This is what happens when you deny your sexuality...If it were just something to "choose" or turn off or on, there would not be such a struggle for people.

Focus on the Family...Not So Much

More layoffs at Focus on the Family
Ministry spent more than $500,000 to pass California's Prop. 8 gay marriage ban

UPDATE: Focus on the Family announced this afternoon that 202 jobs will be cut companywide — more than 20 percent of its workforce. Initial reports bring the total number of remaining employees to around 950.

Focus on the Family is poised to announce major layoffs to its Colorado Springs-based ministry and media empire today. The cutbacks come just weeks after the group pumped more than half a million dollars into the successful effort to pass a gay-marriage ban in California.

Critics are holding up the layoffs, which come just two months after the organization’s last round of dismissals, as a sad commentary on the true priorities of ministry.

“If I were their membership I would be appalled,” said Mark Lewis, a longtime Colorado Springs activist who helped organize a Proposition 8 protest in Colorado Springs on Saturday. “That [Focus on the Family] would spend any money on anything that’s obviously going to get blocked in the courts is just sad. [Prop. 8] is guaranteed to lose, in the long run it doesn’t have a chance — it’s just a waste of money.”

In all, Focus pumped $539,000 in cash and another $83,000 worth of non-monetary support into the measure to overturn a California Supreme Court ruling that allowed gays and lesbians to marry in that state. The group was the seventh-largest donor to the effort in the country. The cash contributions are equal to the salaries of 19 Coloradans earning the 2008 per capita income of $29,133.

In addition Elsa Prince, the auto parts heiress and longtime funder of conservative social causes who sits on the Focus on the Family board, contributed another $450,000 to Prop. 8.

“They should do more with their half-million dollars than spending it to collect signatures to take the rights away from a class of people,” said Fred Karger, the founder of the anti-Prop 8 group Californians Against Hate. “I think it’s wrong and it’s hurtful to so many Americans.”

In addition to promoting socially conservative issues such opposition to abortion and gay rights, and supporting abstinence-only education, the evangelical Christian ministry is a purveyor of Christian books, CDs and DVDs. Two months ago, citing Wal-Mart and online retailers as having cut into its product market, Focus announced that 46 employees would be laid off from its distribution department. Late Friday, Focus spokesman Gary Schneeberger confirmed that more layoffs are in store, but said the ministry will not release details until Monday afternoon. Schneeberger hinted that some programs may be eliminated entirely, but declined to elaborate.

“We’re going to need to talk to our own family first,” he said. “We need to respect the people who are affected.”

Schneeberger also refused to discuss the funding priorities that Focus made this fall, including pumping money and in-kind contributions into Proposition 8.

This is the third year that Focus has laid off employees due to budget cuts. In its heyday, the ministry, which relocated to Colorado Springs from Arcadia, Calif., in 1991, employed more than 1,500 people. Many of those employees worked in mailroom and line assembly jobs, processing so much incoming and outgoing correspondences that the U.S. Postal Service gave Focus its own ZIP code.

In September 2005, nearly 80 employees were reassigned or laid off in an effort to trim millions of dollars from its 2006 budget. In addition, 83 open positions were not filled in the layoff, which included eliminating some of the ministry’s programs. At the time, Focus employed 1,342 full-time employees.

“To the extent that we can place them within the ministry, we will try to do that,” said then-spokesman Paul Hetrick. “Most of them will not be able to be placed.”

In September 2007, amid a reported $8 million in budget shortfalls, Focus on the Family laid off another 30 employees; 15 more were reassigned within the company. Most of the layoffs were from Focus’ constituent response services department (i.e. the mailroom).

At the time, Schneeberger, who had replaced Hetrick, said that giving was actually up by $1 million during the fiscal year. However, a very “aggressive” budget goal of $150 million did not materialize.

In a statement issued this September, marking the end of the ministry’s fiscal year, Chief Operating Officer Glenn Williams weighed in on the additional layoffs of 46 people.

“It is certainly heartbreaking that in this case fulfilling that duty means having to say goodbye to some members of our Focus family, but industry realities really leave us no alternative,” he note in his statement. “We are accountable to our donors to spend their money in the most cost-effective and productive manner possible.”

But Lewis, the Colorado Springs activist, wonders whether the families who donate to the nonprofit ministry, realize where their funds really end up.

“Seriously, I would imagine their supporters have got to be asking the question about whether their church is really practicing their theology.”

For Lewis, who is straight, the issue boils down to the significance of targeting a class of citizens for exclusion, at the expense of the families that the ministry could be helping — in this case their own employees.

Lewis likened Proposition 8 to Colorado’s Amendment 2, the 1992 anti-gay measure that was designed to prohibit gays and lesbians from seeking legal protections. Colorado voters approved the measure, which was marketed by proponents, including Focus on the Family, as an effort to prohibit gays and lesbians from seeking “special rights.” The U.S. Supreme Court stuck down the measure as unconstitutional four years later.

“You can’t make homosexuals second class citizens — we’ve learned that already,” Lewis said. “People will look back on this and see how absurd it is.”

