Don't Ask, Don't Tell...Don't Hope

via Joe

Yes, it has been a long time since I've posted anything. My only excuse is I just haven't had the heart to keep this going. Although, the way Obama has been slapping the gay community in the face, I may have to start back up.

I had such hope for Obama on gay rights. Truly, the Fierce Urgency of Whenever.

Cars

Mr. President, America did not invent the car. You know, FYI...

Otherwise, nice speech. Ambitious. Really ambitious. We'll see how this works.

Oh, Mr. Jindal? I'm not six years old. You don't need to talk to me as if I am. Try learning from an adult...like Obama.

Stock Market As A Measure Of...What Exactly?

It's been a long time, TNTP!

Just one thing:
I find it funny that people (pundits, reporters, etc.) are using the changes in the stock market as some sort of rational barometer of how Obama's doing.
If the stock market (and stock holders)were at all rational, don't you think the stock holders would've told the companies they own to stop dealing in those pesky toxic mortgages?

President Obama's Whitehouse Web Page and LGBT Rights

Support for the LGBT Community
"While we have come a long way since the Stonewall riots in 1969, we still have a lot of work to do. Too often, the issue of LGBT rights is exploited by those seeking to divide us. But at its core, this issue is about who we are as Americans. It's about whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality by treating all its citizens with dignity and respect."
-- Barack Obama, June 1, 2007

Expand Hate Crimes Statutes:
In 2004, crimes against LGBT Americans constituted the third-highest category of hate crime reported and made up more than 15 percent of such crimes. President Obama cosponsored legislation that would expand federal jurisdiction to include violent hate crimes perpetrated because of race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical disability. As a state senator, President Obama passed tough legislation that made hate crimes and conspiracy to commit them against the law.

Fight Workplace Discrimination:
President Obama supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. While an increasing number of employers have extended benefits to their employees' domestic partners, discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace occurs with no federal legal remedy. The President also sponsored legislation in the Illinois State Senate that would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples: President Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights.

Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage: President Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 which would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.
Repeal Don't Ask-Don't Tell: President Obama agrees with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military experts that we need to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, more than 300 language experts have been fired under this policy, including more than 50 who are fluent in Arabic. The President will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.

Expand Adoption Rights:
President Obama believes that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation. He thinks that a child will benefit from a healthy and loving home, whether the parents are gay or not.
Promote AIDS Prevention: In the first year of his presidency, President Obama will develop and begin to implement a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy that includes all federal agencies. The strategy will be designed to reduce HIV infections, increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities. The President will support common sense approaches including age-appropriate sex education that includes information about contraception, combating infection within our prison population through education and contraception, and distributing contraceptives through our public health system. The President also supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of infection among drug users. President Obama has also been willing to confront the stigma -- too often tied to homophobia -- that continues to surround HIV/AIDS.

Empower Women to Prevent HIV/AIDS:
In the United States, the percentage of women diagnosed with AIDS has quadrupled over the last 20 years. Today, women account for more than one quarter of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses. President Obama introduced the Microbicide Development Act, which will accelerate the development of products that empower women in the battle against AIDS. Microbicides are a class of products currently under development that women apply topically to prevent transmission of HIV and other infections.

via White House

Let's make sure these are not forgotten. We must keep Obama's pledges at the front of Civil Rights. Let's not be complacent like we were when Clinton was President.

Does Obama's Tolerance Have It's Limits?

via Joe

The Ego-Driven Life

Pastor Rick Warren, he of Saddleback Church and inaugural invocation, asks his flock to "to follow Jesus with the fanatical dedication with which the Nazis, or Hitler Youth, gave to Adolf Hitler"

What the HELL is Obama thinking by giving this guy a platform at the Inaugural?

Oh, but it gets better...
"Concluding his motivational speech, the Saddleback Church founder instructed his ranks in the stadium to hold up signs, from their official programs, with the preprinted message "whatever it takes". Warren then introduced, as leader of the first nation on Earth in which the P.E.A.C.E. Plan would be implemented, Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

In 1998 under Kagame's leadership Rwanda, along with the now officially "Purpose Driven" nation of Uganda, invaded the Democratic Republic of The Congo, touching off a conflict that has claimed more civilian lives than any since World War Two. On December 12, 2008, the United Nations accused Rwanda of aiding Congolese warlord Laurent Nkunda, accused of massacres and human rights violations and whose recent offensive has created several hundred thousand Congolese refugees.

In March 2008, Rick Warren's Saddleback launched an official national "Purpose Driven Living" program in Uganda, a country which was indicted in 2005 by the International Criminal Court for perpetrating "massive" human rights violations by invading and looting the natural riches of the Congo. Uganda is know for brutalizing its own population too. In the late 1990s under president Yowerie Museveni, whose wife Janet Museveni has spoken at Saddleback Church conferences, the Ugandan military drove upwards of two million Acholi tribe members in Northern Uganda, through a terror campaign of massacres and bombing, into crowded concentration camps on the Congo-Uganda border where many languish to this day, in what one Former Undersecretary for the UN has described as an ongoing, slow genocide."

