Liz Cheney’s Pro-Gay Stance Like ‘Supporting Drug Dealers’ Because One’s In Your Family

Mediaite.com:

Brian Fischer, Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association and outspoken anti-gay activist, accused new Wyoming Senatorial candidate Liz Cheney of being soft on what he calls the issue of “sodomy-based marriage” because of her sodomy-based-married sister Mary.

Yesterday, Fischer denounced Cheney’s campaign, in which she’s challenging Republican incumbent and Dick Cheney shooting buddy Mike Enzi, because she’s not anti-gay enough, no matter how (neo)conservative she may be on a host of other issues. On Thursday he wondered if the entire Cheney line had been compromised on gay marriage thanks to Mary. (Cheney père’s conservative views make an exception for the support of gay marriage as well.)

“That complicates things for a lot of people if they have somebody in their family that is homosexual, they think they’re obligated then to support the homosexual agenda,” Fischer said. “Well, that’s just absurd. If you’ve got a bankrobber in the family, that doesn’t mean you automatically have to support bank robbing as a lifestyle choice. If you’ve got a drug dealer in the family, that doesn’t automatically mean that you’re going to support drug dealing as a profession.”

This is not the first time Fischer has compared homosexuality to bank robbing, or shoplifting, or drug dealing.

“So it’s an absurd argument,” Fischer continued, “but it has a pretty strong emotional appeal. And that may have affected Dick Cheney’s view of same sex marriage, and it may well have affected Liz Cheney’s view of same sex marriage.”

Incidentally, having a bankrobber in the family doesn’t always end poorly.

RELATED:  Liz Cheney speaks out on her campaign for US Senate

Larry Elder Explodes At Piers Morgan Over George Zimmerman: You’re Condescending, ‘Stupid,’ Should Be Ashamed Of Yourself

Mediaite.com:

Piers Morgan clearly has no qualms about inviting people on his show who fiercely disagree with him or even attack him personally, and tonight’s opening interview with radio host Larry Elder did not disappoint. Elder told Morgan his interview with George Zimmerman trial witness Rachel Jeantel was horrendous and “condescending,” and even told Morgan that he was being “stupid” for his assessment of Jeantel’s character.

On Tuesday, Elder sent out a series of angry tweets about Morgan’s interview with Jeantel, beginning with this one.

Elder went on at length about underreported crime in Chicago, which Morgan agreed with, but he kept going on, even calling Morgan a “bleeding heart liberal,” until Morgan nearly shouted, “If I could just get a word in, that’s be great.” He attempted to call Elder out for “ridiculous things” he said about Jeantel, but Elder went on the warpath again, leading Morgan to remark he’s not in a competition for the “greatest filibuster in my show’s history.”

Morgan pressed Elder on whether he thought Jeantel was “stupid,” but Elder repeatedly dismissed the question and continued complaining about the myriad attention the trial’s been getting. When Morgan said Zimmerman’s getting away with no punishment, Elder loudly contradicted him, saying “He’s a marked man!” and “He will never have a moment of peace!” Morgan shot back that at least Zimmerman can walk away alive, unlike Trayvon Martin.

They also got into a back-and-forth about Zimmerman himself, after Elder asserted that he’d want more Zimmermans in his community to prevent more Ariel Castros. Morgan shot back that he has teenage sons and thus wouldn’t like the idea of Zimmermans patrolling the streets, but Elder just snarked at Morgan that he lives in a gated community so he doesn’t have to worry about that anyway.

Morgan attempted to call out Elder for questioning Jeantel’s intelligence, grilling him about her educational background as opposed to his. Elder told Piers that he shouldn’t be “treat[ing] black people like children,” and went on another tangent in which he scolded Morgan, saying, “You ought to be ashamed of yourself!”

Elder insisted he never called her stupid–that was Morgan’s word–and continued to lecture Morgan about the real problems in the black community that the media has no interest in talking about.

RELATED:  Where Is Trayvon Martin’s Rolling Stone Cover?

Democrat-Run Detroit Becomes Largest U.S. City To File for Bankruptcy

CNN.com:

Detroit filed for bankruptcy Thursday afternoon, becoming the nation's largest public sector bankruptcy. The move could slash pension benefits to city workers and retirees, and leave bond holders with only pennies on the dollar.

The bankruptcy was filed by Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and approved by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. Snyder said the financial condition of the city left him no choice. 

