Obscanity: You'll know it when you see it

In light of all the money pouring in from the Mormon Church to help pass Prop 8 (I just had a deja vu moment and almost wrote Prop 22), it is nice to see that there are at least some in the LDS Church who understand what the marriage equality movement is about.

Well, that is just skeezy. One of the ads that comes up in my Google ad feed reads, “Support Marriage Rights / Get Involved in Discussions on Gay Marriage. Learn More Today.” You click on it, and it takes you to a YES on Prop 8 page! What the fuck? Prop 8 protects no marriages; if it passes, marriages will be destroyed, and thousands of future marriages will be barred. I don’t see how this protects anybody’s marriage rights, or protects anybody’s children, as the website loudly proclaims.

It does take away my marriage rights, though. This is not a political issue – it is about people’s lives. Real people. When you vote, think about the fact that there are actual, real people facing real and tangible harm if this proposition passes. And yes – those real people include the thousands of children being raised by same-gender couples in California. Marriage discrimination hurts them, too. If we really believe children are better off when their parents are married, shouldn’t we seek to encourage this healthy environment by letting their parents get married?

Rage rising on the McCain campaign trail – CNN.com.

I have to wonder if this isn’t all a ploy by the McCain campaign to get these hateful messages out to the public while still making McCain look like the good guy for defending him. After all, McCain’s people are the ones who have been spreading all these lies about Obama in the first place – why should we believe they are attempting to combat them with any ounce of sincerity?

Panel: Palin abused power in trooper case – CNN.com.

OH, LOOK. More of the same. BIG surprise.

Why is it that when a Democrat is found to have violated some sort of law or ethics code, other Democrats criticize the bad behavior and the person who acted wrongly, but when a Republican is found to have acted similarly, Republicans call “partisan attack” and try to turn it around on the people who are identifying the wrongful act? They also do this with reporting – if somebody reports something on something terrible, like, say, prisons set up across Europe for the purpose of torture, or fabricated CIA “intelligence,” Republicans want to ignore the story itself and just kill the messenger.

Do Republicans just believe they truly can do no wrong, and any allegation of wrongdoing MUST be false? Seriously? Just how much hubris can we take from these people?

Something to keep in mind in the coming election. Why haven’t we been given any information about McCain’s mental health? Why were only a few select reporters overloaded with thousands of pages of medical records and only given a short amount of time to look at them, with no permission to copy or record them? What is McCain hiding? And who will run his presidency when he becomes too senile to do it himself? My guess? Palin.

By the way, I had a dream last night. It was terrible – Sarah Palin somehow was in charge of the world and had literally brought on the apocalypse. It was awful – I’m talking burned out buildings, brown and grey sky, vast wasteland, hardly any people left. Scary stuff.

The Supreme Court of Connecticut has become… yet another high court to rule that marriage discrimination against same-gender couples is unconstitutional. This makes Connecticut the third state to allow same-gender marriage. I would say it was the third court to make this ruling, but I think people underestimate the number of state supreme courts that have ruled against marriage discrimination. For the record, they are: Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York (for out-of-state marriages), California, Connecticut. Other states, like Alaska and Hawaii, have seen court decisions become void because the states were allowed to pass DOMA amendments, which are entirely unconstitutional but have yet to be successfully challenged.

The reason DOMA is unconstitutional is that it violates the original constitution itself – not even an amendment – by flying in the face of the Full Faith and Credit clause, which directs that states give full faith and credit to other states’ public acts, records, and judicial proceedings. Marriage, and later divorce, has been established as a public act/record and if you get married in any state, you are married in all states – and if you get divorced in any state, you are divorced in all states. For states to recognize some out of state marriages and not others violates the 14th Amendment. If states want to recognize out of state marriages, they cannot pick and choose which marriages they will recognize. Let them stop recognizing ALL out of state marriages, divorces, and adoptions – let’s see how well that works! Let’s see how well that protects families!

Interesting quote:

State Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, a Republican of Fairfield, issued a statement today saying: “While I believe these decisions are better left to elected representatives, it is ultimately the province of the State Supreme Court to interpret our constitution. The Court carried out that responsibility today and ruled that the institution of marriage in Connecticut must include same-sex couples. Whether people agree or disagree, we all need to respect the Court’s decision and abide by the ruling.” (Read more)

Now, why is it that they recognize this in Connecticut, but not in California?

