Corporate Media Fail: Ignoring Clear Evidence Of Gov. Pence's Intent

Did you miss this annotated photo
the first time we shared it?


First, click on the image to enlarge it. Howie included it with his post "Mike Pence -- Pandering To The Worst Of The Republican Party Base," but it's worth a closer look, to see the kind of people Indiana Gov. "Mikey Pants" cavorts with at photo ops, but now doesn't want to talk about.

At this point you almost have to feel a little sorry for Indiana's hate-mongering right-wing extremists and their supremo, Gov. "Mikey Pants." They could be forgiven for having though that all signals were "go" for them to ratchet up the national upsurge of sneering-at-Jesus "Christian" hate-mongering, but somehow it all went kerplooey -- this in spite of a weird compulsion in the poltiical and media mainstream to insist that what Governor Pants and the Indiana GOP hate corps were doing was no grounds for fuss, just bizniz as usual. This time, however, it blew up in their faces. Of course the mainstream morons by and large switched seamlessly from their taunting defense of the Indiana "Christian" patriots to "What went wrong?" post mortems (h/t to the business community!).

Well, part of what went wrong is that the mainstream morons didn't know WTF they were talking about. As Noah reminds us here, the Indiana hate-mongers never tried to make a secret of what they were up to. -- Ken

by Noah

As you can see in the annotated photo above, Indiana’s Lester Maddox-wannabe governor, Mike Pence, when asked by the Indianapolis Star, refused to identify the goons and goofballs who stood behind him as he codified virulent homophobia into his state's legal structure. Instead, he has continued to lie about the anti-gay motives behind the legislation.

Identifying the perps would put the discussion of Indiana's Republicans to turn their state back to something resembling 14th-century England into a sharper, more honest context.

I have to ask: Why haven’t the identities of the miscreants behind Indiana’s attempt at making discrimination all nice and legal been a much bigger part of the story this past week? Given the pasts and the statements of Curt Smith, Eric Miller, and Micah Clark, these people and their beliefs are or should be a major part of the story. This is a major fail on the part of the nation’s corporate media. Period. "Liberal media"? What liberal media?

Republicans from "Jeb" Bush to "Ted" Cruz to Marco Rubio have all joined hands in claiming that Indiana's new pro-discrimination law has nothing to do with with Republican attitudes towards our fellow LGBT citizens. Nope. No hate here. Discriminate? Who, us? This picture puts the lie to it all. Obviously the intent of the Indiana law is clear, and no, it is not the same as the so-called "Religious Freedom" laws of other states, or even the federal one that Bill Clinton signed when he was president.

Then there's this. Pence in his own words, from his own website back in 2000 (as preserved by the long-remembering Wayback Machine) under the headline "The Pence Agenda: A Guide To Renewing The America Dream":

"Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexuals as a 'discreet and insular' minority ntitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities."

Republicans are feeling drunk with power and damn emboldened these days. They feel free to let their crackpot freak flags flap and fly. On the subject of the Indiana law, there has been some backtracking, but when frauds the likes of “Jeb” Bush and other typical bigoted repugs do a 180 and “clarify” their previously stated support for hate laws, I think we all know that their first statements reflect their true, inner thoughts; too late to take it back, cretins.

Maybe the silver lining in all this will be that while Republicans cheer about the law, they will continue to reveal themselves for what they are and what the society they envision would be like, and that's a pretty damn repugnant one. Wake up, voters! Wake up! Ask the questions the conservatives who run our media will not ask.


POSTSCRIPT -- AT LEAST SOME WINGNUTS DON'T FIB

Give Texas Sen. Rafael "Ted from Alberta" Cruz credit for saying honestly what's in his diseased brain. As Robyn Pennacchia points out in a post at "The Frisky," T-from-A is insisting publicly that "Not Letting Christians Discriminate Against Gays Is Like Force-Feeding Pork To Rabbis." What are you gonna do when those voices in your head are telling you that you've got a mandate straight from God to Hate Them Homos?

It's a real dilemma for the far-right-wingers. You can speak honestly, or you can sound as if you have the tiniest touch of sanity and decency. You can't do both. -- Ken

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