Faced with long-standing agreement about what he said about same-sex unions being like “man-on-dog” as well as clear video evidence that he said he didn’t want to give “black people” more government money, Rick Santorum has taken the best GOP refuge: he’s denying that’s what he said. It’s the best refuge because it’s worked for others in his party.

Think of it as Rick Santorum bringing Jon “not intended as a factual statement” Kyl’s philosophy to the presidential sweepstakes.

First, as my colleague Lisa Derrick mentioned at LaFiga, Santorum wants you to believe

I’m pretty confident I didn’t say ‘black.’ I started to say a word and sort of mumbled it and changed my thought. I don’t recall saying black. No one in that audience heard me say that.

Guess what, though? There’s video. You can watch and decide what Rick Santorum said for yourself; you don’t even have to be in the audience. You are the audience:

What do you think he said at 0:21? I know what I heard, and I know what Rick said. Read the rest of this entry →

Rick Santorum (R-Frothy Mixture) already has a Google problem, but now he also has a campaign slogan problem. And he isn’t even actually running for president quite yet! His campaign slogan, “Fighting To Make America America Again” not only twice cites the first name of an actress who starred in “Ugly Betty” and most recently played an undocumented nanny on “The Good Wife,” it also derives from a poem by Langston Hughes, a fan of gay sex:

Speaking in New Hampshire, Rick Santorum was tripped up a bit when a student asked him if he knew that the choice of his campaign slogan, “Fighting to make America America again,” was borrowed from the “pro-union poem by the gay poet Langston Hughes,” the New Hampshire Union Leader reports.

Santorum (the former Republican Senator) was later unsure if that was actually his campaign slogan:

When asked a short time later what the campaign slogan meant to him, Santorum said, “well, I’m not too sure that’s my campaign slogan, I think it’s on a web site.”

As the Union Leader points out, though:

It was also printed on the campaign literature handed out before the speech.

The unnamed “student” who asked Ricky the Langston Hughes question was, of course, intrepid ThinkProgress reporter Lee Fang, who adds this notch to his belt already crowded with GOP gaffes, including Herman Cain’s promise not to appoint a Muslim to his (!) Cabinet.

But back to Ricky: that Gay Slogan isn’t gonna cut it. I mean, it leads right back to Santorum’s Google problem, what with Langston Hughes being a fan and all. Not of Santorum, mind you, but perhaps of santorum.

So let’s help Ricky out! Put your Slogan2.0 ideas in the comments.

Amazing interview with “It Gets Better” co-founder and “Savage Love” columnist Dan Savage on KING5 Seattle’s New Day NorthWest chat program this morning. Really worth a watch as Dan eloquently explains, to a very sympathetic and intelligent interviewer, the genesis of the project, its goals, the specific communications obstacles it has overcome in getting LGBT youth to hear the message that it DOES get better, and his fundraising for The Trevor Project.

Dan Savage has a reply to Valerie Jarrett’s uncredited theft of his project’s tagline "It Gets Better" for the title of her Saturday night (short straw at the WH Friday staff meeting, too bad, eh, Val?) speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s big DC black-tie gala.

Wisely, Dan ignores the actual intellectual property heist and focuses on the content. Pithily.

It’s short and sweet, I’m going to share all of it; please give Dan a click, though.

Confidential to the White House
Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 12:48 PM

Fuck you.

Seriously. You can do a lot more than offer hope. You can make it better. Right now. Suspend enforcement of DADT. Don’t appeal the decision by a federal judge that declared DADT unconstitutional. Stop defending DOMA in court.

You can do more. And you’re not. Fuck you.

This White House is part of the problem.

They are making it worse. Until they recognize that, apologize and change course, no one should be honoring any White House staffers at black-tie galas. That’s called being a quisling accomodationist, Joe.

WARNING: EXTREMELY DISTURBING GRAPHIC HATE SPEECH

Shenandoah Baptist Church’s Pastor Jeff Owens: BURN AND SHOOT FAGS! from Joe Jervis on Vimeo.

