It's Gillibrand for Hillary's Senate Seat

Winning over her constituents
NYTimes: Ms. Gillibrand arriving at a farm in Cambridge, N.Y., in April 2007 to meet with residents of the area to discuss a bill meant to protect dairy farmers.
Photo: Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

Coach Mom loses a Congresswoman and gains a Senator: Kirsten Gillibrand has been named by New York Governor David Paterson to fill the remaining two years of Hillary Clinton's Senate term.

Some liberals are freaking out because she has the worst record of any New York Congressional representative on gay issues (only 80% positive from the Human Rights Campaign [pdf file]) and supports the right to bear arms. I would point out to my freaked out colleagues that her position on gay rights is the same as one Barack Obama's and that her position on the 2nd Amendment is the same as one Howard Dean's. Chill.

Hilariously, one blog called her "a bizarro version of Sarah Palin: she proudly touts her 100 percent rating from the National Rifle Association", which would only be accurate if Palin had a degree from Dartmouth in Asian Studies or if she was a lawyer. Gillibrand speaks in full sentences and has never claimed foreign policy expertise. Or that she can see Canada from her house.

OK, Gillibrand is not as liberal as I would like. She voted with the Rethugs on FISA and for that reason I didn't give her any money this year. But she is smart, tenacious and learns on the job. She sat on the Agriculture Committee in the House and impressed all the farmers in Delaware County by learning about the issues important to them. I hope as Senator she will continue her "Sunshine" policy and list all of her meetings on her website. And I hope to meet her at the Delaware County Fair this summer. I hope we're still on her dance card now that she represents the whole state of New York.

Proposition 8 - The Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Where were all these people before the election? As a Massachusetts resident I've been through more than one political campaign involving gay marriage. Our local groups besieged us with messages from both sides, (yea MassEquality! boo several religious groups). I can't believe that LGBT groups in California got outworked and out-organized (no pun intended) on such an important issue.

Here are the credits to figure out who's who in the cast:

Conceived and Written (six weeks later than he shoulda) by Marc Shaiman
Directed and Staged by: Adam Shankman
Produced by Adam Shankman, Marc Shaiman and Mike Farah
Edited by Bradly Schulz and Drew Antzis
Cast (in order of appearance) California Gays and The People That Love Them
Jordan Ballard,
Margaret Cho,
Barrett Foa,
J.B. Ghuman,
John Hill,
Andy Richter,
Maya Rudolph,
Rashad Naylor,
Nicole Parker Proposition 8'ers and The People That Follow Them
Prop 8 Leader- John C. Reilly
Prop 8 Leader's #1 Wife- Allison Janney
Prop 8 Leader's #2 Wife- Kathy Najimy
Riffing Prop 8'er-Jenifer Lewis
A Preacher- Craig Robinson
Scary Catholic School Girls From Hell-Rashida Jones, Lake Bell, Sarah Chalke
The Frightened Villagers Katharine "Kooks" Leonard, Seth Morris, Denise "Esi!" Piane, Lucian Piane, Richard Read, Seth Redford, Quinton Strack, Tate Taylor, Brunson Green
Jesus Christ Jack Black
A Very Smart Fellow Neil Patrick Harris
Piano Player Marc "Marc" Shaiman ----
Co-Choreographer: Anne "Mama" Fletcher
Recorded and Mixed by Frank Wolfe & Greg Hayes
Director of Photography: Michael Barrett
Camera Operators: Jake Szymanski, Bradly Schulz and Drew Antzis
Production designer: Nelson Coates
Costume designer: Shanna Knecht
Costume assistants: Leslie Schilling, Annalisa Adams, Elizabeth Abate
Hair: Laura Sanchez
Make-up: Shauna O'Toole, Atticuss Sharp
Production sound: Bradford Craig
Music editor: Lisa Jaime
Music assistant: Brian Naguit Snacky: "Snacky"
Special Thanks to Adam McKay for the nudge

Lipstick on a Pig

A caller to Michael Signorile's show with an interesting tale about Jesse Helms.

