The left-wing gay groups and Stonewall Democrats are doing what they can to highlight the Terminator’s use of the word “fag” in the past to paint him as a bigot. He’s obviously nothing of the kind. The man was comfortable with gay men long before the culture was; he backs civil unions; he’s loathed by the anti-gay religious right. Matt Welch nails it pretty convincingly here.
REPUBLICANS FOR DEAN: Extreme rhetoric, maybe, but legit. One Dennis Sanders runs the site. He’s so far out there he’s barely a Republican, but, hey, I’m for a big tent, aren’t I? Still, what’s a Republican doing writing for TomPaine.com?
CONASON ON SULLIVAN: He errs, alas. Are you as tired as I am of these hysterical partisan screeds? Given the best-seller lists, I guess I’m the exception rather than the rule.
EMAIL OF THE DAY: “To me the real lesson of September 11 is something that came out almost immediately – that the reason our airport security failed was because it was oriented toward detecting dangerous objects rather than dangerous people. Muhammad Atta and company were able to pierce our defenses because they had no “weapons”. But they didn’t need any – THEY were the weapons. Now apply that lesson to the broader world. Possession of dangerous objects (WMD’s) by Iraq was not what made Iraq dangerous – a lot of countries have WMD’s. What made Iraq dangerous was the dangerous person – Saddam Hussein – who ruled it. Saddam had definitely possessed WMD’s in the past, had definitely used them in the past, had attacked his neighbors without provocation in the past, was implacably hostile to the U.S., and friendly to terrorists and terrorism in general. Some evidence (inconclusive) indicated he might have a relationship with al-Qaeda. But most of these Middle Eastern terrorist groups have common or compatible goals, and formal and informal channels of communication. Saddam didn’t need to be tied directly and irrefutably to al-Qaeda to make him dangerous to the U.S.”
The Dish 