Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Post Zeroes in on Anti-Gay Candidate Martha Schaerr

The Washington Post Metro section this morning had this story about Montgomery County's November 2nd school board elections:
A woman who is part of a group that sued Montgomery County Public Schools over its sex-education curriculum is running for the Board of Education, reviving a debate about how homosexuality and premarital sex should be dealt with in the schools.

Martha Schaerr, who is running for the District 5 seat against incumbent Michael E. Durso, said that her 2007 fight against the sex-education curriculum is not her focus this time around; instead, she said, her primary concerns are basic issues such as the budget and student achievement.

But gay-rights advocates have criticized Schaerr for not being more open about her involvement with Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, of which she is a member.

The group sued the school system twice, arguing that its sex-education curriculum was dismissive of religions that consider homosexuality a sin and that it tacitly encouraged gay sex. The group wanted the curriculum to include discussions acknowledging various views about homosexuality, including that some people believe sexual orientation is a choice. It also opposed any mention of anal intercourse, saying that would violate a law against teaching "erotic techniques." Activist on sex-ed issue seeks Montgomery school board seat

Poor Martha Schaerr aligned herself with the forces of evil, and it's coming back to bite her. She says now that it's not important to her, but if you look at her resume, what else is there? President of the PTA, President of the anti-gay Citizens for Traditional Marriage, board of directors for the anti-gay Family Leader Network, that's it.

Martha Schaerr's background is in the hate industry, no matter what a nice mom she seems to be. Her group didn't sue the school district to make anybody's life better, they sued to prevent the schools from teaching that some people have a different sexual orientation, a different gender identity, her group sued to perpetuate discrimination against a population that has done nothing to deserve it.

She doesn't want to talk about that now. There are important things, like budgets and picking a superintendent, why would anybody want to talk about bigotry against gay and transgender people?

Skipping...
"When you're talking about sex ed, people seem to hear the word and go to one corner or the other," she said. "All of the board members have said they're happy with it, so it's not very collaborative of me to bring it up right now. I would like to bring it up at an appropriate time when people can talk about it and not yell."

She would like to bring it up again. Just not now, when she's sure to lose. And remember who did the yelling: the group that formed in 2004 to recall the entire Montgomery County Board of Elections, the group with the site RecallMontgomerySchoolBoard.com, the group that morphed into the Citizens for Responsible Curriculum and now the Citizens for Responsible Government.

Skipping...
But Montgomery County gay-rights advocates say that Schaerr's past remains relevant. And adding to an unusually contentious school board race, one of Schaerr's allies from the fight against the sex-education curriculum has organized a yard-sign campaign called the Rotten Apple Ballot, which is fighting candidates who were endorsed by the Montgomery County teachers union.

"If you want your legislators to listen to you, it's not going to happen," said Ruth Jacobs, president of Citizens for a Responsible Government, the group that has distributed the signs. She said legislators listen to the teachers union. Her group also has fought against a bill prohibiting discrimination against transgendered people, and she was a member of Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, along with Schaerr.

Jacobs said that Citizens for a Responsible Government has not endorsed any candidates in the elections this year.

In fact, this is a lie. A recent CRG newsletter endorsed Michael Ibanez and Martha Schaerr for school board, as well as teabagger-friendly candidates in other state and county elections.

Go to their web site: Boycott Apple Ballot and see what they say.

Back to The Post:
Durso, the District 5 incumbent, had just retired as principal of Springbrook High School in Silver Spring when he was appointed to the school board in 2009 to fill a vacancy.

He said he was "concerned" about some of Schaerr's positions on the curriculum, adding that "the school system has a role to support all students and all views and to try to make that atmosphere as conducive and non-threatening as possible."

But he also said that the superintendent search and the budget, not sex education, were the big issues in his mind. "I think we've got our hands full," he said.

Yes, we do have our hands full, and we don't need the distraction of prejudice and discrimination in our school board meetings.

26 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is great news. Now all the thousands of people in the county will know who to vote for!!!She has been identified above all the liberals. Thank you for pointing this out.

October 27, 2010 12:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"but if you look at her resume, what else is there? President of the PTA, President of the anti-gay Citizens for Traditional Marriage, board of directors for the anti-gay Family Leader Network, that's it"

the fact that TTF is so dismissive of the experience of being a full-time mother and PTA president is a big reason Schaerr belongs on the Board

the sex-ed curriculum fails to mention all views of homosexuality and its real-world consequences

schools aren't there to teach fairy tales

every one I've talked to who knew her in her involvement at Magruder is voting for her

most have already gone up to Bauer Drive and done so

thanks for the link to the Rotten Apple Ballot

be interesting to see if the influence of the evil Apple ballot will wane

the listless troops that thought Obama was the second coming may have had enough while the teachers' union dances to the tune of:

go ahead

take a bite of the Big Apple

don't mind the maggots !