It's Official

wikipedia: Historian John Boswell claims the 4th century Christian martyrs Saint Sergius and Saint Bacchus were united in the rite of adelphopoesis, or brother-making, which he calls an early form of religious same-sex marriage
[Who knew? -truth]


I live in the most progressive state in the nation! Today the Massachusetts State Senate repealed a 1913 law that prevented gay and lesbian couples from other states from getting married here.

And yes, despite (or perhaps because of) our embrace of gay marriage, Massachusetts still has the lowest divorce rate in the nation (2.4 per 1000 population).

Boston Globe: Senate passes repeal of 1913 marriage law

Cali Catching Up With Massachusetts

Supreme Court of California

NYTimes: California Supreme Court Overturns Gay Marriage Ban

Here's the actual opinion (pdf): In Re MARRIAGE CASES [Six consolidated appeals]

Pat Buchanan, Equal Opportunity Hatemonger

FAIR Report: PATRICK BUCHANAN -- IN HIS OWN WORDS

February 26, 1996 Contact: Steven Rendall

In the flap over Larry Pratt and other unsavory characters associated with the Patrick Buchanan campaign, journalists typically framed the question: Is Buchanan linked to extremists and bigots? But there is a more basic question journalists should ask: Is Patrick Buchanan himself an extremist and bigot?

Here is a sampling of Buchanan's views.

I just chose one paragraph (of many) per hated group from the original, well-documented article.

ON AFRICAN-AMERICANS

On race relations in the late 1940s and early 1950s: "There were no politics to polarize us then, to magnify every slight. The 'negroes' of Washington had their public schools, restaurants, bars, movie houses, playgrounds and churches; and we had ours." (Right from the Beginning,
Buchanan's 1988 autobiography, p. 131)

ON IMMIGRANTS AND PEOPLE OF COLOR

"If we had to take a million immigrants in, say Zulus, next year, or Englishmen, and put them up in Virginia, what group would be easier to assimilate and would cause less problems for the people of Virginia?" ("This Week With David Brinkley," 1/8/91)

ON JEWS

Buchanan was vehement in pushing President Reagan -- despite protests -- to visit Germany's Bitburg cemetery, where Nazi SS troops were buried. At a White House meeting, Buchanan reportedly reminded Jewish leaders that they were "Americans first" -- and repeatedly scrawled the phrase "Succumbing to the pressure of the Jews" in his notebook. Buchanan was credited with crafting Ronald Reagan's line that the SS troops buried at Bitburg were "victims just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps." (New York Times, 5/16/85; New Republic, 1/22/96)

ON GAYS

On AIDS, Buchanan wrote in 1983: "The poor homosexuals -- they have declared war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution (AIDS)." (Los Angeles Times, 11/28/86) Later that year, he demanded that New York City Ed Koch and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo cancel the Gay Pride Parade or else "be held personally responsible for the spread of the AIDS plague." "With 80,000 dead of AIDS, our promiscuous homosexuals appear literally hell-bent on Satanism and suicide," Buchanan wrote in 1990 (syndicated column, 10/17/90). In the 1992 campaign, he declared: AIDS is nature's retribution for violating the laws of nature." (Seattle Times, 7/31/93)

ON WOMEN

"The real liberators of American women were not the feminist noise-makers, they were the automobile, the supermarket, the shopping center, the dishwasher, the asher-dryer, the freezer." (Right from the Beginning, p. 149)

ON DEMOCRACY

In a January, 1991 column, Buchanan suggested that "quasi-dictatorial rule" might be the solution to the problems of big municipalities and the federal fiscal crisis: "If the people are corrupt, the more democracy, the worse the government." (Washington Times, 1/9/91) He has written disparagingly of the "one man, one vote Earl Warren system."

I just don't understand why such an evil, vituperative person has a prominent position on MSNBC. (MSNBC is owned by GE, my brain answers.)

