assumption that we, the sons and daughters of the Civil Rights Movement, are too dumb to see through their Trojan Horse trick. They believe they can use wedge issues to seduce us into being a part of their scheme to deny LGBT brothers and sisters of their fundamental rights. This will not happen on our watch!

Many are disturbed and feel compelled to respond to the single-issue moral litmus test being used to publicly denounce the President. Those who are manipulating this wedge issue are unwilling to acknowledge his attempts to lift the poor, lift the jobless, protect the weak from the powerful, provide health care to the sick, educational opportunity to the children, protect voting rights, and protect the rights of all Americans, all of which are efforts that clearly line up with the primary moral concerns of the Judea Christian faith. This intentional ignorance renders their critique suspect and void of credibility.

We believe the issues that should shape our evaluation of Presidential candidates and others is where do they stand and what are their plans regarding 1) economic sustainability, poverty and labor rights, 2) educational equality, 3) healthcare for all, 4) disparities in the criminal justice system and 5) defending and expanding voting rights and voter participation.

Theologically, from a bible-centric perspective, and from the Judeo Christian faith I practice, the issues that should dominate our public square are: How we treat the poor. How we treat the sick. How we treat children. How we treat women. How we treat those on the margins. How we treat the outcasts of society.
There are more than 300 scriptures on these issues, more than any other moral issue noted in the scripture. The second most noted sin in the bible is mistreatment of the" least of these", and the most noted is the sin of idolatry and self-worship, selfishness, and attempting to raise oneself to god status in judgment of others. Let us remember scriptures like these that set the normative posture for faithful service in the public arena:

Luke 4
God's Spirit is on me;
he has chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, "This is God's year to act!"
Or Isaiah 58
'Why do we fast and you don't look our way?
Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?'
'Well, here's why:
The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit.
You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight
You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do won't get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after:
a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like?'
'This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice,
Get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
to cancel debts.'

When you look at voting records and public policy positions carefully, the same forces fighting us on voting rights, educational equality, economic justice, addressing racial disparities in the criminal justice system, are the same forces sponsoring and paying for the current attacks on the LGBT community and the President.
No matter our color. No matter our faith tradition. Those who stand for love and justice are not about to fall for their trick. No matter how you feel personally about same sex marriage, no one, especially those of us whose forebears were denied constitutional protections and counted as 3/5ths of extra votes for their slave-masters, who were listed as mere chattel property in the old Constitution -- none of us -- should ever want to deny any other person constitutional protections.

What is most concerning about these clergy who try to suggest that this one wedge issue is the standard for measuring the moral fiber of our President, or anyone else for that matter, is that they seem to dismiss the essential call of the Judea Christian faith -- to love everybody. We are commanded by our faith and God to care for the stranger, especially those on the margins as Jesus did.

Is it an act of love for these clergy to unite themselves with groups like the Family Research Council, the National Organization on Marriage, and other elements who have been classified as Hate Groups by national organizations who track the extreme right? Is it an act of caring for strangers, when these clergy embrace the right-wing philosophy of othering people? Of demonizing fellow human beings whom God clearly and dearly loves? Is it an act of Christian love to claim allegiance to scriptural standards that say so little about what.

God says so much and so much about what God says so little? Have these dismissed the "weightier matters of the law"-- issues like poverty, caring for children, protecting women, the vulnerable, the least of these, and healing the sick? Do they fail to realize that it is even possible to be religiously heterocentric, without being constitutionally and socially homophobic? I pray that we will stop this denunciation of the President and other public servants and judge Him and them by the totality of their service and not through schemes designed by those outside our community to divide us for their own sinister and cynical motives.

Yours in the Spirit of Truth and Justice,
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II
President North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP

Mitt And Ann, Show Us The Tax Returns

One of the things I'm chuckling about as this 2012 election campaign mercifully enters the home stretch is how much tap dancing Mittbot and his beloved wife are doing to avoid by any means necessary showing more than two years of his tax returns. 

