Why the Republican Party is completely Insane

(Hat tip to John A. Over at Americablog for this one..)

The House Republicans had Rep. Virignia Foxx of North Carolina lead the charge against including women, people with disabilities, and gays in America's already-existing hate crimes law. The current law counts violent crime based on race, religion or national origin as a "hate crime", but not disability, gender or sexual orientation. During the debate on the US House floor, Rep. Foxx referred to Matthew Shepard's murder as "a hoax."

Here is what this insane, bigoted moron had to say on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives...

You will recall that Matthew Shepard was the young gay man in Laramie, Wyoming who, a decade ago, was tied to a fence, Jesus-like, pistol whipped in the head some 50 times, then left for dead in the cold fall night, only to be found a day later clinging to life. Shepard died five days later. Even though Shepard's murderers admitted that they killed him because he was gay, the far-right bigots who control the Republican party couldn't resist the opportunity to gay-bash Shepard one last time. Now by referring to his brutal murder as a hoax.

Ed Schultz over on MSNBC could barely believe what he had heard, and approriately branded it as "Psycho Talk".



Also, Keith Olbermann wasn't about to stand by and let this idiocy go unchallenged either, naming Foxx as the "Worst Person in the World" on his show later that day.



To my friends who are Republican I can only say this; It's time to decide what you really believe. If you truly feel that Matthew Shepard and millions of Americans like him are lesser human beings, and lesser citizens than you, and therefore deserve to be marginalized, discriminated against and crimes committed against them based on hate are no big deal, then by all means stay with the GOP.

If however, you have a brain, you have a conscience and you have a soul in which you truly believe the tenants of the faith you proclaim and practice. Then it's time to leave. The Republican Party is nothing more than a cabal of intellectually, spiritually and emotionally damaged bigots. They are the American Taliban. They are an affront to everything our nation stands for. The time has come for the Republican Party to take it's final walk off the cliffs of stupidity and hate it has been running towards at full speed since 1992.

Will you follow the Limbaugh and Hannity and Gingrich/Palin lemmings as they plunge headlong off that cliff?

It's time to decide...

The First 100 Days

And the GOP's first 100 days accomplishment? "Teabagging".

Good luck with that.

Stephen Colbert is my new hero !

This is brilliant!

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Colbert Coalition's Anti-Gay Marriage Ad
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

Again with the Gays!? What is it with you People?

Dear Anti Gay "Conservatives":

What is it with you people? You all need professional help.

Seriously.

You are obsessed with homosexuality. You think about it night and day. It's all you can talk about. Gay Adoptions, Gay Marriage, books with possible Gay content. (Except for Lynne Cheney's soft-core Lesbian romance novel, apparently that one is okay.) Gay characters on TV or in movies, basically if anything is even remotely connected to Homosexuality you are all over that like AIG on bailout money.

Gay people don't think about Homosexuality as much as you do. Your fetish for all things Gay has come out once again. This time in the form of TV ad courtesy of the conservative evangelical Ooompa Loompas at one of your new groups calling itself, "National Organization for Marriage".

The ad is striking, black storm clouds roll in the background. Bolts of lightning streak across the sky behind a group of distraught looking "average Americans" all talking about the Gay Attack on Marriage". And how granting same sex couples the right to marry would take away THEIR civil rights. But you couldn't find any real people who are as jazzed up about the 'Gay Threat' as you are, so you had to get really bad actors to give you your "gay attack" jollies.



Your latest bit of wing-nuttery crosses the line from dishonest and stupid, to just plain silly. As usual though, your passion for Homosexuality, avoids any connection to facts or reality.


But apparently your deep love for all things gay doesn't stop there. What is interesting, (and really entertaining) this time around, is how your quest for Gay-ness has expanded to economic issues . This past week you wanted millions of Americans to "teabag" President Obama.

So what you are saying is, your new cause is "tea bagging".... Really?

If that wasn't silly enough, you want millions of Americans to join your brand new "2 Million For Marriage" movement. Or, as you want to call it (being the hip, savvy interwebby types you are..) "2M4M"! Clearly somebody needs to teach you all how to use that "Google thing on the interwebs." It might save you a lot of embarrassment.

I really can't figure out WHY you care SO much about anything and everything Gay. The lives of LGBT Americans don't affect your lives. Giving LGBT Americans equal rights doesn't take away any of your rights. There is no logical reason for what you are doing. In trying to figure out why you all have been so Homo-focused lately. I have managed to boil it down to three possible explanations.

1) You are in fact, all closeted self-hating Homosexuals yourselves, who desperately want to get in on all the Gay action, and this the only way that feel you can.



2) You are mentally challenged bigots who really do believe the insane, hateful bile you are spewing, you as a result feel that the LGBT Americans are less than human, and like Hitler with the Jews, hope for their eventual extermination.



Or, the third (and most plausible explanation)

3) You are merely lazy political opportunists, devoid of any real ideas or solutions for America's problems. While desperately searching for an issue you think can scare people in to supporting your party and your causes, decided Gays and Lesbians are the last minority you can get away with trying to demonize for political gain. So anyone who disagrees with you gets painted with the "Gay" label,



So dear Conservatives, I have to ask; which is it? Are you all really just Gay and self-hating? Are you all just crazy and bigoted? Or are you all just intellectually bankrupt and dishonest?

Your non-stop obsession with Gays and Lesbians, their lives, their families, their civil rights (or maintaing the lack thereof...), makes any other answer, nearly impossible to believe.

Good Friday Mental Health Break...

">

Ubi Caritas - Maurice Durufle'

Where charity and love are, there God is.
The love of Christ has gathered us into one flock.
Let us exult, and in Him be joyful.
Let us fear and let us love the living God.
And from a sincere heart let us love each other (and Him).

Where charity and love are, there God is.
Therefore, whensoever we are gathered as one:
Lest we in mind be divided, let us beware.
Let cease malicious quarrels, let strife give way.
And in the midst of us be Christ our God.

Where charity and love are, there God is.
Together also with the blessed may we see,
Gloriously, Thy countenance, O Christ our God:
A joy which is immense, and also approved:
Through infinite ages of ages.
Amen.

Our Trip to Malaysia 3/21-4/5

More pic,info and videos to come!

The Post Comes Out for Immigration Eqaulity

Separation Anxiety
Gay couples should be allowed to stay together in the United States.

