Florida Agenda

ELECTION DEBATE CONTINUES …

While Matthew Tsien and Peter Ryskewecz have every right to place an ad in this newspaper urging Floridians to “Dare To Be Different” and vote Republican on November 2, given the slate of Republican candidates in this election cycle, a more apt title for this ad directed to gay people or anyone concerned with human rights might be “Dare To Be Stupid.”

Marco Rubio never saw a gay issue he supported. Rick Scott thinks gays should be banned from adopting, AND foster parenting.

The Democratic candidate for Attorney General, Dan Gelber, would accept the court ruling ending the Florida gay adoption ban. Republican Pam Bondi said she would appeal it to the Florida Supreme Court.

Democratic Congressman Ron Klein voted to end the military ban on out gays. Republican Allen West doesn’t think gays belong in the military at all, closeted or otherwise.

For most self-respecting gay men and women, LGBT rights are not the only issue we vote on, but they ARE a part of the mix. Messrs. Tsien and Ryskewecz fail to understand this.

MARC PAIGE

It is assumed that all Gays are Democrat voters except for a very few who are super rich. I am neither; but I am a Gay Republican business woman who recognizes that finally a greater number of gays and lesbians know that the GLBT political class and the Obama Democrats will say anything to scare us into the voter’s booth determined that we pull the Democrat lever.

“No funding for AIDS!” “No marriage equality!” “Rampant homophobia…”… goes the mantra. But most of it is a big lie and just because I am a lesbian does not mean I have to live a life of relentless left-wing lies. AIDS funding does not disappear with GOP majorities, and at least half of Republicans believe in civil unions. In fact, the lead attorney in overturning California’s Proposition 8 to ban same-sex marriage is also an out-spoken movement conservative.

We need a dramatic reduction in the federal government. The Post Office is technologically obsolete. The Commerce Department and Small Business Administration create neither jobs nor business; they are merely edifices of pretentiousness. The Health and Human Services Department is already duplicated at the state and local level. The Department of Education in Washington, D.C. has no student contact while its only real interest is in keeping inferior performing teachers employed in order to get their union dues, which are aimed at running class warfare ads during campaign time.

I want a country that is driven by ethical, democratic capitalism and puts people back to work. Our federal and state governments are out of control and run by greedy public-sector employee unions. Our government has tens of billions of dollars of unfunded pension obligations for which we, the taxpayer are liable. The career politicians have bankrupt Social Security and Medicare to the point where the government is the equivalent to 200 Enrons.

When all the votes are counted, we are going to find out that a lot of Gays and Lesbians became politically mature, wised up and voted Republican.

– D. A. ROBERTSON

To read the diatribe of “former Democrat”, you might believe that the economic history of the U.S. extends back only to January 20, 2009 (the day that President Obama was inaugurated.)

The fact is (Glen Beck notwithstanding) that the U.S. economy was under the policies and oversight of Republican Congressional control from 1995 to 2009, and the Presidency also was controlled by Republicans from 2001 to 2009.

Federal taxes are now the same rates as during the Bush years. And, deficits? Despite the fact of a budget surplus at the end of the Clinton presidency, and at least six Bush years of (artificially) booming economy, the Republican Congress and President always turned in annual deficits of several hundred $$Billion…and that was in good economic times!

Bailouts? Those were largely initiated by Bush, and his Goldman Sachs Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen, to the tune of $700 Billion…all cheerfully funded and added to the deficit (lent back to us!) by the heirs of Mao Tse Tung of modern day China! (Take a look in the mirror, next time you shop at Wal-Mart, if you are looking for someone to blame for 10% unemployment in the U.S.! Try to find something at Wal-Mart that is not made in China!)

The shameful $150 Billion dollar bailout of AIG, by President Bush, ended up largely in the pockets of fat cat hedge funds and banks, and Wall Streeters, as payouts, after AIG stupidly “insured” the value of junk bonds, (which were magically rated AAA by Moody’s et al.) Our Bush-era economic system was raped and pillaged over and over, without a single kiss…no flowers…and obviously no respect the next day…since the same cast of characters wants yet another chance to stick it to us.

