VIDEO: Equality Act Introduced

Lambda Legal reacts:

We applaud the introduction of this essential bill. Today, it spotlights the pervasive, unjust, and unacceptable discrimination facing LGBT Americans and their families; when passed, it will be a crucial next step forward in ending that discrimination. Its introduction comes nearly one month after the Supreme Court’s historic decision in Obergefell v. Hodges that made marriage equality the law of the land and just one week after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) landmark ruling in Baldwin v. Foxx that the sex discrimination provisions of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, properly understood, protect employees who suffer workplace discrimination because of their sexual orientation. LGBT equality keeps advancing because fairness is a fundamental American value.

The ACLU reacts:

Today is a historic day that has been decades in the making. The Equality Act would transform the lives of countless women and LGBT people. Our country’s most basic promise of equal treatment under the law will never be real if you fear losing your job, being kicked out of your home, denied access to healthcare or turned away from a business because of who you are. Both the lack of clear and explicit federal protections for LGBT people and the lack of protections for women in core areas of American life are unacceptable. We urge Congress to take up this landmark bill and make our country a more just nation for all.

The Center For American Progress reacts:

This historic legislation would provide clear and vital protections from discrimination for LGBT Americans in all areas of life, from the workplace to the public marketplace. Despite last month’s historic Supreme Court decision, many LGBT people and their families live in constant fear that discrimination could lurk around any corner at school, in the office, or on Main Street. Modernizing our federal nondiscrimination laws to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and, where currently excluded, sex, will bring our laws into the 21st century and ensure that all Americans, including our LGBT friends and neighbors, are judged on their merits, can provide for their families, and live free from fear. The progressive cause in our country has always been about ensuring people can live free of fear regardless of who they are. This bill promises to be a major priority for the LGBT movement and broader progressive community moving forward, and CAP applauds Sens. Merkley, Booker, and Baldwin and Rep. Cicilline for their leadership on behalf of all Americans.

The HRC reacts:

The time has come for full federal equality -- nothing more, nothing less. While America is now a marriage equality nation, the tragic reality is that millions of LGBT Americans face persistent discrimination in their lives each and every day. In most states in this country, a couple who gets married at 10 AM is at risk of being fired from their jobs by noon and evicted from their home by 2 PM, simply for posting their wedding photos online. Congress must pass the Equality Act to ensure that LGBT people and their families are just as safe at work or at school as they are in their marriages. This bill will guarantee all LGBT Americans have the clear, permanent, and explicit protections from discrimination that they deserve.

Supreme Selfie

Pelosi Mocks Obamacare Repeal Attempts

From Rep. Nancy Pelosi's YouTube channel: "It’s another week in the new Republican Congress, which means another stale attempt to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. Thanks to the health care law, uninsured rates are at a record low and more hardworking families are able to afford insurance and yet, Republicans are holding their 56th repeal vote. Unbelievable. Now I know how Bill Murray’s character felt in the movie, Groundhog Day."

Caption This

Tony Perkins Slams Nancy Pelosi

"In a scathing rebuke of orthodox Catholicism, Rep. Pelosi, who last year won Planned Parenthood's highest honor, had the audacity to lecture her hometown Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone on the irrelevance of natural marriage. Outraged that Archbishop Cordileone would speak at this week's March for Marriage in D.C., Pelosi accused him of joining 'venom masquerading as virtue.' Meanwhile, what happened to the so-called 'separation of church and state?' Liberals, the same ones demanding a wall between the two, are the first ones to breach it here. Apparently, if it suits their political agenda, the Left is no respecter of rules -- including their own." - Hate group leader Tony Perkins, via press release.

Thomas Peters: Excommunicate Pelosi

"I can think of about a thousand things that Nancy Pelosi and Archbishop Cordileone should have a chat about. Her lecturing her archbishop on the church’s teaching ain’t one of them. The gall of this woman is unbelievable. And what she and dozens of politicians are doing by publicly demanding that the archbishop withdraw from the event should anger us. Because if the church is our family, we need to respond when our family is under attack. If words can’t reach Pelosi, maybe excommunication would. Such a dramatic act would not only serve as the necessary wake-up call to Pelosi, it would also help protect the rest of us. If politicians think they can lecture an archbishop about what he should and shouldn’t do, you can bet they also believe they can use the power of their office to dictate what you can and can’t do. There is no neutral ground in the marriage fight. That is, there is no neutral ground and no compromise until we stand up for our beliefs as strongly as the Nancy Pelosi’s of this world are fighting for their view. They are not going to stop with forcing you to bake their cakes. They’re going to make you eat it, too." - Former NOM communications director Thomas Peters, writing for Catholic Voice.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Last year Edward Peters (Thomas' father), who is the United States legal advisor to the Vatican, declared that marriage equality supporters, gay or straight, are not entitled to receive Holy Communion.  In June 2011, Edwards Peters said that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is a Catholic, should be turned away from Communion due to the passage of same-sex marriage. The elder Peters has also called for excommunicating Catholic politicians that support same-sex marriage.

