I attended a Democratic Party Unity Rally in Worcester MA last night.  Come below the fold to see how an area where Hillary triumphed during the primary is coalescing around Barack Obama.

A) They both think resistance is futile.

B) Their aims are so devious that they make you feel dirty inside.

C) They both pick on easy targets.

D) All of the above.

Answers below the fold...

   These not-so-subtle headlines appeared in the New York Daily News reporting the events of June 28, 1969. Stonewall Riots, precipitating from a police raid in the Stonewall Inn, at 57 Christopher St., Greenich Village, NYC, served as the opening salvo in the modern Gay Rights Movement.

She sat there with her legs crossed, the lashes of her mascara-coated eyes beating like the wings of a hummingbird. She was angry. She was so upset she hadn't bothered to shave. A day old stubble was beginning to push through the pancake makeup. She was a he. A queen of Christopher Street.

   Last weekend the queens had turned commandos and stood bra strap to bra strap against an invasion of the helmeted Tactical Patrol Force. The elite police squad had shut down one of their private gay clubs, the Stonewall Inn at 57 Christopher St., in the heart of a three-block homosexual community in Greenwich Village. Queen Power reared its bleached blonde head in revolt. New York City experienced its first homosexual riot. "We may have lost the battle, sweets, but the war is far from over," lisped an unofficial lady-in-waiting from the court of the Queens.

  More below the fold-

In honor of Gay Pride Month, I thought I would share some happy gay stories that have crossed my path this morning. I know they will put a little extra pep in my step today, so I wanted to spread the love.

In homage to the immortal words of Ren and Stimpy,

Happy Happy Gay Gay Happy Happy Gay Gay!

Enjoy!

This post was originally written for MTV's Choose Or Lose Street Team '08.

Katherine Patrick, the daughter of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, is a courageous youth.  In the last year she has come out as a lesbian to her friends and family, and last week she came out to the whole world.  18-year-old Katherine Patrick did a sit down interview with Bay Windows, "New England's largest GLBT newspaper", to make the announcement, and the news has since been written about by the Boston Herald, the Boston Globe, the Associated Press, and countless other news outlets that reach across the globe.

I just finished reading a great story out of New England. The daughter of Gov. Deval Patrick, at 18 years of age, has come out in the press as a pre-emptive strike against any "gotcha" news stories. She did it on her terms with both her parents at her side.

What makes the story so great is that Gov. Patrick spent a great deal of time, and as the article says..political capital, fighting to protect the right of Gay and Lesbians to marry in his state. He did that without knowing that his own daughter was a lesbian.

"Because, of course, he didn’t know that I was gay then," the 18-year-old recalls. "So, for someone so publicly to fight for something that doesn’t even affect him was just like, ’That’s my dad,’ you know?" she says with a laugh. "That’s all I could think. I was very, very proud to be part of this family, and this state in general."

"It was great. I’m very glad," she adds, looking at her father. "Don’t cry, Dad." Patrick’s eyes are brimming with tears, prompting some good-natured teasing from his daughter. "He’s done some good things," she says with a laugh, patting his arm. "I appreciate it. Want a tissue? Oh, God. He’s a crier."

And the Guv worries about how much her wedding will cost ;)

This is a really nice story of things going well.  For a lot of kids in this country this is not how the coming out story will go.

Governor's daughter, 18, says she is a lesbian

Governor Deval Patrick's 18-year-old daughter announced this morning that she is a lesbian, calling it a source of pride that she is ready to share with Massachusetts.

Today the delegates to the Massachusetts State Democratic Convention endorsed John Kerry for U.S. Senate.  However, his opponent Ed O'Reilly got 22% of the delegate vote giving him ballot access for the State Democratic primary in September.  Come here how it happened, how the convention went, and learn about what else is going in Democratic politics today besides Hillary's speech.

A few times this year bloggers got the wild hair to start talking about the potential we have to bring more people to our government by making Congress more 2.0 friendly.  

Stoller went off about the Franking Laws that are out of step with reality back in March and I've not stopped thinking about it since then.  Well, in reality I had been thinking about it before that back when Obama's campaign announced that it would make the Chief Technology Officer a cabinet position.

Franking Rules are decided by a committee who decide what members of Congress can do in outreach to their constituents.  Sometimes too much outreach from a Congressional office can be seen as "campaigning" and the Franking Rules protect taxpayers from essentially paying for campaigns and creating an unfair advantage for incumbents.

Originally posted on Citizen Orange

Picture from the Boston Herald.

What a sad day.  Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who was elected with a wave of hope, has turned his back on migrants. 

