Dave'sDailyDump

09 August 2010

A Gay-Rights Advocate on Marriage Ban, Celebrity Divorce - TIME

I broke up Al and Tipper Gore. And Sandra Bullock and Jesse James. No, I am not a 50-something masseuse or a tattoo model with a thing for Nazi outfits. I'm just a gay man who's about to celebrate his second wedding anniversary. Apparently, my marriage is a menace. According to the Family Research Council, "Gay marriage threatens the institutions of marriage and the family."

For the past two years, I've tried to deny it. But faced with the prospect of even more finger-pointing in the wake of U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's Aug. 4 ruling against California's Prop 8, I've decided to come out and come clean. I'm claiming the pinko-threat label and wearing it with pride, like the Miss California USA tiara that Carrie Prejean wore until someone leaked those eight videos of her touching her pro-opposite-marriage private parts. Yes, I am responsible for the sorry state marriage is in. The Gores' "shocking" split was no surprise to me. Blame me for breaking America's sweetest heart. (I'd like to take credit for Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston's off-again engagement, but honestly, who except Bristol didn't see that coming?) Jenny and Mark "Appalachian Trail" Sanford, Mel and Robyn Gibson, Speidi — I put them all asunder. I'm here. I'm a home wrecker. Get used to it. (See a photographic history of the gay-rights movement.)

I'm an anti-nuclear-family activist. I think I was born this way. Just ask my divorced-after-four-decades parents. I'd been working on them for what seems like a lifetime. Since they unleashed me on state-sanctioned nuptials in 1966, the U.S. divorce rate has nearly doubled. Gay apologists may say the culprit is the rise of no-fault divorce. But this is America, damn it, and someone somewhere must be at fault. That someone is me.

Real Americans agree that I'm dangerous. In "Gathering Storm," an ad produced by the National Organization for Marriage, a paid actress — but no doubt still a real American — with Sue Sylvester's haircut says I want to change the way she lives. Larry "Wide Stance" Craig voted to amend the Constitution to save the nation from my unholy matrimony. The thrice-divorced Rush Limbaugh warned that "gay marriage would destroy the American family." And, of course, what about the children? I am incapable of "providing a safe and secure and emotionally stable environment" for them, said Family Research Council co-founder George "Rentboy.com" Rekers. (Is there hope for the American marriage?)

I must admit, though, that the thrill is fading. It's getting too easy. Larry King is on his eighth shot at wedded bliss, and I've had a pretty good record with the Best Actress Oscar winners. I want to move on to pre-emptive attacks. I should try getting a proposition passed to ban ugly marriages. Surely the state has a legitimate interest in keeping the hideous from going forth, not to mention multiplying, and I'm sure I could get at least 51% of voters to agree with me. Those who say California's gay-marriage ban should stand make a completely logical point: majority rule should always trump minority rights — activist judges and their equal-protection clause be damned. I mean, what the unattractive do behind closed doors is O.K., I guess, but I don't want to have to see it. And I certainly don't want my tax dollars to promote the homely lifestyle.

Or should I just let them be? If two repellent people want to wake up next to each other every morning for the rest of their lives, it might turn my stomach, but is it really any of my business? It must be hard enough for them to get through the day — there are reflective surfaces everywhere — without having the federal government against them. Allowing dog-faced marriage doesn't mean I love my husband any less, and banning unsightly unions wouldn't give me a better chance at till death do us part. So relax, ugly people; you're free to pursue happiness with the appearance-challenged person of your choice. Love is love, after all, and that's beautiful enough.

08 August 2010

backlog...

well, crap on a cracker...

to my lone reader: please accept my apologies! i promised to start doing this daily but the best laid plans of mice and men and such...SO, here are links to the stories in the "drafts" folder at blogger...

Rachel Maddow: Odd quiet from defeated Prop 8 supporters:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rachel Maddow: Prop 8 Case Relied on Two Witnesses Tied to George Rekers | Video Cafe

Prop 8 Ruling Exposes Democrats' Weak Support For LGBT Community

Prop 8 Ban Reactions

Target Apologizes For Political Donation To Group Supporting Anti-Gay Candidate

carry on.

epic battles throughout history:

David vs. Goliath
Tezcatlipoca vs. Quetzalcoatl
King Kong vs. Godzilla
Godzilla vs. Mothra
Ali vs. Foreman, Frazier, Liston, Holmes, Marciano...

and now, the epic to end all epics: BOIES vs. Perkins

shorter version:

06 August 2010

westboro counter protest EPIC WIN.: pancake mix

03 August 2010

The Anti-Defamation League's Ground Zero Mosque Hypocrisy - The Daily Beast

The ADL calls itself “the nation’s premier civil rights/human relations agency.” Coming from an explicitly Jewish organization, that’s an audacious claim. But it’s an inspiring one, too. The ADL was born in 1913, after a Georgia jury falsely convicted a Jewish factory owner named Leo Frank of murdering a Christian employee. The men who defamed, and later lynched, Frank were anti-Semites. But they were not only anti-Semites. Three months after Frank’s murder, some of his tormenters met on Georgia’s Stone Mountain to refound the Ku Klux Klan, an organization that would now dedicate itself not merely to terrorizing African-Americans, but to terrorizing Catholics and Jews as well.