Monday, March 16, 2009; A16

THE UNITING American Families Act would allow gay and lesbian Americans and permanent residents to sponsor their foreign-born partners for legal residency in the United States. The bill, introduced last month in the Senate by Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and in the House by Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), would add "permanent partner" and "permanent partnership" after the words "spouse" and "marriage" in relevant sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act. If passed, it would right a gross unfairness.

Under the proposal, a "permanent partnership" is defined as a "committed, intimate relationship" with another adult "in which both parties intend a lifelong commitment." The couple must be financially interdependent and not married to or in a permanent partnership with anyone else. And the partners can't be related. The benefit comes with the same immigration restrictions and enforcement standards that apply to heterosexual couples. Fraudulent permanent partnerships face the same penalties as fake marriages: up to five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.

"Under current law, committed same-sex foreign partners of American citizens are unable to use the family immigration system, which accounts for a majority of the green cards and immigrant visas granted annually by the United States," Mr. Leahy said upon introducing the bill. "The promotion of family unity has long been part of federal immigration policy, and we should honor that principle by providing all Americans the opportunity to be with their loved ones." According to the most recent census, he added, about 35,000 binational, same-sex couples are living in the United States. The new legislation would ensure that the family connections valued under immigration law are extended to gays and lesbians.

The strain of the status quo on gay and lesbian binational couples should not be discounted. Because their relationships are not legally recognized by the United States, some couples have resorted to illegal marriages where the foreign nationals marry Americans to get green cards that allow them to stay in the country permanently. In other cases, Americans have exiled themselves to be with their partners. Sixteen countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Israel, South Africa and the United Kingdom, allow residents to sponsor same-sex permanent partners for legal immigration. American gays and lesbians should not have to choose between their country and their partners.

---------------------------------------------------------

Wow! (Hat tip to my Sister Leah for sending this !)

Memo to the GOP - "Just say OOPS! and get out!"

This week in Washington D.C. CPAC - the Conservative Political Action Committee is meeting to plan the future of the Republican Party and the "conservative movement". I have been watching this circular firing squad play out in all its gory detail on CSPAN. Keith Olbermann brings us all up to speed.



It's been quite an education. What is always interesting is hearing the statements various players on the right make during the run-up to this annual event. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele decided to throw some political "red meat" to his hungry mini-hordes the other day, when in an interview he was asked if the GOP would be supportive of Civil Unions for Gay and Lesbian Americans instead of "same sex marriage". His response was truly illuminating.



Then not just one but two Republican lawmakers in the great Hate State of Colorado, just days apart from each other made comments about LGBT Americans that would make the Nazis proud.



The response from the Republican National Committee? Complete support for the bigoted bile spewed forth by these two trogladytes. (I can't call them Neanderthals because neither of them believes in Evolution.)

Then we came up to CPAC with speech after insane, completely divorced from reality, speech. Accusing President Barack Obama of not really being a U.S. Citizen, of being a Communist, a Fascist and even the Anti-Christ.

There is no other way to put this. These people are nuts. They have become completely unhinged. Their electoral defeat shattered their already fragile grip on reality. All they have left is who they want to blame, and who they want all of the rest of us to HATE. When they are forced to admit that America isn't buying the load of Crap they are trying to sell, all they can do is stomp their feet and say how because of Obama's victory somebody might attack Chicago with a nuclear weapon.

No... I am not kidding. Wing Nut darling John Bolton ACTUALLY Said that...



Believe it or not, I used to be a Republican. I was an officer in the College Republicans at the University of Wisconsin. I campaigned for Ronald Reagan and for George HW. Bush. I have always believed that Government is not a substitute for individual liberty and responsibility. I have always felt that a strong America is good for the world. I have always believed that Government does not have a place in my church AND vice versa. And certainly the Government had no place in my bedroom.

Then in 1992 the GOP lost its mind and then sold its soul to right wing fundamentalists, who are in essence, the American Taliban.

And I have had enough.

To all the "faithful" at CPAC , hear this; You lost. Get it though your addled, bigoted hate filled skulls. You lost. You failed. Your policies didn't work, your lies have all been exposed, your delusions of creating a "permanent Republican majority" are as dead as another right wing nut-job's dream of a "thousand year Reich".

Your sad pathetic attempts to sabotage American recovery have been seen by the VAST majority of Americans as exactly that. You want to truly help our Nation climb out of the deep dank dark hole that you dug for it then pushed us into? Then do this; Sit down and shut up for a while. Go sit in a corner and think about the disasters you have wrought upon this nation you claim so loudly to love.

If you cannot summon the decency and simple patriotism to do that, then in the words of the late great Zero Mostel...

"Just say OOPS! and get out!"

Oh and Michael Steele, as you are DETERMINED that millions of Americans should NEVER have the same basic rights as everyone else, the only thing I can say to you is this - I hope somehow through some twist of fate, you actually read this. And when you do, the small fear filled mind rattling around inside your head - explodes.

Why Dilbert is the best comic strip out there...

">

Ken Starr is a small minded Bigot... (Like this is news...?)

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.">

Enough is Enough! Dick Cheney can just shut the hell up now...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

A few thoughts on the post-Bush era.

Well so much for the honeymoon...

I was reading the conservative blogs earlier today, and most are in full throated "Loyal Opposition" mode. Shouts to the rafters that the GOP defeats of 2008 will not deter them from making fun of the new President. Promising that their blogs WILL go on, full of conviction that President Obama is manifestly unqualified for his office. Their duty and patriotic obligation is to point this out at every opportunity.

Well Hooray... I have no problem with that. Likewise, it is just as important to point out who owns the steaming pile of "legacy" that the Republican Party has left behind on its way to political exile.

Many conservatives, faced with a new political reality, are feeling a bit put upon. So they are are coming out swinging, full of comparisons to the chorus of dissent that greeted George W. Bush in January of 2001. Now I can understand the desire for payback. Yet the difference in the path to the Oval Office taken by President Obama compared to President Bush (43) is worth noting. President Bush's road the White House had to be cleared for him by the U.S. Supreme Court. President Obama's road to Washington was paved by the most decisive electoral victory since Ronald Reagan stomped on Walter Mondale in 1984.

Now let's be clear about something, the role a Loyal Opposition in a democracy is VITAL. It is essential for the checks and balances on power to be more than just words. It preserves, protects and defends our nation from the tyranny of the majority. And the Republican Party must fulfill this role as a critical rudder on the ship of state.

