Between getting no sleep last night, construction going on in my building, my headache not going away, and appointments nearly all day at work, my mind is beyond mush. So, advanced apologies to all if I seem a little incoherent.
President Barack Obama is celebrating his 49th birthday bachelor style (sort of) today because his wife & one of his daughters are out of the country, and his other daughter is at summer camp. So, President Obama, don't do anything I wouldn't do in The Windy City! ;D As most non - racist bat$hit paranoid sparked up people know, President Obama was born on this date IN HONOLULU, HAWAII!
Unfortunately, most other "this day in history" items are real downers, but they are actually very relevant to the current atmosphere. AND, one of them is a birthday where I get to bring out THE cake, so that always makes me smile! ;D On this date in 1944, Anne Frank was arrested along with her sister, parents, and four other people after they had spent two years hiding from the Nazis in a building Amsterdam. Her diary became a famous account of the Holocaust. Can't y'all just picture Sheriff Joe Arapaio busting in on some immigrants like the Nazis busted in on the families in that house? I can.
On this date in 1964, the bodies of three missing civil rights workers were found buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi. Politicians & other hoping to gut the 14th Amendment obviously missed history class the day this subject may have been covered, or they otherwise might not be trying to do what they want to do. Or, maybe, they do know & just don't care.
On this date in 1987, the FCC voted to rescind the Fairness Doctrine which required radio and TV stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues. Well, thank goodness FAUX News is still "balanced"! Oh...wait...uh...gee...
Finally, we have the birthday worthy of THE cake! Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is 55 today. Please PLEASE make your next trip to the "Show Me Your Papers" state, preferably after SB 1070 goes into effect, and hopefully you get stopped because you're just a little too "off - white" for comfort!
You can munch on this tasty treat in the big house with the invitation to GO CHENEY YOURSELF.
Let's Countdown...
#5 "Prop 8 Overturned" AKA " –Prop Hate– " - I hope Judge Vaughn Walker has protection or body guards or something because something tells me he will need it after the Prop 8 ruling today. Yep, let’s cheer & yahoo & celebrate today, but, I would not necessarily be running out to get married tomorrow in CA. I wouldn’t be surprised if Prop 8 supporters won the right to not let homosexual couples get married while the case is in the appeals process. So, wait until all the judicial ducks are in a row before walking down that aisle! I still can’t get over the pairing of Ted Olson & David Boise in this case! Since Keith is going to re – run his Prop 8 "special comment" later on in the show, I’m going to reserve most of my comments until later. Yes, court wonk lil’ ‘ol me read about 80% of the 136 – page ruling, and I jotted down some thoughts & observations while I read it. ;D
Ya’ know, I wonder how all the current efforts now to hack up the 14th Amendment will affect possible appeals in this case. Can those hacking at the 14th Amendment focus their efforts only on making sure that children born of undocumented workers can’t be American citizens, or is the entire amendment up for grabs? Part of the anti – Prop 8 victory today was based on the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The Governator came out to CELEBRATE the ruling. GO ARNIE! Yep, I was right. The $hitacular lawyers defending Prop 8 in the trial had the distinct feeling they were going to lose, so they asked Judge Walker to stay his decision pending appeals (aka gay people still can’t get married). There will be a hearing of sorts to see if homosexual marriages can resume, but, again, after the thrill of the granting of same sex marriages being followed by the absolutely maddening heart break of Prop 8 followed by the uncertainty if the marriages between the time would still be valid, just wait until all the court action is done. Just my most humble of opinions...that & 50 cents won’t by a regular ‘ol cup of coffee. Lisa Blatt is talking the Prop 8 ruling, and she agrees with me about the whole "stay" thing.
She thinks SCOTUS will take the case if it ends up on their doorstep. I don’t know. SCOTUS, at least in the past, usually liked to stay out of political frays, and the issue of same sex marriage is ABSOLUTELY political fray. And, with both Judge Vaughn’s very through & well – thought out ruling today & a possible affirmation by the 9th Circuit Court, SCOTUS, again in the past anyway, has usually shied away from looking as if they are trying to usurp state court rulings. Citizens United changed a lot of that history, though, and I could just see a "justice" like Scalia or Thomas saying that these courts over – ruled the will of the CA voters even though Judge Vaughn made a clear & very convincing case that the voters were kind of sort of hood – winked on this issue. So, we’ll just see what these 2 "gentlemen" do. Joe Solomonese from the Human Rights Campaign is a happy campaigner tonight! ;D Another thing that struck me while reading the opinion, that I didn’t previously include while I was reading it, is just how completely & thoroughly the notion of choosing your sexual orientation & children of homosexual parents "turning gay" was OBLITERATED! There is absolutely no actual scientific reasonable peer – reviewed studies or investigations that support these hateful & bat$hit beliefs. Zero – Zip – Nada – BIG ‘OL STINKY GOOSE EGG!
Again, I’ve been reading The Nine, and even if there is such compelling evidence that Judge Walker and any potential affirming action by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to scuttle any SCOTUS activity in agreeing to hear the case based on previous SCOTUS practice & actions, it takes only 4 justices to grant certiorari (or agrreing to hear and add a case to the SCOTUS docket for a given term). So, again, Scalia & Thomas would have to get only 2 other justices to agree to hear the case. Roberts & Alito, anyone? Keith & Mr. Solomonese made a great point; most of "the young" are shaking their heads & wondering what the big sparkin’ deal is with allowing gay people to get married. Those who are ignorant, intolerant, or willfully hateful are dying off.