October 27, 2010 6:47 PM  
Anonymous this one's funny said...

(Oct. 27) -- Henry Velandia is married to a U.S. citizen, but he might be deported anyway.

That's because the Venezuelan-born salsa teacher's legal same-sex marriage in Connecticut isn't recognized by the federal government. So his husband -- Josh Vandiver, a Princeton University doctoral student from Colorado -- can't sponsor him for residency the way he could in a heterosexual marriage.

The New Jersey couple of four years say the Defense of Marriage Act, which legally defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, could force them to leave the country.

October 27, 2010 10:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

oh, well

the country's going Republican anyway

try France

October 27, 2010 10:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The great news is that the Post endorsed Mike Durso on Tuesday

and on Wednesday noted he's running against a candidate who loves to talk about cutting the school system's budget

but who doesn't want her kids to learn about sexual orientations other than hetero in health class

after having cost the school system money trying to prevent lessons called "Respect for Differences in Human Sexuality" being taught to students

all of which puts her desire to make cuts to the budget in a different light

it's important information for voters who wish to make fully informed choices

October 28, 2010 7:51 AM  
Anonymous Aunt Bea said...

What's with all the stealth candidates in this election?? Not only do conservative candidates here in MoCo not want to talk about their past activism, but conservative candidates in races across the nation don't want to talk about their past activities or current views either.

'Sharron Angle, the Tea Party-backed Nevada Republican involved in one of the most hotly contested Senate races, has not commented to reporters since she was secretly filmed ten days ago telling a group of Latino students that they looked "Asian" to her.

Even before that blunder, which is likely to cost her crucial minority votes, veteran political reporters who had travelled to the western state to cover her campaign had written of their dismay about being refused interviews and chasing Mrs Angle through car parks."
======
"Rand Paul, a senate hopeful in Kentucky, has not done an interview with the mainstream media since he questioned the legal validity of the civil rights reforms of the 1960s the day after he won the Republican primary in May."
======
In Alaska, senate candidate Joe Miller refused to answer any further questions about his private life. It had been revealed that when a part-time government lawyer he had violated ethics rules when he used other people's office computers for political purposes.
======
"Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congressman and leader of the Tea Party caucus in the House of Representatives, has reportedly cancelled all further interviews until after polling on Nov 2 following some awkward questions about pension reform."
======
"Republican gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman in California and Rick Scott in Florida have both independently set election spending records by funneling millions of dollars from their personal fortunes into their campaigns. The former eBay CEO and former Columbia/HCA chief have also both come under intense media scrutiny for avoiding reporters and running away from debates."
======
"In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry (R) is refusing to hold any debates with former Houston mayor Bill White, even though the two are locked in a very tight race. Media outlets around the state are urging Perry to accept the challenge and pointing out that every single governor in the past four decades -- except Perry -- has met with newspaper editorial boards. "Texas voters need a debate to make the most informed decisions in the governor's race," wrote the Houston Chronicle. "They deserve the direct, face-to-face confrontation on the issues a serious debate provides.""
======

What are these conservative candidates so afraid of? Why do they refuse to say what they think? Why do they feel the need to hide their opinions and views from people whose votes they are seeking?

=======
"There are some candidates who are actively bucking this trend. One lawmaker who has received kudos from both sides of the aisle for his willingness to engage with the opposition is Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.). Not only has he agreed to debate his challenger, but he's gone around his district and spoken at local Tea Party meetings. "Congressman Perriello is eager to debate Senator Hurt because we know that when voters hear about his plans to protect companies that outsource American jobs, raise seniors' prescription drug costs, and cut education funding, we will win," explained Perriello campaign Communications Director Jessica Barba."
===========

Thank goodness for candidates and elected officials who believe the best voters are informed voters. Al Franken, *the poster boy of close elections" knows this first hand. Enjoy this video of Senator Al Franken's rewrite of "The GOP drove the economy into the ditch" story.

October 28, 2010 9:41 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm half Asian and I very frequently get into conversations with Spanish people, Korean people, Chinese people, Vietnamese people, etc. who want to know what I am. I then ask them what they are. It's often hard to tell, so we eye each other and ask questions.