If CA’s Proposition 8 passes, it will amend the CA constitution to define marriage as only existing between a man and a woman, and will overturn the historic CA Supreme Court decision that recognized the unconstitutionality of marriage discrimination.

Even if you don’t live in California, I hope you will consider contributing a small amount to the No on Prop 8 campaign. The people supporting Prop 8 have had money pouring in all over the country lately because everybody knows that whichever way this proposition goes, it will have long-term ramifications for the rest of the country. Their commercials are running NONSTOP around California, and they are full of lies and fear-mongering – and they are working, as recent polls show.

The proponents of Prop 8 are scaring people into believing that churches will lose their tax-exempt status if they refuse to perform same-sex marriages (NOT TRUE), and they are claiming that school children will now be forced to learn about Prince Charming marrying a prince – also not true! The claims they are making are outrageous lies – but they are desperate at this point. They’ve even claimed that Christians will be put in jail if same-sex marriage is legal! Many people are looking for any excuse possible to justify voting yes on 8 – please help EQCA fight these lies so there are no excuses left!

Please, if you care about marriage equality, please consider making a small donation – every dollar helps fight this horrible amendment!

A really great article / Obama endorsement – from Esquire, of all places.

After all, as a young man with his potential, he could have headed straight to midtown Manhattan and made a fortune. Instead, he took a church job working for poor people in Chicago, and for his troubles, he and those poor people have been viciously jeered by the likes of Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin. Such is their regard for the common good. And such is Obama's promise. And in that, however inchoately and however diffidently, Obama stands not only against Bushism, but against Reaganism, which gave it birth. And that is more than enough. (Read more)

Meanwhile… read what women have to say about Sarah Palin… this could change but when I visited the page, the vast majority of the comments were from intelligent women who felt Sarah Palin’s nomination is both ridiculous and insulting. Good reads.

Oh. My. Gosh. Everybody in America needs to take eleven minutes out of their crazy schedules and watch this commentary about Sarah Palin. Every last bit of it is pure truth, and scary as all hell. I’m only sorry it’s on MSNBC and not on network television, where more people could see it.

If you’re even THINKING about voting for a ticket with Sarah Palin on it, you need to see this video. He has her so spot on – he’s raised so many questions that have been floating out there about her – for example, if Obama has been “pallin’ around” with terrorists (i.e. former anti-Vietnam war radicals who have reformed themselves and now work toward improving Chicago’s school system), then what does Palin have to say about her affiliation with the Alaskan Independence Party, founded by a man who by his own admission hates America? Who literally said he hates America and refuses to be buried under her flag? And what of her relationship with the pastor who “laid hands” on her and cast away any forms of witchcraft which might be getting in her way of becoming governor? (and who, I might add, threw in some lines in there about letting Palin bring the nation to god…) You’ll have to watch this video to find out his sordid past – which the people in the Wasilla church thought was just fab, by george!

A great article from the LA Times:

Still, just because gay marriage is nothing new for the general public doesn’t mean kids necessarily understand the complete concept. But that doesn’t have as much to do with homosexuality as it does with the fact that some young people can’t tell the difference between getting married and going on a really long date. So maybe marriage class should be mandatory — with an emphasis not on gay or straight but, rather, “wait!” (As in, “until you’re older.”) (Read more)

I LOVE it. So funny.

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Stop sending mail you later regret:

Sometimes I send messages I shouldn’t send. Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together. Gmail can’t always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we’re launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help.

‘Bride’ and ‘groom’ being restored to California marriage forms – San Jose Mercury News.

Wow, I’m sure all those people out there who were worried about losing the right to heterosexual marriage will be so relieved that they don’t have to vote yes on Prop 8 anymore!

Seriously, though. There were a lot of people who were put off by the Party A and Party B forms, so hopefully this will assuage their concerns.