Yet what many conservatives don't like to admit, is the GOP has no problem with the tyranny of the majority when that majority is theirs. The strategy of gridlock wrapped in righteous indignation is understandably a very attractive one. It enables people who have turned a willfully blind eye to the disaster of the last 8 years to turn the torn, charred and bloody page, without having to face the truth of their own handwriting on that page.

So by all means let there be no "honeymoon". Come out swinging gloves off, and ready for battle. But just as you will be there to trumpet every misstep, so many more will be here to remind you who got us in this mess to begin with. The hard reality is the GOP will never move forward until they admit the horror story that we now face economically, strategically, environmentally and culturally in this nation was largely authored by them.



If the GOP decides to continue down a path of petulant denial wrapped in a cloak of historical revisionism, the electoral rehabilitation of the Republican Party will have to depend upon the American People being two things; Stupid and incredibly forgetful.

Fortunately 2008 has proven neither to be the case.

Finally....

Our long national nightmare is over...

">

Transitional Thoughts...

January 20th , 2009

Seems like that day will never get here. After 8 long years of disaster cloaked in stupidity covered in greed, it seems that the whole world, not just these United States is ready to bid a not so fond adieu to GW Bush, et al.

Yet this Presidential transition, like most has had its ups and downs. For the most part, the cabinet picks have been spot on. I think that Hillary Clinton at State, and Rahm Emannuel as White House chief of staff were both brilliant choices. Yet there have been some bumps in the road as well. A feeling that a campaign that ran on "Change" is relying rather heavily on familiar democratic faces. Not that this is a bad thing but it has given a despondent and diminished GOP a familiar talking point to drone on about.

Funny how the Republican party always wants to set aside "partisan bickering" only after they lose an election. The 2008 election was a CLEAR repudiation of the policies and philosophy of the GOP. They lost, and they lost BIG. This was not a close election by any means.

A graphic in the current issue of The Atlantic magazine clearly shows the Bush/GOP legacy. (Click on the map to see a larger version).



My advice to the incoming administration is simple. Forge ahead and do what you feel needs to be done. And anytime the GOP stands in the way, you get into the bully pulpit of the Presidency and you say to the entire nation; "look, the same incompetent, greedy, corrupt dolts who got our nation INTO this mess are now doing everything they can to prevent solutions to clean it up." You point to every Republican up for re-election in 2010 and you ask why do they not want America to succeed?

"Post-Partisan" must now mean that the GOP gets to go sit in a corner for while and think about what they have done.

The far right in this country still cannot grasp the reality of their loss. Ridiculous wing-nut websites touting theories of electoral conspiracy, and media collusion show how completely out of touch the GOP has become from lives of most Americans.

As I have said many times, I do not envy President Obama and the task that lies before him, but the facts are, he won. The GOP lost. The time has come to call failure what it is. As the GOP liked to say in 2000, "They had their chance, they would not lead, we will".

Time to grow up and take your own medicine.

Wow... Speaking of historic...

Regardless of your politics you have to appreicate the sheer historic nature of this..

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

HAPPY 2009!

Here is what we saw here in London Standing in the massive crowds along the Thames Embankment freezing our toes off! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

Hello from London!

Arrived here last Saturday, here with Daniel and Scott. Today Eric and I are doing our own thing and will meet up with the lads tommorrow for New Year's Eve.

Eric says hi to everyone. Will post more later in the week and will try to put up some pictures as well. In the mean time HAPPY NEW YEAR Everyone!

Dave

As Christmas Fast Approaches...

We pause the blog for just moment for two of my all time favorite Holiday TV memories...

">

And the last word in Holiday Specials always goes to Linus.

"Lights please..."

Star Trek's First Lady Passes Away...

">

From the Associated Press...

NEW YORK – Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the widow of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, has died. She was 76. Roddenberry, an actress who appeared in numerous "Star Trek" TV shows and movies, died Thursday of leukemia at her home in Bel-Air, Calif., her representative said.

At Roddenberry's side were family friends and her only son, Eugene Roddenberry Jr. Gene Roddenberry died in 1991.

Her romance with Roddenberry earned her the title "The First Lady of Star Trek." A fixture in the "Star Trek" franchise, her roles included Nurse Christine Chapel in the original "Star Trek," Lwaxana Troi in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and the voice of the USS Enterprise computer in almost every spin-off of the 1966 cult series. She recently reprised the voice role in the upcoming "Star Trek" film directed by J.J. Abrams.

Dear President Elect Obama...

Mr. President Elect, I would like you to consider embracing the following statements.

"If Darwin was right, which is survival of the fittest then being Black would be a recessive gene because it doesn't reproduce strong families and you would think that over thousands of years that being Black would work itself out of the gene pool."

And this...

"Most people know I have many Black friends. I’ve eaten dinner in Black homes. No church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church. Kay and I have given millions of dollars out of Purpose Driven Life helping people who got AIDS through Black relationships. So they can’t accuse me of Racism...”

Or even this...

“We support Segregation. And if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Segregation. …[T]he universal, historic definition of marriage [is] a White man and a woman, for life. And every culture for 5,000 years and every religion for 5,000 years has said the definition of marriage is between White man and a White woman. …This is not even just a Christian issue, it is a humanitarian and human issue, that God created marriage for the purpose of White family, White love and White procreation. I urge you to support Segregation and to pass that on.”

Pretty awful stuff right?

Well then, take out the word "Black" and substitute the words Gay or Homosexual. Take out the word White, and change "Racism" to homophobia and "Segregation" to Proposition 8. What you get is all of those disturbing quotes are in fact, statements from interviews and speeches by Pastor Rick Warren.

>">

If Rick Warren had said, the same things about African Americans or Hispanics, or Asians, or Jews, or even people who are left-handed, that he has about LGBT Americans, you would be appalled. If Warren had said about your family the things he has said about mine, he would not be allowed with in 100 miles of your inauguration. Yet you have chosen to put this man front and center on the day you take office.

You don't feel that you need to "agree to disagree" with White Supremacists, you don't say we need to "agree to disagree" with those who deny the Holocaust ever happened. You don't "reach across the aisle" to xenophobic bigots who want to round up immigrants. Yet you have embraced someone who is the equivalent to LGBT Americans. Why?

Millions of LGBT voters remembering the betrayal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act under the Clintons rallied to your cause during the primaries and then in the general election. Your choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation on inauguration day sends a clear message that Gay and Lesbian Americans can expect no better under your administration.

You are sending a clear message that to use the tyranny of the majority to strip away civil rights from a minority is ok. Your choice of Pastor Rick Warren says you intend to govern a nation that has two levels of citizenship. First Class for heterosexuals, and Second Class for anyone who isn't.

