Yahoo News Documentary: Uniquely Nasty: The US Government's War On Gays

Via press release:

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to rule on same-sex marriage, Yahoo News presents a new 30-minute documentary, “Uniquely Nasty: The U.S. Government’s War on Gays,” reported and narrated by chief investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff. The film explores a dark and little-known chapter in America’s recent political past, when gays and lesbians were barred from working for the federal government and the FBI, through its“sex deviates” program, secretly collected hundreds of thousands of files on the sex lives of American citizens. “Uniquely Nasty” includes never-before-seen government memos by legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (read by George Takei) and John Steele, a top lawyer for the U.S. Civil Service Commission (read by Matt Bomer) asserting that gays were “not suitable” for federal employment. “Uniquely Nasty” is divided into three chapters.

The beginning of the film deals with George W. Bush.

Southern Baptist Leader Russell Moore: Take Down The Confederate Battle Flag

"The Confederate Battle Flag may mean many things, but with those things it represents a defiance against abolition and against civil rights. The symbol was used to enslave the little brothers and sisters of Jesus, to bomb little girls in church buildings, to terrorize preachers of the gospel and their families with burning crosses on front lawns by night. That sort of symbolism is out of step with the justice of Jesus Christ. The cross and the Confederate flag cannot co-exist without one setting the other on fire. White Christians, let’s listen to our African-American brothers and sisters. Let’s care not just about our own history, but also about our shared history with them. In Christ, we were slaves in Egypt—and as part of the Body of Christ we were all slaves too in Mississippi. Let’s watch our hearts, pray for wisdom, work for justice, love our neighbors. Let’s take down that flag." - Russell Moore, president Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptists Convention.

Todd Starnes is ever so pissed.

RELATED:  The Southern Baptist Convention formed in 1845 expressly to support slavery after Baptists in northern states joined the abolitionist movement. But it wasn't until 1995 that the SBC marked its 150th anniversary by issuing a formal apology. An excerpt:

WHEREAS, Our relationship to African-Americans has been hindered from the beginning by the role that slavery played in the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention; and

WHEREAS, Many of our Southern Baptist forbears defended the right to own slaves, and either participated in, supported, or acquiesced in the particularly inhumane nature of American slavery; and

WHEREAS, In later years Southern Baptists failed, in many cases, to support, and in some cases opposed, legitimate initiatives to secure the civil rights of African-Americans; and

Therefore, be it RESOLVED, That we, the messengers to the Sesquicentennial meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, assembled in Atlanta, Georgia, June 20-22, 1995, unwaveringly denounce racism, in all its forms, as deplorable sin; and

Be it further RESOLVED, That we apologize to all African-Americans for condoning and/or perpetuating individual and systemic racism in our lifetime; and we genuinely repent of racism of which we have been guilty, whether consciously (Psalm 19:13) or unconsciously (Leviticus 4:27); and

Be it further RESOLVED, That we ask forgiveness from our African-American brothers and sisters, acknowledging that our own healing is at stake.

ALSO RELATED: Several days ago the Southern Baptist Convention issued a formal declaration of civil disobedience against the Supreme Court should it rule in favor of same-sex marriage.

Woman To Be On New $10 Bill

CNN Money reports:

On Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said a woman will be featured on a redesigned $10 bill in 2020 -- the 100th anniversary of the Constitution's 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. A decision on who the woman will be won't be made for several months. The last woman on U.S. paper currency was Martha Washington, who was on the $1 Silver Certificate between 1891 and 1896. "We have only made changes to the faces on our currency a few times since bills were first put into circulation, and I'm proud that the new 10 will be the first bill in more than a century to feature the portrait of a woman," Lew said. Lew, who will make the final decision on who will grace the currency, is asking the public for help. The department will launch a website, and is asking for input over social media with the hashtag #TheNew10. What's his criteria? Lew wants the next generation of U.S. currency to underscore the theme of American democracy. The portrait must also -- by law -- be of someone who is no longer living.

Alexander Hamilton has been on the $10 bill since 1929.

DNC History Fail

Wingnuts are having a field day.

LGBT History Month Begins

And there's a website that will be posting biographies about a different LGBT figure every day. They begin today with Roberta Achtenberg.

