DiFi on 8

There can be equality

Christianist and Fear - That's All Christianist Have To Offer

Listen the the voice.
Hear the anger
the fear...

is this what our future should be?

...maybe not

Don't let fear keep us from progressing forward

California's Prop 8 - Vote "NO"

Several weeks ago I sent out an email to one of the email lists my mother uses to send her, um, less than progressive emails. I want to post the text of the message here in the hope that someone that may be on the fence with regard to proposition 8 may come to see why voting "NO" on Prop. 8 is the right and just thing to do.

Here you go:

Many, I'm sure, have heard about Proposition 8, the marriage equality bill, on this year's California Ballot. Please take the time and allow me to explain why I this issue is so important.

Now, I have never really thought about getting married, because I am gay, the prospect was never something in the realm of possibility, but now that the possibility is here, it has allowed me to see things differently. What really has opened my eyes is not the fact that the California Courts have granted the right for me to marry; it was seeing friends marry their partners. Seeing how this new right has transformed their happiness to something more is a revelation. Seeing my friends get married and watching the deepening of their happiness and love is hard to describe. I get a sense of renewed love and a…renewed sense of a shared future. This new stability in their lives is undeniable. It's hard to describe the change I've seen in my friends, but I’m sure that many of you that are married and have witnessed your friends marry understand what I am trying to say.

The idea of not allowing so many of us to share what I have seen friends and family share, is something that would be more than a terrible injustice, it would be a blow to equality everywhere.

I'm asking you to vote "no" on Proposition 8 this November.

-Michael

You can donote to the "NO" on 8 campaign here.

Change Course! Change Course! Change Course!

Well, it seems the McCain Campaign will unveil a new speech today saying he is "a scrappy fighter on the comeback trail against an opponent who’s already 'measuring the drapes" in the Oval Office." He will go on to tell us how dangerous it is to have one party running all of government...ahem. And how Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will raise our taxes, etc, etc, etc.
via Politico

This latest move by McCain to re energize his campaign (how many times does the man need to re energize his campaign?) is just another stunt McCain likes to make to show how he will "fight" for us. I look at it a differently. This just seems another erratic move on his part to try and save his badly managed and executed campaign. His first was the farce of picking Sarah Palin a person he only met once five years ago, and had a short conversation with before picking her as his VP pick, an unknown, and still unknown - although more is coming out about her, see: Troopergate, Rape Kit, Bridge To No Where, Pray The Gay Away, his "suspending" his campaign to put country first and save the economy (which he says is not his strong suit) and to try and delay the second Presidential debate which Obama, wisely said no. Walking and chewing gum is not one of McCain's strong suits, it would seem. Along with his campaign's negative turn of calling Obama a terrorist and a traitor (McCain's calling Obama a decent man at a rally doesn't hold water, especially since the ads are still running calling Obama a terrorist sympathizer)

Now with McCain's latest move, we see, again, how erratic McCain truly is. If the way McCain's management of his campaign is any indication of how he would be President, we may very well be in store for some bumpy rides. His list of stunts during the campaign make me wonder what kind of stunts he would pull if he were to become President and whether, as a country, we can afford a Stuntman in Chief.

Not Just Words

We've all heard about how negative the McCain/Palin campaign has turned, how they are insinuating Obama is a terrorist and how the mobs they speak to eat it up.
We've all heard about how supporters at these rallies are calling to have Obama "killed", is a "terrorist".
We have seen how the McCain/Palin ticket do nothing to stop these taunts like people with integrity and humanity would.
What the Republican ticket is doing is to de-humanize Obama. They want to make him into the "other" scary figure. By inciting this kind of hatred, McCain and Palin are practicing what the Rwandan media did to incite people to kill the Tutsis. The media in Rwanda continually broadcast that there needs to be a "final war" to "exterminate the cockroaches."

This same kind of rhetoric was heard out of Israel towards Rabin, including accusations of treason, fliers picturing Rabin as an SS officer. McCain and Palin have created a fertile bed for actual violence, which in Rabin's case help create the context in which Rabin's murderer decided to take matters into his own hands.

Now, you may think I am being hysterical about this, but McCain and Palin, by associating Obama with terrorists that want to bomb the Pentagon, they are making Obama into someone, not only to fear, but to loath. By making Obama into a terrorist, McCain and Palin have painted Obama as the worse of the worse; in league with those that would do Americans harm. They are de-humanizing Obama. By de-humanizing Obama they take away that which elevates us above the animals, and, thereby, makes Obama into nothing but an animal.
This is not just campaign rhetoric, this is hate, pure and simple and people are buying into it.

Hate starts with words. McCain's words spreads an idea which gives licence for people to hate. McCain should be ashamed of himself, but McCain has no shame.

We are better than this...

When Opportunity Knocks, McCain Will Say Anything...

"Tragically, the U.S. response to the 1998 embassy bombings was wholly inadequate...Too many Clinton Administration officials refused to act effectively to counter the dangers posed by al Qaeda."
--John McCain, August 7, 2008

"You could say, 'Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted?' Most of us have never heard of him before."
--John McCain, September, 1998, to Mother Jones, following Clinton's strikes on al Qaeda camps

Get Him

"I'll get Osama bin Laden, my friends. I'll get him. I know how to get him. I'll get him no matter what and I know how to do it."
-- John McCain

One would think if John McCain knows how to get Osama bin Laden, he might have told Bush.

That One

I think it is safe to say McCain lost and Obama won easily.

Obama was clear, had few stumbles and seemed vibrant, alert. If you are too use one measurement of how the debate went, take a look at how long Barack and Mitchelle Obama stayed in the hall. John and Cindy left pretty quickly afterword - I think it's because they realized no one wanted their picture. How many times did Obama have his picture taken?

One thing that has bothered me for a while about McCain (just one? heh) is how he is always saying how he knows how to "win wars", "talk to these people" (referring to world leaders), or "how to capture Bin laden". Really? And how is that to be done, John?

I have a joke to tell you. Ready? Here goes...John McCain. That's it.

Anyway, McCain lost, and...

won

California Marriage Amendment

Some troubling numbers about Prop 8 in California:
According to the poll, likely California voters overall now favor passage of Proposition 8 by a five-point margin, 47 percent to 42 percent
via: CBS5

Now, as the article points out, polling is not an exact science, but for people that believe in equality, we have to be vigilant.

Equality is a good thing, so let's help with the fight for equal rights in California by donating here.

I've mostly been agnostic when it comes to marriage, but I have found there is something amazing that happens to some that get married. It's hard to describe, but there is a difference in two people when they marry. The best example is the way my brother seemed to be changed when he got married. He seems, somehow, happier and less stressed. There is power is that little word, marriage. I wish I could describe better the change in my brother, but it is there and it is real.

I don't know if I would want to be married, but, then again, neither did my brother, but having the choice is important.

Please talk to your friends and family and let them know why this is important.

P.S. I am going to try to start posting more, now