Days before this year’s election, Focus founder James Dobson appeared at a closing rally at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego to rally the anti-gay troops.

Karger of Californians Against Hate, termed the rally a “big bust.” Organizers promised that more than 70,000 supporters would show up; the final tally was close to 10,000, he said.

Yet three days later, California voters approved the measure with 52 percent of the vote. While the measure will certainly head back to court, California has become the 31st state in the country to pass measures that define marriage as being between a man and woman only. In all, Proposition 8 has proven to be the most expensive social issue in the country, with more than $73 million pumped into the cause from both sides. One of the larger contributors to the anti-Prop. 8 efforts was Colorado gay philanthropist Tim Gill, who contributed $720,000 to oppose the measure.

“I’m very disturbed by organizations from out of state like Focus on the Family,” Karger said. “They came in early to make sure the measure got on ballot; they’ve got muscle and they are out to hurt a lot of people and destroy a lot of lives.”

Inbred Klan Members

Eight people were arrested Tuesday, one on a charge of murder, in connection with the fatal shooting of a woman at a remote Louisiana campsite during what police say was an initiation ceremony for the Ku Klux Klan.

MSNBC

MSNBC is clearly in the tank for Obama. While I agree with them on most of their reporting/commentary, I think the last thing we need is a leftist version of Fox. Fox is pathetic; most "liberals" harbor deep seated animosity and rage towards this faux news agency. Therefore, we should not stoop to their level. Just my humble opinion.

Mormons Fund Opposition to Prop 8

Perez Hilton provides this link.

Rupert Murdoch

is embarrassed by Bill O'Reilly and the ridiculous biased slant Fox News takes. How Hilarious. Nice that after he took over the Wall Street Journal his ego got in the way such that he let his guard down for a reporter to ease his way in for the inside scoop. Maybe we can succeed and tear that faux news entity down while we're at it!

Rupert of course now argues that the reporter got some of the "facts" wrong. Well, Rupert should be used to that kind of journalism.

Newspapers fly off racks after Obama victory

NEW YORK (AP) -- Newsstands from Seattle to New York quickly sold out of Wednesday's papers declaring Barack Obama the nation's first black president as some jubilant customers picked up two, three or even 30 copies as keepsakes.

The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune in Obama's hometown were among papers that restarted their printing presses to produce hundreds of thousands of additional copies across the country.

Entrepreneurs were seeking as much as $600 for the Times on eBay Wednesday.

"Own a piece of history," Walter Elliott said as he hawked 90 copies of The Sun from a Baltimore street corner.

Some papers devoted their entire front pages to a single photo of Obama -- in the San Francisco Chronicle's case, overlaid with "OBAMA" in enormous type and a snippet from his acceptance speech: "Change has come to America." USA Today declared, "America makes history."

The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, offered high-quality reprints of the front page for $54.95. Below the headline "Change Has Come," a close-up of Obama covers three-fourths of the page.

John Penley, a white man who recalled drinking out of the "wrong" water fountain as a kid in North Carolina, searched New York's Lower East Side on Wednesday for papers to mark an event he never dreamed possible in his lifetime.
"There was one copy left at the bodega around the corner, and people were actually fighting for it," said Penley, a retired photojournalist. "I can't find a copy of any paper anywhere."

At New York's Port Authority bus terminal, Ralston Montaque grabbed 30 copies of the Times for family and friends.

"Everybody has to read (the news), brother," he said.

Say what you want about the Internet replacing printed newspapers, but saving a copy of a Web page on a disk isn't the same.

"What it really shows is there's a unique value to print," said Steve Hills, The Washington Post's president and general manager. "It's the ability to look at the whole thing and have a piece of history in your hands."

A newsstand in Evanston, Illinois, sold 100 copies of the Times in 10 minutes -- even as the major local papers, the Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, rushed to print hundreds of thousands of extra copies.

A convenience store in Mineola, New York, saw many new faces.

"I never saw papers sold with such a spirit," said Kirit Patel, who operates the store. "I saw some customers who never buy a paper, but today they bought two copies. They were asking for more papers."

In Miami's predominantly black Liberty City, newspapers were sold out at stores all along Martin Luther King Blvd., where residents wore Obama T-shirts and waited for buses on corners with hand-painted quotes from the civil-rights leader.

"I've got to put this in a frame because this is history," said Larry Johnson as he searched for a newspaper cover of Obama.

In Miami's diverse South Beach neighborhood, Books & Books manager Vivienne Evans said customers lined up outside even before the store opened.

"People were breaking down the door," she said.

Papers all over the country found crowds of customers outside their buildings clamoring for copies. A one-per-person rule was instituted at the Times' headquarters, and customers were even buying damaged copies after supplies ran out.

The Times decided to print another 75,000 copies for sale in New York, while as vending machines and retail stores sold out by midmorning. The Tribune restarted its presses for an extra 200,000 -- 10 times more than the increase it had planned. The Washington Post decided at midday to publish 350,000 copies of a slimmed-down commemorative edition.

Some papers, such as USA Today, plan to sell reprints of Wednesday's edition through their Web sites, while Detroit's two daily newspapers were shipping more than 110,000 reprints combined for sale at stores Thursday.