This isn’t bipartisan compromise, this is politically expedient cowardice.

And it is beneath you.

John Stewart takes Rev. Mike to task...

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

John Stewart by gently asking simple questions gets Mike Huckabee to admit that for "social conservatives" it really is about a desire to brand Gay and Lesbians as second class citizens. His arguments for "defending marriage" simply don't hold up to even basic scrutiny.

Reports from the Front Lines....

Of what Fox News calls "The War On Christmas"

You Gotta Give 'em Hope...

I just got home from watching the movie "MILK", Gus Van Sant's bioepic of the life of murdered San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk. I had the good fortune to watch the film at the Castro Theater here in San Francisco.



The theater was completely sold out. I actually got to sit in the balcony of the theater for the first time. The Castro is of those fantastic "movie palaces" from a bygone era. Thankfully it has not carved itself up to make several smaller screens. The full theater remains today complete with its Wurlitzer Organ which plays prior to every movie.



I already was very familiar with this particular movie because I am actaully IN the movie, in the huge crowd scenes in front of San Francisco City Hall. (No you cant see me, but I'm there.) Its true that many people outside of California probably have no idea who Harvey Milk was, what he did and why he was killed for it. Hopefully this movie will change that.

Do yourself and me a favor, and go see it please.

Thanks

It's PROP 8 - THE MUSICAL!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Brilliant...

A word or two about the Mormon Church

Lately the conservative blogs have been seething with rightous indignation over the "backlash" against the Mormon Church for their multi-million dollar involvement in the passage of proposition 8 in California. Conservatives are screaming about discrimination against the Mormon Church that was just "practicing their religous beliefs."

Actutally, no.. they were not just practicing their religous beliefs.

Seattle columnist Dan Savage and Americablog's John Aravosis state the truth better that I can:

"Millions of Californians definitely lost their civil rights," says John Aravosis. "But I'm not hearing a lot of concern about any of those victims, only sympathy for their attacker. When you use the power of the state to rip away my civil rights, and force me to live by your 'values,' you are no longer practicing your religion. You're practicing politics."

In the wake of Prop 8 millions of gays and lesbians all over the country have decided that we're no longer going to play by the old rules. We're not going to let people kick our teeth down our throats and then run and hide behind "Nothing personal—just my private religious beliefs!" That game's over."

The Mormon Church chose to expend millions of dollars of church resources in an effort to create public policy. That is not religous practice, that is being a poltical action committee. For the Mormons to engage in political activity that strips away the civil rights of millions of people, and then not expect those same people to fight back shows the Mormon Leadership are not just bigots, but idiots as well.

The great irony of this is how for the Mormon Church it really wasn't even about same sex marriage. It was about proving to the American conservative religous right that the Mormons are "one of them". This was about getting James Dobson and his ilk to not openly oppose a Mitt Romney candidacy in 2012.

If we weren't talking about millions of Americans having their civil rights elminated , I would have to laugh. Because the joke is on the Mormon Church, which could very well lose it's tax exempt status as as result of their direct involvement in political activity while claiming to be a church.

But even funnier still, is the fact that the Christian Right will NEVER welcome the Mormons into the club. While conservative evangelicals may approve of what they did with Prop 8, in the eyes of Dobson, Robertson, Reed and company, the Mormons will always be that goofy non-christian cult from Utah that claims being born black is a punishment from god.




Oh yeah, one more thing ... Prop 8 will likely get tossed out by the California Supreme Court. So I have to ask the Mormon Leadership, when all is said and done, and your millions of dollars spent, in the words of Dr. Phil...

How'd that all work out for you?

Questions of Faith and Law

.
In April of 1521,Martin Luther was brought before a tribunal where the Catholic Church demanded he recant his teachings and writings that challenged the doctrine of the day. His response was brief, yet powerful;

"Since your majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by scripture and plain reason--I do not accept the authority of popes and councils for they have contradicted each other--my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, God help me. Amen."

I remember in the Winter of 2005, I sat and read the “final report” of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) task force on sexuality. I remember being so disappointed, but also wanting to believe that there was some good to be found there.

I really did want to belive that even though there were no real steps forward, just even having the discussion was a very positive step. At least it could be said that there were no real steps backwards.

That isn't the case in 2008. The passage of Proposition 8 here in California marks the first time the tyranny of a razor thin majority was allowed to strip away civil rights from a targeted minority. And like with the ELCA statement in 2005, once again the issue of LGBT equality reveals the ELCA to be a divided church desperate to avoid taking a stand at all costs.

With that 2005 statment the ELCA, in an attempt to avoid division, opted to remain a divided church. Congregations like St. Mark’s here in San Francisco or Holy Trinity Lutheran in Chicago were told they could continue to proclaim the good news to ALL people, but with slightly LESS fear of being punished for doing so. Yet elsewhere in the very same ELCA, it would be perfectly acceptable to tell a gay or lesbian teenager, from the pulpit, that they are sick and could be cured if they just prayed hard enough.

Now with Prop 8 we find the ELCA has in fear, boxed itself into the same corner once again. Where the Bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod can, as an individual, join other clergy on the steps of San Francisco City Hall to denounce prop 8. Yet the church that elected him as a Bishop remains, for all intent and purposes silent on the issue of discrimination and turning religous bigotry into civil law.

In the offical ballot recomendations from the Lutheran Office of Public Policy, the ELCA urged us to vote YES on expanding rights for farm animals, (Prop 2) but couldn't muster the courage to say Lutherans should vote NO on taking away rights from human beings. (Prop 8)



So much for "Here I Stand".

The sheer cowardice of the ELCA is mind boggling. My church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was so scared to anger people who hate me that it couldnt bring itself to say that taking away my civil rights was wrong. The ELCA has made it clear it is unable, and/or unwilling to say loudly and clearly, that I am as much a human being as anyone else. Equal in the eyes of God, and therefore equal under the laws of Man. The leadership of the ELCA will (very quietly) assure me they believe that. I just need "to be patient" because the church can't say things like that publicly yet.

For once I find myself in agreement with the Neo-Conservative religous right. They have said for years that if you are not clearly against evil, your silence may as well be outright support of it.

I love my congregation of St.Mark's Lutheran here in San Francisco. It is a vibrant diverse thriving community of faith that shouts God's unconditional love for all loudly and proudly each and every Sunday. Yet St. Mark's is an ELCA congregation. I must confess, that I am struggling with that. I find myself wondering if my continued membership isn't just part of what helps preserve the current double standard in the ELCA . Where as a church, we will say one thing in San Francisco, but do quite the opposite elsewhere.