Mr. Former Democrat is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts. A huge herd of elephants roamed this country for most of the past ten years, and left massive dung piles everywhere. And, who is left to clean up the mess, and who is to be blamed for the lingering stench? Mr. Former has invented his own facts on that.

– FRED REISSNER

“FOR EVIL TO TRIUMPH, LET GOOD MEN DO NOTHING.”

I read the editorial “Confessions of an Ex-…” in the 9/30/2010 edition of Florida Agenda. During the Regan administration I was living in San Francisco. As AIDS appeared, and reached epidemic proportions, the reports in the daily press and conversations with friends became more and more personal as friends, colleagues and other people I knew kept getting sick and dying. Medical researchers in San Francisco and doctors did what they could but there was no help from Washington and no extra funding for the CDC or NIH.

Kindly ask Mr. Kecskemety if he was straight, uninformed, naive or just uninterested in what was going on at the time. During the entire Reagan administration, as friends were dying, his beloved President did absolutely nothing. Private research both here and in France were desperately looking for a cause and cure, but our President and his wealthy “kitchen cabinet” were not interested. The only gay people we saw in the White House were Nancy’s decorators and hairdressers. As a lifelong republican, maybe he can be excused for voting for Reagan the first time, but the 2nd time?

I realize that the gist of the editorial was the fact that his political direction has changed, but someone said “For evil to triumph, let good men do nothing.” He admits that he did more than do nothing. He actually voted for these anti-gay homophobic leaders. Everyone is entitled to their political beliefs, and supposedly his beliefs have changed. Personally, I’ll find other things to read besides the editorials in your publication. – JOEL COLBY

A “FORMER GAY DEMOCRAT”

I am Gay and I have spent nearly half a century as a thoughtless “liberal” gayclone, believing everything the gay ghetto and my labor union has told me. I have blamed the decimation of gay men dying of AIDS on Reagan, Bush, Cheney, Rove and Gingrich. I have dutifully voted Democratic in almost every election since John F. Kennedy. I have called for a “French Revolution” in America and preached the socialist gospel of European superiority to anybody who would listen. But I have changed! What brought about this change? In one word: Obama!

His taxpayer bailouts of the incompetent rich contradicted his beautiful rhetoric of condemning the rich when he campaigned for President. His healthcare reform is a farce and does not control costs for any age-group. His star has faded, his luster is diminished, just as millions of people have lost their homes and their employment. He blames Bush, but unemployment used to be almost half of what it is in today’s Obamaworld.

He has left us so deeply in debt that China, our primary creditor, is almost certain to become the world’s most powerful economy. Even Europe is telling Obama he is going in the wrong direction.

He implores us to vote for Democrats; and if we don’t, there will be no funding for AIDS. Yet Bush spent hundreds of millions on AIDS, as did Reagan and Gingrich. I no longer believe Gay propaganda and Gay editorial writers. I am tired of being expected to blindly follow a Democratic Party that usurps my Gayness to raise millions, only to raise my taxes and to promote bogus fear of Republicans to extort even more money from my friends and me.

During this campaign season, I have attended numerous GOP and “Gay” GOP events. None of the Republican candidates or GOP activists treated me like an alien. All of them welcomed my patriotism and my gayness. Now I realize how much “so-called progressive gay activists” lie and exaggerate about rightwing homophobia.

I am irate at how a once vibrant Florida economy has a higher unemployment rate than traditionally poor, under-developed Southern states like Louisiana, West Virginia, Alabama and Mississippi. Over one million Floridians are out of work, and that includes tens of thousand of Gay people. I am fed-up with being told that because I am Gay, I must vote Democratic! Otherwise, I will hate myself. I am tired of Gay left-wing demagoguery in South Florida.

In 2008, over one out of three Gay voters voted for John McCain in an otherwise dismal year for the GOP. They must have been on to something. I can only hope, for my country and for my unemployed friends and family that even more Gays will vote Republican in November. – PETER RYSKEWECZ