<p>ff, you never cease to amaze me</p>
<p>back to poor Craig, maybe now he can be who he truely is…what is it with the closeted gays and the republican party</p>
<p>Craig is a side show with all the importance of the most recent Paris Hilton escapade. Those who revel in this stuff are sorry creatures indeed. However, when blatant falsehoods are portrayed as fact, a little dose of reality is called for - even if it means sticking up for Bill Clinton and the Dems.</p>
<p>“I liked Tom Delay’s take on all of this as conveyed to Matt Lauer this morning”</p>
<p>Why? cause Delay droned on some mantra that he thought would be believed if he said it enough. Wait, you bought it didn’t you?</p>
<p>They were there that morning to talk about Craig and the party, not clinton or any other dem. Those were previous shows. the regular networks will w hore themselves in any direction that gains viewers. They don’t have a party to support except the neilson party. </p>
<p>I’m amazed they asked delay on anyway…other than to gain viewers and contraversy (read ratings) as what did anyone expect from the hammer?</p>
<p>I’ve spent the last 25 years in the television industry. There are a handful of multi-billion dollar corporations that control everything you see and hear. About 15 years ago the news divisions still operated independently of the business/sales ends–that is no longer true. What is reported nowadays is purely economically driven. Profit trumps truth and integrity. The truth is there are still many good people in TV, but many fear for their jobs if they go against the status quo. Some who could no longer stomach having to kowtow to the corporate heads quit the business altogether. Many of the people I started in the business with left the networks for cable thinking life would be different, only to discover that the atmosphere was, in fact, worse. We can thank corporate shills like former FCC Chairman Michael Powell for the current state of the media. Republican-led deregulation ruined the industry and turned it into an oligopoly. This is why you get stories about Paris Hilton and Senator Craig shoved down your throat. Our hypocritically puritanical society is titillated by the prurient and the banal. Our fearless leaders think that the people can’t handle the truth, so they deceive us. Poor ignorant masses. Can’t let what’s right spoil what is needed. Personally, I’d prefer the truth. I think I can handle it. If I want unadulerated information I’ll watch CSPAN or read the articles from the Center for American Progress (americanprogress.org.) I only tune into the networks to see what new lies are being perpetuated for profit.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Senator Warner couldn’t take it anymore! (Sometimes you become known by the company you keep. ;))</p>
<p>this is NOT the same as Paris Hilton, as Hilton never claimed to be a paragon of family values </p>
<p>Craig and his ilk used people’s unwarranted fears of gays to fuel hatred, raise money, change policy, curtail rights and rally a core group of folowers for support</p>
<p>It is when that duplicity rears its ugly head that it is indeed newsworthy, though many rigth wingers are loath to admit any kind of liars in their pure little camp</p>
<p>And when you claim to be the party of “family values” and one after another fail, it just shows how false that claim is</p>
<p>that is why this is not just another story like Hilton, it goes to the core beliefs and practices of a party who uses fear and hate to get power</p>
<p>Paris Hilton has much better taste than Senator Wide Stance.</p>
<p>Tastes better, too.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/31/craig.arrest/index.html[/url]”>http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/31/craig.arrest/index.html</a></p>
<p>Now there’s a shock! ;)</p>
<p>But he didn’t DO ANYTHING! (should we set up a betting pool on how many times he says he is not gay?)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The “people” have the opportunity to vote the bums out in the presidential election of November 2008. There are pretty clear differences among the candidates.</p>
<p>I don’t think the system has failed. I think we have had a corrupt president. Our political system is specifically designed to prevent whipsaw reversals in policy as the result of a mid-term congressional election. It’s a long slow dance among two houses of Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Judicial branch. The inertia is what the founding fathers intended.</p>
<p>citygirlsmom, you care about this issue a lot, judging by your comment that you got up in the morning to write this
Yes – isn’t that the truth. I remember worrying about sending my boys into restrooms or pool locker rooms. But it never occurred to me to warn them: “No honey, you can’t go into the men’s room. There might be a Senator in there.”
Here’s the tragedy – some people are really good at hiding their dark selves. And when you’re married you want to trust and believe. I imagine this is especially pertinent when you marry a prominent person, I’m sure there are conversations in which the VIP spouse says “don’t believe everything you read about me in the media. They would do anything to bring me down.” Especially since many conservative VIPs bang on and on about the “liberal bias” in the media.
Yes, the figures are astonishing.
Not sure about this. Definitely intolerance, homophobia and societal strictures contribute to the problems of closeted gays, but for those who stay in the closet even in a tolerant setting, surely there is some other deep psychology at work. Perhaps the anonymous, rough and ugly aspect of this type of sexual experience appeals to some. “Gayness” doesn’t explain it all. Many or most gay people have normal same-sex relationships, and are in every way law-abiding and discreet.</p>
<p>“Craig and his ilk used people’s unwarranted fears of gays to fuel hatred, raise money, change policy, curtail rights and rally a core group of folowers for support”</p>
<p>I admit that I haven’t followed the Craig situation that closely, but perhaps you could give examples of how Craig fueled hatred of gays. Absent any documentation, this sounds like typical left-wing blog stereotypes which ironically is just another form of hate speech … and hence more liberal hypocrisy.</p>
<p>He is history. He is gone.</p>
<p>fundingfather,</p>
<p>I was told his voting record indicated he’s “against” gays/lesbians. I am too lazy to verify but I don’t really care anyway. He’s not unique one way or another. Many closeted gay men deal with their anxiety and denial by telling themselves “I am so not gay” or “gays are disgusting”…etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if internal homophobia made him fuel hatred of gays/lesbians publicly. Remember also this guy had to deal with the rumors about his homosexual behavior and he probably felt one way to mask them was by acting tough against gays.</p>
<p>Sam,</p>
<p>This is all hypothesis and supposition - certainly nothing to support cgm’s notion that he fueled hatred of gays. And, please recall that if voting against gay marriage counts as being anti-gay, then that pretty much sums up the democratic party as well.</p>
<p>No hypotheses or supposition, FF. You really can find all this out yourself with a single Google search. It tales less than two seconds.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/28/craig.arrest/index.html[/url]”>http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/28/craig.arrest/index.html</a></p>
<p>fundingfather,</p>
<p>Mr. critical thinking, OF COURSE it’s not just voting against same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>It is Craig’s own Party that is literally dumping him. </p>
<p>He will be missed in the NW where we do not have the votes or seniority to influence much legislation that affects us deeply. </p>
<p>His sexual preferences, and for that matter, any sexual liaisons, are his and his family’s business. The fact the he admitted the incident by paying the fine and then denying the incident against all evidence, is appropriately, lying. We, and perhaps more specifically the Republicans, impeached a President for lying. </p>
<p>Suffer us no more.</p>