The question I have for the Obama administration is why the bleep are you so timid across the board about LGBT rights? Politically, all you have to do is pick up the paper for justification to strike while the iron is hot. The other party is in disarray and in decline. Today's WaPo: For Republicans, the Forces Aren't With Them.It had such a buckshot approach to it, a veritable kitchen sink of anti-gay legal theories, that it seemed expressly designed to inflict maximal damage to our rights. Instead of making nuanced arguments which took into account the president's oft-stated support for repealing DOMA - a law he has called "abhorrent" - the brief seemed to embrace DOMA and all its horrific consequences.
I was equally troubled by the administration's explanation that they had no choice but to defend the law. As an attorney and as someone who was directly involved in giving advice on such matters to another president (as a Special Assistant for civil rights to President Bill Clinton), I know that this is untrue.
...[T]he general rule that the DOJ must defend laws against attack is relative - like everything in Washington. And even when the DOJ does defend a law against constitutional attack, it does not have to advance every conceivable argument in doing so (such as the brief's invocation, in a footnote, of incest and the marriage of children). In fact, many legal experts believe that in this particular case none of the issues going to the merits of whether or not DOMA is constitutional needed to be addressed to get the case thrown out. The administration's lawyers could have simply argued, for example, that the plaintiff's had no standing. There was no need to invoke legal theories that were not only offensive on their face, but which c ould put at risk future legal efforts on behalf of our civil rights.
The American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution convened a stellar cast on Friday to review what has been learned since November. The panel included Robert Lang of Virginia Tech; Ruy Teixeira of the Center for American Progress; William Frey of the Brookings Institution; Bill Bishop, a Texas writer and author of "The Big Sort"; Scott Keeter of the Pew Research Center; and Ronald Brownstein of Atlantic Media. They presented a wealth of data data about what happened in 2008 and offered conclusions that would alarm any Republican hopeful of a quick turnaround in the party's fortunes.You have to read the whole thing. As long as the GOP is led by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and state mouthpieces like bigot of the day Rusty DePass, and catering to the McCain/Palin mobs we saw during 2008, that party is going to be bringing up the rear....Democratic strength in the counties around Philadelphia, around Detroit and in Northern Virginia have squeezed Republicans dramatically. Increasingly, Republican strength outside the urban areas counts for less. "There's just not enough rural folks and small-city people left in America in the key states that determine the electoral college to offset that difference," Lang said. "You're out of people."
That's one geographical reality. The other, which became acute in 2008, is that outside the South, Republicans are in trouble. McCain won the South in November, but Obama swept the rest of the country by an even bigger margin. The same pattern holds now for House and Senate seats. Republicans may continue to win governorships in Democratic-leaning states, but in congressional and presidential elections the geographic divides are sizable.
Brownstein reeled off a list of statistics that all arrived at the same place: The South now accounts for a greater share of Republican strength than at virtually any time since the party's founding. That base is too narrow, as even Republicans know.
Demographically, the forces at work have chipped away at what was once a GOP-leaning majority in the country. The most important is minorities' rising share of the vote. Whites accounted for 76 percent of the overall electorate last November, down from 85 percent in 1988.
...Republicans can't reverse the demographic trends; their only solution is to increase their share of the minority vote.
There is no earthly reason for the Obama administration's silence (and now with the DOMA brief contempt) on our issues, to have its tail between its legs. It only cements the belief, after the Donnie McClurkin and Rick Warren debacles, that all you wanted out of the LGBT community were votes, dollars and bodies to volunteer to usher him into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue; a lame proclamation about gay rights doesn't erase the embarrassing behavior of Press Secretary Robert Gibbs at the daily pressers, dodging, evading and delivering nonsensical contradictory answers to serious questions pos ed by reporters about LGBT issues such as Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
Who's holding this administration hostage to PTSD fears of Clinton and DADT in 1993? It's 2009, toadies. This administration, sitting atop high approval ratings with a minority party choking on its own bile and an American public that is more supportive of LGBT issues in the polls that at any time in history is crapping on the community in broad daylight and wondering what all the fuss is about. Someone in the White House needs a reality check. Fast.
Related:
* GroupNewsBlog: Who Obama Picks To Keep Doing Bush's Work For Him
* Arthur Leonard at Gay City News: Obama Administration Versus Candidate ObamaObama
Two of three people arrested in a southern Arizona home invasion that left a little girl and her father dead had connections to a Washington state anti-illegal immigration group that conducts border watch activities in Arizona.Of course now the Minutemen are scurrying like roaches when a light is flipped on to disown her and declare her a lone wolf. I guess the positive way to look at it is that they knew it was beyond the pale to have their name attached to this woman.Jason Eugene Bush, 34, Shawna Forde, 41, and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42, have been charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and other charges, said Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County, Ariz.