We're curious about each other and talk freely about our heritage and how it's funny that our sisters and brothers look very different from us, one with green eyes, one with brown.

Believe me, Bea --It's not a bad thing -- it's part of being human. When I tell them what I am, many express surprise and might say, "oh, I thought you were French or maybe part Spanish." I don't recoil in horror and scream "why don't you just KNOW!???" I say "oh, that's interesting! Some people think I'm Turkish."

And then we might talk about Hawaii, where each mixture has a different name. If you're half Japanese and half Caucasian, you have one name. If you're half Chinese and half Caucasian, then there's another name.

So the fact that Angle thought that Latinos looked Asian -- it's hard to imagine that any Latino or Asian would hold that against her!

October 28, 2010 9:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interesting comment from Durso said: “the school system has a role to support all students and all views…” Do you agree with that?
I think Martha would agree and the sex ed does not do this.

October 28, 2010 10:18 AM  
Anonymous Aunt Bea said...

Transcript of Sharron Angle, GOP Senate nominee and prospective Canadian border vigilante, and her favorite enabler, Heidi Harris.

Harris: What is the deal? Now, there are people who said that the ad that talks about illegal immigration, some people it portrays Latinos and some have said, “Well, that’s a racist thing.” And I’ve tried to argue with them and say, “Listen, in France the problem with illegal immigration is North Africans. Here, the main problem with the illegal immigration is people coming in south of the border.” I think it’s fair, some do not, what’s your response?

Angle: Well, I think it’s very dangerous for us to be very stereotypical. We have a border problem. It’s not only Southern; it’s Northern and coastal. And we need to be very careful about stereotyping because when we do that we come to wrong conclusions sometimes.

Harris: No question, but some people are saying that everybody portrayed in this ad looks Latino so you’re singling them out; you’re not putting Canadians in the ad, that kind of thing.

Angle: (laughs) Well, you know, it’s an interesting thing. Like I said, there’s this tendency to stereotype and we need to be very careful about that.


Sharon Angle told Latino students “I’ve been called the first Asian legislator in our Nevada State Assembly.”

Angle has also made the following statement about the 14th Amendment during a rare "media availabilty moment" in August "certainly someone who has not come here under the rule of law is not under our jurisdiction," but on her website for office she says, "The United States must secure its borders immediately and enforce the laws that are already on the books."

Is enforcing current laws what she wants to do or does she want to change the 14th Amendment in some way? Her refusal to answer reports' questions makes it difficult for voters to know what she would vote for if elected to the US Senate.

=======

I for one think it be great if Martha Schaerr would tell MoCo voters if she agrees that "the school system has a role to support all students and all views" and if she feels the sex ed curriculum does "support all students and all views" or not.

October 28, 2010 12:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, Bea, not being able to tell whether someone is Asian or Latino is NOT being racist and it's NOT stereotyping.

Attributing a characteristic to a group because of their race is racist. Of course, liberals have now made it racist for people to be unable to discern someone's race! What a load of crap!

October 28, 2010 12:46 PM  
Anonymous Aunt Bea said...

Who thinks there's any confusion about which border and which nationality of people are depicted in Sharon Angle's ads showing illegal aliens crossing the border and joining gangs so people are afraid to leave their homes?

Angle is the person who told Latina students you can't tell Asians from Latinos by looking at them. But that's not what her campaign ads are saying or depicting and everybody who has seen them knows it. Angle avoids the press and reporter's questions to avoid being held accountable for attributing illegal immigration and membership in gangs as characteristics of Latinos.

The other important issue of stealth candidates is who are the funders of independent groups that are paying for campaign ads on behalf of these candidates who avoid reporters like the plague? Secret money is paying for campaign ads for stealth candidates with secret agendas. It doesn't get much more un-American than that IMHO.

October 28, 2010 1:19 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Sociopathanon: “schools aren't there to teach fairy tales”

Not even creationism?

October 28, 2010 4:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you place a video camera at a border and it captures illegal aliens crossing the border, is it the fault of the video camera that it doesn't show a more diverse group?

Rolling my eyes.

October 28, 2010 5:15 PM  
Anonymous Aunt Bea said...

If those are actual illegal Latino immigrants crossing the southern border in Angle's campaign ads, why was Angle's answer Harris' question about why some people say it's a racist thing for Angle's ads to show Latinos as illegal immigrants :

Angle: Well, I think it’s very dangerous for us to be very stereotypical. We have a border problem. It’s not only Southern; it’s Northern and coastal. And we need to be very careful about stereotyping because when we do that we come to wrong conclusions sometimes..

