Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Our old pal Gordon Klingenschmitt, defrocked chaplain and wingnut first class, is now using the promotion of a weapon the Pentagon itself says it doesn't want or need in order to stop that evil homosekshuls agenda. Balloon Juice reprints a PDF of an email that the arch-conservative magazine Human Events sent out on Gordo's behalf entitled "F-22 jet can shoot homosexual agenda down in flames."
When Sen. Leahy (D-VT) attached the pro-homosexual "Pedophile Protection Act" to the Defense Authorization Act, he imagined zero resistance from House Democrats, or from President Obama. He failed to realize, however, how the battle to fund the F-22 Raptor jet for our Air Force could shoot the homosexual agenda down in flames. We have one last chance to stop the "Hate Crimes" bill, by demanding the House Conferees stand firmly by their 389 to 22 vote to fully fund the F-22 fighters. If they do, President Obama has vowed to veto the entire bill, and kill the pro-homosexual "Hate Crimes" amendment with it.
He is, of course, using the religious right's absurd title for the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, which was attached to the defense bill he's speaking of. Now, I don't think that attachment should be legal. I think there should be a congressional rule, if not a federal law, doing away with such unrelated attachments. If you want that bill to pass, bring it up its own, convince your colleagues and the people, and get it passed.
Here again is a situation where there are entirely reasonable arguments to be made against hate crimes legislation, but the right wing resorts instead to the most ridiculous, hyperbolic and downright loony arguments against it. It's as if demagoguery is bred into them as surely as a televangelist is born with that plastic, Mr. Potato Head snap-on hair.
But here's the punchline: even after admitting that the hate crimes bill contains explicit protections against the very thing they've been using to rail against it -- the claim that ministers would be ripped from their pulpits by jackbooted government thugs for preaching that the Bible condemns homosexuality -- he still wants people to stop the bill by demanding the funding of a weapons system the military says they don't want or need:
Furthermore, after our 1,055,000 petitions were read by some Senators, they voted 78-13 to pass Sen. Brownback's good amendment to the Hate Crimes bill, protecting freedom of speech by pastors, stating the federal hate crimes law shall not be "applied ... in a manner that infringes" First Amendment rights or that "substantially burdens any exercise of religion ... speech, expression, [or] association, if such exercise of religion, speech, expression, or association was not intended to ... incite an imminent act of physical violence against another." Sen. Brownback provided additional protection for religious exercise and free speech beyond the minimum protection that a court may apply. Your faxes to the Senate helped win this victory! (Much to the dismay of the homosexual lobby, who even now is demanding Conferees undo the good we've done.)But Conferees have power to strip the Brownback Amendment, which we must protect. And Conferees have power to equip American pilots with F-22 fighter jets, which would guarantee Obama's veto of the entire "Pedophile Protection Amendment." So we must act, and now petition the House and Senate Armed Services Committees for two things:
1) Keep the good Brownback Amendment, and don't allow it to be stripped in conference.
2) Keep the good F-22's, and equip American pilots with the best fighter jets in the world.As an Air Force Academy graduate, I can say our military pilots deserves the best jets, which President Obama and some Senators sadly wish to stop funding, even while they load our Pentagon Budget with special rights for homosexuals, pedophiles, and deviants.
I can't decide whether Klingenschmitt is dangerous or if he's just too ridiculous to be dangerous.
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I'm a bit confused. What is the upside to providing the funding for F-22s when the pentagon doesn't want it? Whom does it help? (aside from the folks who vote for it and can now claim that they are 'pro-defense')
Posted by: nickcan | July 27, 2009 3:37 AM
Klingshitt bleated:
a) I thought Klingshitt was a former Navy chaplain, so now he's a Air Force Academy graduate? No doubt he's also has a secret identity too: "Squirrelman", at least in what passes for his own mind.
b) Military pilots, in all probability, do want the best jet they can get, maybe that's why they don't want this turkey. I think I trust actual military pilots on that call, over former Navy chaplains, wouldn't you?
c) Homosexuals want & deserve the same rights as everyone else, as Klingshitt well knows. But then: "don't let little ol' facts get in the way of lying for Jesus" is Gordo's (and his ilk's) mantra against the encroachment of reality into their fantasy relationship with their imaginary friend.
d) Homosexuals are less likely to have paedophilic paraphilia than heterosexuals. Yep, that's right Gordo, you're more likely to be a kiddy-fiddler than the homos you fear. (not to mention the whole 'Methinks the [Klingshitt] doth protest too much', factor).
e) Homosexuality is in no way considered to be abnormal by the legal and psychiatric professions (and a majority of the public). Again, I think I'd trust a professional to decide which behaviours are 'deviant' or not, rather than a former Navy chaplain. Oh. and by the way Klingshitt, I suppose having an invisible, imaginary friend when one has reached adulthood is completely sane and normal, right?