"We have a great city, but a city going down hill for the last 60 years," he said at an evening press conference. He said 38% of the city's budget is being spent on "legacy costs," such as pensions and debt service. He said police take almost an hour to respond to calls, compared to a national average of 11 minutes, and that 40% of street lights in the city are turned off. 

"That's unacceptable," he said.

But public employee unions are sure to fight the move, charging that the city did not negotiate in good faith and should not be allowed to walk away from obligations made to employees and retirees.

The Detroit Fire Fighters Association said it was "very disappointed" with the bankruptcy filing.

"We are working with other Detroit employees to form a unified coalition to address the financial concerns of Detroit," the group said. "Detroit's Fire Fighters will continue to protect and serve during this difficult time, regardless of the economic challenges." 

Orr already halted payments on about $2 billion in debt last month, saying the city needed to preserve its dwindling supply of cash. The city faces total liabilities of about $18 billion.

Orr's reorganization plan calls for cutting $11.5 billion in debt down to $2 billion. That would mean that investors and retirees would receive an average of just 17% of what they are owed. Specific plans for the cuts are unknown at this time. 

RELATED:  Bust: The numbers behind Detroit’s road to doom

Joe Scarborough Blasts Conservative Media: Don’t ‘Antagonize’ Black Voters ‘Just Because You Hate Al Sharpton’

He's right. Some conservatives do not believe in compromise, much less have a 'gray area'. These people are extremists and they exist on both the Left and the Right. While the Left has far more extremists than does the Right, both sides hurt their cause due to their blatant self-righteousness (i.e. ignorance) refuses to allow them to admit to being wrong, even when the facts stare at them in the face. Granted, in the case of George Zimmerman, conservatives who believe his trial was race-motivated and nothing but another attempt by white liberals to play the race card, do have a point. And sure, there are many conservatives who believe that no matter hard they try, they will never win over black Americans, esp. those who knowingly choose 'victimhood' and government aide over hard work, family values and education. Hence their hate/anger at the race-baiters on the Left. But still, a little empathy here, at least, for two parents who lost their child:

You know it’s bad when you’re looking back fondly on Richard Nixon’s share of the minority vote.

That was Joe Scarborough’s point when he linked the conservative press’ coverage of the Trayvon Martin story to the GOP’s inability to break into double-digits with African American voters. 

“Why is it that Republicans, certain elements of our party, seem to go out of their way to inflame minority voters?” Scarborough asked his panel Tuesday morning. “I know I can count on conservative outlets to have a one-sided view, and to talk about how a dead boy had it coming, and he was on marijuana, he was on pot, he was this, he was that…I would like in my lifetime for the Republican Party to get more than six percent of the African American vote.”

“It wasn’t always this way,” Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said. “Republicans used to get a huge chunk of African American vote. Now they don’t.”

Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele argued that the possible gains in minority votes were so slim, whatever the reason, that the GOP had little incentive to chase them. “Can we put on the table getting more than six percent is not going to happen in the next four years?” Steele said. “Even if those same voices you’re alluding to, Joe, had come out and were reasonable in their response as opposed to extreme in their response in some cases, there’s still a heck of a lot more that needs to be done than just saying something nice or politically correct in the Trayvon Martin case.”

Both Steele and Robinson agreed that stereotypes were in play, but Robinson made the point that with a conservative electorate growing whiter and whiter with each demographic shift, conservative outlets had even more reason to tailor coverage to racially-specific expectations.

“I have a suggestion: just because Al Sharpton is doing something and you hate Al Sharpton, doesn’t mean you help your party or your cause by going in the complete opposite direction,” Scarborough said. “Maybe sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. Maybe sometimes conservative outlets should sit back and not purposefully antagonize African Americans.”

Steele argued that the spin was spun on both sides. “It’s easier to fall into the stereotype and continue to project that than to actually sit back and recognize the reality that racism is still a sinister part of the culture and environment that African Americans, and quite frankly a lot of Americans, still have to live in,” Steele said. “It’s easier to project outward that that just doesn’t exist, because ‘I’m not that way, therefore anyone who brings this up must somehow be trying to stoke these flames, et cetera.’ I think it happens on both the right and left. I watched, as you did, to my great frustration, some on our network as well as other networks, stoke the flames in different directions, raising up images of the past with no linkage at all to the case.”

RELATED:  Jimmy Carter Agrees With Zimmerman Verdict: ‘Jury Made The Right Decision’

Barack Obama Doesn't Care About Trayvon Martin

The idea that a half-black President would better race relations in this country and put forth an agenda that would significantly include assisting black Americans here has always been laughable. Especially when you consider that it was morally bankrupt, white, social liberals who mostly financed the Obama campaign back in 2008 and 2012 (which in turn led to his upset election wins over Hillary Clinton/John McCain and Mitt Romney)--a sanctimonious legion who knew that they could cleverly appease Black Americans (a huge voting bloc) by fronting a half-black man as POTUS, while niftily turning the country into a Godless nation.