The trio are alleged to have dressed as law enforcement officers and forced their way into a home about 10 miles north of the Mexican border in rural Arivaca on May 30, wounding a woman and fatally shooting her husband and their 9-year-old daughter. Their motive was financial, Dupnik said.
...Forde is the leader of Minutemen American Defense, a small border watch group, and Bush goes by the nickname "Gunny" and is its operations director, according to the group's Web site. She is from Everett, Wash., has recently been living in Arizona and was once associated with the better known and larger Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.
"This is not what Minutemen do," said member Chuck Stonex, who responded to an e-mail from The Associated Press sent through the Web site. "Minutemen observe, document and report. This is nothing more than a cold-hearted criminal act, and that is all we want to say."Also, PunkZanyJ in the comments mentioned this bit of business from Mat Staver, Matt Barber and their friends at Liberty Counsel....via Kyle @ Right Wing Watch:
Back in April and May I wrote a whole series of posts about how the Right was systematically trumping-up a controversy over the Department of Homeland Security Report, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment" (PDF,)" which eventually led the DHS to pull the report.Wow. Just Wow. This is what it says as it asks for a donation:Now, in light of the murder of Dr. George Tiller and the recent shooting at the Holocaust Museum, we're seeing a variety of pieces claiming that these events validate the report's warnings. And undoubtedly they do, but the irony here is that this report was never about run-of-the-mill conservatives or right-wing political groups - it was focused on violent, racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-government extremists - but it was the conservatives and right-wing political groups who made it about them.
...The report was not a warning about mainstream conservative political groups or lawful anti-abortion activists or religious organizations - it was a report about violent, radical extremists. But it was the Right that intentionally conflated the two and now, in the wake of two high-profile violent acts carried out by right-wing extremists, it is the Right that is insisting that they have nothing in common with such people.
And that is exactly the point: the report was not about them, but they made it about them because they thought they could score some political points and raise money by doing so.
How ridiculous and crass this phony controversy became can pretty much be summed up by these cards, which the Liberty Counsel is still selling on its website, that, in light of the recent attacks, seem to be in pretty poor taste:
If you believe in the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, traditional family values, supporting our veterans, the right to bear arms and limited federal government, you might be considered a right-wing extremist by Homeland Security.George Washington would call you a Patriot!
If you are proud to stand for liberty, the original intent of the Constitution of the United States of America and the Declaration of Independence, you can order your Right-Wing Extremist ID Card for a donation of any amount. If you want to be the proud owner of this humorous card, click here to donate and remember to note "ID Card" in the Comment section. Thank you for standing firm for American liberty.
SC: Republican activist calls escaped gorilla an "ancestor" to Michelle Obama on FacebookThe comment has been removed; it's not clear if FB did it or DePass. BTW, the runner-up to head the RNC, Katon Dawson (who belonged to a whites-only country club), is also the former SC state GOP chair, said this:
A prominent S.C. Republican Party activist is in hot water after describing an escaped gorilla at a South Carolina zoo as an "ancestor" of First Lady Michelle Obama.The exchange occurred after Trey Walker, an advisor to S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster, posted an innocuous Facebook update about this morning's escape of a Western Lowlands Gorilla from Columbia's Riverbanks Zoo.
Walker's harmless update, however was followed by a highly-questionable comment from longtime SCGOP activist and former State Senate candidate, Rusty DePass.
"I'm sure it's just one of Michelle's ancestors - probably harmless," DePass wrote.
An early South Carolina supporter of former President George W. Bush, DePass has been active in Republican politics in South Carolina for decades.
"Even if it was taken out of context - its not something that should have ever been said. It's sad, disappointing, and unfortunate,"Wow, what gusto. Sounds like he had to squeak that out knowing his bud got caught with his pants down on the Internets."
And so came the "apology."
"I am as sorry as I can be if I offended anyone. The comment was clearly in jest."And while his trousers were at his ankles, DePass made the situation worse by claiming that the First Lady brought up the subject first in the media."You know, I don't think there's anything funny about that comment," says Coble. "That is the First Lady of the United States. We've had a long tradition of wonderful first ladies, and I don't think any of them deserve that type of comment."
"The comment was hers. Not mine," saying the first lady made statements in the media recently saying we are all descendents of apes.She never said it -- no stories can be found.
