Today, the right-wing American Family Association (AFA) announced a boycott of McDonald’s. According to AFA, Ronald McDonald and his gang are part of giant gay agenda:

What the boycott of McDonald’s IS about

It is about McDonald’s, as a corporation, refusing to remain neutral in the culture wars. McDonald’s has chosen not to remain neutral but to give the full weight of their corporation to promoting the homosexual agenda, including homosexual marriage.

AFA is upset at McDonald’s for refusing to condemn Vice President of Communications Richard Ellis’s decision to serve on the Board of Directors of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC). AFA President Donald Wildmon said the situation is “strange” because “it’s the family that McDonald’s appeals to — children’s playland, you know, all the little toys, all of that. And they are promoting a lifestyle that would utterly destroy the traditional family.”

So far, McDonald’s is holding strong, writing a letter to Wildmon on May 29 and rebuffing his attacks:

We treat our employees and our customers with respect and dignity, regardless of their ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or other factors. We support our employees’ personal involvement in organizations of their choice.

Although AFA tries to make clear that it is NOT protesting McDonald’s “hiring homosexuals” or “homosexuals eating at McDonald’s,” as Good As You notes, “Whether it’s a direct attack on gay customer or employees or an attack on particular employees role in a pro-gay capacity, this situation is still about the company supporting diversity (something the AFA resists at every turn).”

AFA has a long history of silly, offensive boycotts against, among others, Wal-Mart (for selling “Brokeback Mountain” DVDs), Ford Motor Company (for advertising in gay-friendly publications), and the American Girl dolls (because the maker contributed to a youth organization that was pro-choice and supported the acceptance of lesbians). In 2005, it called off its unsuccessful nine-year boycott of Disney (for its “embrace of the homosexual lifestyle“).

McDonald’s should follow Disney’s lead and ignore the right-wing protests. After all, during the nine years AFA was boycotting Disney, the company saw record profits.

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A few weeks ago, the site 23/6 made a parody of the “You Can’t Have Alex” MoveOn.org ad. The parody featured Laurie Kilmartin, who explained today, “We called it ‘John McCain, Meet William,’ with me as the mom and my son as ‘William.’” But on right-wing radio host Monica Crowley’s June 21 radio show, Crowley took credit for Kilmartin’s parody ad, claiming she made the ad to make fun of MoveOn.org:

She began tearing apart the MoveOn ad and she played our parody ad as she went to commercial, without crediting us. … When Monica came back from commercial, she played our parody again but this time she claimed she created it. “We put together a little spoof there of that MoveOn.org where the woman holds up her baby…”

As Kilmartin notes, this isn’t the first time Crowley has been caught “stealing.”

Some allies of President Bush are expressing frustration with how “the White House seems to be wasting Bush’s time on frivolous events” in the middle of an economic crisis, according to Political Bulletin:

“Look at the schedule for Monday,” says an outside Bush adviser. “A highlight of his day was witnessing a tee ball game. … He is being reduced to child’s play.” … There is growing concern among Bush allies that the Democrats will effectively portray the President and GOP candidate John McCain as out of touch.

(HT: Atrios)

As everyone knows, Democrats have struggled for generations with the perception that they’re out of touch elitists. Barack Obama is no exception. He lives in Hyde Park, Chicago and ever since his book became a best-seller he’s made a whole bunch of money. As a part-time professor at the University of Chicago he came to be acquainted with various pointy-headed professor types and he even ordered an orange juice at breakfast once which is the exact same kind of juice they serve at breakfast at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

By contrast, John McCain is an all-American regular guy who, like most people, earns his keep by marrying an heiress. Like average, everyday folks the McCain’s rely on credit cards to make ends meet month-to-month “Cindy McCain charged as much as $500,000 in a single month on one American Express card and $250,000 on another, while one of their two dependent children had an AmEx card with a monthly balance as large as $50,000.” Yes it’s true, one of McCain’s dependent children spent approximately the median annual household income of the United States in a single month and that’s how McCain knows how to connect with regular people.

Similarly, Mrs. McCain “favors suits made by the German designer Escada, which typically retail for around $3,000 a pop” so she understands that most Americans welcome Wal-Mart’s discount prices. And like many Americans, the McCains are very effected by developments in the real estate market, since “trusts and corporations controlled by her and her children spent nearly $11 million between the summer of 2004 and February 2008 on three condominiums in Phoenix and a pair outside San Diego.” The McCains understand that these days many young people graduate from college saddled with debt and need a helping hand, that’s why they spent “$700,000 for a 1,900-square foot, three-bedroom loft condo for her then-22-year-old daughter Meghan McCain” after she graduated from Columbia. Similarly, they know all about problems with inflation since they “increased their budget for household employees from $184,000 in 2006 to $273,000 in 2007, according to John McCain’s tax returns.”

On ABC’s Good Morning America, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) explained his recent trip to Colombia by noting his concern over “the continued flow of drugs from Colombia through Mexico into the United States.” “Drugs is a big, big problem in America,” said McCain. Watch it:

But as Politico’s Avi Zenilman points out, McCain’s dedication to fighting the “continued flow of drugs from Colombia” creates a “sticky problem” with his pledge to end earmarks as president.

The McCain campaign has previously pointed to the Congressional Research Service’s (CRS) definition of earmarks when explaining how it would cut $65 billion in earmarks from the federal budget. But as Center for American Progress Action Fund Senior Fellow Scott Lilly pointed out in April, CRS’s definition includes some foreign aid to countries like Israel and Colombia:

The answer is that there is very little that CRS counts as earmarks above and beyond those found by OMB or Taxpayers for Common Sense that McCain would want to be associated with cutting. Assistance for Israel is only the most obvious example. It is doubtful that McCain would choose to start his presidency by terminating drug eradication funds for Colombia, the long standing assistance program to Egypt and Jordan, or humanitarian aid to Haiti.

When pressed by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos about how his budget plans suggest he would cut aid for Israel, McCain said “Of course not. I’m not cutting aid to Israel.”

Is his position the same for Colombia’s drug eradication funds? If so, this is just another example of how McCain’s budget proposals are a “fantasy war on earmarks.”

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