The level of acceptance of gay and lesbian relationships in this nation, and even here in this traditionally conservative state of Florida, has increased dramatically just in the last ten years. But the passage of Florida Proposition 2 yesterday is a cold, suffocating reminder that the old prejudices are still alive. My joy and pride in the victory of President-Elect Barack Obama have been lamentably diminished by the news that the majority of my fellow Floridians believe it necessary to insert into the state constitution discrimination aimed at my loving relationship.
Do I take this personally? Yes. Of course. I am a gay woman who has been living for 10 years with my partner. We are committed to our relationship. We are a family. We pay our taxes. We work and play and contribute to our state financially. We support our local businesses with our earnings. We pay the same level and number of taxes as any other Floridian in our economic bracket. Yet we have just been told that we are CONSTITUTIONALLY uninvited to share in one of the most fundamental relationships entered into by human beings.
They are afraid. I am disenfranchised and discounted. No one wins in this. But they are right to be afraid. I am still here. And I am damn mad.
President Barack Obama! My heart is beating out of my chest. I am so very proud of my country right at this moment.
Shine On Rays (Click link for audio)
Song by Jeff Arthur/Jeff Arthur Productions
Why I’d be a Better VP than Sarah Palin (by Rosanne Cash)
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In summation, I present myself to the GOP as a woman, and I repeat, woman, who has held a passport for thirty-eight years, a lip gloss-wearing soccer-volleyball-softball-gymnastics mom of five, who can carry a six-pack home to her husband like nobody’s business, whose will is firmly aligned with God’s will, a neo-natal conservative and legally savvy public figure, a border-watching, trigonometry-credited, breastfeeding, BlackBerry-tapping, cat-throwing maverick whose daughters are out of their teens, therefore immune to teenage pregnancy (although this is a private, family matter), and whose dad’s head (or an eerie facsimile) adorns a state airline.
Read this very well written, and cogently sardonic piece. You won’t regret it.
Watching the CNN interview with Sarah Palin today I thought something had crossed in the signals on my television screen. I could have sworn I was watching FOX news instead of CNN. I’m glad that Palin finally sat down and answered some questions on anything at all, but where were the follow-up questions?
Where was the follow-up on what Joe Biden actually said about Obama facing a crisis? All I heard was a syncophant asking “Can I ask you one last question?”
Where was the follow up on what Sarah Palin said about “real America?”
Where was the follow up on Sarah Palin’s role, and her husband’s role, in TrooperGate? She gets off with “my husband didn’t do anything that any good husband wouldn’t have done?”
Where was the follow up on Sara Palin’s comments on her having more executive experience than Barack Obama?
Give me a break, Drew. You blew a fantastic opportunity. Or did you?
My gut reaction to this last debate is that McCain showed his strongest start of any of the debates. He started well and then got dragged down by his own hurt feelings, indignation and anger. Obama owned the last half. So by that I would guess it to be a tie.
10:26: McCain is a smart alec. Not a nice quality in a potential president.
10:16: Education. Our lagging a threat to our national security? Early childhood education for Obama, new teachers, give them higher pay, higher standards and accountability. Make college affordable. Community service in return for tuition aid. His scores went off the charts.
McCain, the civil rights issue of the 21st century. Private school availability and affordability? Don’t throw money at it. Is he kidding?
10:11: Abortion discussion. Obama is pro Roe v. Wade, McCain is admittedly pro-life.
9:54: We must hold the auto industry responsible for fuel efficiency as well as trying to help them out. On to health insurance. Reiteration of the last debate.
Watching the lines at the bottom of the screen is telling. McCain is rarely going to the top. Obama is frequently going to the top. And apparently they don’t want talk about Joe the plumber.
Continue reading ‘late to the debate’
What she said in the church in Wasilla some time ago is that we are sending our troops out on a “task from God”. When asked by Charlie if this was truly a task from God in her opinion, she called upon Lincoln’s words that we should not presume that God is on our side but pray that we are on the side of God. Seems a bit of a stretch to reconcile these two concepts.
She is not going to answer his Bush doctrine question. She’s talking around a subject she either knows nothing about, or has nothing to say about. “I’m getting lost in the blizzard of words. Is that a yes?” She stumbles.
She didn’t know what the Bush Doctrine was. Telling. Very, very telling. Deer in the headlights look.
I have not, she says. But that’s what makes her the perfect choice? That she is not part of the old Washington establishment because she hasn’t met a foreign head of state?