Bill Donohue Attacks Nancy Pelosi

"On June 19, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone will speak at a Washington rally organized by the National Organization for Marriage. Pelosi is urging him to cancel his plans because the event is not supported by her homosexual friends. Her unmitigated arrogance was on full display when she invoked a remark by Pope Francis. 'If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will,' the Holy Father said, 'then who am I to judge him?' The pope’s comment had absolutely nothing to do with the institution of marriage; he was addressing homosexual individuals. The pope did not say that the image of God is the married couple of a man and a man, or a woman and a woman. That’s because such unions have been denied by nature, and by nature’s God, of creating a family. When gays go naked in the streets of San Francisco, and mock Catholicism in patently obscene ways, Pelosi is never offended. What offends her is her archbishop’s public defense of the Church’s teachings on marriage. Nice to know what her moral compass looks like."- Catholic League blowhard Bill Donohue, via press release.

Nancy Pelosi To Archbishop Cordileone: Drop Out Of NOM's Hate March

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has written to San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone with a demand that he drop out of NOM's hate march.

Pelosi, who is one of the country's most powerful Catholic politicians, made a passionate appeal to the archbishop in a letter obtained by The Chronicle not to participate in the National Organization for Marriage's June 19 march on the Supreme Court in Washington. Cordileone, who is one of the featured speakers at the event, was a leader in the campaign for Proposition 8, the 2008 California anti-gay-marriage initiative. "We share our love of the Catholic faith and our city of San Francisco," Pelosi wrote to Cordileone, who, as head of the 560,000-member Archdiocese of San Francisco, has become the Catholic bishops' point man against gay marriage. She urged him to abandon an event in which some of the participants show "disdain and hate towards LGBT persons." Invoking the words of Pope Francis with regard to gays and lesbians, she wrote, "If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?"

Pelosi characterizes the march, which is this Thursday, as "venom masquerading as virtue."

RELATED: Cordileone is known as the "father of Prop 8."

As an auxiliary bishop in San Diego, Cordileone played an indispensable role in conceiving, funding, organizing, and ultimately winning the campaign to pass Proposition 8. It was Bishop Sal and a small group of Catholic leaders who decided that they had to amend the state constitution. It was Bishop Sal who found the first major donor and flushed the fledgling campaign with cash. It was Bishop Sal who personally brought in the organization that took the lead on the petition drive. And it was Bishop Sal who coordinated the Catholic effort with evangelical churches around the state. Bishop Sal even helped craft the campaign's rhetorical strategy, sitting in on focus groups to hone the message of Proposition 8. We know all this because as homosexuals and their supporters were wondering how this all came about, Cordileone gloated about his work in an interview with an obscure Catholic radio network. He bragged about how gay men and lesbians never saw him coming and called gay marriage a Satanic plot by "the Evil One" to destroy morality in the modern world.

President Obama At The Nerd Prom

Last night the White House Correspondents Association celebrated its 100th anniversary at the annual dinner reporters refer to as the Nerd Prom. CBS News reports on the president's speech:

Basking in the liberation of never again facing reelection, Mr. Obama aimed squarely at several likely 2016 prospects. Simultaneously ribbing the New Jersey governor's ill-famed scandal on the George Washington Bridge and the bumper-to-bumper partisanship that's locked down Washington, D.C., since 2010, the president joked that gridlock "has gotten so bad in this town - you've got to wonder, 'What did we do to piss off Chris Christie so bad?'" He also took stabs at tea party favorite Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and the early Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton. "Let's face it, Fox, you will miss me when I'm gone," he said. "It will be harder to convince the American people that Hillary was born in Kenya." Chiming in one more dig to the cable network, he added: ''The Koch brothers bought a table here tonight, but as usual they used a shadowy right-wing organization as a front. Hello, Fox News!''

The clip below starts with a film starring Joe Biden, Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, and Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfuss.

GOP House Majority Whip Yanks Breitbart Column Over "Inappropriate" Images

GOP House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy has pulled his column from Breitbart after the site posted raunchy photoshopped images of leading Democrats including Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

Democrats called the website, which featured sexually suggestive images of Pelosi, "foul, offensive and disrespectful to all women." They urged Republican leaders to condemn the site. McCarthy seems to have obliged. “We didn’t condone them,” Matt Sparks, a McCarthy spokesman, told the Los Angeles Times, about the images. “We thought it was the right thing to do to ask for the column to be removed.” "The images are inappropriate," another spokesman, Mike Long, told ABC News.

Pelosi Slams "Tasteless" Breitbart Images

Rep. Nancy Pelosi yesterday denounced the "tasteless" artwork Breitbart used to launch their sub-site Breitbart California.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi shook her head in disgust Monday afternoon when asked about an advertisement released by Breitbart.com, a conservative political Web site, that features her face superimposed onto a sexually suggestive image. The image, one of several advertisements for "Breitbart CA" -- a new, California-focused offshoot of the site -- drew ire throughout the day. Asked about the image following a news conference, Pelosi (D-Calif.) responded: "So tasteless, that .. I mean, is it even worthy of a question. It's so undignified."

DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz has called on GOP figures to boycott Breitbart  until the images are removed.

