DEBATE: Prime-Time Event Mostly on Economy, But LGBT Issues Come Up

Tonight’s prime-time Republican presidential debate on CNBC, like the earlier debate between lower-polling candidates, focused on economics with little attention to social issues — but the latter did arise, especially with Ben Carson.

Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who’s recently overtaken Donald Trump in some polls, was asked about his service on the board of Costco, rated one of the most gay-friendly companies in the nation, and how that squares with his views, which are antigay by most measures. He responded that it’s possible to be “perfectly fair to the gay community” while believing that marriage should be limited to opposite-sex couples.

He dodged a question, though, about price increases by drug companies, most likely a reference to the proposed 4,000 percent rise in the price of Daraprim, a drug used to treat toxoplasmosis, an infection that can be particularly severe in people with HIV. He deflected the query by saying government regulations are the biggest culprit in rising drug costs. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie then jumped in and said, “We don’t need Hillary Clinton price controls.”

Clinton and President Obama came in for much criticism from the 11 candidates in the mainstage debate, with participants claiming “big government” solutions to problems just create more, and that the nation needs less government and lower taxes. They fought over who has the best tax plan and also excoriated the mainstream media for supposedly favoring the Democrats.

In the first Democratic debate, the candidates got “fawning questions” from the media, said U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who objected to the tone of questions in tonight’s debate. “This is not a cage match,” he said.

One of the questions that raised his ire was moderator John Harwood’s opener to Trump, citing his lofty promises about cutting taxes without adding to the deficit and building a wall to keep out undocumented immigrants. “Is this a comic book version of a presidential campaign?” asked Harwood, to which Trump replied that it wasn’t a nice way to ask a question.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, though, questioned some of the tax schemes put out by Trump and others, saying they are “fantasies.” Kasich, as a governor and former U.S. senator, said he actually has experience with balancing government budgets.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida also took a swing at the media, saying in a discussion of super PACs, which can do unlimited spending on behalf of candidates, “Democrats have the ultimate super PAC, and it’s called the mainstream media.” He said that last week’s congressional inquiry of Clinton about the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, while she was secretary of state, showed her to be a liar, while the media characterized her performance as a triumph.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said the economic policies espoused by Clinton and Obama hurt the middle class and especially women, and that she was a better choice than Clinton to be the nation’s first woman president. “I may not be your dream candidate just yet, but I assure you I’m Hillary Clinton’s worst nightmare,” she said. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, meanwhile, talked about his years fighting the “Clinton machine.”

Huckabee objected to a question about whether Trump has the moral credentials to lead the nation, saying he didn’t want to give Trump extra time, but he said the business tycoon would make a much better president than Clinton.

Trump, as usual, touted his record in business too, although the questioners caught him in a lie about his criticism of Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg, who has endorsed increasing the number of a certain kind of visa that allows workers with technological expertise to come to the U.S. He denied that he criticized Zuckerberg, but some research found that the criticism was on his own website.

The candidates also sparred about the best ways to assure the continued existence of Medicare and Social Security, with Carson and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush endorsing private savings accounts as an optional alternative to Medicare, and some candidates suggesting means-testing for Social Security recipients or raising the retirement age.

Christie got perhaps the biggest laugh of the evening when the CNBC’s journalists asked if betting on fantasy sports should be regulated as a form of gambling. “We have ISIS and al Qaeda attacking us and we’re talking about fantasy football?” he asked. “Who cares? Let people play!”

And although the debate focused on economics, some candidates did find time to emphasize their “family values” cred. Cruz bragged that he was proud to lead the congressioal fights against Obamacare and Planned Parenthood. And Carson said, “We should never give away the values and principles that made America a great nation in the name of political correctness.”

Mostly, though, the night was about the candidates’ support for smaller government. “I want a government so small I can barely see it,” said U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, contending that “liberty thrives” when government is small.

The audience at the Coors Events Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder was also small, just 1,000 people. The arena holds 11,000, but the number of tickets was limited at the request of CNBC, NPR reports. “The way it was explained to us by CNBC is the event is meant for a TV audience, not so much for a live audience,” Ryan Lynch, the executive director of the Colorado Republican Party, which got 200 tickets, told NPR.

