If your *ss is in a sling, or you have no real ideas - pick a scapegoat and run with it! Here's how low OK repubs can sink!

Oklahoma official defends comic linking gays to Satan
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Monday July 21, 2008


A county commissioner who is running for re-election in Oklahoma City is defending the virulently anti-gay comic he sent to local Republicans by insisting that the "homosexual agenda" is an issue in the campaign.

In the comic, which Commissioner Brent Rinehart created along with a friend, a devil threatens a small child with a pitchfork, saying "If I can get the kids to believe homosexuality is normal!" while an angel yells, "Not with Brent around you won't!"

CNN's John Roberts spoke to Rinehart, who told him,"One person's mud-slinging , I guess, is another man's issues. ... I believe the homosexual agenda is an issue in this campaign. ... I thought that it was a very good campaign piece."

"Are you homophobic?" Roberts asked.

"I'm not even sure as to what 'homophobic' means," Rinehart replied, "but let's just keep in mind that we are in a cultural war."

Rinehart refused to acknowledge that his comic could be considered gay-bashing. He insisted, "We have an attorney general here in the state of Oklahoma that has used his office for political means, filed campaign charges against me, and it's based on my opposition to the homosexual agenda. ... The attorney general, Mr. Drew Edmondson, sued the Boy Scouts of America because they would not allow homosexual boy scout leaders as leaders."

Attorney General Edmondson appears in Rinehart's comic holding a sign saying, "Gay rights now!" A caption explains that "Drew Edmondson put Oklahoma on record to force the Boy Scots to accept homosexuals as scout leaders, a pedifile's [sic] dream come true."

"A drowning man tends to thrash about,” was Edmondson's only comment on Rinehart's comic.

"This is one of the strangest things I've ever seen," noted political science professor Keith Gaddie. "I've never seen a comic book with the phrase 'anal sodomy' in it before. ... He's pretty much grinding every ax he's got from his days in the county commission."

County Assessor Leonard Sullivan stated, "I've really encouraged him on more than one occasion to get professional help. He really needs it."

Rinehart is facing a difficult re-election battle, in large part because of his questionable purchasing decisions and other actions. Attorney General Edmondson filed felony campaign finance charges against him last year, accusing him of perjury, conspiracy, and money laundering in connection with his 2004 campaign. It has also been suggested that Rinehart "is pushing a road and bridge improvement project ... to help Del City developer Ray Pelfrey who is building a new home next to the road and once held the mortgage on Rinehart’s home."

"Is this some desperate and weird attempt at payback against the attorney general?" Roberts asked.

"It's getting a message out," Rinehart insisted. "It's telling a story of how I got to where I'm at. ... It exposes Drew Edmondson for his true agenda. ... It exposes others here in county government for their true agenda. ... When I ran for county commissioner, my agenda was roads and bridges, limited government and less taxation, and family values. ... I've stuck to my guns. ... I'm not going to back down."

The Raw Story | Oklahoma official defends comic linking gays to Satan

__________________
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
Ernest Benn

Do you believe it is normal?

Why does normal mean good?

__________________
Adaption is compromise. When the world met me it shuddered, groaned, it knelt at my feet. Illyria was all they needed to know.

I sell game curency here

Considering the percentage of species who engage in it - evidently it is normal. You may disapprove, and that is your right, but in America we practice tolerance and civility. We discourage any govt official from scapegoating any portion of the population.

__________________
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
Ernest Benn

Oh no! Someone dared to criticize one of the politically correct groups. Burn him at the stake!

So, how is this linking gays to Satan?

I can't imagine why "the homosexual agenda" (fighting for special protections as a "sexual minority") is even relevant to a County Commissioner's race.

Since "phobic" means "fear of" and "homo" can mean "man" or "same"... As for this whole "culture war" thing, that may very well be but why is someone running for County Commissioner fighting it? What do the various culture war issues have to do with the job functions of a County Commissioner?

Whine, whine, whine! I'm so damned sick of these perverts whining about every little criticism while they're free to say whatever the hell they want about their enemies. Stop being a bunch of sissies and butch up your act! If there is an issue of the attorney general using his office for political purposes then that may be a valid issue to raise but I really don't know what it would have to do with a race for County Commissioner.

I might see this as reasonable political mudslining if Rinehart were running for Attorney General but what the hell does any of this have to do with running for County Commissioner?

Again, what any of this has to do with being a County Commissioner, I don't know.

Now this is an important issue worth exploring.

If this race were being held in New York State I'd think it was definitely payback.

So, what exactly do homosexualty or the state Attorney General's support of it have to do with how this guy got to be County Commissioner and with why he should be re-elected? This is something I think the voters should be asking.

__________________
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Tolerance and civility my foot! The people promoting all this tolerance crap do not practice tolerance and they sure as hell aren't civil! Also, they're not above scapegoating portions of the population that aren't considered politically correct.

__________________
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

I don't think this has anything to do with Republicans; it seems more like an issue with the Religious Right and homophobia.

__________________
"When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...."
- The Declaration of Independence

Yeah - I have to agree. It's a weak attempt to escape justice by using a scapegoat to rally support. Maybe if he's county commissioner, he'll be immune to prosecution.

__________________
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
Ernest Benn

I was reaching waaaay back to my grammar school days - back when we said the pledge and the Lord's Prayer every morning. Yes, I'm older than dirt - I remember prayer in the classroom. And I remember that these were the American virtues - tolerance and civility - way back then.


<sigh>

__________________
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
Ernest Benn

I don't even think this is about the religious right - it's about a felon-to-be using a popular scapegoat to get out of paying for his crimes.

__________________
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
Ernest Benn