Al Gore Endorses Gay Marriage

wikipedia
Good for Al. But now we know that he's definitely not running for President, because in 2008 at least, gay marriage is the third rail of American politics. Of all the major Presidential candidates, only the spouse of one -- the courageous Elizabeth Edwards -- favors gay marriage.

As Al says,

"I think that gay men and women ought to have the same rights as heterosexual men and women, to make contracts, to have hospital visiting rights, to join together in marriage," Gore said. "And I don’t understand why it is considered by some people to be a threat to heterosexual marriage to allow it by gays and lesbians. Shouldn’t we be promoting that kind of faithfulness and loyalty to one’s partner regardless of sexual orientation?

Al Gore Endorses Gay Marriage (video)

Huffington Post: Al Gore Endorses the Freedom to Marry

Married in Massachusetts

Patricia Cornwell, author.

Who knew? (Well, I knew, but that was because of my law school friend who had gone to Davidson.) I like these "now I can finally be happy" gay marriage stories. Heartwarming! Wingnuts, go grind your teeth elsewhere.

Barney Frank Fights for Equality

Barney Frank makes an emotional speech on the House floor to get the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passed.

San Francisco Chronicle: House approves bill banning bias against gays in workplace

Civil Rights Pioneer John Lewis: "To discriminate against someone because they are gay: It is wrong, it is wrong, It. Is. Not. Right."

John Lewis makes me proud to be an American:

Oh, 'Bama: I'm So Disappointed In You

Image from MakeThemAccountable.com
Wow, Barack Obama is trying to kill his own campaign. I didn't see this one coming.

First, Obama picks an anti-gay pentacostal minister and gospel singer to participate in a fundraising tour in South Carolina. Progressives called him on it -- you can't say you favor equal rights based on sexual orientation, and solicit money from those people, and turn your back on them. To put it more directly: You wouldn't have a Klan member raising money for you, would you. Then don't use a gay hater.

OK, maybe that's just a stupid decision that they didn't really know how to get of, so they punted. But the second mistake is HUGE. Obama is now saying that there's a Social Security crisis and it needs to be fixed.

Oh. My. God. Hello, Mr. Harvard-Law-School-educated, supposedly smart guy Senator, THERE IS NO CRISIS. That's a right-wing message used by Republicans who want to, you know, GUT SOCIAL SECURITY. They hate it. HATE it. DIdn't you pay attention to GWB's "I'm going to use my political capitol" anti-Social Security crusade? Or that it got beaten down by smart Democrats?

My candidate is shooting himself in the foot. I'm hobbling. See why I haven't been blogging about politics? One little issue and I'm so mad I keep turning on the internet scream, ALLCAPS.

Atrios, Mr. Pithy, says it best with his post title: Anti-Gay Bigots for Social Security Reform

Krugman shot down the Social Security stupidity on ABC yesterday.



C'mon, Barack, get your head out of your ass and pick a real issue. Healthcare, Iran, torture, there are important things going on in the world. Right the ship and get back to work. No more money from this supporter until you get it together.

BTW, good work on MTV tonight. But those kids don't vote. Social Security voters vote.

"I am not gay. I have never been gay."

Puppets from the Broadway show Avenue Q have a little fun at the expense of soon-to-be former Idaho Senator Larry Craig:



I don't think Larry Craig should resign because he's gay, or because he likes to have sex with men. I think he should resign because he's a hypocrite who has been voting against other people who share his sexual preference. I also think he should resign because he needs time out of the public spotlight to look closely at his behavior during his adult life. The rumors about Larry Craig are longstanding. He was identified in the page scandal in the early 1980s (when he also made the statement that he was not gay) and six months later he married his congressional aide and adopted her three children. Nice beard.

A grown man who's still having anonymous sex in public bathrooms needs to do a little soul searching.