You and your stay at home 1% wife Ann can whine all you want, but the bottom line is that you are running for the presidency.   If you didn't want the media and the electorate asking legitimate questions about your finances, then you shouldn't have run for president. 

And sending your wife out to cover for you isn't going to change things either.

If giving 23 years of tax returns to the McCain campaign when you were vetted for the vice presidency in 2008 was okay then, and you asked for multiple years for your own vice presidential nominee, then it's good enough for those of us who have inquiring minds about just what information is in those tax returns you don't want to come out?

So pull up the temple garments and deal with it because politics is a contact sport.   You will not be allowed to give vague non-answers to questions the voting public has a right to know about you and think you'll slide into the presidency by riding the bigot vote into office.   .     .  

Neither one of you peeps word is good enough when you claim you've paid your taxes and given your 10% in tithes to the Mormon church.  Mitt lies on a daily basis on the campaign trail about everything else including his records in government and his business dealings, so why should we presume that he isn't lying when it comes to this topic as well?.

You say that the charges that you haven't paid taxes for several years are false, only one way to prove that, especially in light of the fact that President Obama has released his tax returns back to 2000. . 

So what's stopping you from not only matching that, but the precedent your own father set when he ran for the presidency in 1968?

Mitt and Ann, show us the tax returns.

Where's The Diversity In The Presidential Debate Moderator Lineup?

The presidential debates between President Obama and Mitt Romney and the vice presidential debates between Vice President Biden and Paul Ryan will occur in October.  

The schedule and debate subjects have already been determined along with the locations for the four scheduled debates, but the moderators were just announced yesterday..

First Presidential Debate

October 3, University of Denver, Denver, CO

Moderator: Jim Lehrer, PBS

Vice Presidential Debate

October 11, Centre College, Danville, KY

Moderator: Martha Raddatz, ABC

Second Presidential Debate (town hall -meeting format)

October 16, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

Moderator: Candy Crowley, CNN

Third Presidential Debate

October 22, Lynn University, Boca Raton, FL
Moderator: Bob Schieffer, CBS

The first presidential debate will focus on domestic policy and be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics to be selected by the moderator and announced several weeks before the debate. The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond.  The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the topic.

The vice presidential debate will cover both foreign and domestic topics and be divided into nine time segments of approximately 10 minutes each. The moderator will ask an opening question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the question.

The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which citizens will ask questions of the candidates on foreign and domestic issues. Candidates each will have two minutes to respond, and an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate a discussion. The town meeting participants will be undecided voters selected by the Gallup Organization.

The format for the third presidential debate will be identical to the first presidential debate and will focus on foreign policy.

The question I and every non-white American is asking ourselves right now is where's the diversity in the moderator lineup?

Granted, CNN's Candy Crowley will be the first woman in over 20 years to moderate a presidential debate.  But you couldn't ask Gwen Ifill, who has moderated the 2004 and 2008 vice presidential debates to do so?   You mean to tell me Presidential Debate Commission you couldn't find a single non-white journalist to moderate at least one of these debates?

Here's the short list of people of color journalists I came up with in addition to Gwen Ifill that could easily moderate these debates: Martin Bashir, Tamron Hall, Roland Martin, Alina Cho, Suzanne Malveaux, TJ Holmes, Ed Gordon, Soledad O'Brien.....  

Or is it you didn't look hard enough?

Trans United For Obama Launched

As I've stated more than a few times on TransGriot, while elements of the GL community have sniped at President Obama and in some cases delusionally called him 'the worst president ever on gay issues', as far as the trans community is concerned, he's been the best president ever on trans issues in US history.

A national volunteer organization was recently formed called Trans United for Obama (TU4O) that is designed to rally transgender people, supporters, allies, and families to re-elect President Barack Obama and ensure he is taking the oath of office on January 20, 2013 for his second term.

Here's the TU4O announcement post courtesy of Meghan Stabler, elected Texas delegate for the upcoming 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC.