The university received only 150 tickets, leading some students and staff to object. “The undergraduate student body is over 30,000-people strong,” said senior Aaron Estevez-Miller, who told NPR he and other students would be protesting outside the arena.

Boulder is a very liberal city, where President Obama received 70 percent of the vote in the 2012 election. But hosting the Republican debate provided an opportunity “to really broaden the kind of viewpoints for our students to hear,” university spokesman Ryan Huff told NPR.

Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/election/2015/10/28/debate-prime-time-event-mostly-economy-lgbt-issues-come

Ben Carson: Opposing Same-Sex Marriage Doesn't Make Me Homophobic

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said he thinks marriage should be between one man and one woman, but that doesn’t make him a homophobe. In fact, he said, it’s the people who criticize opponents of same-sex marriage who are the real problem.

“There is no reason that you can’t be perfectly fair to the gay community” if you’re opposed to marriage equality, Carson said during Wednesday’s GOP debate. “This is one of the myths that the left perpetuates on our society. This is how they frighten people and get people to shut up.”

Carson said American culture has become too politically correct, and people who accuse others of being homophobic on the same-sex marriage issue are “destroying the nation.”

“The fact of the matter is, we the American people are not each other’s enemies,” he said. “It’s those people who are trying to divide us who are the enemies.”

Carson has previously said prison makes people gay, compared same-sex marriage to bestiality, joked that Christian bakers might poison cakes for gay people and said Congress should remove judges who rule in favor of same-sex marriage.

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, who was texting supporters throughout the GOP debate, responded to Carson’s claims.

“Discrimination against the LGBT community is not a myth,” she texted. “It’s a reality for too many Americans and it’s wrong.”

For the latest updates on tonight’s debate, visit our liveblog.

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HRC Commends Obama Admin for Support of Trans Student Challenging Discriminatory Restroom Policy

Today’s action by the Department of Justice sends a crucial message to schools across the country — transgender youth are valuable members of our community who are entitled to full protection of the law.
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/hrc-commends-obama-admin-for-support-of-trans-student-challenging-discrimin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

DEBATE: Touting Conservative Cred on Economy, Not Social Issues

LGBT issues didn’t come up in today’s early-evening debate between the four lowest-polling Republican candidates, which was expected because the focus was the economy, but the candidates sought to burnish their conservative credentials in other ways.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, former New York Gov. George Pataki, and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania argued over who would cut taxes and government spending most, saying those moves are the key to creating jobs. The debate, held at the University of Colorado in Boulder, was televised on business-oriented cable channel CNBC.

“Do you grow the government economy or do you grow the American economy?” asked Jindal, who touted his record of cutting spending in Louisiana, which included slashing government employment and closing or privatizing charity hospitals.

All decried the state of the U.S. economy and derided Democrats as backers of regulations that they say will harm business. Pataki, one of the more moderate GOPers, allowed that President Obama inherited an economic mess when he took office in 2009 but said it got worse because of his policies, especially the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, designed to increase the number of Americans with health insurance coverage (which it has done).

On that topic, Jindal denounced Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying they “forced Obamacare and socialism down our throats.” Santorum said Obamacare has made it “virtually impossible” for small insurance companies to survive.

Graham focused largely on foreign policy, saying the U.S. military needs to be larger and better-funded, while getting a dig in at Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed socialist. Sanders “went to the Soviet Union on his honeymoon, and I don’t think he ever came back,” Graham said.

Pataki promoted himself as someone who can work with Democrats, as he did in New York, but that didn’t keep him from lambasting Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server when she was secretary of State, something that he said compromised national security. That alone should disqualify her from the presidency, he said.

Graham defended his positions on climate change, saying he believes it’s real and that Republicans don’t do themselves any favors by denying science, and immigration reform, pointing out that it’s impossible to deport all undocumented immigrants.

There were a few moments of levity, such as Graham and Santorum both saying how much they like beer, and Graham claiming he has a smartphone only because he gave his old phone number to Donald Trump.