#4 "Weak Tea" AKA "Tea – Party Poopers" AKA "Tea and Sympathy" - Tea bagger candidates got their tea shoved up a dark stinky place in some primaries last night – including one in Kansas specifically touted by Grandma ExGov TurkeyLover! The other GOBP candidate in that Kansas race that was endorsed by Senator McCentury won. Man, I bet that really sticks in her DUMB A$$ craw! ;D Rep. Roy Blunt, no dirty stinkin’ librul himself, beat a fellow MO tea bagger primary candidate. The winner of the GOBP MI Governor primary beat Rep. Pete "Terrorism Expert" Hoekstra & another tea bagger by vowing to reach across the aisle?! DUDE! You sure you’re a GOBPer??!! A few tea baggers won because MO citizens voted to support that state’s efforts to scuttle implementation of the new health care law. Here’s Professor Melissa Harris – Lacewell! The professor gave Keith a civics lesson – HA!
** At a baseball game in Japan, the right fielder tip – toed along the top of the back stop in an attempt to grab the ball. He missed but give him an A++ for effort – DAMN! A – rod got his 600th home run. What – the – spark – ever! How many of those were hit with performance enhancers? **
#3 "Mosque Hysteria" - The proposed mosque near Ground Zero won an important victory. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, officially a GOBPer, defended the right of the mosque to be there by pointing out that denying the religious freedom of one group of people was no way to honor those who died because of religious extremism. Pat Robertson & his cabal have already filed legal action against the decision.
Hell, his degree is probably from his own diploma mill university, so it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on. Wow, Mayor Bloomberg gave a hell of a speech. BRAVO {insert standing "o" here}! So, did St. Sarah from Wasilla’s hateful racist MORANIC brain explode when she heard about this speech? Russell Simmons lives near the Ground Zero site, and he’s all over the mosque being there.
#2 "DC Free Clinic" - The National Association of Free Clinics had a free clinic in DC today; nearly 1000 people were treated, and we helped! :) So, how many politicians showed up? The Senate’s still in town. Did any Senators show up? Ed Schultz is there. A lot of the people Ed met today had just lost their jobs, had lost their health insurance, and were absolutely petrified about the future. Over 500 people were turned away because there just wasn’t the manpower or resources. Damn, y’all sure we can’t convince Ed to run for Byron Dorgan’s Senate seat?! ;D
"Special Comment" - Keith is repeating his powerful & gut – wrenching Prop 8 comment. I do not mean to take away the impact of this repeat, but it can be seen by just about all of us nearly any time we want. So, again, here are some thoughts I took down while reading the Prop 8 ruling from today. No government official named as a defendant in the case (as is CA law to do so in a case of this nature) came out to defend nor would they defend Prop 8. AG Jerry Brown came right out & said he thought it was unconstitutional. The "people" behind Prop 8 are sparked up! This was part of their "defense" for the indefensible, as far as I’m concerned:
While death, divorce, or other circumstances may prevent the ideal, the best situation for a child is to be raised by a married mother and father.
OK, so if a man & a woman do get married, they must be fruitful & multiply & not die & not get divorced. AND, every kid who is raised by female mother & a male father will grow up to be a normal well – adjusted participant of society. Let’s ask Jeffrey Dahmer’s parents about that subject. Or, how ‘bout the UniBomber’s parents? And, wasn’t OBL raised by a few male fathers & female mothers? Hell, he should be exponentially more well – adjusted than us poor saps who just had one of each! IDIOTS!
Here’s more "brilliance" from the Prop 8 backers:
[W]hile gays have the right to their private lives, they do not have the right to redefine marriage for everyone else.
"Gays" WERE NOT trying that, again IDIOTS! This assumption of the will behind Prop 8 cracked me up! Prop 8
...promotes stability in relationships between a man and a woman because they naturally (and at times unintentionally) produce children; and...
[emphasis added by yours truly]! Ain’t that a hoot?! ;D I tried to keep up as best as I could during the actual trial, and it was pretty damn apparent to me early on that the lawyer defending Prop 8 wasn’t exactly playing with a full deck; check this out!
...the court posed to proponents’ counsel the assumption that ‘the state’s interest in marriage is procreative’ and inquired how permitting same-sex marriage impairs or adversely affects that interest. Doc #228 at 21. Counsel replied that the inquiry was
‘not the legally relevant question,’ id, but when pressed for an answer, counsel replied: ‘Your honor, my answer is: I don’t know. I don’t know.’
THAT WAS THE MAIN DAMN CRUX OF DEFENDING THIS SHTICK! And, the "pro Prop 8" folks called exactly 1 witness to defend the CA Government’s interest in keeping marriage between a man & a woman. 1 other witnesses was called to defend other aspects of Prop 8. The lawyers & other Prop 8 defenders tried to "cook" their studies, too, but attorneys Ted Olson & David Boise NAILED the other side’s "cooking."
When proponents challenged Lamb {a plaintiff witness testifying that children in same sex couple households can be just as well – adjusted as children in opposite sex couple households} with studies purporting to show that married parents provide the ideal child-rearing environment, Lamb countered that studies on child-rearing typically compare married opposite-sex parents to single parents or step-families and have no bearing on families headed by same-sex couples. Lamb testified that the relevant comparison is between families headed by same-sex couples and families headed by opposite-sex couples and that studies comparing these two family types show conclusively that having parents of different genders is irrelevant to child outcomes.
It seemed to me that a lot of the anti – Prop 8 testimony hinged on the economic harm done to counties & the entire state of CA because marriage licenses couldn’t be issued, marriages couldn’t be performed, etc. Yea, hit people in their pocket books! The "pro Prop 8" side didn’t even bother to call the majority of the witnesses on their side to personally testify at the trial; they submitted written testimony instead! AND, that side’s "star witness" could not back up a single thing he said with actual provable peer – reviewed studies; he merely got in the witness stand & spouted his OPINIONS. He was also unwilling to be directly cross – examined by opposing council.