I find myself wondering if a Lutheran denomination that doesn't believe I am 2nd class citizen, but is too scared to say so, and tell those who do believe it, they are wrong, might as well be a Mormon or Catholic Church that donates millions of dollars to try to make me a 2nd class citizen.

You gotta love Mark Fiore..

In a totally sanctified Heterosexual way..of course!

Uh... Wow.

Ok I had serious misgivings about this movie when I saw some of the still photos that had released, but now I get it. Just like the Sci-Fi channel did with Battlestar Galactica, rather than try to recreate the original Star Trek, Director JJ Abrams has re-imagined it.

It's gonna be a loooonggg wait until May 2009 :(

What's in a Name Anyway?

Conservative Out Blogger Andrew Sullivan writes on his site today that Evangelical Conservative Tony Perkins over at the "Family Research Council", had indicated he would have "no problem" with Civil Unions in California that provided Gay and Lesbian couples with the same rights as marriage,but just a different name for it.

Interesting...

I will confess that for the longest time I held a very similar view. I would get frustrated with marriage equality activists who seemed to be so hung up on the terminology. If calling it "Marriage" is the problem why not call it Civil Unions or Domestic Partnership or call it "Fred" for that matter. As long as all rights are the same why did it matter it was called?

The counter argument has always been that this would be agreeing to something that was "separate but equal" and history has clearly shown that separate structures for civil rights are never equal, just separate. Racial segregation in the decades before the civil rights movement proved this. Whites and Blacks had separate things like drinking fountains, restrooms and schools that were anything but equal.

Yet the argument could be made that this was hardly the same thing. If both a gay and straight couple had the exact same hospital visitation rights, as long as both couples had access to the same hospital and quality of care, how is calling the basis for those visitation rights by different names unequal?

I found myself thinking that by insisting on the word marriage the LGBT community was just being stubborn and more interested in the symbolism of labels than actual equality.

I was thinking about this while I was voting last Tuesday. I was reading in the newspaper and on the web of various spots around the country that were experiencing voting problems. Things like long lines at polling places, out of date registration lists, etc. The media was rightly focusing on these problems with the emphasis that the right to vote was such a fundamental part of our democracy that states owed citizens every form of assistance if they encountered difficulty in exercising their rights to vote.

It suddenly occured to me to wonder how Tony Perkins would feel if California passed a law saying that evangelical conservatives would longer have the right to "vote" but instead anyone who was of the same religion as Perkins would have the right of "electoral choice". They would go to the same polling place as everyone else, use the same ballots, and have the same choices. Their choices would count just as much as everyone else', but for them, and only them it just wouldn't be called "voting".

The right would be exactly the same but it just would be called something different. Since there would no difference in the actual ability to make their choice at the ballot box, the name shouldn't matter right? As long as an "electoral choice" counted the same as a "vote", why should the name make a difference?

Well you can bet Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Pat Roberson and every conservative from Sacramento to San Diego would be rioting in the streets claiming discrimination.

I can practically hear Newt Gingrich railing how "electoral choice" was NOT the same as voting. Because symbolism DID matter, calling voting by a different name is sending a message that Evangelicals were not as important as other Americans. The change in terminology would even result in evangelicals feeling like they shouldnt participate in our democratic process. The fact that rights were the same was irrelevant. To call voting by a different name for just one group of Americans was unacceptable.

So what is in a name? Isn't a civil right by another name just as equal? If you think so, ask yourself this question; If your family, and only your family's right to make your choice at the ballot box was called "electoral choice" and everybody else had the right to "vote", how would you feel?

Separate but equal suddenly doesn't feel so equal does it?

THANK YOU KEITH OLBERMANN

There is abesolutely nothing I could add to this..

Just watch it please...

Melissa Etheridge May be on to Something...

You Can Forget My Taxes
by Melissa Etheridge
November 6, 2008 | 2:15pm

Singer Melissa Etheridge rails against the passage of the gay-marriage ban in California—and she won't be paying the state a dime.

Okay. So Prop 8 passed. Alright, I get it. 51% of you think that I am a second class citizen. Alright then. So my wife, uh I mean, roommate? Girlfriend? Special lady friend? You are gonna have to help me here because I am not sure what to call her now. Anyways, she and I are not allowed the same right under the state constitution as any other citizen. Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books.

Okay, cool I don't mean to get too personal here but there is a lot I can do with the extra half a million dollars that I will be keeping instead of handing it over to the state of California. Oh, and I am sure Ellen will be a little excited to keep her bazillion bucks that she pays in taxes too. Wow, come to think of it, there are quite a few of us fortunate gay folks that will be having some extra cash this year. What recession? We're gay! I am sure there will be a little box on the tax forms now single, married, divorced, gay, check here if you are gay, yeah, that's not so bad. Of course all of the waiters and hairdressers and UPS workers and gym teachers and such, they won't have to pay their taxes either.

Gay people are born everyday. You will never legislate that away.

Oh and too bad California, I know you were looking forward to the revenue from all of those extra marriages. I guess you will have to find some other way to get out of the budget trouble you are in.

…Really?

When did it become okay to legislate morality? I try to envision someone reading that legislation "eliminates the right" and then clicking yes. What goes through their mind? Was it the frightening commercial where the little girl comes home and says, "Hi mom, we learned about gays in class today" and then the mother gets that awful worried look and the scary music plays? Do they not know anyone who is gay? If they do, can they look them in the face and say "I believe you do not deserve the same rights as me"? Do they think that their children will never encounter a gay person? Do they think they will never have to explain the 20% of us who are gay and living and working side by side with all the citizens of California?

I got news for them, someday your child is going to come home and ask you what a gay person is. Gay people are born everyday. You will never legislate that away.

I know when I grew up gay was a bad word. Homo, lezzie, faggot, dyke. Ignorance and fear ruled the day. There were so many "thems" back then. The blacks, the poor ... you know, "them". Then there was the immigrants. "Them.” Now the them is me.

I tell myself to take a breath, okay take another one, one of the thems made it to the top. Obama has been elected president. This crazy fearful insanity will end soon. This great state and this great country of ours will finally come to the understanding that there is no "them". We are one. We are united. What you do to someone else you do to yourself. That "judge not, lest ye yourself be judged" are truthful words and not Christian rhetoric.