What about his work with regard to AIDS in Africa?
"As described in a January 7th, 2008 Daily Beast article by journalist Max Blumenthal, the reputation of Rick and Kay Warren, for work on HIV/AIDS reduction, appears considerably overrated. As Blumenthal writes, "a survey of Warren's involvement in Africa reveals a web of alliances with draconian right-wing clergymen who have sidelined science-based approaches to combating in favor of abstinence-only education. Most disturbingly, Warren's allies have rolled back key elements of the continent's most successful initiative, the so-called ABC program in Uganda. Their activism, according to Stephen Lewis, the United Nations' special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, is 'resulting in great damage and undoubtedly will cause significant numbers of infections which never should have occurred.' "

As Blumenthal's article goes on to explore, one of Rick Warren's allies in Uganda, Martin Ssempa, has played a key role in reducing the availability of condoms in Uganda. Known for publicly burning a pack of condoms at Uganda's Makerere University, Ssempa advises Ugandan First Lady Janet Museveni on HIV/AIDS policy and has successfully lobbied the US Congress to de-fund Population Resources International, a world distributor of condoms. As abstinence-only has ramped up and condom availability decreased in Uganda, the HIV/AIDS rate has begun to climb."

via Huffington Post

I'm all for Obama's call to work together, but how do you work with a man that uses Lenin, Hitler and Mao as standard bearers of greatness?

Obama really need to rethink this.

SuperBarack!

Mikey sent this to me because he "thought of me" when he saw.
I will repeat what I said to Mikey months ago: "If Bacack screws it up, it's not by fault"

But I'm totally down with this:

What's Synonymous To Christian Love....?

Christian Hate!


Christian love is so deep that the Yes on Prop 8 folks now are trying to nullify the marriages of over 18,000 gay and lesbian Californians because of the passage of Prop 8. But fear not, they are doing this out of love.

Ahh, "Christian" love knows no bounds.

Yes WE Did

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...

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

Biden and Whiners...

I am happy with Biden as VP. I like his feistyness and his off the cuff remarks because they are usually spot on.

And I have to say, would all those Obamacons stop whining that they heard it from the AP wire before they got the text! Christ, you would think they were just stood up on a date, "oh, Barack Obama doesn't love me enough to be sure the cellular phone system is adavanced enough to send out thousands of texts at the very moment it should...sniff..."

PLEASE! Stop you damn complaining that you were not the first to know. Grow the fuck up. You are are telling me you never got a text from a friend that arrived a few minutes later than when it was sent? Really? Wow, you must be some kind of special fucking mother fucker.

Grow up and stop complaining you weren't "the first to know" Christ.

/rant

P.S. Still not sure when I'll be back with any kind of regular posting.

Public Financing

Obama has decided to opt out of public financing for the general election. I'm okay with that, but not okay with the silly excuse he came up with. His stated reason is that the system is broken. Not a good excuse, he should have just come out and said, "look, I am not influenced by large cash donors like politicians before, I have received the majority of my money from $25-$100 donations. Public financing of campaigns was designed to stop the influence of large cash only donations, I have proved we can run campaigns with greater participation from the general public. Because of that, I will not take public money for my campaign."

It would have been that simple. Obama's stated reason is silly.

But I also think the hand-wringing of the MSM is also silly. They should realize that what Obama has done. He has made the political process more assessable to the general public, and, therefore, politicians more accountable. Rather than poo-pooing what Obama has done re. Public Financing, they should be applauding the way he has been able to bring the public into the democratic process. More participation = more democracy as it should be practiced. The MSM need to see that.

Supreme Court Reinstates Habeas Corpus

The Supreme Court, in a narrow 5 to 4 victory, has reinstated a core right, Habeas Corpus.

For those that supported Clinton and now say they will vote for McCain instead of voting for Obama, I ask you to think about this...

Three of the five Justices in the majority -- John Paul Stevens (age 88), Ruth Bader Ginsburg (age 75) and David Souter (age 68) -- are widely expected by court observers to retire or otherwise leave the Court in the first term of the next President. By contrast, the four judges who dissented -- Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Sam Alito -- are expected to stay right where they are for many years to come.

John McCain has identified Roberts and Alito as ideal justices of the type he would nominate, while Barack Obama has identified Stephen Breyer, David Souter and Ginsberg (all in the majority today). It's not hyperbole to say that, from Supreme Court appointments alone, our core constitutional protections could easily depend upon the outcome of the 2008 election.

via Glenn Greenwald

If you vote for McCain, you vote for a deletion of our rights as citizens of the United States of America.

And think about what Scalia said:

Scalia said the nation is "at war with radical Islamists" and that the court's decision "will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed."