That said, as white Americans are doing better (while blacks are doing far worse) since Obama became POTUS in '08, it's funny that Black Americans continue to drench themselves in the complete naivete that Barack Obama actually cares about their needs. So while Obama, who almost never speaks openly about race (all the while the black teen jobless rate reached a staggering 39.3 percent in July 2012, while black unemployment has gotten worse under Obama), has no problem making personal calls and congratulating blacks who choose to serve the devil (i.e. "gay" NBA player Jason Collins, but not Trayvon Martin's parents), the idea that he's lost any sleep over Martin being dead is ludicrous (Oh, but he'll throw the blacks another bone and get right on that DOJ investigation into Zimmerman with the quickness....right):

America’s been waiting five years to hear more from President Barack Obama on race.

The waiting continues.

Trayvon Martin is dead and George Zimmerman was found not guilty — leaving many looking to the president to lead the thoughtful, national conversation about black-white relations they thought was promised in his 2008 campaign speech on race.

Yes, there’s a double standard. No previous president has been asked so often for his personal feelings on race. But for the first black president, that double standard is part of his life, and of his presidency. And black leaders say that, especially after last year’s election, the time has come to deliver more than what he has so far.

“The president is now in his second term. Because of the Voting Rights Act and the Trayvon Martin case” and the disproportionately greater impact on the black community from the recession, said National Urban League President Marc Morial, “I think that the table is set for the president to think about how he can address these issues not just in words, but renew some of the issues that he’s championed.”

For Morial, that means Obama, with the help of Congress, taking back up the JOBS Act and gun control legislation, and, in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict, doing so explicitly in the context of race.

Some older black leaders admit a sense of resignation after years of disappointment. Though Obama’s expected to be asked to elaborate in a series of interviews with Spanish language television stations scheduled for Tuesday, they haven’t heard much from the president since the Florida jury returned Saturday night, and they weren’t expecting to.

“It’s not unusual for the president to avoid ‘black’ and ‘race’ and ‘poverty,’ but we’re pretty much satisfied with his statement as it relates to the Zimmerman verdict,” said Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).

But given the amount of attention the case got in the news and in protests since the verdict means to Obama’s close supporters, he may have a new chance now to seize control of the conversation in a way he hasn’t to date.

“This is an opportunity for us not to kick the can down the road again, and I think it’s a chance for the president to get larger than the regular politics and the racial riffs would dictate,” said Cornell Belcher, an African-American and a pollster who worked on both of Obama’s presidential campaigns. “It’s an opportunity to create an understanding. A lot of white America doesn’t seem to understand the hurt that’s in the African-American community today.”

RELATED: Barack Obama could have saved Trayvon Martin

Liberal Media Hates That Race Relations Are Improving Every Year

Mediaite.com:

Many readers of this post clicked through only because they were appalled at the implication in that headline – that racism in America is on the decline. This empirical, undeniable reality provokes predictable expressions of disbelief, rage, and frustration from those who wish to believe it is not true. They are the predictable reactions one would expect to follow any expression of heresy which contradicts canonical “truths.”


Those who insist that race relations in America are on the decline are provided with ample, anecdotal evidence on a daily basis from the news media which supports this article of faith. But the overwhelming preponderance of evidence contradicts this assertion. Even merely asserting that there has been undeniable progress in relations between blacks and whites in the U.S. over the course of a single generation is greeted with horror from the establishment media. Much like the prosecutors in the trial of George Zimmerman argued that the jurors needed to decide the case with their hearts rather than their heads, the media asks its audience to emote and disregard the facts when discussing racial politics in America. This is a tragedy.

In a post last week, I noted that political commentators – on the left and right – predicting civil unrest in the event that Zimmerman was found not guilty were displaying an offensive lack of faith in or knowledge of the black community. That verdict came and, with some small-scale exceptions, that event was not characterized by a violent response from African-Americans. Unsurprisingly, though opinions about the correctness of the verdict varied, the vast majority of all Americans internalized the jury’s decision rationally.

This prediction was not a difficult one to make. Any historical reading of the progress of race relations in this country suggests that they are far better today than they were in 1992 – the last time a shocking trial verdict resulted in widespread rioting.