Well, the mask got ripped off the right-wing evangelical preacher Jeff Owens of Shenandoah Bible Baptist Church in Martinsburg, WV, today. He exhorts his flock to go out and ‘burn and shoot fags,’ claiming we need a ‘hunt a homo day’ and that ‘we need to take them all out and shoot them with a scattergun.’

From Dan Savage at The Slog, in Seattle:

Now for all you moderate Christians offended by this sort of thing—by Owens’ sermon, by my posting about it—if you want to tell anyone that Owens doesn’t speak for all Christians, go tell Owens. I’m sick of hearing it, frankly, and Owens needs to hear it. And you can reach Pastor Compassion at…

Shenandoah Bible Baptist Church
“One of America’s Most Exciting Churches”
2251 Williamsport Pike
Martinsburg, West Virginia 25404
PHONE: 304-263-3461
FAX: 304-263-0151

Listen to that sermon again—listen to Pastor Owens crank up his congregation, listen to Jesus’s followers scream and cheer when their loving, compassionate pastor encourages them to get out there and murder gays and lesbians. That’s the kind of rally—so Nuremburgish—that gets innocent people killed. Listen to that sermon again. And then give the vile piece of shit a call: 304-263-3461.

And from Joe.My.God, who highlights Pastor Owens in his recurring series, God’s Gentle People:

Owens is on a national speaking tour of Baptist churches all this year. And he’s not a one-man loony show, either. His Shenandoah Baptist Church has a staff of a dozen ministers and produces events such as the East Coast Ladies Conference, where attendees are commanded to "dress modestly according to the Bible." I believe this clip was made by one of Owens’ charming fans.

How soon until we hear about some cute rent-boy lifting Pastor Jeff’s luggage??

From our house to yours, Pastor Jeff Owens, in all sincerity: Happy Harvey Milk Day!

UPDATE: Owens Family Values Per a commenter at Dan Savage’s joint, Pastor Owens’ book Character Lessons for Kids is on sale now. Presumably, he used these lessons to raise his own children and form their characters:

MARTINSBURG — A 22-year-old Martinsburg man charged last year with having sex with two teenage girls in Berkeley County has agreed to a plea offer from the county prosecutor’s office.

Jeremiah Daniel Owens pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault charges from an eight-count indictment handed up in October 2007 that charged him with sexual assault and sexual abuse against two girls, ages 15 and 13, and that stemmed from separate incidents earlier that year.

Under the plea agreement, which was accepted by Circuit Judge Christopher Wilkes, the remaining six counts of the indictment will be dismissed, according to Berkeley County Assistant Prosecutor Greg K. Jones.

Jones said the potential sentence Owens could face is not less than one year and not more than five years in prison for each count. Sentencing has been set for May 23 at 9 a.m.

Under the plea agreement, Owens must also register for life as a sexual offender.

Kevin Mills, Owens’ Martinsburg attorney, said he will ask the court to consider his request for probation or an alternative sentence at his sentencing.

“Mr. Owens has entered his guilty pleas to these two charges and he wishes to take full responsibility for his poor decisions,” Mills said. “We have a number of witnesses that will be testifying on his behalf at this hearing. These witnesses will be testifying in an effort to present the judge with a full and complete perspective on the many good things Jeremiah has been involved with.”

According to a previous report, the mother of the 13-year-old, whose name will not be published to protect her identity, said her daughter met Owens at the Shenandoah Bible Baptist Church in Martinsburg where Owens’ father is the pastor.

The first incident reportedly occurred in Berkeley County and the victim’s father told police that the 13-year-old had been sexually assaulted by Owens. A day after he was arrested on the first charge, law enforcement responded to another report of an assault, records show.

The father of the 15-year-old victim told law enforcement officers that his daughter had had a sexual relationship with Owens. The teen told her parents about the relationship after finding out that the same type of incident had been reported to police.

Owens was sentenced to three years probation in September 2004 after pleading guilty to three counts of possession of stolen property following a string of burglaries in Indiana, for which he had been charged with burglary and theft. In December 2004, a Fayette County, Ky., grand jury dismissed rape charges against Owens because of insufficient evidence after he had been charged in November of that year with having sex with a 14-year-old girl at a school in Lexington where he worked as a janitor.