I'm afraid of the dark man isn't a legal argument, Antonin. Nor is "it will save lives." Having cops on the street summarily execute anyone suspected of any crime in America might save lives, it probably would in fact. That doesn't justify suspending the Constitution and doing it. Scalia, like many conservatives, thinks that the Constitution was only written for the good times. In other words, it's only for when you don't need it.

via Americablog

Scalia and his buddies on the Supreme Court seem confused about their job. It is not the job of the Surpeme Court to protect the citizens of the U.S. from violence, it is the job of the Supreme Court to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

The oath taken the by the Justices of the Supreme Court:

"I, [NAME], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as [TITLE] under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.''

via About.com

I hope the varous people that supported Clinton and now say they will cross over to McCain know what is at stake.

A Tale Of Two Speeches

First, Clinton.

It was all about her less than veiled innuendo that the election was stolen from her. She got the most votes. She won the most important states...etc...etc...etc. She cannot let go. Her speech was as classless as the Clintons have been througout this campaign. Not once did she even mention McCain, the real opponent, because in Clinton's mind, it is not John McCain that is the enemy, it is Obama. It was all about her and how she is stronger. Her speech was not given to uplift or unite the Democratic Party, it was to wound Obama. If there is any doubt that she won't help Obama, tonight she sealed the deal. She is against Obama. She will do what she can to wound him so she can say, in the end, if he loses, "see, I told you." Nothing said that more than her plea to her supporters to go to her website and leave their thoughts. The politics of triangulation at it's Clintonian best.
I wrote early on in the election that Primaries are about finding the best person for the Party, and early on, Clinton made it clear she is not running for the Party, she is running for herself, and she is willing to destroy anyone that gets in her way, including the Democratic Party.

Classless.

Now Obama.

The contrast of Obama's graciousness towards Clinton, his stated respect for her hard work at the beginning of his speech stands out in diametric opposites to Clinton's gracelessness, her classless, polarizing speech is profound.
Obama's speech was what we, we can do together to make the United States a better place. Obama's speech hit hard on McCain, the real opponent in the race, but not before Obama, deserved, praise of McCain's heroism and service to the United States.
Obama showed he can give as good as he gets in his speech tonight.
Obama's sound and reasoned postion on Iraq showed me he gets Iraq, but he also knows we cannot continue to allow the lack of political prgress to continue.
Obama was uplifting, hopefull and inspiring. What a change from the last 7 1/2 years of Bush fear and bullying.

Classy

I'm going to read what other bloggers have said now...'night!

Endorse

Edward has endorsed Obama.

And speculation of a Obama/Edwards ticket in 3...2...1

Willfull Suspension Of Fact: West Virginia Edition

When confronted with the facts, people don't listen. *sigh*

Twenty Minutes From The Past

I posting this video for a couple of reasons:
1) I think it is impotant to see what one man thinks of Obama four months ago and how what he said then still pertains now.
2) He brings up issues about Clinton that now, more than ever, are coming further to light, e.g., character, integrity.
3) Rovian tactics. Four months ago, he saw the direction that Clinton would probably go. She did and has and contitnues to do so.
4) See how Obama has resisted the way "politcs are played" and kept his integrity, his vision, his idea of change. See how Obama has not changed his message (yes, there have been a few bumps in the road, I know), while Clinton has embraced the tactics of Karl Rove and George Bush and attacks with Rovian glee.

I ask that you take the twenty minutes to watch this video and think about what Clinton is doing now. And while watching this video, it is my hope you will see why I, and many like me, see Obama as the best person to be President of the United States.

Do we really want someone like Clinton, a person that so easily adopts the tactics of Bush/Cheney/Rove, to be President?

We cannot afford the kind of person that has so little integrity and character to be in the White House again.

It really is time for change.


oops, forgot to post where I got this video

Dreaming Of Ponies And Rainbows

Seriously, this picture makes Obama look like a love-struck teenage girl who has posters of N-Sync and ponies on her bedroom wall.

N.C. And Indiana

Whooosh! That sound you hear is, maybe - you never know with the Clinton machine, of Clinton's hopes REALLY dashed last night. I was a bit nervous about Indiana, but Obama pulled through better than I thought he would. I was thinking he might have lost by 8 or 9, but 2? That's extraordinary. And N.C? Wow. if there was ever a blowout...well, there it is.
Both camps are spinning the night. Was the Rush Limbaugh effect what put Clinton over "the top?" Who knows, but it is safe to say when Clinton has to loan her campaign money, again (6.4 million), her campaign is in deep trouble. That is, I think, a total loan of $11.5 million dollars. If the health of a campaign is denoted by the money from donors, Clinton is in trouble.
It is my hope Clinton bowes out and let's the Demorats start planning the General Election strategy. But I won't hold my breath on this one. Clinton is a combination of the The Black Knight from The Holy Grail and The Terminator. She has a habit of going and going and going - too her deprement.

This is more than a scratch for Hillary.


Needless to say, I am happy with this today.