Gallup polling over the course of the last 50 years measures the trajectory of how blacks and whites view one another. Since Gallup started recording data on race relations in 1963, the trend has been an undeniably positive one. 

In June of that year, respondents were asked “do you think that blacks have as good a chance as white people in your community to get any kind of job for which they are qualified?” Only 39 percent said that they were, while 48 percent said that they were not. The next time they asked that question, in June of 1978, that result had flipped with 67 percent of respondents saying that African-Americans were qualified for and had access to whatever opportunities they chose to seek while just 24 percent disagreed. Though the number has fluctuated throughout history, today between 71 and 79 percent of Americans think blacks have “as good a chance” as white people to have access to the career of their choice.

Another dramatic shift can be observed in how Americans think “civil rights for blacks have changed in this country.” In 1995, in the wake of the verdict in the trial of O.J. Simpson, only 32 percent of Americans said that civil rights for blacks had “greatly improved” while 51 percent said civil rights had only improved “somewhat.” In August, 2011, 50 percent said that civil rights for blacks had “greatly improved” with 39 percent qualifying that improvement with “somewhat.”

In 2011, a full 76 percent of Americans believe that “new civil rights laws” are “not needed” to advance racial equality. Just 21 percent said that they were – down dramatically from August, 1993, when 38 percent agreed that new laws relating to civil rights are necessary.

Following the O.J. verdict, 68 percent of Americans said that race relations in America will “always be a problem.” Only 29 percent said they believed that racial animus will “eventually” disappear. In 2011, 52 percent believed that race relations between blacks and whites will “eventually [be] worked out.” 46 percent insist that problems will persist, up from 30 percent in 2008 following the election of the first black President of the United States. 

In Gallup’s most recent survey of the state of race relations in America in January, 2013, a majority of Americans said that they were “somewhat” or “very” satisfied with racial progress in America. While all of the above data points have fluctuated – and racial progress comes in fits and starts, occasionally receding at times – the trajectory of race relations in America are following a historically positive trend.

It is not merely a fact of American life measured in survey responses. Gaps indicative of racial disparity in this country continue to dissipate. “According to the most recent census data, blacks have virtually closed the gap with whites not only in the percentage graduating from high school but also in the percentage graduating from junior college,” wrote Orlando Patterson in the New York Times… in 1997. Today, in an underreported but critical development showing how race relations have improved, the 2010 census showed that, while blacks were slightly less likely than other groups to receive a college degree, “Blacks were also more likely to have completed some college than any other group.”

Unfortunately halted by the onset of the Great Recession, the income and wage gap between blacks and whites was gradually, though not fast enough, approaching parity in 2005. Persistently higher unemployment among blacks in the wake of the financial downturn has exacerbated the perennial problem of a wealth disparity between the races. But the statistical trends are hard to ignore.

None of these statistics are cited as an effort to show race relations are perfect, or that racial disparity does not exist. Inequality and racism do exist in America – in varying degrees, they probably always will. But these statistics do empirically advance the notion that the equality of opportunity for blacks and whites, as well as non-white Hispanics and Asians, is progressing every year.

Many, particularly those in the elite media, react bitterly to this news. The outcome of the Zimmerman trial has highlighted how many media professionals cling to the belief that racial disparity in America is fixed feature of its existence and will never appreciably dissipate.

“Do you think the American justice system is innately racist?” CNN anchor Candy Crowley asked Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday morning. 

“This is, for many Americans, another piece of evidence of the incontrovertible contempt that this nation often shows and displays for black men,” argued radio and television host Tavis Smalley on ABC’s This Week on Sunday.

The Nation‘s Mychal Denzel Smith parodied left-wing overreaction by saying that Zimmerman’s defense “literally invoked the same justification for the killing of Trayvon Martin that you would during lynching.”

“George Zimmerman was protecting, not just himself, but white womanhood from this vicious, black thug,” Smith added breathlessly. 

These are the same media voices likely to call for a “frank, national conversation on race” after making these comments which can only be characterized as conversation-stifling. It has never become clearer that the media rewards commentators who reject measured conversation and the fostering of a dialogue for irresponsible baiting and instigation.

At the very least, responsible news anchors and commentators should be arming their viewers with the facts prior to rending garments over the state of race relations in America. Even if these statistics do not support the narrative of persistent racial hatred which they have committed their careers to addressing.

RELATED: MSNBC Comes In Distant Last Place During Saturday Night Zimmerman Trial Verdict Announcement

Politiks As Usual: In The News 7/15/13

 

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