Freedom Justice Warrior

David Badash at NCRM:

Karen Handel says she is opposed to LGBTQ people being able to adopt children and start families because of her “faith.” The Republican nominee is facing Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia’s June 20 special election to fill the seat held by former Rep. Tom Price, now President Donald Trump’s HHS Secretary.

On Thursday Handel sat down with locals at Wright’s Gourmet Sandwich Shop, as the Georgia Voice explains, where one woman told her that while she personally leans conservative, she has an LGBTQ daughter and fears what will happen when she wants to adopt children or start a family.

As you watch this video, note how quick Handel is to cut the woman off when the conversation moves to civil rights and equality for LGBTQ people. Handel politely nods as the mother begins to talk about wanting to support her child, asking the Republican candidate, “what protections do I have for her having a family in the future, wanting to adopt a kid?”

“Sure. Sure,” Handel says, interrupting.

“I have to be honest,“ Handel says, bringing her hand to her heart. “My faith calls me to a different place on the issue.”

Handel, who once served as Georgia’s Secretary of State and unsuccessfully ran for governor, adds that her faith calls her to be “compassionate,” as if LGBTQ people need pity. “So, I always try to do that,” she says, as if it’s a challenge.

“I don’t,” she continues, “I’m not aware of anything in the law, right now, that I’m aware of, that’s going to be impactful, from a discriminatory standpoint, against your daughter,” Handel said.

[…]

The Georgia Voice notes Handel had nearly the exact same response the same day at Wright’s Sandwich Shop, telling longtime Georgia journalist Dyana Bagby of Reporters’ Newspapers, her “faith” calls her “to a very different place on these issues.”

“My faith at the same time calls me to be compassionate and what I have always believed is that what has to be paramount is what is the best interest of the child,” she said.

Asked to explain further, she said, “The best interest of the child. Period, end of paragraph. That’s not for you to decide. That’s not for me to decide. It’s for the child advocates to decide, whether that be the court or the child’s guardian. The child’s best interest must be paramount.”

Handel is known nationwide as the high-powered Komen for the Cure executive who almost single-handedly destroyed the reputation of the once highly-respected breast cancer non-profit when she moved to defund the group’s support of Planned Parenthood. She has told supporters she wants America to become a nation where "the very idea of an abortion is unthinkable.”

Reblog this for traction, please! 

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🇺🇸   VOTE your OSSOFF on JUNE 20th!   🇺🇸 ➣ electjon.com

The arrest of Reality Leigh Winner, a 25-year-old federal contractor from Atlanta, Georgia, for leaking a National Security Agency report describing in far more detail than previously known Russian efforts to intrude in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump, comes in the midst of a deluge of Trump tweets and leaks.

Among the most sensitive leaks about national security since the start of the Trump administration was Trump’s own Oval Office conversation with top Russian officials last month, in which he revealed allied intelligence information apparently coming from Israel. At that same meeting, Trump discussed his firing of former FBI Director James Comey the previous day, thereby relieving “great pressure” on him, he said. (Comey will be testifying before Congress Thursday).

How do we even know about these discussions between Trump and Russian officials? They were leaked! So we had a leak about a leak, coupled with a leak about a potential coverup by the president of his attempt to obstruct justice.

The essential message of the Justice Department’s decision to go after Reality Winner is that those who leak will be targeted for prosecution if the information they give journalists is about Russia helping Trump win the election.

But let’s be clear. This particular leak of an NSA report is not the central problem.

The problem is Russia has directly and brazenly interfered in our democratic system. Yet we don’t know exactly how – and we don’t have a means of stopping Russia from doing it again.

TRUMP’S IRATE and irrational tweets have already gotten him in plenty of trouble, and will, no doubt, continue to be an issue as he pushes for approval of his controversial travel ban before the Supreme Court. Now, free speech advocates are condemning Trump not just for what he’s saying on the platform, but for what he’s preventing his constituents from saying to him.

In a letter sent to the President today, the Knight First Amendment Institute, an offshoot of the larger Knight Foundation that focuses on protecting First Amendment rights in the digital age, argued that when Trump blocks people on Twitter, he’s violating their right to free speech. The letter contends that the @realdonaldtrump Twitter feed is a “designated public forum,” no different from a city council or school board meeting. The First Amendment bars the government from censoring individuals in such forums, based on their views. Through the letter, the Institute asks Trump to unblock these accounts and stop blocking people in the future. If he doesn’t, the Institute will file a lawsuit, according to Katie Fallow, a senior fellow there.

“This is the bedrock principle,” says Fallow. “If there’s any kind of forum the government is operating for expression, it may not discriminate on the basis of viewpoint.”

While right wingers like to scream about the first amendment when someone tells them their ideas are abhorrent or when anybody questions their ability to push their religion on others, they really need to read the entire thing.

By RACHAEL BADE

Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday defended President Donald Trump’s communications with ex-FBI director James Comey, saying Trump wasn’t “steeped in the long-running protocols” of how to interact with law enforcement.

“The president’s new at this,” Ryan said at a news conference. “He’s new at government.”