Palin aside, if this doesn’t scare the hell out of you, I don’t know what will:

“McCain is a social conservative, and he’s given every indication that his appointees would be conservative, especially since that’s the traditional way to repay the Republican base for helping elect you,” said Michael Dorf, a professor at Cornell Law School and a former clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. “Obama’s whole message, meanwhile, is about uniting people and listening to the other side. And he is close to a number of core centrist Democratic thinkers about the court, so it’s likely that he would pick people who are fairly centrist.” (Read more)

Bailout Provides More Mental Health Coverage – NYTimes.com:

WASHINGTON — More than one-third of all Americans will soon receive better insurance coverage for mental health treatments because of a new law that, for the first time, requires equal coverage of mental and physical illnesses. (Read more)

I understand now why Sarah Palin doesn’t seem to be concerned about her lack of knowledge, preparedness, or qualifications for the office of the Vice Presidency. She thinks she’s got God on her side. She thinks this is her chance to “turn the nation around” and bring them to the lord. If this woman becomes president, you can kiss your First Amendment rights goodbye – she’ll appoint somebody like the guy in this video to interpret the Constitution, and you can be damned sure he’ll find Jesus there.

And by the way… what Average Joe Sixpack goes to a witch-doctor/exorcist before taking public office? This is worse then Ashcroft saying he anointed himself with Crisco.

Op-Ed Columnist – Pitbull Palin Mauls McCain – NYTimes.com.

This was first apparent when Palin extolled a “small town” vice president as a hero in her convention speech — and cited not one of the many Republican vice presidents who fit that bill but, bizarrely, Harry Truman, a Democrat who succeeded a president who died in office. A few weeks later came Charlie Gibson’s question about whether she thought she was “experienced enough” and “ready” when McCain invited her to join his ticket. Palin replied that she didn’t “hesitate” and didn’t “even blink” — a response that seemed jarring for its lack of any human modesty, even false modesty.

. . .

But the debate’s most telling passage arrived when Biden welled up in recounting his days as a single father after his first wife and one of his children were killed in a car crash. Palin’s perky response — she immediately started selling McCain as a “consummate maverick” again — was as emotionally disconnected as Michael Dukakis’s notoriously cerebral answer to the hypothetical 1988 debate question about his wife being “raped and murdered.” If, as some feel, Obama is cool, Palin is ice cold. She didn’t even acknowledge Biden’s devastating personal history.

(Read more)

Tina Fey As Sarah Palin In VP Debate On SNL – October 4!.

This pretty much speaks for itself:

Is this really what you want as your next Vice President? Doesn’t the White House deserve more respect and seriousness? Honestly. This was around the same time (1984) that Barack Obama was working for the New York Public Interest Research Group and then doing some of his “community organizing” in Chicago – in clothes, not in swimming trunks.

It’s still funny, four years later… *giggles*

The gist of this interview with McCain: “Hey LGBT Americans! Vote against your interests: McCain Palin ’08! p.s. we still hate you, but we’ll never admit it – at least not before the election! State’s rights, state’s rights, state’s rights.”

My favorite:

McCain: As a Republican, I am a strong advocate for federalism. States should be able to decide as many issues as possible. That’s certainly the case on the definition of marriage. My home state of Arizona shouldn’t be compelled to recognize a marriage from California or Massachusetts. Those states can decide that issue by themselves.

Hey McTwoface: Are you also in favor of the CONSTITUTION? For example, the part where states have to give FULL FAITH AND CREDIT to the “public acts, records, and judicial rulings” of another state? THAT INCLUDES MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.

How I love Photoshop….

Safety food inspectors in Connecticut recently found melamine in White Rabbit candy – you know, those yummy vanilla chewy candies with the edible rice-paper wrapping? If you purchased some recently… yeah. Throw it away.

Controversy brews up around VP debate moderator Ifill – CNN.com.

I can just hear it now. “We have to postpone the debate until we can find a nonbiased (read: conservative) moderator!”

So clearly if she loses the debate, it’s because the moderator was biased.

Honestly. I’m not surprised, though – we knew something was going to have to happen to take focus of Palin’s complete ineptitude.

Rock Me Sexy Jesus | Slog | The Stranger | Seattle’s Only Newspaper:
A columnist whose work I’ve never read before, Gwen Daniels, at a student newspaper I’ve never heard of, The Maneater, at a university I’ve never visited, the University of Missouri, introduced me to a trend with which I wasn’t familiar: Saving your first kiss for your wedding night. Basically it’s like saving your virginity for your wedding night only, um, a whole hell of a lot crazier. (Read more)

Oh… that’ll DEFINITELY help the climbing divorce rate. Oh yeah.