US History: Romney/Ryan First Ever Presidential Ticket Without A Protestant

Immediately upon the news that Paul Ryan had been selected, I quizzed folks here and on social media whether we'd ever had a major presidential ticket without a Protestant. There was a lot of pondering, particularly on whether Quakers (Richard Nixon) are considered Protestants. The National Journal apparently doesn't think so.

In 1928, New York Governor Al Smith, a Democrat, was the first Catholic to sit atop a major party ticket, but his nomination was balanced by Arkansas Sen. Joseph Taylor Robinson, a Protestant who was outspoken against anti-Catholic bigotry. They lost in a landslide to Republican Herbert Hoover. Since then, John Kennedy was the only non-Protestant to ever win at the top of the ticket. Other than Romney, the only other recent non-Protestants to head a presidential ticket were Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in 2004 and another Massachusetts governor --1988 Democratic nominee Mike Dukakis is Greek Orthodox. Before Ryan's pick, Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, D-N.Y. and current Vice President Joe Biden were the only Catholic politicians ever selected for the number-two slot. Al Gore picked Sen. Joe Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, as his running mate in 2000.

So far I've seen little grousing about this from the teavangelicals, but give it time. And of course, the Tea Party has long claimed that there are no Protestants on the Obama/Biden ticket.

Photo Of The Day - Kennedy Grave Note

Upon the approval of the health care reform bill, Rep. Patrick Kennedy left the following note on his father's grave: "Dad, the unfinished business is done."

Excuse me, I have something in my eyes....

WATCH: Obama Signs HCR Bill

UPDATE: The ceremony is concluded. We probably just saw the enactment of the most impactful legislation in our lifetime. If it sticks.

Spitting On The Graves Of AIDS Victims

Revisionists charged with "protecting the legacy" of dead dead dead Jesse Helms are trying to recast the vile homophobe as a champion of people with AIDS. Unsurprisingly, activists are furious.

Efforts to lift the [HIV travel] ban were blocked by a 1993 Congressional amendment introduced by Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina. Those who fought the law say Mr. Helms, who died in 2008, perpetuated decades of discrimination. But just as the ban has disappeared, the curators of Mr. Helms’s legacy are trying to touch up the relevant history. Some want him seen as a savior to those with AIDS and a defender of gay rights. Despite Mr. Helms’s storied opposition to “a homosexual lifestyle,” the Jesse Helms Center in Wingate, N.C., is challenging the idea that he was a “homophobe” or obstructive in the AIDS fight.

According to the center’s Web site, “It was Senator Helms who worked most tirelessly to protect the very principles of freedom that homosexuals are denied in many other nations.” John Dodd, president of the Jesse Helms Center Foundation, recently disputed an editorial in the British newspaper The Guardian that vilified Mr. Helms for his role in the ban. Mr. Dodd argued that “two million Africans were alive” because of the senator’s work fighting H.I.V. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco, whose partner Tim Curbo died from AIDS, said the Helms Center sought to sanitize the record. “It’s spitting on the graves of all the people who suffered,” Mr. Ammiano said, adding, “He was truly evil and very cavalier about it. He should be in the hall of shame.”

This "champion" is the guy who said about gays: "It's their deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct that is responsible for the disease." A real fucking hero.

(Tipped by JMG reader Robert)

Deep Throat Dead At 95

Mark Felt, aka "Deep Throat", the secret tipster who helped bring down Richard Nixon, died yesterday at 95 years old.

As the second-highest official in the FBI under longtime director J. Edgar Hoover and interim director L. Patrick Gray, Felt detested the Nixon administration's attempt to subvert the bureau's investigation into the complex of crimes and coverups known as the Watergate scandal that ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.

He secretly guided Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward as he and his colleague Carl Bernstein pursued the story of the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee's headquarters at the Watergate office building, and subsequent revelations of the Nixon administration's campaign of spying and sabotage against its perceived political enemies.

Felt insisted on remaining completely anonymous, or on "deep background." A Post editor dubbed him "Deep Throat," a bit of wordplay based on the title of a pornographic movie of the time. The source's existence, but not his identity, became known in Woodward and Bernstein's 1974 book, "All the President's Men," and in the subsequent movie version, in which actor Hal Holbrook played the charismatic but shadowy source.

In my 9th grade civics class, we were not allowed to refer to "Deep Throat" as the teacher found the name pornographic. Which it was, of course.