What if white victims of African-American crime protested the building of a black church in their neighborhood? Or gentile victims of Bernie Madoff protested the building of a synagogue?

Against this backdrop, the founders of the ADL made their organization a kind of mirror image of the Klan. If the Klan saw anti-Semitism as one component of the struggle to maintain white, Protestant supremacy, the ADL would make its opposition to anti-Semitism one component of the struggle against white, Protestant supremacy. If bigotry was indivisible, anti-bigotry would be indivisible too. “The immediate object of the League is to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people,” declared the ADL’s charter. “Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.”

IOKIYAR...for frack's sake.

FROM: http://www.addictinginfo.com/politics.htm BY MATT DESMOND

BILLS REPUBLICANS HAVE BLOCKED OR ATTEMPTED TO BLOCK SINCE OBAMA BECAME PRESIDENT !

Senator Franken’s Anti-Rape Amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill

Benefits for Homeless Veterans

Health Care

Health Care for the 9/11 First Responders who got sick from being at Ground Zero...

The Jobs Bill

MURRAY'S HOMELESS WOMEN VETERANS BILL

Small business lending bill

Financial reform

Stimulus Bill

Oil Spill Liability

Political Ad disclosure bill

Immigration Windfall Oil profits tax bill

Oh yeah and when republicans controlled all 3 branches of government, they

1. deregulated the markets,

2. created 2 wars,

3. killed 6000 Americans,

4. destroyed schools via NCLB

5. made higher education unaffordable,

6. dismantled the NEA,

7. shipped American jobs off to India and China,

8. let New Orleans and millions of Americans get washed away in a natural disaster while they went out for ballgames and birthday cakes ,

9. hunted endangered species from helicopters,

10. shot their own hunting party members,

11. ignored warnings of impending terrorist attacks

12. oversaw the largest expansion of government in history

13. created a department of "FAITH BASED INITIATIVES" in direct violation of separation of church and state

14. tried to use the constitution as a weapon of discrimination

15. squandered our surplus,

16. overspent $7 Trillion, and

17. chanted DRILL BABY DRILL despite clearly not having emergency plans for future disasters.

02 August 2010

More Republican Hypocrisy

NOT. ONE. VOTE. to move to an "up or down vote" (another republican't battle cry wrapped in hypocrisy).

the grand old party of NO is willing to jump up and down, scream and cry and wail about the horrifying effects repealing the bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% would have on "small businesses (although they're not accurate in their assertion), but when it comes down to REAL help for small businesses, via extending credit (which is repaid, WITH INTEREST BTW), the republicant's show their true hypocritical colors.

REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS: WHY DO YOU HATE SMALL BUSINESS?

Congress.org - : Key Votes

On the Cloture Motion
07/29/2010
Senate Roll Call No. 221
111th Congress, 2nd Session

Rejected: 58-42 (see complete tally)

The Senate rejected ending debate on this bill that aims to expand the availability of credit to small businesses. The Senate may work more on the bill this week

Dead Sea Scrolls Mystery Solved?

absolutely fascinating...dvr set.

Dead Sea Scrolls Mystery Solved?

Ker Than
Published July 27, 2010

The recent decoding of a cryptic cup, the excavation of ancient Jerusalem tunnels, and other archaeological detective work may help solve one of the great biblical mysteries: Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?

The new clues hint that the scrolls, which include some of the oldest known biblical documents, may have been the textual treasures of several groups, hidden away during wartime—and may even be "the great treasure from the Jerusalem Temple," which held the Ark of the Covenant, according to the Bible.

Randy Rainbow "The Morning After Chelsea's Wedding"

oh, meow...hiss AND spit!

30 July 2010

Rep. King & Rep. Weiner discuss GOP block of health care funding for 9/1...

93% (D) vs. 7% (R)...why do the republicans in the house hate the 9/11 responders?

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) On the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act

no commentary/no snark necessary. go get 'em, rep. weiner!

25 July 2010

...but does O dare run the risk of causing widdle timmy geithner to have a tantrum?

Left Pushes Hard for Elizabeth Warren

although i earnestly disagree with making this about gender, i do agree she's the best person for the job. that said, the article does make a valid point that women control more discretionary spending than men and, therefore, their voices should be heard.

