The Dem Plan To Win Back The House

Weekend Mix - DJ Sin Morera

Jump-start your weekend with this kicking Latin-tinged vocal house mix from New York's Sin Morera! Setlist. Facebook. Twitter.

UPCOMING GIGS: Winter Music Conference, Miami (March 16th) Club Taboo, Singapore (April) Life Ball, Vienna (May 20th),

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: DJ Herbie James. DJ Paul Ferrer. DJ Dave Huge.

NOTE: This is the fourth in the revived JMG Weekend Mix series in which we highlight major national and up-and-coming DJ talent. This series ran for 28 installments in 2010 with entries from such well-known names as Susan Morabito, Corey Craig, David Knapp, Paul Goodyear, Ted Eiel, and many others. Lots of great names coming in 2012!

UPDATE: Sin Morera's latest single Heartbeat is now available for download on Beatport and at iTunes.

Cuomo Might Veto New York Redistricting

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he may veto the ridiculously gerrymandered legislative redistricting just submitted to him by the leaders of the Senate and the Assembly. Looking at the GOP-created Senate map, it appears that I'd be in the new District 28 rather than the old District 26. I have no idea if that means I'd still have Sen. Liz Krueger as her old District 26 office (two blocks from me) sits in the new District 28, which has been the province of Bronx-based Sen. Jose Serrano (D). I don't relish seeing them have to battle each other for the new district, but forcing incumbent Democrats to fight each other seems to be one of the GOP's goals.

RELATED: The redistricting plan magically links together most of Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in order to create for them a (presumably Hasidic) state Senator.

Actual Newsweek Cover

(Source)

Muttley Laugh

Swingrich: Mittens Is A Damn Liar

NOM Cheers Marriage Absence At SOTU

Frothy Mix: I'm Not Dropping Out

PA Declares "The Year Of The Bible"

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is pissed off:

Our constitution grants sovereignty not to a deity or a ‘holy book,’ but to ‘We, the People.’ There is no reference to God, the bible, the Ten Commandments or Jesus in the U.S. Constitution, just as there are no references to ‘consent of the governed,’ ‘civil liberties’ or ‘democracy’ in the bible. Those who have truly studied the bible realize that it is a moral quagmire, a behavioral grab bag, which has been used to justify automatic rule, tyranny, slavery, the degradation of women and gays, child abuse, war, atrocity and mayhem.

As you'd expect, the resolution was sponsored by a Republican.

White House To Host LGBT Confabs

Via Chris Johnson at Washington Blade:

The White House announced on Friday it plans to host a series of LGBT conferences throughout the country in early 2012 so the public can “hear directly” from the administration on efforts “to ensure health, well-being, security, justice, and equality for LGBT Americans.” In a statement, the White House identified the White House LGBT Conference on Health — which will be held in Philadelphia on Feb. 16 — as the inaugural event for the initiative. The conference is set to feature remarks from Secretary of Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. The statement says the events — which will take place from February to June 2012 — will be a collaboration between the White House Office of Public Engagement and other departments and agencies. Expected attendees include grassroots leaders, community organizers, advocates, students and others.

I'll post the full schedule when we know it.

Tired Old Queen At The Movies #93

1955's The Tall Men with Clark Gable and Jane Russell.

Afternoon View - Valentine's Cock Enlarger

Smack in the middle of their Valentine's Day candy display, Walgreens is selling Extenze, the hilariously scamtastic cock embiggener currently being pitched by porcine porn star Ron Jeremy. "Happy Valentine's Day, darling. Here, you should try this."

Concerned Women Are Concernstipated About The Military & Global Warming

"Ever the tree-hugger, the commander-in-chief ordered the U.S. Department of Defense to turn its attention from satellite and human intelligence gathering to climate research and development. In other words, he is instructing our brave military men and women to cease defending our borders and fight the new terrorist threat — global warming. In all fairness to the president, maybe his reasoning is that the more trees we have, the more structures we have to hide behind should terrorists attack. Yeah. That’s it. Frankly, I think it’s long past time for us to remind President Obama that he is an elected representative, and not a dictator, before he redefines liberties and democracy and rebuilds an America that is destined to fail." - Penny Nance, writing for the Concerned Women for America.