Many people set aside papers declaring the end of World War II and some still have them stowed away. Others have held onto papers marking the birth of a child, the completion of a marathon, the arrival of a new millennium or the news of tragedies such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In Philadelphia, vendors reported that the election issue was selling better than the commemoration for the Philadelphia Phillies' recent World Series championship.

Washington, D.C., newsstand vendor Tony Portillo refused a tempting offer.

"I got a guy who wanted to buy the whole bundle," Portillo said. "I said, 'I can't sell it. I have more people coming. I'll sell you five."'

At News World in downtown Washington, customers sorted through papers from Boston, Massachusetts, Houston, Texas and other cities after the Post and Times sold out.

"I got what they had left," said Michael Garner, clutching a copy of The Washington Times as he exited the congested store. He said he planned to frame the front page.

One customer wanted anything that had a picture of Obama's family, while Antoine Napel from Senegal picked up copies of the French newspaper Le Figaro and the Spanish-language La Libertad.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, the supervisor at Out of Town News regretted he didn't order more.

"If I realized who was going to win, I would have had a lot more papers. I wasn't sure," Richard O'Connor said. "Not slighting Senator McCain, but if he had won, I don't think the sales would have been as great."

Robert Cornelius' U.S. Army footlocker already contains his military discharge papers and yellowed articles on the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert Kennedy in the 1960s. The 63-year-old Chrysler retiree plans to make room for copies of Wednesday's Detroit News and Detroit Free Press.

"I got them this morning and only paid 50 cents apiece," said Cornelius, who found his copies at a neighborhood market in Detroit. "They are going to be something to pass on to my grandchildren. It's something they can read and say, 'Granddaddy was there."'

Arkansas passed measure to end homosexual adoption. So, I think that the heterosexuals who feel this way should have to take all of the unwanted, disfigured, mentally and physically abused orphans in this country in to their homes and care for them. If you don't want two loving or one loving person, no matter her sexual orientation, to give of herself, then you do it. The truth is that homosexual couples seem to really appreciate the joy of simply having a child, and as a result, provide this child, often one that noone else wants, with a loving home and a nurturing atmosphere conducive to molding a productive citizen. Of course none of this is based on statistical evidence, just a humble observation. However, I still believe the heteros should be shouldered with the burden of caring for all these orphans who do not have a place to call home, and now they have been denied yet another opportunity.

They did, however, pass the lottery measure. Good they have their priorities straight!

In other news, Nebraska bans affirmative action. Don't need that damned safety net now, huh. We have a black president???!!??

Why Are Heterosexuals So Worried that We Need to Ban Gay Marriage?

State amendments to ban gay marriage did well across the country with voters in Arizona and Florida approving proposals to outlaw same-sex marriage and Californians on the verge of passing such an amendment in their state.

The proposal in Arizona was a stripped-down version of an amendment that was narrowly voted down two years ago. In Florida, social conservatives spent millions to push their ballot drive:

Florida's gay marriage amendment drew the most attention, with dueling groups pumping more than $5 million into TV advertising and statewide campaigns. Same-sex marriage has been illegal in Florida since 1997, but supporters argued a constitutional shield was necessary to make sure judges would never overturn the law.

And the most closely-watched gay marriage ban, California's Proposition 8, had slightly more support, 52% to 47%, with almost 60% of precincts reporting.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

A measure to ban gay marriage in California led in early returns Tuesday although the final outcome remained in doubt, leaving advocates on both sides in suspense about the most divisive and emotionally fraught contest in the state this year.


Proposition 8 would amend the California Constitution to define marriage as being only between a man and a woman.

Voter docs found on Tampa highway

TAMPA - Election Day isn't even here yet, but we already have our first voting mystery.

Thousands of pages of voter information were found lying along the shoulder of Interstate 4 this morning.

The papers, all with information about Hillsborough County voters, have been cleaned up and taken to a Department of Transportation maintenance facility for now, but voting officials still don't know where they came from.

Transportation workers spotted the nine bags of documents on their traffic cameras along a ramp off I-4 and I-275.

The Hillsborough County supervisor of elections says it did not come from his office, but looks like it may have come from a campaign office or a grassroots effort which drives voters to polling paces. The documents contain names, addresses, phone numbers, and party affiliation, and if the voter needs a ride.

Transportation officials have called the Florida Division of Elections to see if the state office wants to investigate, and are waiting back for a response. If not, the plan is to shred the documents this afternoon.

I am saddened that Amy Poehler is not returning to SNL. Without Tina Fey and Amy, there will be no reason to watch. Of course, if the outcome of the election is as it should be, there will be no reason to watch anyway.

The News Is Quite Depressing

Merck cutting 7200 jobs.
Yahoo is cutting 1500 jobs.
6000 Ohioans applied for unemployment after job cuts in September.
Linens n Things is going out of business.
Small businesses at risk of going out of business.
Dow ends down 514 points due to recession fears.
People are committing suicide under all the pressure.

Okay, I think that is enough to drive the point.