In her clear-eyed and earnest way, Warren has broken through in testimony on Capitol Hill and on television as a voice for the people, ticking off powerful business interests and irritating the boys' club that Obama has entrusted to steer the economy. If Obama chooses her to head the new consumer agency, she would have to be confirmed by the Senate and would likely provoke a partisan battle on the scale of a Supreme Court nomination. On Friday morning, three Republican senators warned the White House not to use a recess appointment to fill the new position. For Obama, it's a classic political choice: how much of a fight does he want or need going into the fall elections?
His base is telling him that Warren is what the left needs to believe in him again. Obama loves the woman; there have been articles written about how he sought her out, and how admiring he is of her. As the financial-reform legislation made its way through Congress, she was consistently named as the likely head of the first consumer-protection bureau. If Obama backs down now, he looks like he's afraid of a fight, which is not a good perception for a president who needs to burnish his leadership cred going into the November election. Warren is the voice of Main Street, and if the Republicans want to block her, Obama's attitude should be "Bring it on."

make no mistake, timmy and his buddies on wall street DO NOT want a "mommy" to keep an eye on the cookie jar. for that matter, they don't want ANYBODY (regardless of gender) upsetting their ramshackle, roughshod disdain for anyone that doesn't reside on wall street... that's average, every day, middle class americans like you and me, folks.

24 July 2010

please, call it "marriage equality" magazine...

...other than that, right on!

Equally Wed Magazine, The Nation's Premier Same-Sex Wedding Magazine, Gay Weddings, Lesbian Weddings, LGBT Weddings, Gay and Lesbian Honeymoons

disillusioned, indeed! good reporting judy woodruff!

For Democrats, Concern About Momentum as Midterms Approach | PBS NewsHour | July 23, 2010 | PBS

hey, axelrod, 2 words for ya': BITE ME.

DAVID AXELROD, Senior White House Adviser: So, while we were handling that, we were passing comprehensive health insurance reform that we have been fighting for, for a century. While we were doing that, we passed the credit card bill of rights and other financial reforms.

You know, we have done myriad things that will make a difference, including in the areas -- we haven't completed all our work in all these areas, but we have made progress in all these areas, and we're going to keep working at that progress.

we've been trying to pass health INSURANCE reform for a century? BS. the administration can only claim a victory out of semantics. when they caved on health CARE reform they adopted the health INSURANCE reform talking point. f'ing cowards.

"progress in all these areas"? ORLLY? the so-called "progress" for LGBT non-equal citizens is laughable, AT BEST.

now, now kerry...i *really* like you. your reporting is generally spot on and i thank you for taking this administration to task...*most* of the time, but i can't believe you gave them a freaking pass on DADT (see notes about health "insurance" reform capitulation regarding axe above).

Kerry Eleveld is Washington correspondent for "The Advocate," a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender news magazine. She credits the president for progress on don't ask, but says the effort on the other priorities has been lacking.

KERRY ELEVELD, washington correspondent, "The Advocate": His administration has not pushed on those. Don't ask, don't tell is still in the making. We're going to see where that goes. But -- but he has not pushed in any way, other than in some speeches.

If you look at him coming in, what he talked about, what he promised again and again, and also the majorities that he came in with, I would say he is woefully behind at this point.

what part of allowing the pentagon to commission a useless, bigoted, homophobic "survey" that is transparently designed to be used AGAINST the repeal considered "progress"? huh? what part of the compromise that requires the sign off of "fierce advocate, gates and mullen is "progress"?

23 July 2010

My last conversation with a Republican...by flyfish100

From Daily Kos: one of the best snarkalicious responses to republicant's i've EVAR seen.

Hey, Dick, thanks for sending me the email telling me all about Obama refusing to sign any congratulatory letters for Eagle Scouts and Gold Girl Scouts. I didn’t know about that one. That Snopes guy says it ain’t so, but you know how all the Snopeses lie. Anyway, you asked if I was still a liberal after all the travesties that have happened, so I figured I might as well jump the snark or whatever and tell you the whole plan right up front. You’ve been getting it piece by piece on Fox anyway, so what the hell, here’s the stuff we liberals are up to and I’m going to put it all in one place so it will make sense, you betcha’. Just read below.

The first thing we’re going to do is take away all your guns. I don’t know what we’re going to do with them, since most of us liberals don’t like guns all that much. I suppose we could melt them down into plowshares, but that sounds like a lot of work and you know how liberals feel about work. Anyway, we’re going to take away all your guns so there won’t be any trouble when our Death Panels come after you when you reach 65. You already know that Social Security is being paid out now by only three workers for one retiree and if we don’t use our Death Panels, everybody would live longer and then the actuarial guys say we’ll run out of money in 2049 instead of 2050 like we planned. Anyway, be nice to the Death Panel guys because they have a hard job, especially when they’re coming for their own grandmothers.