Today the gay citizenry of this state will pick themselves up and dust themselves off and do what we have been doing for years. We will get back into it. We love this state, we love this country and we are not going to leave it. Even though we could be married in Mass. or Conn, Canada, Holland, Spain and a handful of other countries, this is our home. This is where we work and play and raise our families. We will not rest until we have the full rights of any other citizen. It is that simple, no fearful vote will ever stop us, that is not the American way.

Come to think of it, I should get a federal tax break too...

Melissa Etheridge is an Academy Award-winning and Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter.

Copyright 2008 The Daily Beast

Goodnight Opus, Sweet Dreams Old Friend....

(From the Daily Cartoonist.com and the Los Angeles Times:)

Berkeley Breathed’s final Opus appeared today. The comic that appeared in newspapers directed readers to the Humane Society’s web site to see the final panel which depicted Opus in children’s storybook, “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown. Berkeley’s own web site appeared to be struggling under the traffic load.

Berkeley reports on his website that the contest to guess Opus’ final resting place received about 6000 entries which included an entry suggesting Opus would replaced the sequined eagle on Elvis’ jumpsuit whilst the “king” spends the eternities on the potty.

Berkeley Breathed has a message for those “Opus” fans who were worried that the penguin was deep-sixed Sunday when his five-year-old comic strip shut down. “Jumpin’ Jehosphat,” Breathed told The Times via e-mail, “Tony Soprano sleeps with the fishes, which is to say, dead. Opus sleeps with a bunny in a feather bed, dreaming of a more hopeful tomorrow morning.”

Most fans got that sweet image when they saw the final “Opus” online at the Humane Society. But others were worried when the penultimate strip in print took place in an animal shelter setting and that in the finale Opus was being put to sleep (so to speak) in the pages of “Goodnight Moon,” the gentle nursery classic. Those fans can rest easy now that Breathed has clarified that Opus is, well, resting easy.

The 51-year-old Breathed’s “Opus” ended its run Sunday with one foot in children’s literature and another in the unpredictable world of technology. The final comic showed Breathed’s pudgy penguin peacefully napping, while Breathed’s farewell note to his readers crashed the comic strip artist’s website.

Some who just saw the image fretted about the flightless bird’s final fate, so Breathed wanted to be especially clear in his e-mail to The Times.

“I assure people in my web note that Opus is in the comforting place that would make me smile when I think of him in the years to come. I can only hope that his fans will smile too. If Opus was cuddling with tropical girls wearing coconuts, I suppose I’d smile too, but tinged with regret that those things just never last after that early giddy stage.”

Sunday’s comic ran in newspapers and showed Steve Dallas smiling wistfully as he looked down into the pages of a book that couldn’t be seen by the readers. Online, the last strip revealed it to be “Goodnight Moon,” the beloved bedtime story written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd; in Breathed’s panel the book’s nurturing rabbit sits in her rocker with Opus curled asleep in the baby bunny’s bed. The final words are “Goodnight Opus / And goodnight air / Goodnight noises everywhere.”

Breathed had pulled the plug on Opus because of his frustration with current events and to write books for children.

A contest for readers to predict the ending gave $10,000 to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. The winner was Stephen Allen, one of 55 of some 6,000 entries to guess correctly.

“I thought it was a fitting ending for a character that everyone liked,” Allen said.

Now that Prop H8te passed...

Wow! Sorry Karl, we were both wrong!

Back last May, GOP Strategist Karl Rove came out with his Electoral Vote predictions, I posted on here with my own map side by side with his.

Let's see who was better at predicting the outcome shall we?




Gee Karl, looks like we both were a bit off the mark. You overestimated McCain by ...well, let's just say a LOT. And I underestimated Obama.

I have never been so happy to be proven wrong!

Post Election Thoughts....

President Elect Barack Obama -wow!

I was at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in downtown San Francisco when the race was called for Senator Obama. As of this moment my voice is still hoarse from having cheered so loud for so long. Last night's landslide victory has finally closed the door on the sad saga of arrogance and incompetence that has been the last eight years of Republican insanity.

Senator McCain's, incredibly gracious and moving concession speech was sadly marred by his own crowd there in Arizona. Who rather than cheer the accomplishment of their candidate, instead felt the need to jeer at the mention of Barack Obama's name. Disappointing, but given the nature of the crowds we saw at McCain/Palin rallies in the last month, sadly not surprising.

The fact is the entire free world celebrated the Obama victory last night. It marks the beginning of the process to restore America to once again being that shining city on a hill.

Hope defeated fear.

Ideas defeated ideology.

Solutions defeated cynicism.

I stood there in a crowded hotel ballroom watching men and women weep, cheer, dance and all say how proud we all were to be Americans at this incredible moment in our nation's history. Our democracy works. Our country's founders would be proud of us all.

For a few brief hours anyway...

I awoke this morning to see in plain news print exactly what English philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) meant when we wrote about the "Tyranny of the Majority."

CA State Proposition 08 -
Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry

YES: 5,235,486 - 52.2%

NO: 4,800,656 - 47.8%

Last night saw another less laudable "First" in California politics. The first time our state Constitution was changed to eliminate existing civil rights for one group of our citizens. It wrote bigotry and discrimination into our civil law, and tells hundreds of thousands of Californians that they are second class citizens, separate AND unequal.

All done in the name of religious bigotry and racial homophobia. The Mormon Church and the Catholic Knights of Columbus both gave millions of Dollars to promote Prop 8. So the polygamists and the pedophile apologists joined forces to attack the Gays. Nice.

The one silver lining in this cloud of stupidity and politically expedient hate, is the fact that like or not, President Barack Obama will the one making the appointment of the next one or maybe even two Associate Justices on the United States Supreme Court.

A court that will one day overturn the likes of Prop 8and reaffirm the concept of Liberty and Justice for All

It's Election Day - Please Go Vote!

">

Say It Isn't So Doctor!

David Tennant has announced that he will leave the award winning BBC drama Doctor Who when he has completed the filming of four special episodes which will be screened in 2009 and early in 2010.



David Tennant first appeared as The Doctor in 2005 and has gone on to star in three series and three Christmas specials as the tenth incarnation of the Time Lord. The BBC has confirmed that David will continue to play The Doctor in the four specials that will make up the 2009 series before a new Doctor takes over for Series 5. Tennant will also star in the Doctor Who Christmas Special titled The Next Doctor this year.