RELATED: In addition to her douchetastic claim about the military, Nance notes that the president recently mentioned efforts to reduce mercury poisoning among children. Which means this: "But what about the soul-poisoning effects of pedophilia, which proponents are working to normalize by recasting as a mere issue of 'minor attraction'? Apparently, that’s okay."

Tweet Of The Day - Yoko Ono

I do enjoy Yoko's tweets. I really do.

One Million Moms Against Macy's

Washington & Maryland Governors Slam Chris Christie On Marriage Ballot Issue

(Via - Igor Volsky)

Gay Tourism Rises For Tel Aviv

Some website somewhere Gay Cities named Tel Aviv as "the best gay city in the world." That may be the result of Israel's recent campaign to promote LGBT tourism, something detractors say they are doing to dampen criticism about the treatment of Palestinians.

GOProud: Santorum Is Better Than Obama

"After last night’s Republican debate one thing is clear: any one of the four remaining GOP Presidential candidates would be a dramatic improvement over the failed Presidency of Barack Obama. All Americans, gay and straight, are living in the disastrous Obama economy. The truth is that most Americans, gay or straight, are not better off than they were in 2008. While we may not yet be united behind one candidate, we are united in one common purpose: to defeat Barack Obama. Make no mistake about it, when this primary process is over the conservative movement will unite behind the nominee. We look forward to being a part of the unified effort to make Barack Obama a one term President." - GOProud, via press release.

That's right, kids. GOProud says that the man who wants to make your literal existence illegal would be a better president than Barack Obama. The man who says you're mentally ill, a hellbound pervert, a compulsive pedophile, HE is better than Barack Obama. If fact, according to GOProud, any of the GOP candidates, all of whom would destroy the marriage the Chris Barron currently enjoys thanks to the "gaystapo," would be better than the most pro-gay president in history.

Get in line for your train, the kapos at GOProud need to earn their extra bowl of gruel.

The Thing That Ate Its Own Brain 4, With Victoria Jackson As The Thing

Airport security is pointless and has never caught a terrorist! But all Muslim passengers should be strip-searched!

MICHIGAN: Anti-Gay Counseling Student Wins Right To Sue School For Expulsion

Counseling student Julea Ward has won the right to sue the university that expelled her for refusing to meet with hellbound LGBT students.

A three-member panel of the court said Julea Ward can argue her religious discrimination suit against the university before a federal court jury in Detroit. “Ward’s free speech claim deserves to go to a jury,” Judge Jeffrey Sutton said in an opinion joined by Julia Gibbons and John Adams. Adams is a federal district judge from northern Ohio who was sitting by designation on the appeals court. “Although the university submits it dismissed Ward from the program because her request for a referral violated the ACA (American Counseling Association) code of ethics, a reasonable jury could find otherwise — that the code of ethics contains no such bar and that the university deployed it as a pretext for punishing Ward’s religious views and speech.”

Ward is being represented by the fascist Alliance Defense Fund, who crowed: "Public universities shouldn’t force students to violate their religious beliefs to get a degree."

GOP Intro's Bill Banning Same-Sex "Ceremonies" On Military Bases

GOP Rep. Tim Huelskamp has introduced a bill which allows military chaplains to refuse to conduct same-sex marriages. Which they already can. But the bill also bans the use of military facilities for such events.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network

"Here they go again with another round of resistance tactics that have already been rejected by Congress and the American people. There is no need for the so-called 'protections' in this bill or the proposed regulations. No chaplain today is being required or pressured to marry anyone, straight or gay. Period. The bill's ban on use of military facilities and chaplains officiating at ceremonies for gay and lesbian service members is nothing more than plain, old-fashion discrimination. There is no place for that prejudice in our armed forces or in our country," said Sarvis.