Just one paragraph and yet so packed with nutty goodness. Think I'll have to start calling Klingshitt "Fruity Gordo". :D -DJ
NB: former in this context means disgraced, defrocked, discharged and discredited in relation to Fruity Gordo Klingshitt. It would have been clumsy to use in the body of the post.
Posted by: DingoJack | July 27, 2009 4:47 AM
Did somebody make a joke about the F-22's top of the line advanced GAYDAR technology yet?
Posted by: tincture | July 27, 2009 5:29 AM
I've been making the argument that the F-22 is the wrong tool for our current world situation.
I had no idea that this might have another meaning altogether.
Posted by: Jim Ramsey | July 27, 2009 7:16 AM
I'm sure that troll Mr. JD will be along to defend Mr. Klingenschmuck.
Posted by: SLC | July 27, 2009 8:09 AM
They want to make sure our brave airmen get the F22? Doesn't the F22 just add one more GAY weapons system? I mean, I've seen videos of how those things take out enemy jets by firing missiles that go right up the enemy's tailpipe; ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, icky!!
Posted by: democommie | July 27, 2009 8:17 AM
Does anyone else think it was kinda shortsighted for Leahy to call it the "Pedophile Protection Act"? If you want to slip something under the radar, you give it an innocuous name that no one can argue with, like the PATRIOT Act.
Posted by: Doug | July 27, 2009 8:27 AM
I used to feel that strongly about unrelated attachments to bills, but I have since softened somewhat. There is an obvious pragmatic need to get bills passed, and sometimes the most effective way of doing that is through explicit reciprocity encoded in the bill.
Rep. A: "Hmmm, I dunno if I can vote for Bill HR-25A... I mostly agree with it, but this clause in here, I dunno... will be bad for my constituency. Can't we modify it?"
Rep. B: "Nope, if we modify it, I'll lose Reps. C, D, and E's votes. How about instead, we insert a clause about that [various pet project] you've been wanting to get passed. I don't think anyone will object to that."
Rep. A: "Alright, let's compromise."
I mean, it's messy, but the alternative is that Rep. A says "no way, buddy" and the legislation never gets passed.
That said, it can (and almost always does) go way to far. Unfortunately, I can't see a way to codify a congressional rule that says, "Only reasonable unrelated attachments necessary to get bills passed, none of that crazy shit!" heh...
Posted by: James Sweet | July 27, 2009 8:40 AM
Posted by: Taz | July 27, 2009 9:06 AM
Doug wrote:
Leahy didn't name it that, the religious right has. The bill is actually called the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | July 27, 2009 9:44 AM
At last, an actual mission for the F-22 -- though only if it isn't raining. Don't want to damage that fabulous skin.
Posted by: CJColucci | July 27, 2009 10:59 AM
Believe it or not, he actually is an Air Force Academy graduate.
On another note, the biggest bombshell ever is about to drop on Klingenschmitt. I'm not at liberty to say what it is just yet, so all I can say is that it's so completely unbelievable that even I had trouble believing it when I first found out about it. Ed is one of the handful of bloggers and journalists who are in the loop and trusted by MRFF to know about stuff before we make it public, so he'll be one of my first phone calls when we're ready to drop the bomb on Klingenschmitt. So, stay tuned.
Posted by: Chris Rodda | July 27, 2009 11:37 AM
Chris - how does that work? Don't the Navy have their own Air Training schools (like the so-called 'top-gun' school)? Or was Klingshitt in the Air Force but left to join the Navy ("to see the world, what'd we see? We saw the sea!")*? I am so confused. - DJ
PS: Oh hurry up and drop fat-boy already!
*Now, now no Village People jokes please - Nah go right ahead. Prize for the best one.
Posted by: DingoJack | July 27, 2009 11:46 AM
I'm not sure about the details of Klingenschmitt's switch from the Air Force to the Navy, but this is not an uncommon thing among chaplains. Many of them initially join the military as something other than a chaplain and then later decide to become a chaplain. Sometimes, this means having to change branches, usually depending on where chaplains of their denomination are needed. In the case of those who were already officers, this switching of branches often means accepting a reduction in rank, something that the "martyrs" among them later like to tout as proof of their selfless devotion to Jesus.
Posted by: Chris Rodda | July 27, 2009 12:26 PM
I mean, it's messy, but the alternative is that Rep. A says "no way, buddy" and the legislation never gets passed.