David Tennant comments "I've had the most brilliant, bewildering and life changing time working on Doctor Who. I have loved every day of it. It would be very easy to cling on to the TARDIS console forever and I fear that if I don't take a deep breath and make the decision to move on now, then I simply never will. You would be prising the TARDIS key out of my cold dead hand. This show has been so special to me, I don't want to outstay my welcome.

"This is all a long way off, of course. I'm not quitting, I'm back in Cardiff in January to film four special episodes which will take Doctor Who all the way through 2009. I'm still the Doctor all next year but when the time finally comes I'll be honoured to hand on the best job in the world to the next lucky git - whoever that may be.

"I'd always thought the time to leave would be in conjunction with Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner who have been such a huge part of it all for me. Steven Moffat is the most brilliant and exciting writer, the only possible successor to Russell and it was sorely tempting to be part of his amazing new plans for the show. I will be there, glued to my TV when his stories begin in 2010.
"I feel very privileged to have been part of this incredible phenomenon, and whilst I'm looking forward to new challenges I know I'll always be very proud to be the Tenth Doctor."

Russell T Davies Executive Producer of Doctor Who comments "I've been lucky and honoured to work with David over the past few years - and it's not over yet, the Tenth Doctor still has five spectacular hours left! After which, I might drop an anvil on his head. Or maybe a piano. A radioactive piano. But we're planning the most enormous and spectacular ending, so keep watching!"

Doctor Who returns to television screens on BBC this Christmas. The Next Doctor starring David Tennant, David Morrissey and Dervla Kirwan will be screened on the 25th December on BBC1

Closing Arguments.

I remember the first course in economics I ever took. It was during my senior year of high school. I didn't pay much attention to be honest. "Senioritis" was in full swing; most of us were mentally halfway out the door and thinking more about college the following fall than Mr. Conom's lectures on the history of capitalism. Yet a few things from that class have stayed with me.

Our textbook defined an "opportunity cost" as; "the cost of something in terms of an opportunity forgone." So basically it is what you can't have or do, because you had or did something else. As a nation we will come face to face with a choice next Tuesday that will define the collective opportunity costs, that our nation may face in the coming weeks, months, years and even decades.

If America makes the decision to elect the McCain/Palim ticket, we will face many such costs. Some of them economic, some political, some social. Yet and all of them, staggering in size and scope.

A common cliché is to say that leadership is about choices. Simplistic as that sounds it rings true regardless of what political party holds whatever end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Yet our choices speak volumes about who we are both as a nation, and what our political parties stand for, or against.

McCain opportunity cost number one: America's health.

Because of an elective choice by the GOP, at present we cannot afford to do anything to shore up our near critical public health care infrastructure.

Earlier this year the Washington Post reported that the cost of the war in Iraq will top $400 billion, and that total is likely to more than double before the war finally ends. Like most people, I find it hard to wrap my brain around how much $400 billion actually is. So to put this in perspective I thought we might want to examine the opportunity costs that a McCain/Palin adminstration will give us.

The number of people without health coverage rose to more than 45 million nationwide in 2003, 15.6 percent of the population compared to 15.2 percent in 2002. Here in California, we are home to the greatest number, with 6.4 million uninsured, or 18.2 percent of the population. The public health care system is overwhelmed by the country's uninsured that turn to hospital emergency rooms for even routine care. And Medicare -- the only source of health coverage for millions of elderly Americans-- is projected to run out of funds by 2019.

McCain Opportunity Cost number two: America's safety and security.

We are for all intent and purposes alone in Iraq. Britain our only real partner is heading for door as fast they can. And the United States of America, the nation that brokered Camp David and Oslo, has next to nothing in terms of political and diplomatic capital in the Middle East. Our credibility as a broker for peace is gone.

Throughout our history, America has overcome crisis and hardship through collaboration. Without help from France and Spain the American Revolution would have failed. Without allied unity in both the first and Second World War, imperialism and fascism would have triumphed. Without strong strategic partnerships and combined resolve, the cold war between East and West might still be with us today, or worse, not ended peacefully. It was the ability of President George HW Bush to create a unified coalition with Arab partners that enabled the liberation of Kuwait in the first gulf war to go as quickly and as successfully as it did.

The only victory that can be claimed so far in the "global war on terror" is "The United States is safer without Saddam Hussein in power." A popular early John McCain talking point on Sunday morning talks shows is if you dare question the President's failing policies in Iraq, then you clearly would prefer that Saddam was still in power. Again I don't know whether to laugh at the desperation of that, or cry at its sheer dishonesty.

Iraq has through an elective choice by this administration with the full throated support of John McCain; been transformed from a third rate dictatorship with dreams of one day maybe threatening the United States, into a breeding/training ground for real terrorists who are a threat to the United States. Iraq has become the Alamo for the extremist world. A rallying cry, recruitment poster and fund raising infomercial all wrapped up in one chaotic explosive roadside package. A package, with our name on it.

McCain Opportunity Cost number three: America's economic security.

Be it our crack-addict like dependence on oil, or our crippled manufacturing sector that has been allowed to fall critically behind the rest of the world. U.S. Automakers are unable to sell many of their cars in China, because Chinese mileage standards are higher than ours. That fact alone makes the argument by the auto and oil industries that the costs of better environmental standards is too high, seem downright stupid, or deliberately dishonest.

I remember the news this past Summer, and one of the lead stories was the tens of thousands of people who will be losing their jobs. Intel, Ford Motors, Eastman Kodak, Hewlett Packard, and AETNA are just a few of the companies who announced large workforce reductions for this year. According to my old employer, the HR consulting firm, Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., the number of announced layoffs in August totaled 65,278 jobs, compared with 37,178 in July. The crippled housing market, rising fears of inflation, negative job growth , a staggering budget deficit, ballooning national debt and soaring energy prices have all battered consumer confidence.

Not to mention it would be a lot easier to sell your products overseas if your country is wasn't hated by the rest of the world.

McCain/Palin Opportunity Cost number four: America's soul.

Government is not a religion, it is a function. Ideology is not theology and should never presented as such. To claim that God would vote for you, or to seek to win elections by demonizing whole groups as people God doesn't love is truly un-American.

A GOP senate candidates saying only Christian voters can be trusted, an off the cuff remark by a then Texas Governor, and future President that all Jews are "going to hell". A decorated war veteran in Pennsylvania called a coward and traitor because he dared question the judgment of men who did all they could to avoid combat. All these things damage the soul of our nation. Under McCain/Palin all this would be common place for the next four years

Or even a deliberate choice by their political party to make fear and hatred of Gays and Lesbians a central Republican campaign theme. The result is the same. The party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan is reduced to a mob of big mouths with small minds, and our entire national debate of real issues is diminished.