"If GOP leaders are serious about their rebrand, then both their elected and Party leadership should condemn this outrageous behavior, call on Breitbart News to immediately remove the ad, and not continue to use this website as a forum for their views,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. “To say the least, the Breitbart News ad is foul, offensive, and disrespectful to all women. It is a disgusting new low and would be reprehensible against any woman — regardless of party."

Breitbart has responded by publishing a lengthy recounting of the ways that Republican women have been mocked by liberal commentators and comedians. An excerpt:

There have been plenty of other instances in which liberal leaders like Pelosi and Wasserman Schultz have been silent when conservative women have been maligned, such as after Martin Bashir suggested that that someone should urinate and defecate in Palin's mouth; Bill Maher referred to Palin as a "cunt"; David Letterman joked about the statutory rape of Palin's daughter and referred to her as a slutty flight attendant and hooker; and comedian Kathy Griffin joked that McCain picked Palin as his running mate after receiving sexual favors. Saturday Night Live joked about Todd Palin having sex with his daughter because... the Palins are "from Alaska." Donny Deutsch said on air that Palin is type of woman he would want "laying next to me in bed" without any outrage. And Tracy Morgan said Palin is nothing more than "good masturbation material" without ginning up outrage among prominent Democrats.

Matt Drudge: GOP Will Lose House Leadership Over Shutdown Deal

IF the deal happens, the Tea sadz will be delicious.

Nancy Pelosi Vs Eric Cantor

Suh-NAP!

And Here We Go Again

Vatican Official: Nancy Pelosi Should Be Refused Communion Over Abortion Rights

A top Vatican official yesterday declared that Rep. Nancy Pelosi should be denied communion because of her support for abortion rights.

Raymond Cardinal Leo Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura in Rome — the Vatican's Supreme Court — slammed the California Democrat for "obstinately" persisting in grave sin by supporting the policy, even "after repeated admonitions." In comments to The Wanderer, the American cardinal chided the long-serving congresswoman, who professes to be a devout Catholic, for divorcing her faith from her public life. "I fear for Congresswoman Pelosi if she does not come to understand how gravely in error she is," said Burke, who was appointed to the Church's judicial body in 2008. Burke cites Canon 915 of the Church's Code of Canon Law that says individuals "obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion."

RELATED: Two years ago the Vatican's legal counsel to the United States declared that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo should be denied communion for supporting same-sex marriage. (Tipped by JMG reader Str8Grandmother)

Pelosi: I Hope Putin Thinks Gays And Lesbians In Russia Are God's Children Too

Nancy Pelosi On Russia

Tipped by JMG reader Dwight)

Facebook Meme Of The Day

Via Freedom To Work.

Nancy Pelosi Booed At Netroots Nation

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was heckled and booed at this weekend's Netroots Nation convention when she said that Edward Snowden broke the law. Via Politico:

As Pelosi was saying the country needs a “balance” between security and privacy, Marc Perkel, a 57-year-old activist from Gilroy, Calif., started shouting at Pelosi during her answer and was escorted out of the room. “It’s not a balance. It’s not constitutional!” he yelled. “No secret laws!”

Others in the room began shouting as well, saying things like “Leave him alone!” or “That’s what a police state looks like right there!” The moderator, Zerlina Maxwell, worked to quiet the crowd by saying audience members needed to submit questions via Twitter rather than shouting them out, but Pelosi said she didn’t mind.

“I welcome the challenges that people pose because I think that those questions must be answered,” Pelosi said. She was further booed when she said Snowden did break the law by leaking the information he revealed. “As far as Snowden: he did violate the law in terms of releasing those documents,” she said. Some of the crowd erupted in boos, with one man screaming, “You suck!”

Netroots Nation is the country's largest annual gathering of progressive bloggers and journalists.

Half Of Congress Files DOMA Brief

Almost half of the sitting members of Congress today filed a joint Supreme Court brief in the support of the overturn of DOMA. Via press release:

Today, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Ranking Constitution Subcommittee Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) in the House, and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) in the Senate, along with House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Ranking House Judiciary Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL), are filing an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in U.S. v. Edith Schlain Windsor, a landmark challenge to Section 3 of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).  Section 3 defines marriage for purposes of federal law as “only a legal union between one man and one woman,” excluding same-sex couples from all marriage-based federal responsibilities and rights.  A total of 172 Members of the House and 40 Members of the Senate – including LGBT Equality Caucus Co-Chairs Jared Polis (D-CO), David Cicilline (D-RI), Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), and Mark Takano (D-CA), as well as Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) – signed onto the brief.

These 212 Members decided to participate as amici in this case because they want the Supreme Court to hear the full story from Congress, and to explain why they believe that Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional.  They disagree with the arguments being made by lawyers hired to defend DOMA in court by the House Majority following the divided 3-2 vote of the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG).  The amicus brief filed today makes clear that BLAG does not speak for Congress, and that many members believe that Section 3 should be struck down because there simply is no legitimate federal interest in denying married same-sex couples the legal security, rights and responsibilities that federal law provides to all other married couples.  As the brief explains: “DOMA imposes a sweeping and unjustifiable federal disability on married same-sex couples.”

Hit the link for the full list of signees.