Not passing something is almost always better than passing bad stuff. If something is needed enough, it will eventually be passed, but it is essential that this stuff face scrutiny, and that legistlator are responsible for it. As it is, it gives them great cover ('I was really voting for X') The damage done by this wheeling and dealing FAR exceeds any occasional 'good'.
Posted by: jay | July 27, 2009 1:20 PM
He completely misses the point that the F-22 is getting canceled for being a crap air plane - in the shop for 30 h for every hour of flight (under training conditions, your guess is as good as mine how that ratio develops during actual deployment).
But then, logistics are not really part of the bible.
Posted by: Mu | July 27, 2009 1:47 PM
Thank you for your article. This "man-of-god" is the same extremist that loves to cast imprecatory prayers on those who cross him or his beliefs. My friend, Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is a recipient of one of K's spells against Mikey and his family. He is twisted! You can judge for yourself by clicking on this link and listening to this idiot.
http://mail.google.com/mail/?source=navclient#search/Mikey+Weinstein+Klingenschmitt/120e0e7c8592cbc2
The F-22's are indeed important for the financial reasons stated above, but also for their arsenal goal as the Army for God and the preparation for the End Times. They are joined by Political Dominionists such as Palin, Huckabee, et al...in this "Great Commission". I know, it sounds whacky...and it is, but unfortunately it is very real.
And yes, it is the heterosexual community, along with many "men of the cloth" who are responsible for pedophilia - not the gay population. They love to spread that rhetoric because it riles up their base of those who refuse to educate themselves on any of this and eat up the hate and intolerance issue. So to have these 2 issues attached is more appropriately synchronized that it may appear at first blush.
They would be curtailed from preaching hate and intolerance against the gay community if the Hate Crimes Bill were to pass, and that is just NOT acceptable to these 'c'hristians!
Leah Burton
theopalinism.com/blog/
Posted by: Leah Burton | July 27, 2009 2:10 PM
"But then, logistics are not really part of the Bible."
Oh, I dunno; I think Moses must have had a pretty good logistician on his staff (along with a truly crappy navigator).
Posted by: Shay | July 27, 2009 2:57 PM
Quick. Someone get a truckload of cooperative flaming Gay guys, go out to the airbase and shoot an ad that shows gays are enthusiastically for the F-22.
Scenes and lines might include:
Leather clad guy flounces up to the forward landing gear and, sits on the tire and humps his hips into the strut while yelling 'give it to me, give it to me'.
Butch leather clad fellow pats fighter and looks deep and longingly into the afterburner nozzle and says: 'I'd like to fill that steaming hot pipe'.
Film shot of F-22 performing Pugachev's Cobra with a lisping voice over saying 'I love it when they flip end-for-end for me. Soooo flexible darlinnnng'.
Fem in tutu ogles and loving strokes the fighter and then the refueling probe rises up: 'Yes baby, you know you what I like'.
Finish with obscenely dressed men pose around and on the jet. Then finish with the voice over: Gays love the F-22.
Seventy-two hours after the ad is aired the entire F-22 program is canceled. Gone. Lock-stock-and-barrel.
Posted by: Art | July 27, 2009 3:26 PM
"They would be curtailed from preaching hate and intolerance against the gay community if the Hate Crimes Bill were to pass"
Um, no. Race is already covered under hate crimes legislation. Is the KKK being hauled in on charges because they don't like blacks, and aren't afraid to say so?
Posted by: Rick R | July 27, 2009 4:18 PM
Shay@18, Moses's logistics was praying to God for daily air supplies, I wouldn't dare run an operation on that with FedEx. Talking about a wing and a prayer ...
Posted by: Mu | July 27, 2009 6:47 PM
@7: If they were really being clever, they'd find an good acronym for the bill so they could call it the C.H.R.I.S.T. J.E.S.U.S. Act.
Posted by: Tiax | July 27, 2009 11:26 PM
Unrelated amendments to bills? Take a look at Downsize DC's "One Subject at a Time" campaign.
https://secure.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/83
While you are there take a look also at the "Read the Bills" campaign as well as the "Write the Laws" campaign.
Posted by: Pat McCotter | July 28, 2009 6:18 AM
"A fanatic is one who cannot change his mind and will not change the subject." --- Winston Churchill.
Klingenschmitt is a true fanatic.
Posted by: Curmudgeon | August 5, 2009 3:47 PM
The link provided by #17 only goes for me to the Gmail signin page. It presumably will only work if you have an account on Gmail, which I do not want.
Posted by: James | August 25, 2009 12:20 AM