You couldn’t buy better advocates than these.

The irrational, religion-based opposition to — really, gay civil rights, though the role of Civil Rights will be played today by Same-Sex Marriage — recently brought out a collection of hilarious nutjobs in opposition to a bill in Connecticut that would legalize gay marriage.

But to no effect — except for the low humor always on offer when sideshow buffoons do pratfalls. (As you will see in the double feature below the jump.)

In the end, the Judiciary Committee passed the bill, 27 to 15; the governor vowed to veto it, and the armies are even now gathering on either side for a voter-driven referendum fight. The foes want to rescind the progressive civil union legislation that Connecticut has already extended to gay couples. (more…)

Herman smiles and Lilly drinks the blood of the 9/11 widows as the Kingdom of the Dead glitters below them.

Today the roles of Herman and Lilly will be played by right-wing blowhard Bill O’Reilly and the Funniest Ghoul to ever pollute the national dialog, the “beautiful” Ann Coulter. Is this your first meeting with The Munsters? Are you really that young, pumpkin?

Take our hand, child, and we will lead you to the Wikipedia. “The Munsters was a late 1960s American television sitcom, depicting the home life of a family of horror movie monsters.” Herman was modeled on Frankenstein and he towered above his weeds-dripping wife, Lily, modeled on Vampira. “Much of the humor,” continues the Wiki, “derived from the fact that they did not have the slightest idea that they were in any way different from their neighbors.”

Is this not a perfect description of Bill-o and the Sweetheart of Transylvania? (more…)

Peter Baker writes in The Washington Post:

While the House of Representatives debated weighty matters of war and peace yesterday, President Bush headed to the YMCA…

In a brightly lighted basement gym, he visited children bending paperclips into different shapes and urged Americans to volunteer as mentors. He talked not of armies in Iraq but of “armies of compassion” at home. Even the kids seemed confused. One asked why he came. “I came to see you,” the president responded. As the cameras clicked away, a 7-year-old boy made peace signs. “Put your hands down,” Bush chided playfully.

See photo here

Because the boyfriend — Monsignor Hot Face, below — is oh so fuckable, that’s why.

Monsignor Georg Gänswein — Don Giorgio as he is known to Vatican watchers or, with a certain knowing wink, due to his handsome looks, beautiful Georg — is the pope’s personal secretary.

It is an envied and powerful post the studly monsignor has held since 2000 and that — as in the case of many a minor sexbomb thrust into the spotlight when she marries a megawatt superstar — took him out of the obscurity of his scholarly duties in a small German town and onto the international stage.

Now he is the man who holds the microphone to the man who rules the world — or at least the part of it that still bends the knee to Catholic doctrine, which holds that the pope is Christ’s kingly regent on earth, infallible and fully perfect in matters celestial. (more…)

Like many of you I was giddy and dizzy and buzzing and floating on air last night. But I’d approached the evening with lots of trepidation. Minimizing hope until it started to resemble a form of Delusion-Lite. Who could blame me?

After Bush was elected (we think) in 2004 I spiraled into a horrid three-week depression. I was waylaid so hard it actually surprised me. I hadn’t realized I’d cared that much about politics.

In retrospect I can see I was freaked-out after realizing how I’d been used, like millions of other gay men and women, as a spook show prop to rustle fat-assed scolds and Bible-quoting dimwits into the voting booths to protect the sanctity of marriage.

Voting for Bush while they were at it.

The same Christers had also voted for nutcases like Rick “man-on-dog” Santorum (above with family and the creepiest weeping child on earth, during his concession speech after losing his Senate seat). A politician who also secured his job (and dream of running for President one day) by blathering on about queers and Jesus and the notion that the right to privacy doesn’t exist in the United States Constitution. (more…)

David K: The key to understanding Ted Haggard is his mouth. He has one of those irregular, omnivorous mouths — a rubbery, cartoon-like mouth that doesn’t cooperate with the upper part of his face. His oral compulsions conflate with his sense of entitlement. Entitlement that’s fostered by all the power he’s accrued over the years. It’s a bad combination. Gobble, gobble, gobble.

You’d think he’d be a good cocksucker, but as his sex worker friend/Judas Michael Jones revealed to Michelangelo Signorile this morning, Haggard’s blowjobs were only ho-hum. (more…)

In the space of 24 hours, this story has gone from maybe to absolutely.

In the wake of accusations from a male escort, Pastor Ted Haggard, the head of the most powerful evangelical organization in America, has stepped down and, after initial — though curiously soft-spoken — denials, now admits he did buy amphetamines and a “massage” from his accuser, former escort Mike Jones.

The sins of Pastor Ted Haggard are many — though they are not the ones he is being pilloried for at the moment:

Haggard has railed angrily against the “homosexual agenda.” He is the chief organizer of anti-gay marriage initiatives.

His brand of holy-roller Christianity is curiously empty of self-reflection, or such spiritual adjuncts as meditation and prayer (other than the flashy talking-in- tongues, rolling-around-the-floor kind). (more…)

Why is this man smiling so damn hard? Hanging on to that shiny happy glow like his life depended on it?

In many way, it does:

Pastor Ted, head of a megachurch in Colorado that has become the most politically connected church in the country, a man who has the President’s ear in weekly telephone chats, an organizer and instigator of anti-gay legislation across the country — and not just anti-gay marriage, that’s too easy, anti-gay civil unions, anti-gay benefit coverage for domestic partners, anti-gay rights to parent your own child if you are the gay spouse in a divorce — Pastor Ted Haggard had to resign as president of the National Association of Evangelicals last night after a male escort claimed he had been having a 3-year sex-for pay relationship with the minister.

Haggard denies the accusation but took an immediate leave of absence from his church while a panel of church elders investigates the matter. The escort, who said he was prompted by Haggard recent anti-gay activity, has released tapes of phone messages (you can hear them here) that a voice expert has certified as scientifically matching up with Haggard’s vocal signature. (more…)