Liberty University Fires Bob McDonnell

Even Liberty University has its limits.

Ex-Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has lost his teaching gig at Liberty University. The Christian college announced on Friday they had ditched the disgraced politician after he was convicted on multiple federal corruption charges. Liberty President Jerry Falwell had called the former governor “a longtime friend of the university” in April, when McDonnell was appointed a visiting professor in government. McDonnell and his estranged wife Maureen were found guilty of public corruption on September 4. A jury found the couple accepted gifts and loans from former Star Scientific CEO Jonnie Williams in exchange for using the governor’s office to promote his products. The McDonnells will be sentenced in January and could face 20 years in prison.

VIRGINIA: Former Gov. Bob McDonnell And Wife Found Guilty Of Corruption

Former Virginia GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife have been found guilty on multiple counts of corruption, bribery, and conspiracy.

After three days of deliberations, the seven men and five women who heard weeks of gripping testimony about the McDonnells’ alleged misdeeds acquitted the couple of several charges pending against them--but nevertheless found that they lent the prestige of the governor’s office to Jonnie R. Williams Sr. in a nefarious exchange for his largesse. The verdict means that Robert McDonnell, who was already the first governor in Virginia history to be charged with a crime, now he holds an even more unwanted distinction: the first ever to be convicted of one. He and his wife face decades in federal prison, though their actual sentence will probably fall well short of that. The former governor was convicted of 11 corruption-related counts pending against him, though acquitted of lying on loan documents. The former first lady was convicted of eight corruption-related charges, along with obstruction of justice. Maureen McDonnell was acquitted of lying on a loan document.

Background from CBS News: 

The McDonnells were indicted in January and charged with accepting more than $165,000 in gifts and loans from Jonnie Williams, the CEO of Star Scientific Inc., in exchange for promoting Williams' anti-inflammatory vitamin supplement called Anatabloc. The jury reached the verdict after three days of deliberations. During the five-week trial, prosecutors sought to prove that that Bob McDonnell not only knew how much money Williams had lavished on the first family, but that he sought to convince state officials to conduct research that would have helped Williams' business. The evidence prosecutors saw as most damaging was a pair of emails, sent six minutes part, in which Bob McDonnell wrote to Williams asking about documents that would have finalized a $50,000 loan, and then shortly after asked an aide to "see me about anatabloc issues" at Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia.

Last week it was learned that McDonnell has left his wife and is now living with a Catholic priest who was once convicted for having sex with another man in the parking lot of a park. In one of his first acts after taking office, McDonnell stripped LGBT people from a statewide anti-discrimination executive order, declaring that there is no evidence of such discrimination.

VIRGINIA: Disgraced Former Gov. Bob McDonnell Is Now Living With Catholic Priest Busted For Public Gay Sex

Last week former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell revealed during his corruption trial that he has left his wife and is now living with a Catholic priest named Wayne Ball, seen above. Father Ball, as it turns out, was once busted for having gay sex in the parking lot of a park. Here's a story about the 2010 arrest:

The Rev. Wayne L. Ball, a Norfolk priest who pleaded guilty late last year to a misdemeanor sex offense, has been reassigned to St. John's Catholic Church in Highland Springs, according to The Catholic Virginian, a biweekly diocesan newspaper. The move is effective June 2. Ball, 42, has served as pastor of Norfolk's Holy Trinity Catholic Church since 2000. The current pastor at St. John's, the Rev. David V. McGuire, will replace Ball at Holy Trinity. In December, Ball pleaded guilty in Norfolk General District Court to the misdemeanor charge of frequenting a bawdy place. Norfolk police arrested Ball and a 41-year-old Richmond man on the night before Thanksgiving in a parked car in a Norfolk park. The judge continued Ball's case until July 8 and will dismiss the charge if the priest has no further criminal problems and completes 80 hours of community service by June 3. The man in the car with Ball received a similar deal.