***

President Obama has led so many historic positive policy changes for transgender equality--- more than any elected official in history! We are involved on all levels, from door-knocking, doing data entry, fundraising, registering voters, and getting the message out that President Obama must be re-elected... all the things a victorious campaign and our community needs.

I am personally inviting you to be a part of this community.

We are trans leaders, advocates, educators, bloggers, authors, and allies out to educate people about the historic accomplishments that the Obama Administration has made in the past four years to secure equal rights and protections for transgender, transsexual and intersex identified, and for for all LGBT Americans.

Did you know that more has been accomplished by the Obama administration for trans rights equality than all 43 other presidents combined? For example:

• Ended the Social Security Administration’s gender “no-match” letters and allowed for true gender passports
• Ensured that transgender Americans can receive true gender passports without surgery
• Established guidelines to help protect transgender federal employees from discrimination in the workplace
• Made sure transgender veterans receive respectful care according to their true gender through the Veterans Health Administration

You can read additional accomplishments here

This is where you play a part. We are standing with our President and ask that you join us, and help build TU4O!

• We will hold frequent conference calls with you and with the campaign where you will be invited to participate.
• We will work with the campaign to make sure that all of the campaign offices are ready for and respectful of trans volunteers. 
• We will work with the campaign to register trans voters and make sure trans people aren’t denied the right to vote because of the recent new voter ID laws in certain states.

So join us! Together we can re-elect President Obama for another 4 years of solid progress, legislation and policy for the trans community.

Sign up now to join Trans United for Obama.

Donate to the campaign

Click for more information on Trans United for Obama and follow us on Facebook.

Don't forget to donate whatever you can to get President Obama re-elected; $25, $50, $100 can go a long way to help protect our community!

Handle Your Electoral Business, Wisconsin

You've been outspent 25-1 by an avalanche of corporate and right wing billionaire money.  The polls are all over the map and the conservafools have sent Bobby Jindal,  Nikki Haley and a parade of conservafools to your state to campaign for Scott Walker.   Fox Noise and the conservafools don't think you'll kick him to the curb. 

It's Tuesday June 5, the day you peeps in Wisconsin worked hard to make happen.  Now it's time to bumrush the polls, recall Scott Walker the four Republican senators and you lieutenant governor and end the GOP dictatorship . Grab a friend (or two or three or four) and take them to the polls with you to help make it happen.. 

The Republifools are already running 'scurred'.  Walker got eviscerated in the debate with Barrett since all he can do like any Republican is lie through his felonious teeth and run false attack ads.  Reince Priebus is already whining about 'voter fraud'.  The conservafool media is on the attack. 

But I'm not telling you peeps in the Badger State stuff y'all don't know already.   The eyes of the nation and the world are on you,. Make us liberal progressives proud, be agents of your own liberation and show us the Badger State ain't taking this conservamess.  

Handle your electoral business, Wisconsin..   .

Texas Primary Early Voting Ends May 25

For my Lone Star State TransGriot readers, you peeps are already aware of the fact based on all the political ads running on TV and radio the early voting phase of our state's delayed primary elections are happening.  In case you haven't done your civic duty you have until May 25 to get your vote on if you wish to do so before the May 29 election day.

Remember, thanks to the Department of Justice the Texas Voter Suppression Law is NOT in effect, so all you will need to cast your ballot is your voter registration card.

The cool thing about early voting is that you get to choose the location you vote at and it fits your schedule.   If you wait until May 29 to vote, you can only do so at your regular precinct location.

For you Harris County TransGriot readers, here's the 37 locations you can choose from to exercise your right to vote for the people who will be Democratic or that other party's candidates in November.

The Texas NAACP is watching for any voter irregularities and BS designed to suppress voter turnout in our communities, so if you happen to witness or experience it, give the Texas NAACP a call.

Once again peeps, you have until May 25 to participate in early voting, and to find out where you can hit you local county website for the locations.