So we have the usual non-apology from these bigots, added to the utter ignorance that when you put something up on Facebook, it's up for public grabs. Unless you have your account/profile in lockdown and have only friends you know you can trust, anything you put up there can and will be used against you. I don't know where people get the idea that there is some zone of privacy on a social networking site you have open for all to see. The account holder selects the level of public access, so Mr. DePass clearly thought that cutting loose with this badass racist self was not a problem. We are fortunate to have gotten a peek inside a GOP operative's mind -- it only confirms why its voter base is populated with bigots, know-nothings and extremists and shrinking every day.
Is this Michael Steele's party? I receive press releases all the time from the GOP and I've seen nothing out of the RNC condemning the remarks. DePass is a symptom of the party's larger problem.
Frank Rich's column today discusses the extremist fringe of the party that is stirred up, and he notes that leaders in the GOP and in the conservative movement aren't stepping up to turn the volume down on the crazies among them.
A sizable minority of Americans is irrationally fearful of the fast-moving generational, cultural and racial turnover Obama embodies - indeed, of the 21st century itself. That minority is now getting angrier in inverse relationship to his popularity with the vast majority of the country....What's startling is the spillover of this poison into the conservative political establishment. Saul Anuzis, a former Michigan G.O.P. chairman who ran for the party's national chairmanship this year, seriously suggested in April that Republicans should stop calling Obama a socialist because "it no longer has the negative connotation it had 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago." Anuzis pushed "fascism" instead, because "everybody still thinks that's a bad thing." He didn't seem to grasp that "fascism" is nonsensical as a description of the Obama administration or that there might be a risk in slurring a president with a word that most find "bad" because it evokes a mass-murderer like Hitler.
...Obama's Cairo address, meanwhile, prompted over-the-top accusations reminiscent of those campaign rally cries of "Treason!" It was a prominent former Reagan defense official, Frank Gaffney, not some fringe crackpot, who accused Obama in The Washington Times of engaging "in the most consequential bait-and-switch since Adolf Hitler duped Neville Chamberlain." He claimed that the president - a lifelong Christian - "may still be" a Muslim and is aligned with "the dangerous global movement known as the Muslim Brotherhood." Gaffney linked Obama by innuendo with Islamic "charities" that "have been convicted of providing material support for terrorism." If this isn't a handy rationalization for another lone nutjob to take the law into his own hands against a supposed terrorism supporter, what is?
...Hard-core haters resolutely dismiss any "mainstream media" debunking of their conspiracy theories. The only voices that might penetrate their alternative reality - I emphasize might - belong to conservative leaders with the guts and clout to step up as McCain did last fall. Where are they? The genteel public debate in right-leaning intellectual circles about the conservative movement's future will be buried by history if these insistent alarms are met with silence.
A: The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act will extend the same employee and health benefits that married couples have to all federal employees regardless of their sexual orientation and that includes employees at the DOD. However, the bill does not extend health and employment benefits to members of the military because it’s in conflict with Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. I believe it is long past time to get rid of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and allow members of the military to receive the same benefits married couples have as well as be able to serve openly in the military.Q: What are your thoughts on the recent California Supreme Court ruling on the state's Proposition 8? In light of this ruling, what do you feel is the future of marriage equality in Oregon?
A: As a supporter of gay marriage, I am very disappointed that Prop 8 was allowed to stand, but glad that the couples who married while gay marriage was allowed in California had their marriages upheld. But the court decision in California shouldn’t overshadow the tremendous gains that have been made in just the last few months. It was exciting to see Iowa become the first state in the heartland to end marriage discrimination. In addition, a number of states decided that the politics of division weren’t strong enough to prevent them from doing the right thing. Moreover, polls show an ever-increasing number of Americans support extending marriage rights to same sex couples. While Oregon’s constitutional amendment defining marriage is a significant obstacle to the establishment of equality in Oregon, I am hopeful that the conversation in Oregon will continue and that Oregon will eventually choose to support marriage equality as the only right course under our U.S. constitutional guarantee of equality under the law for all Americans.
On the eve of the 40th Anniversary of Stonewall, come join us in celebrating the achievements of the LGBT equality movement:
I'll Toast to That
Thursday, June 25th, 2009 6:00pm Charles Froelick Gallery 714 NW Davis $40 beforehand, $50 at the door (tickets available here)
Attire: Pizazzulous
A special thank you to our sponsors: Organic Nation Spirits Devil's Food Catering Raptor Ridge
Music by: DJ Scotty D
Ticket price qualifies for the Oregon Political Tax Credit which means you can get every penny of your ticket price back at tax time! Click here for more information on the Oregon Political Tax Credit. Questions? Call 503/222.6151
No comments:
Post a Comment