There was the barest touching on social issues, with Jindal contending Democrats want to take away “religious liberty rights” (he has previously argued that these include the right to discriminate against LGBT people) and Santorum saying strong families are part of a strong economy (his vision of the family is notoriously not LGBT-inclusive). Pataki, for his part, said he’s a small-government conservative on social issues as well as economic ones. He didn’t go into detail, but he has a record of supporting LGBT rights.

Trudy Ring

www.advocate.com/election/2015/10/28/debate-touting-conservative-cred-economy-not-social-issues

Lesbian Couple Files Lawsuit After Hawaii Cop Arrested Them For Kissing

HONOLULU (AP) – The Honolulu Police Department opened an internal investigation Wednesday into allegations that an officer wrongfully arrested a vacationing lesbian couple after seeing them kissing in a grocery store.

Courtney Wilson and Taylor Guerrero, who were visiting Hawaii from Los Angeles, said in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that they were harassed and arrested because the officer didn’t like their public displays of affection in a Foodland store on Oahu’s North Shore.

They were walking through the aisles holding hands and at one point hugged and kissed, the lawsuit said. Officer Bobby Harrison, who was shopping in uniform, “observed their consensual romantic contact and, in a loud voice, ordered plaintiffs to stop and ‘take it somewhere else.'” 

The women complied and continued shopping, the lawsuit said. When Harrison again saw them being affectionate with each other, he threatened to have them thrown out of the store.

While the women were in the check-out line, Harrison grabbed Wilson by the wrist, said the couple’s attorney, Eric Seitz. Wilson started to call 911, and Guerrero tried to get in between her girlfriend and the officer, he said.

In the ensuing altercation, Seitz says that Harrison pushed Guerrero. “She then kicked the police officer, which apparently enraged him even more,” Setiz said, adding that Harrison punched Wilson after she hit him in the face.

The women were arrested and charged with felony assault on an officer. They each posted $12,000 bail and had to remain in Honolulu as a condition of their release, Seitz said.

 All the charges were eventually withdrawn and dismissed with prejudice, meaning that the case cannot be filed again.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, states that Harrison was motivated by his hostility toward gays. The City and County of Honolulu is also listed as a defendant.

Honolulu Police Department Spokeswoman Michelle Yu said Harrison has been an officer for 26 years and is currently assigned to District 2 in Wahiawa. Yu said the department would not comment on pending litigation.

The civil rights lawsuit is the second to come from the law offices of Eric Seitz in the past week. Seitz filed another lawsuit Oct. 20 against the Honolulu Police Department for the killing of Sheldon Haleck, a 38-year-old man who officers believed to be acting erratically.

Honolulu Civil Beat contributed to this report.

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Open Question: Poll: For those who are LGBT, are you out of the closet or are you still closeted?

answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20151028184922AAWuHKj

Gay Priest Who Lost Vatican Job Assails the Church in Letter to Pope Francis
Krzysztof Charamsa made public a letter that he had sent to the pope, dated Oct. 3, in which he denounced the church, saying that it had made the lives of gay and transgender people “a hell.”

Ben Carson: Opposing Same-Sex Marriage Doesn’t Make Me a Homophobe – VIDEO

On Wednesday’s CNBC GOP debate, Ben Carson spoke out of both sides of his mouth on LGBT rights. Asked about why he would serve on the board of a gay friendly company such as Costco given his views on homosexuality, Carson responded,

“You don’t understand my views on homosexuality. I believe our Constitution protects everybody regardless of their sexual orientation…I also believe marriage is between one man and one woman…There is no reason you can’t be perfectly fair to the gay community.”

He then went on to say “the left” had propagated a “myth” that opposition to same-sex marriage is tantamount to being a homophobe.

In case you need a refresher, here’s 8 reasons why Dr. Ben Carson is a dangerous anti-gay extremist.

Watch video of Carson’s answer below:

The post Ben Carson: Opposing Same-Sex Marriage Doesn’t Make Me a Homophobe – VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

Sean Mandell

Ben Carson: Opposing Same-Sex Marriage Doesn’t Make Me a Homophobe – VIDEO