And when one of the Latino students asked Angle at a campaign event in a school:

"Why is it that in all of your commercials you have the image of Latinos? What do you see when you hear, and I quote, 'illegal aliens?'"

why did Angle reply:

'Angle: "I think that you're misinterpreting those commercials. I'm not sure that those are Latinos in that commercial. What it is, is a fence and there are people coming across that fence. What we know is that our northern border is where the terrorists came through. That's the most porous border that we have. We cannot allow terrorists; we cannot allow anyone to come across our border if we don't know why they're coming. So we have to secure all of our borders and that's what that was about, is border security. Not just our southern border, but our coastal border and our northern border."'

Fact: Angle has already run into trouble with the ad for using a photograph -- taken by a British photographer in 2006 of Mexican farmers in Mexico -- now licensed by Getty Images for editorial work.

As the Washington Post and others have reported, Angle's campaign incorporated the image into a campaign ad and laid text over it that read "illegal aliens."

October 28, 2010 6:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

pattern for Bea:

she makes an idiotic assertion

someone points out the obvious

Bea's defense is to throw up a longer post saying no more but taking more space

she must believe if she keeps loading up the crap, people will not read but just she assumes it's right because of the length

Bea, no minority of any kind, in their right mind, would decline to vote for Angle based on anything you posted

and most minorities, like most people, are in their right minds

Reid is going down

Nevadans are excited about the opportunity to send a message to the country rejecting socialism

they are on the national stage and they have something to say

in prior years, Dems have whined about Repubs using "wedge issues", "litmus tests"and social issues to advantage

how ironic that they now beg Repubs to address those same issues

ironic, yes,

and a riot

let's face it:

this will be the fourth time in a generation that the American people have rejected Dem control:

1. LBJ was elected due to misleading Dem attacks on Goldwater

LBJ begins road to socialism

four years later, LBJ quits as polls show Americans will reject him

2. angry over Ford pardoning Nixon, we elect Carter

four years later, he's fired by Americans

3. angry over Bush Sr raising taxes, we elect Clinton

two years later, we return control of Congress to Repubs

4. angry over Iraq and the bank bailout, we install B Hussein Obama

two years later, we redo his job description

henceforth, he's a ceremonial lame duck

Go, Sarah Palin!

October 28, 2010 7:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Barack Obama is a very non-discriminating fellow.

Look who he's palling around with now:

liberal bloggers!!!

oh, and he told 'em he has a "secret" plan to end DADT.

Some of you may remember when Nixon won the White House in 1968 with a "secret" plan to end the Vietnam War.

Obama is definitely our most Nixonian President since the 70s:

"(October 27) - Barack Obama invited some special friends for a first-of-its-kind, in-person White House chat today: liberal bloggers!

And the first report back suggests that they discussed Obama's legislative strategy for repealing DADT. He has one!

Sam Stein at the Huffington Post confirmed the meeting.

The blogs have all protested the president's lack of movement on gay rights issues pretty aggressively over the past two years. So it's no surprise that they asked several pointed questions about those during this meeting, a brief recap of which he sent back to blogger John Aravosis. He asked this rarely asked one and appeared to get something resembling an answer: What's the plan for moving a repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" through a 60-vote Senate filibuster after the election?

Finally, they asked the President if he has a strategy for passing the DADT compromise legislation during the lame duck session in Congress. The President did make some news here, by telling them that he asked the Log Cabin Republicans in a meeting at the White House yesterday to get him 2 to 5 votes. The President seemed to think that they could help persuade Log Cabin to help.

Yeah, good luck getting leftie gays and rightie gays to work together, you silly president, you."

where was TTF?

October 29, 2010 1:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

After a midterm campaign defined by hysterical claims about American Muslims and fear-mongering about the threat to national security posed by people who look Mexican, some anonymous Texas Republicans are going old-school with their latest attempt to suppress minority voter turnout. Yep, an old-fashioned "misleading flyer in a black neighborhood" (http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/fliers_from_fake_group_mislead_black_voters_in_texas_video.php?ref=fpb) landed in Houston this week, just in time for early voting.

The flyers, from the fictional "Black Democratic Trust of Texas," warn would-be voters that "Republicans are trying to tick us" (fair enough) and claim that straight ticket Democratic votes are being miscounted as Republican votes. Voters are told to vote only for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White.

This is just about the oldest trick in the book. (The actual oldest trick in this particular book is just denying black people their citizenship and personhood, but if you can't do that, you can just try to get them to not vote.)