McDonnell has testified that his marriage was a "sham" and therefore he could not have colluded with his wife in taking all those bribes. Shortly after he took office, McDonnell stripped LGBT people from a statewide anti-discrimination executive order, declaring that there is no evidence of such discrimination. (Tipped by JMG reader Smith)

FRC Bribes Kids With Candy & Presents

NEW ORLEANS: Anti-Gay Hate Groups Infest Annual Astroturfing Convention

This week in New Orleans, hundreds of conservative lawmakers from around the country gathered for the annual American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) convention, where lobbyists from the nation's largest corporations issue their marching orders on which big business-friendly bills they expect to see passed. Think Progress reports that this year's event featured the distribution of vicious and lie-filled anti-gay propaganda from Christianist hate groups.

Among the materials handed out to every attendee were anti-LGBT pamphlets from the Family Research Council, including the “Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality” and the “Top Ten Harms Of Same-Sex ‘Marriage’”. The supposed myths included “people are born gay,” “sexual orientation can never change,” “homosexual conduct is not harmful to one’s physical health,” and “homosexuals are no more likely to molest children than heterosexuals.” In its second pamphlet, the FRC told conference-goers that expanding marriage to include same-sex couples will somehow mean “fewer people would marry,” “fewer people would remain monogamous,” and polygamy will soon result.

Think Progress notes that convention rent-a-cops assaulted two of their reporters and illegally confiscated their cameras.

NEW YORK: How Outed Anti-Gay Senator Carl Kruger Spent All That Bribe Money

While recently outed anti-gay New York state Sen. Carl Kruger and his gynecologist boyfriend await trial on federal bribery and corruption charges, the New York Times examines what Kruger did with all that looted dough.

Federal corruption charges leveled against State Senator Carl Kruger this month described how he had helped provide luxuries to the two brothers with whom he lives in Brooklyn. The charges say Mr. Kruger, 61, a Democrat, used money from bribes for the mortgage of the waterfront mansion in Mill Basin where the three men live with the brothers’ 73-year-old mother. Then, the charges say, there is the Bentley driven by one of the brothers — bribe money paid for the lease. Also, according to the charges, bribe money went to their credit card bills as well as to mysterious “apparently personal payments.”

Mysterious "apparently personal payments"? Uh HUH. Wanna bet there's a rentboy or ten on the other end of THAT little detail?

RELATED: The loathsome Kruger was one of the eight traitorous Senate Democrats who voted against same-sex marriage in 2009, leading gay activists to denounce him as a self-hating closet case and picket outside of his home. The mainstream media took little notice at the time, something they surely now regret.

UPDATE: Here's the waterfront home paid for by Kruger's crimes. The Times describes the house as "cruise-ship-meets-mob-mansion." Its previous owner was a Luchese family mob boss who ordered a hit on the house's architect. Not pictured is Kruger's 49-foot yacht, Special Delivery.

Scandal: Wingnut Group Associated With Limbaugh & Coulter Selling Their Endorsements For Millions

The American Conservative Union, who bills themselves as "the nation's oldest and largest conservative lobbying group," has been busted by Politico for offering to sell their endorsement to FedEx for $2M - $3M. At the moment, FedEx is fighting Congress about changes that increase the power of their employees union.

The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a check for $2 million to $3 million in return for the group’s support in a bitter legislative dispute, then the group’s chairman flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay. For the $2 million plus, ACU offered a range of services that included: “Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and/or other members of the ACU’s board of directors. (Note that Mr. Keene writes a weekly column that appears in The Hill.)” The conservative group’s remarkable demand — black-and-white proof of the longtime Washington practice known as “pay for play” — was contained in a private letter to FedEx , which was provided to POLITICO.

The letter exposes the practice by some political interest groups of taking stands not for reasons of pure principle, as their members and supporters might assume, but also in part because a sponsor is paying big money. In the three-page letter asking for money on June 30, the conservative group backed FedEx. After FedEx says it rejected the offer, Keene signed onto a two-page July 15 letter backing UPS. Keene did not return a message left on his cell phone. Maury Lane, FedEx’s director of corporate communications, said: “Clearly, the ACU shopped their beliefs and UPS bought.”

On Wednesday, after being rebuffed by FedEx and before this scandal broke, the ACU told Congress that FedEx was “misleading the public and legislators" about the union issue and took UPS's side in the dispute.

RELATED: The ACU is perhaps best known for their annual CPAC Convention, a conclave of right-wing personalities and ultraconservatives during which Ann Coulter famously called John Edwards a "faggot" in 2007. Rush Limbaugh was the keynote speaker at CPAC earlier this year.