Huge Victory for Civil Rights in Massachusetts

Mary Marra of Haverhill, a supporter of same-sex marriage, blew bubbles as she and hundreds of others demonstrated before the vote on putting the gay marriage amendment on the ballot.
(Globe Staff Photo / John Tlumacki)
Huge victory for civil rights in Massachusetts today, where the proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage was defeated. The vote was 151 to 45; the opponents of gay marriage needed 50 votes to have the question placed on the November ballot. So we will not vote on the civil rights of our fellow citizens. The decision of the Supreme Judicial Court stands:

MARSHALL, C.J. Marriage is a vital social institution. The exclusive commitment of two individuals to each other nurtures love and mutual support; it brings stability to our society. For those who choose to marry, and for their children, marriage provides an abundance of legal, financial, and social benefits. In return it imposes weighty legal, financial, and social obligations. The question before us is whether, consistent with the Massachusetts Constitution, the Commonwealth may deny the protections, benefits, and obligations conferred by civil marriage to two individuals of the same sex who wish to marry. We conclude that it may not. The Massachusetts Constitution affirms the dignity and equality of all individuals. It forbids the creation of second-class citizens. In reaching our conclusion we have given full deference to the arguments made by the Commonwealth. But it has failed to identify any constitutionally adequate reason for denying civil marriage to same-sex couples.

Boston Globe: Legislators vote to defeat same-sex marriage ban

The Herald's view: Lawmakers vote to kill anti-gay marriage question

Job Well Done, Mass Equality

Mass Equality, the group that lead the fight to keep gay marriage the law in Massachusetts, produced some very effective ads that I saw several times on television in the last few weeks. The first one was my favorite. (For some reason the Youtube versions of the ads all end about 10 seconds before the final tag lines, but you get the essence.)

Don Imus Ousted By CBS Radio

Don Imus

CNN reporting that Don Imus has been fired by CBS Radio.

Bye bye.

Can't Get Enough Imus

Can you? That's why you searched for more. Here are some interesting articles.

The American Prospect, TAPPED: MSNBC had panels and panels of white men discussing the firing of Imus last night. Hmmm.

Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins thinks Imus should buy a season ticket to Rutgers women's basketball and sit in the front row for every game next year. I think Sally Jenkins, who appeared on Imus's show in the past and never made a peep about his racist or sexist remarks before the Rutgers comment, should go to those Rutgers games. Why should those kids have to be reminded of what Imus said about them at every game? Why shouldn't ol' Sally herself do a little penance? She also thinks he should have kept his job so he could keep the 'conversation' going. I'm a little sick of white people saying Imus should be teaching the nation about race. Just stop that. Now.

NAYABA ARINDE at the Amsterdam News says Don Imus fumbled his mea culpa; that's what doomed him.

Bob Hebert in the New York Times (TimesSelect wall, also here and here) says it was the outrage of women within NBC who forced the cancellation of the Imus show.

Slate: Imus in the Twilight: How the DJ found his niche—and lost it.

Newark Star-Ledger: It's the other 'N' word that's still hair-raising
'Nappy' retains its harsh sting in the black community

North Jersey Record: RU gives Imus a lesson in class

North Jersey Record: Carson is a leader speaking up for 'what's right'

Basketball News

Nothing Imus-related here. Really!

Harvard hires a new men's basketball coach, less than two weeks after the Boston Globe reported that Harvard has no black coaches for their 41 varsity sports. The new hire: Tommy Amaker, the former Duke All-American and coach of Seton Hall and Michigan. Yes, he's black. Good for them.

LSU has hired Pokey Chatman's replacement: It is Van Chancellor, the former Olympic, Houston Comets of the WNBA, and Ole Miss coach. Chancellor has announced that he will keep Bob Starkey, the white male assistant who took over after Chatman left, and would consider keeping the other female assistants including Carla Berry, the coach who blew the whistle on Chatman.