It probably won't hurt turnout too much, because this is a particularly stupid example of the genre, but it's worth pointing out that it's the year 2010 and Republicans are still doing this crap.

October 29, 2010 4:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A thank you letter from The Penny Ice Creamery

October 29, 2010 5:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Andrea- not anon
The Showernuts just called me about their lies and the Apple Ballot. Can't Weepy Ruth get a life or at least try honesty for a change? One more defeat for the showernuts in MC come Tuesday.

October 29, 2010 8:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Weepy Ruth" hmm...
once again, personal attacks.

I guess Andrea, a classic Dem, doesn't know any other way to be ....

what did you find dishonest, Andrea.. ?

BY THE way...

I am having trouble restraining myself from calling democratic offices with "Nanannaa, naanaa, HEY, HEY HEY HEY, GOODBYE"...

all those folks who refused to listen to the people have to remember that the PEOPLE ARE IN CHARGE.

Sorry Blanche, Sorry Nancy, !

I think I am going to call Blanche's Arkansas office tomorrow and sing to her....

A little payback for the refusal to listen to constituents earlier this year. Silly, juvenile, but makes me feel good.

Hey, if you can call Ruth "weepy" I can SING AND SING AWAY !

have a great evening.

It's a great November. America is fully awake now. So maybe, Barack is a good thing. It will be YEARS before the electorate trusts them again.

October 29, 2010 10:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Please, "Anonymous"...complaints about "personal attacks" from you? Hahahahahaha!!!

October 30, 2010 12:17 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Sociopathanon: “pattern for Bea:

she makes an idiotic assertion

someone points out the obvious

Bea's defense is to throw up a longer post saying no more but taking more space

she must believe if she keeps loading up the crap, people will not read but just she assumes it's right because of the length”

--
Name calling. Otherwise known as an ad-hominem.

Ad Hominem::

attacking the person instead of attacking his argument.

October 30, 2010 3:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

improv, embarassing himself again

hey, idiot, when you call someone a sociopathanon, would that be a personal attack or an example of Democrat reasoning?

truth is, liberals always use personal attacks because facts have so overwhelmed their cause, that they have no choice

the media has noticed

here's ABC News:

"It's not just the Aqua Buddha and David Vitter's prostitute, Democratic candidates across the country are closing out the campaign with personal attacks on Republican candidates, sometimes digging up decades-old legal problems.

In one typical example, Democratic ads have transformed Kentucky Republican House candidate Andy Barr into "a convicted criminal" -- complete with images yellow police tape and fuzzy video of crime scenes. Not mentioned is his crime: As a college student 19 years ago, he was caught using a fake ID during spring break.

As you watch this year's ads -- and we've been watching all too many lately -- you'll notice a striking difference between Democratic and Republican attack ads: Democrats are attacking over personal issues, Republicans are attacking over policy.

There are, of course, many exceptions, but the overall trend is clear. Democrats are hitting their Republican opponents over past legal transgressions, shady business deals and even speeding tickets. Republicans are hammering Democrats over "Obamacare," Nancy Pelosi and the economy.

A recent study by the Wesleyan Media Project actually quantifies this. They looked at 900,000 airing of political ads this year and concluded: "Democrats are using personal attacks at much higher rates than Republicans and a much higher rate than Democrats in 2008.""

oh well, it has backfired

Tuesday, we take this country back

and the task here, on TTF, is pretty much over

other than the gloating

maybe Dems would be better off if there was a DADT for party affiliation

October 30, 2010 6:46 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

“hey, idiot, when you call someone a sociopathanon, would that be a personal attack or an example of Democrat reasoning?”

I’d call it an observation.

October 30, 2010 6:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm sure you would

reminds me of a line by George Costanza in a Jerry Seinfeld episode when he requests a bereavement rate and the girl behind the counter at the airport tells him she needs documentation because people try to fake deaths in the family to get the bereavement rate:

"what kind of a sick mind does it take?"

that would be the improv mind

embarassing itself again

Jon Stewart sure pulled a fast one on Repubs this week

first, he asked Barry tough questions that revealed how out of it Barry truly is

and then yesterday told liberals how incivil and destructive they are when the call the tea party racist

undercutting liberals and, for a bonus, tricking thousands of them to descend on Washington when their time would be better spend at home doing the grassroots work that might have made a difference in tight races

tick-tick-tick.....

October 31, 2010 8:59 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Sociopathanon, the difference is that I don’t rely on name calling as a response to arguments.

In addition, you’ve earned the title.

November 02, 2010 11:28 PM  

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