Piers Morgan: Kirk Cameron Was 'Brave' And 'Honest' To His Beliefs For Voicing Anti-Gay Views

CNN's Piers Morgan defended Kirk Cameron's right to express his opinions, calling the former child star "brave" and "honest" after he voiced his controversial anti-gay views in a recent interview.

Cameron railed against homosexuality in an interview with Morgan that aired on Friday night. He called homosexuality "unnatural... detrimental, and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization," and blasted the idea of same-sex marriage.

Morgan had pushed back a bit, suggesting that some would argue that Cameron's views are "incredibly destructive and damaging." Cameron had also said that he would have a heart-to-heart with one of his children if they revealed that they were gay. Morgan returned, "I'd say, 'That's great, son! As long as you're happy.' What would you say?"

Celebrity gossip website TMZ asked Morgan to weigh in on Cameron's controversial comments over the weekend. "I felt that he was honest to what he believed," Morgan told the reporter. "And I don't think he was expecting the kind of furor that it's created."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/04/piers-morgan-kirk-cameron-anti-gay-views_n_1319546.html?ref=media

Petition: Get Limbaugh Off Armed Forces Radio Now!

Olympia Snowe’s Strange Martyrdom

The retirement of Olympia Snowe, at the young (by senatorial standards) age of 65, has again dramatized the perilous condition of the Senate moderates. They have been scorned, marginalized, and hunted close to extinction. Yet the striking fact about Snowe’s career is that, far from being shunted to the sidelines, she has wielded, or been given the opportunity to wield, enormous power. She has used it, on the whole, quite badly.

When George W. Bush proposed a huge, regressive tax cut in 2001, Snowe, sitting at the heart of a decisive block of centrists, used her leverage to support the passage of a modestly smaller and less regressive version. When Barack Obama proposed a large fiscal stimulus in 2009, Snowe (citing fears of deficits that she had helped create) decided to shave a nice round $100 billion off his figure and call it a day. If a Gingrich administration proposed spending a trillion dollars to erect a 100- foot-tall solid-gold Winston Churchill statue on Mars, Snowe would no doubt decide, after careful deliberation, that the wise course was to trim the height down to 90 feet and perhaps use a cheaper bronze alloy in the base.

The characteristic Snowe episode came during the health care fight. The Obama administration, desperate to win her vote, wooed her with endless meetings and pleas, affording her a once-in-a-generation chance to not only help pass health care reform but make it smarter, more efficient, and more compassionate. Instead, Snowe tormented the administration by dangling an elusive and ever-changing criteria before their noses. She at first centered her objections around the inclusion of a public option. Democrats removed it, and she voted for the bill in the Finance Committee, only to turn against it when it reached the decisive vote on the Senate floor. Snowe complained that the process was happening too fast, and that it was too partisan, which seemed to be her way of saying she wouldn’t vote for it unless other Republicans joined her.

This may sound sensible, even admirable, if you subscribe to the notion that securing bipartisan support for major bills is inherently valuable. But it’s worth noting that moderates like Snowe and their fans worship bipartisanship for reasons that have nothing to do with good government. A Republican representing a blue state, or a Democrat representing a red state, faces an inherently precarious situation. Often she will find the demands of her party’s national base pitted against those of her home state electorate. Olympia Snowe’s worst nightmare is to have to choose between infuriating Republicans in Washington and moderate voters in Maine. Creating legislation that passes by wide margins is not done out of a desire to bring bills closer into alignment with any abstract standard of good government, but to ensure her vote sits comfortably in the middle of a wide swath of support from both sides. In a farewell op-ed in the Washington Post, Snowe complains that centrism offers no electoral rewards. For her, though, such careful positioning was a matter of political self-preservation.


http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/03/olympia-snowes-strange-martyrdom.html

Candi Lo - Hao xin fen shou

Primary season is perfect example of public sector professionalism vs party cronyism.

All of the state-run primaries have operated smoothly. On the other hand, the party-run caucuses have been disasters. So what's all this about government employee incompetence?

Candi Lo - Hao xin fen shou

Voters turned away at Washington caucus sites.

Kennewick About 1,500 people were turned away from pooled Benton County caucuses in Kennewick by event organizers after rooms at the Three Rivers Convention Center reached capacity this morning.

Some potential caucus voters said they arrived at 9 a.m. to find the large hallways at the convention center packed to the rafters and were told no more people could enter the caucus rooms.

Ray Swenson, a Richland lawyer, criticized local GOP officials for poor organization and said the results today should be invalidated.

"I think it's illegal," Swenson shouted to a gathered crowd, many of whom were filming him with cell phone cameras. "The Republican party leadership is taking away our freedom."

Swenson told the Herald he may file a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the caucus results.



http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/03/03/1849623/politics-hundreds-turned-away.html#storylink=cpy

Issa: Focus On 'Slut' Comment Dismisses 'Attacks On Americans Of Faith

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said in a letter on Friday that Democrats had a "narrow focus" on Rush Limbaugh calling Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke a "slut" for her testify about contraception coverage and said members of his staff had been attacked as well.

It was Issa's committee that wouldn't allow Fluke to testify because they said she wasn't an appropriate witness to talk about the topic of religious freedom. Issa criticized Democrats for using the situation to "politicize the situation and use it to raise campaign cash."

Issa said that his female staffers had been the subject of "intense and disgusting accusations and insults -- 'hag,' 'traitor,' and numerous references to anatomy have been among the milder expressions hurled over the phone."

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/issa-focus-on-slut-comment-dismisses-attacks-on

How anti-Obama will the tea partiers in KY and IN be tomorrow....

when they need federal funds to rebuild their houses and businesses? Will they have a different idea about the role of government by November, or will they still be passing around hate emails about the president?

Ken Mehlman "apologizes" for anti-gay 2004 campaign.

Former Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman tells Salon he's sorry for the people who "were harmed by the campaigns in which I was involved."

Specifically, he expressed regret that he didn't push back against the Bush campaign's effort to put anti-gay marriage initiatives on state ballots in 2004.

Said Mehlman, who announced he was gay two years ago: "At a personal level, I wish I had spoken out against the effort. As I've been involved in the fight for marriage equality, one of the things I've learned is how many people were harmed by the campaigns in which I was involved. I apologize to them and tell them I am sorry. While there have been recent victories, this could still be a long struggle in which there will be setbacks, and I'll do my part to be helpful."




http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/03/02/bush_campaign_manager_apologizes.html