The next thing we’re going to do is take away all your birth certificates. Hell, if our president doesn’t have one, then no one else needs one either. That way it will make our immigration policy easier. I know it comes dangerously close to being a Republican ideal and all, but we figure if no one has a birth certificate, then the only ones who will get jobs will be those who want to work, not just those who own stuff. Those guys who own stuff are going to be taxed into oblivion so we can pay for the free healthcare we’re going to give to all the illegal immigrants who don’t have birth certificates. If you want to keep your insurance you’ll get to go to Cook County Hospital or some big place like that where they’re used to dealing with paperwork, but everybody else will have to be satisfied with Johns Hopkins or one of the Mayo places where there won’t be any paperwork, only health care.

After we fix the birth and health and death thing, we’re going to go after religion. We’re not going after all religions, just the Christian ones. The way we liberals figure it, the Christian ones have gotten too soft with all the televangels raking in the money and starting up tax-free corporations ands that “C” Street House and all, so we think it would be a good idea to help the Christian religions grow strong by persecuting them a lot the way the Romans got them to grow so fast. It will be a little tricky since so many liberals are secretly Christian, but we think we can pull it off. We’re going to ban Christmas and church basement pot-lucks and we’ll make sure the churches grow real fast by outlawing all women ministers and only allowing signs in secret. If this plan works, we can export it to the Middle East and use it on the Jews. God will thank us later.

Next, we’re going to fix education. After all, some of us think that’s where we got the word “liberal.” Others think it came from “library,” but it doesn’t matter. Instead of funding schools and deciding what’s important in education and nurturing natural talent and all, we’re going to start by giving kids lots more tests rather than trying to teach them anything. That way we’ll make them feel really stupid so we can train them to do what we want, mainly just learn how to play nice. Maybe that’s what we should do with all the guns we took away – put them in schools so some kids can learn how to play nice. Anyway, as liberals, we only care about creative stuff like music and dance and art, so the way to turn out great musicians and dancers and artists is to ban them in all schools, kind of like the way rock and roll works. I mean, look at how rock and roll grew when it was banned. The other thing we’re going to do to fix schools is make everybody join a union, including the kids. Liberals like unions, even though they’re the most god-awful things to try to control and bend to our liberal wills, seeing as how everybody gets to vote on stuff, but we think requiring unions is worth a shot (pun intended). The last thing we’re going to do to fix education is declare all schools private and give every kid a voucher for $42.00 he can use any way he wants on his education. This may sound like a Republican idea, but it’s one of our sneaky liberal ones. After we give each kid $42.00, we going to use the rest of our budget changing all the signs on all schools from “Public” to “Private.” We know there will still be good schools and bad schools depending on where a kid lives and nothing else will change including all the stuff that gets in the way of learning, but as liberals, we want their parents to think they’re giving their children a good, private education, and the $42.00 will make the kids happy because that’s all that matters to liberals.

As liberals, we’re still upset that you guys killed ACORN, which was part of our perfect plan to get everybody registered to vote, so we’re going to do a new plan. We’re calling it NUT JOB, and the only way you can register to vote is if you’re an ex-con, an illegal immigrant, or some minority without a birth certificate. How else can we liberals keep control of the country unless all our votes come from felons, illegals, and minorities? Hell, even Fox News knows that. We should thank those nice folks for helping us develop this aspect of our liberal plan.

Finally, as liberals, we hate all corporations with the possible exception of Apple. Since the Supreme Court has decided that all corporations are persons, we’re going to require them to do everything a person does. As liberals, we want everyone holding hands, so every corporation is going to be paired up with another corporation. For example, every power company is going to be paired up with a waste management company so they’ll have to learn how to play nice. Every mining company will be paired up with a private hospital or a life insurance company. Every credit card corporation will be paired up with a divorce court. (In ten years, we plan to make every court a nicety-nice family so courts will actually be just like persons as well.) Every car company will be paired up with a modeling agency so they can sell more cars. As liberals, we just want to save time and effort. Then we’re going to put a stranglehold on every business by regulating it to death. We’re going to pass really draconian measures like “You evil businessmen can’t run plants that blow up, especially in the middle of an ocean.” Here’s another one. “You can’t make products that make people sick.” Here’s my favorite anti-corporation rule to choke businesses. “We’re not going to allow you to run a business that steals money from people, gambles it away on bad bets, and then asks the government to fix you back up again.” THAT ought to really strangle business. After 65 years maximum, every corporation will be done in by one of our Death Panels the same as all persons, and its assets will go into our liberal coffers to give each kid a voucher for $42.00 to use on his education. Voila, a balanced budget, and you said it couldn’t be done.

Anyway, this is the whole liberal plan. It was pretty much secret until Fox News came along, but now I figured I might as well leak the whole thing at once. Say hello to Molly Ivins when you see her after the Death Panel comes, won’t you? God, I miss that woman. I wish she were here now.