Governor Deval Patrick has decided against taking action to allow
illegal immigrants to pay resident tuition and fees at state colleges
and universities this fall, an administration official said yesterday,
crushing advocates who were counting on the governor to deliver on a
pledge to support the students.
<div align="right">Maria Sacchetti - Boston Globe (22 May 2008)
</div>

This is a sad day for hundreds of migrant youth, whose only hope to go to college this year was just crushed.

As a matter of fact, I feel fine.

I live in Massachusetts and I can say that the the histrionics of the religious right and the Catholic bishops and their friends before and since the historic ruling of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Goodridge vs. Department of Public Health, all is well here in the Bay State. A few thousand people are happier and more secure in their lives. That's all.

The California state supreme court's decision in favor of marriage equality is certain to bring out the vilest anti-gay politics in an election year. Indeed, an anti-gay marriage amendment is almost certain to be on the ballot this year too.

But before everyone gets overly worried about what it all means politically, consider the serious debunking of the Religious Right's rediculous claims about same sex marriage going on over at the new Beacon Broadside blog.

I have seen continuous discussions on this site about who should be Obama's vice president, but little discussion over the AGE of the candidates. Perhaps this is because of the false assumption that we need a seasoned veteran to offset Obama's perceived inexperience. However, I strongly believe that if we truly want a long lasting progressive majority, we really need to  take age into consideration. We need somebody that both has experience, can be perceived as a change agent, and can continue leading the progressive majority after eight years of the Obama presidency. So, let us take a look at the age of the perspective candidates (I will also give my personal analysis):

The Secretary of Defense runoff poll between Chuck Hagel and Jim Webb was a real nailbiter. Results below the fold.

With the Obama Veepstakes poll now concluded and Gov. Bill Richardson as your chosen running mate (which was covered by the Santa Fe Reporter) it's time to take this a step further:

Who would you like to see in an Obama cabinet?

Thus far, Joe Biden won the Sec. of State poll and Michael Bloomberg won the Sec. of the Treasury poll (results below the fold). Today you can vote on the next Attorney General:

UPDATE: jeepdad was kind enough to point out a new Rasmussen poll from today showing Obama beating McCain by 12 PTS. Link  That pretty much makes this diary irrelevant, although I had fun doing it.    

According to the latest poll of a hypothetical McCain/Obama matchup in Massachusetts, Barack Obama beats McCain by only 2% (the poll has a 4.2% MOE).  The poll was conducted by SURVEY USA from Apr. 11-13 and can be found here.

Now, considering that Hillary beat Obama by a sound margin in the primary, it should come as no surprise that she does much better against McCain than Obama.  But I was shocked to see Obama doing so poorly in a state generally assumed to be reliably Democratic (how soon we all forget Weld and Romney).  Does anyone seriously believe Obama will lose MA?  Not really.  But my curiosity prompted me to look for an explanation of why Obama does so poorly.  The surprising findings follow....

Over the past several days, a flurry of stories has raised red flags about the prospects for state-based health care mandates.  On Saturday, the AP reported that soaring costs are buffeting the pioneering insurance mandate program in Massachusetts.  Just days earlier, the New York Times described a Massachusetts primary care system now swamped with new enrollees seeking treatment.  And complicating matters further, the deepening recession is hitting state budgets hard, producing a financial crisis almost certain to halt the expansion of state-based universal health care coverage.

After donning my blue tights, form-fitting ab-revealing white spandex top, and long flowing red cape ("Look, it's Super-Delegate!"), I would be spending all my days working the phones to other super delegates, with one goal in mind . . .

Creating a block of 100 to 200 super delegates committed to "none of the above" on the first ballot . . .

Following the democratic primary, I have been trying to puzzle out the reasons for Barack Obama’s comparatively big losses in Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, and New York.  One of Hillary Clinton’s campaign themes is that Obama cannot win the "big states".  I think this argument is irrelevant for the states I mentioned because all will go democratic in the general election (it might be cogent in Ohio though).  However, Obama’s losses in those states may say something interesting about the democratic primary process.  The MSM has suggested that the reason is that the states mentioned have well-entrenched democratic machines that Hillary secured early on with her top-down campaign strategy.  I think this certainly partly true, but I think the issue is also generational.

Wash Post News Report

The world must bring carbon emissions down to near zero to keep temperatures from rising further.

worldchanging.com article

...our goal is to have zero impact within our lifetimes. Our goal is to provide reasonable affluence and high qualities of life for everyone of the planet, while reducing our CO2 emissions, toxic releases, ecosystem impacts and resource draw-downs to essentially nothing, because anything more than zero is wrong.

MA Gov Press Release

Governor Calls for Zero Net Energy Buildings

“Less energy usage isn’t enough,” said Governor Patrick. “We have to set our sights not higher, but lower – all the way to zero.”