My sister predicted to me a month ago that Pokey Chatman's replacement would be a white male, and that a lot of the southern schools with coaching vacancies would hire white males. On this one she was right. But Texas hired Gail Goestenkors (away from Duke) and Duke offered their job to former Duke player Joanne Boyle (who turned down the job and is staying at Cal.) It will be interesting to see what happens at Kentucky, where longtime Pat Summit assistant Micki DeMoss unexpectedly resigned after four years. She put Kentucky on the women's basketball map; hope she enjoys retirement.

Bye Bye Slime Man

Don Imus
MSNBC drops Imus. CBS Radio and WFAN still on the fence. (Steve Capus, NBC News President, on Hardball tonight says, C. Vivian Stringer's speech at the press conference yesterday really affected everyone. Viv! Rutgers women's basketball!)

I hope every stupid white man who went on TV in the past week and defended Imus now thinks long and hard. Why are so many of the rest of us so offended? Why were they so quick to let Imus off the hook? How could they let years of racist, sexist, crude and cruel jokes go by? I hope they look into their hearts and really think about that. Tom Oliphant, Howard Fineman, Jonathan Alter, Craig Crawford, David Gregory, James Carville, Paul Begala. (Look at that group. What do they have in common? Hmmm.)

At heart, I am an idealist.

NYTimes: NBC News Drops Imus Show Over Racial Remark

NBC News dropped Don Imus yesterday, canceling his talk show on its MSNBC cable news channel a week after Mr. Imus made a racially disparaging remark about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

WaPo: MSNBC Drops Imus's Morning Program

Mewark Star-Ledger: MSNBC says it will drop Imus show

This may have had as much to do with the decision as anything:

Reuters: Don Imus show loses more advertisers

NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors and drug maker GlaxoSmithKline pulled their advertising from shows hosted by Don Imus on Wednesday, striking a blow to the shock-jock and broadcasters who carry him.

American Express and Home loans Web site Ditech.com also said they would withdraw their ads.

They joined companies including household products maker Procter & Gamble Co. and office supplies retailer Staples Inc. in pulling their support amid an outcry over an on-air racial slur by Imus about the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

'He's crossed the line'

NYTimes (AP): CBS Director Hopes Imus Will Be Fired

NEW YORK (AP) -- Bruce Gordon, former head of the NAACP and a director of CBS Corp., said Wednesday the broadcasting company needs a ''zero tolerance policy'' on racism and hopes talk-show host Don Imus is fired for his demeaning remarks about the mostly black Rutgers women's basketball team.

''He's crossed the line, he's violated our community,'' Gordon said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. ''He needs to face the consequence of that violation.''

Gordon, a longtime telecommunications executive, stepped down in March after 19 months as head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, one of the foremost U.S. civil rights organizations.

He said he had spoken with CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves and hoped the company, after reviewing the situation, would ''make the smart decision'' by firing Imus rather than letting him return to the air at the end of a two-week suspension beginning next Monday.

''We should have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to what I see as irresponsible, racist behavior,'' Gordon said. ''The Imus comments go beyond humor. Maybe he thought it was funny, but that's not what occurred. There has to be a consequence for that behavior.''

'These Women Are Human Beings'

Jesus' General: Oliphant's Children

These young women didn't need to be degraded in that way by Imus, especially on the day following their greatest achievement thus far, taking second place in the National Woman's College Basketball Championship. They were terribly wronged. Not only were they insulted in one of the most vile and despicable ways possible, but it may have very well ruined one of the greatest moments of their lives.

I doubt Russert, Fineman, or Oliphant give a damn about these women's feelings. The Rutgers players can't help them sell their books or promote their projects like Imus does. But god damn it Tim, Howie, and Tom, these women are human beings. Really. They're actual people with the same feelings the rest of us have.

Take a look at these beautiful, accomplished young women and think about the violence Imus and his toadies committed against them:

Go look at all of them.

Here's the captain:

ESSENCE CARSON
Junior
Music Major
A gifted musician who plays the piano, bass guitar, drums and saxophone
Gold Medal winner With Team USA
Daughter of Stacey Robinson and the late Joseph Carson and second of three children.