It is true, opportunity costs are hard to quantify. Yet the choices that John McCain and Sarah Palin have promised to make, just like those made by the GOP and the current Bush administration are ones that our nation will be forced to be pay off for decades. The choices made by George W. Bush. John McCain and the Republican Party have left our nation in debt-- teetering on bankruptcy, in danger-- lacking strong strategic partners and facing increasing global animosity, and have sought to create a divided nation where ideology is based on who you hate, not what you believe.

As we head into this most crucial election of this century to date, it is perhaps a good idea to think not so much on the opportunity costs of the last eight years, but about the possibilities of next four if we stand together and make a much needed change on November 4th.

That is one opportunity I am willing to work for. I will walk into the voting booth next Tuesday and vote my hopes not my fears. I will vote for a better future not a rose-colored view of the past.

I am voting for Barack Obama for President of the United States.

I hope you will too...

Great Moments in GOP History...

Your campaign is so lame that even your fake "real American" disses you...

">

One Week To Go...

">

Greetings from Europe

Took a bit of a mental Health Break from the US Eleciton Campaign and have been in the UK all this past week. Will post more about the trip and the European press coverage of he US Election when I get back the US next week.

Apparently this little diddy really bugs Republicans

My old friend James over at the Wigderson Library and Pub has his
knickers in quite a twist over this. So that's as good a reason as any
to repost it :)

We now join the McCain Campaign, already in progress...

">

Fox News is Not Happy....

Why won't Americans care about what Fox News wants them them to care about??! How dare the American People care more about the their homes, jobs and pensions than they do about Bill Ayers!

Oh this just keeps getting better. I imagine the managing editor over there at Fox is praying every day for some middle class white woman to go missing in the Carribean.

Since GOP Rabid Wingnut Morons Keep Asking..

John "I can't talk about the economy or else I'll lose" McCain likes to ask "Who is the real Barack Obama". Ok Senator, here's the answer.

">

National Debt Clock runs out of digits

From Today's NY Daily News...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Times Square National Debt Clock runs out of digits amid Wall St. meltdown
By LARRY McSHANE

Brother, can you spare a digit?

Exactly how bad is the U.S. economy?

Try this: The National Debt Clock near Times Square ran out of numbers to record the federal government's $10.2 trillion shortfall.

The familiar billboard-style clock, erected in 1989 by late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst, was equipped to handle a debt count of up to $9,999,999,999,999.

The ongooing economic crisis eclipsed the clock's capabilities. As a temporary answer, the space that once held a dollar sign on the electronic billboard is now the number 1.

The clock's owners plan a bailout of sorts next year, when they will make room for two additional digits on the board. Back when Durst launched the clock, the debt was a mere $2.7 trillion.

Senator Grumpy McCranky needs a time out...

Ok, lets talk about consistency...

">

Maybe he'll suspend his campaign again to rush up to Alaska to solve the Energy Crisis.

McCain wants to "turn the page"...

Sorry Senator, I don't think so...

Veep Debate Wrap Up..

It is intersting to note the post-debate polling all shows that Senator Joe Biden won the debate this evening. Yet it is worth noting that Governor Sarah Palin did not lose either. The reason for this is more significant than anything that was actaully said tonight.

The expecations for Gov.Palin were so low, going into the debate tonight, that all she had to do for Republicans to be able to claim a victory was not fall down, pee her pants and set the stage on fire. Seriously.

What we saw tonight was a politician that has shown she is very good at memorizing talking points and repeating them relatively in the right context. Had moderator Gwen Ifill actaully asked any follow-up questions, forcing Palin off-script, we would have seen enough disasterous material to keep Tina Fey well employed for years.

Joe Biden had one task tonight, ok two tasks. The first was not put his foot in his mouth with any major gaffes. The second was to hammer home the point that there is essentially no difference between John McCain and George W. Bush. He managed to accomplish both, relatively easily.

And as much as Pat Buchanon is on MSNBC desperately trying to convince people that Palin won on "energy", the facts are clearly proving otherwise. Her "spunkiness" came across as forced and fake, her folksy manner failed to connect, and by halfway through the debate started to grate. Three different network commentators have compared her to a contestant in a spelling bee. Only able to work off of what she had memorized, unable to stray from her script.

By comparison, Joe Biden who often comes across like an out of control fire hose, firing ten differnet directions at once, was poised, clear, direct and had what polls show was the the most connecting moment of the debate.

Joe Biden won tonight Here is the one moment says it all as to why.

Please America, Just Don't Vote... Seriously.

">


Or...option 2,

Register,

Vote,

Matter.

From Today's Boston Globe

BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL
Wasilla made rape victims pay
October 1, 2008

ONE QUESTION that Sarah Palin should answer during tomorrow's debate is why, during her tenure as mayor of Wasilla, the town started charging rape victims or their insurers for hospital emergency-room rape kits and examinations.

The policy so outraged the Alaska Legislature that in 2000 it passed unanimously a bill forbidding such fees. But Palin has never explained why, under her leadership, the town stopped picking up the cost of the swabs, specimen containers, and tests.

A spokeswoman for Palin wrote to USA Today that Palin "does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test." But that was the practice in Wasilla while she was mayor.

If Palin were like most vice-presidential nominees of the past, reporters would have long since had a chance to quiz her on this subject, and many others. So far, though, the McCain campaign team has treated her as though she were in the witness protection program, permitting just three interviews with television personalities and no open-ended press conferences.

After the Alaska Legislature banned the fees, Palin's handpicked police chief, Charlie Fannon, complained that the state's action would force the town to spend $5,000 to $14,000 a year to cover the costs. "I just don't want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer," Fannon said.

But the policy on rape kits may have had less to do with easing the burden on taxpayers and more to do with Palin's position on abortion. She has said she opposes it even in cases of rape or incest.

Generally, victims of sexual assault have the option of an emergency contraception pill, which some opponents of abortion consider tantamount to abortion itself. Does Palin support the decision two years ago of the US Food and Drug Administration to allow over-the-counter sales of emergency contraception pills?

Whether the fee-for-kits policy reflected Palin's budgetary zeal or her extreme view on abortion, voters deserve to know. As Alaska's governor in 2000, Tony Knowles, put it: "We would never bill the victim of a burglary for finger-printing and photographing the crime scene, or for the cost of gathering other evidence."

But in Wasilla they would, if the crime was rape.