Human Rights Campaign

Rep. Huelskamp and other right wing Republican Members of Congress appear to have missed the memo from military leaders who say that open service is working just fine. Instead, in their compulsive need to use our brave men and women in uniform as political pawns, these Members of Congress have invented issues that don’t exist in order to score some points. These antics coming from Rep. Huelskamp shouldn’t be a surprise as he was the one forced to admit on the floor of the U.S. House last summer that he wanted to strip funding for training materials that he hadn’t even read.

NC Dem Governor To Retire

North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue announced yesterday that she will not seek reelection. This may not bode well for Democrats looking to hold an important swing state that is also the host of this year's convention. Some Democrats, however, are cheering Perdue's departure as she is under federal investigation for campaign finance improprieties.

The Democratic surge in Dixie looked like the beginning of a political realignment — an electoral shift so promising that party leaders decided to hold their 2012 national convention in Charlotte, the Queen City of the South. Now, Republicans are emboldened by the ripe chance to reclaim power up and down the ballot. “North Carolina has always been a competitive state, but the 2012 prospects are much dimmer for Obama after the events of the last 24 hours,” said GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry. “Obama’s chosen convention site has a state party in chaos.” Unpopular and under investigation, Perdue’s removal from the ticket came as a relief to many top Democrats who feared she would drag down Obama and other down-ballot candidates.

Koch Brothers front group Americans For Prosperity today fired out a triumphant press release upon the news of Perdue's retirement.

The announcement came just one week after her ill-timed proposal to raise $800 million in taxes and after a year of having her vetoes overrode by the state legislature. Residents in North Carolina have signaled that they favor economic freedom, low taxes, and limited government over heavy regulation and out-of-control spending. “Governor Perdue has relentlessly pursued an agenda of higher taxes and bigger government,” says Americans for Prosperity – North Carolina state director Dallas Woodhouse. “Her opposition to free-market reforms such as allowing temporary sales and income tax hikes to expire, medical malpractice reform, regulatory reform, and the energy jobs act, has simply made her unelectable."

RELATED: Perdue has said that she believes marriage should remain limited to heterosexual couples, but that she'll personally vote against the pending constitutional amendment because the state should have "more important" priorities. Maybe now, with nothing to lose, she'll come out on the side of equality.

UPDATE: Readers in NC email to point out that Perdue's retirement means that now there will be a Democratic gubernatorial primary on the same day as the vote on the marriage amendment. That's a very good thing.

CA Hate Group Launches Another Attempt To Repeal Gay Education Bill SB48

Yesterday the office of California's Secretary of State approved another bid to repeal the new LGBT education bill.

SB 48, also known as the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act, requires that LGBTs’ historical contributions be taught to California’s school students. The proposal, submitted by Lou Sheldon of the anti-gay Traditional Values Coalition, repeals SB 48′s requirement that instructional materials recognize those contributions. Sheldon also wants to undo the law’s provision that prohibits instructional materials that reflect adversely on people based on their sexual orientation and other characteristics. Backers of Sheldon’s initiative have until June 25 to collect the 504,760 valid signatures needed to get the proposal on the state ballot.

Another group headed by failed anti-gay politician Karen England expects to get approval for their own repeal campaign in February.

The Fading Of The Not-Romneys

While the cries of most Not-Romneys have slowly quieted in the last two weeks, the most viciously anti-gay continue to stamp their feet.

The Cure For Homophobia

Language NSFW.

(Tipped by JMG reader Paul)

Tony Perkins: Star Wars Is GAY

"In a new Star Wars game, the biggest threat to the empire may be homosexual activists! Hello, I'm Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. In a galaxy not so far far away, Star Wars gamers have already gone to the dark side. The new video game, Star Wars: The Old Republic, has added a special feature: gay relationships. Bioware, the company that developed the game, said it's launching a same-sex romance component to satisfy some complaints.

"That surprised a lot of gamers, since Bioware had made it clear in 2009 that 'gay' and 'lesbian' don't exist in the Star Wars universe. Since the announcement, homosexuals have been celebrating the news, but parents sure aren't. On the game's website, there are more than 300 pages of comments--a lot of them expressing anger that their kids will be exposed to this Star Warped way of thinking. You can join them by logging on and speaking up. It's time to show companies who the Force is really with!" - Tony Perkins, speaking on his national radio show. (Via - Right Wing Watch)

Daily Grumble

- "Is it cold in here?"
- "How was your breakfast?"
- "Where did I put my glasses?"

She never answers. I'm turning into a crazy old cat lady.

Romney Foundation Gave To "Ex-Gays"

Last night Rachel Maddow and Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out delved into the donations made by a Romney foundation. I recently mentioned the anti-gay groups that get Romney money, but as Besen explains, at least one of those groups also advocates for "ex-gay" therapy.

Study Shows Conservatives Are Stupid

Quite literally.

There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy. The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.

Over 22,000 comments on the linked article already. Heh.

Manila Luzon - Hot Couture

Oral Cancer Virus More Common In Men

Compared to women, more than twice as many men are infected with oral HPV. Prevalence of the cancer-causing virus increases with the number of sexual partners.

Oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is more common among men than women, leading to an increased risk for men of head and neck cancers, a US study suggests. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) study assessed around 5,500 people aged 14 to 69. Around 10% of men had oral HPV, compared with 3.6% of women. HPV causes the majority of cervical cancers, as well as genital and anal - and head and neck cancers. Smoking and drinking are significant known risk factors for head and neck cancers. But oral HPV infection increases cancer risk by around 50%, according to the research team from Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.

It's not yet known whether the existing HPV vaccination also guards against oral HPV.

Newt Super PAC Vs Romney

More On "Gospel Shame" At Mars Hill

Jesus Needs New PR has posted a follow-up to the "sexual discipline" contract imposed on the members of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. The subject in that example elected to leave the church entirely, making him the subject of an edict commanding all to ostracize him. Here's an excerpt:

Frothy Complains About Glitter-Bombing

"They're afraid of the truth."

NOM Complains About Maine

Where's Amazon On WA Marriage?

Along with a lengthening list of smaller companies, two of Washington state's largest corporations have come out in support of marriage equality. But there are still some very big fish to land, most notable among them, perhaps, is Amazon. And Nordstrom. Costco...I'm not holding my breath. If there IS going to be a ballot measure, we'll need as many of these as we can get. (Tipped by JMG reader Joe)

Headline Of The Day

On Cynthia Nixon's "Choice"

Actress Cynthia Nixon has endured a barrage of criticism this week after declaring that she had "chosen" to be gay. Longtime activist Scott Long takes an interesting position:

What, moreover, if sexual orientation itself is not “a deep trait felt to be at the core of one’s being,” one that people miraculously started feeling in 1889 when the word “homosexual” was coined? What if it’s sometimes that, sometimes a transient desire, sometimes a segment of growth or adolescent exploration, sometimes a recourse from the isolations of middle age, sometimes a Saturday night lark, sometimes a years-long passion? What if some people really do experience it as … a choice? What if our model for defending LGBT people’s rights were not race, but religion? What if we claimed our identities were not something impossible to change, but a decision so profoundly a part of one’s elected and constructed selfhood that one should never be forced to change it?

Read the entire essay.

INDIANA: Creationism Bill Advances

A GOP-sponsored bill which would allow the teaching of creationism in public schools has passed out of the Indiana Senate Education Committee.

Creationism, a theory with origins in the Bible's Book of Genesis, suggests that divine power created man, animal, and all earthly matters. The idea is an opposing view to the science-based theory of evolution. If the bill passes, Indiana school districts will have the option to include creationism as part of science courses, Indianapolis' WXIN reports. The bill was sponsored by Republican Sen. Dennis Kruse, head of the Indiana State Senate's Education Committee. Kruse previously proposed similar legislation in 2000 when he served as a state representative. That bill never made it past a committee.

Several other states are considering similar bills.

Electoral Prediction: Obama Vs Gingrich

(Source)

NYC Gym Vs. Paula Deen

Copyranter says this New York Sports Club ad is "fucking tasteless."

Grayson Rips Gingrich On Racism

FRC Cries About Starbucks