Take your next step (video via Joe. My. God.)!
###
Archive for the 'civil & human rights' Category
First, the Ted Kennedy stuff: The play-by-play, Obama’s eulogy, Ted, Jr.’s eulogy, the Big Picture, and Eugene Robinson’s “A Prince’s Fate” (and one more: What Teddy would do).
Then there’s health care (the Huckabee plan is already in place!):
Where’s the efficiency in this system?!?
And the rest…
Oh, the fakery. The faces of coal are fake. The anti-marriage Mainers are fake. Which is all very sad and pathetic. But this fake Ronald McDonald is pretty much hilarious.
The Man Who Walked Around the World.
Ta-Da! The gays save marriage!!!
And finally, this is a jam-packed “New Rules” from Bill Maher, including these choice tidbits:
But, what did Obama actually say to make Karl Rove’s head explode and the popcorn fly out? Well, cover your children’s ears. When he was asked if he believed in American exceptionalism, he said he did the same way the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks in Greek exceptionalism. Yes, “President John F. Kenya” actually said that people in other countries might like their countries better.
Well, I was so shocked, I nearly dropped the Bible I was using to help me masturbate into my gun.
Sarah Palin, in her farewell speech kept telling us how she’s wired. You know, I’m not a doctor–or an electrician–but, I suspect this is faulty wiring, this world view that, in her words, we should never apologize for our country. Really? Never? Not for slavery? Or Japanese internment camps? Or if we tortured the wrong guy at Guantanamo Bay? The Indians?! Nothin’, Sarah? “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” maybe?
I mean, shouldn’t John McCain apologize for…you?
Mitt Romney’s new book is called No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. You can find it at Borders in the “Suck Up” section. It’s such a perfect title for today’s conservative, combining paranoia with arrogance. “No one has yet asked me to apologize, but if someone ever does, f*ck them.”
###
Watch this video and then tell me: if you don’t support universal public coverage (hello, Mary Landrieu!), what do you suggest this woman do?
ps. Dear Democrats and Obama,
Until I see some serious effort on this issue — and also some follow-through on all those pesky little promises you’ve been making to gay Americans over the past few years while you’ve been taking all their money, I’ll be sitting on the sidelines. Okthanksbye!
###
The Democratic Party is throwing a gay fundraiser one a week from today, and plans for the event are deteriorating rapidly while more and more people speak out. Rumors have been flying for the past week, and the story has been picked up by CBS, the NYTimes, NBC and Salon.com. Big-name guests have been pulling out, including HRC’s national field director. Pressure has been brought to bear on Democrats in Congress. Gay congresspeople are responding, but not with fervor so much as self-preservation, at best (oh, Barney, how could you?). Apparently Democrats in the White House don’t get it — yet — but there is probably a reckoning on the way. This a problem that will continue getting worse until the Democratic Party finally stops treating the gay community like a a red-headed step child who should shut up and stay out of sight until the Party needs their financial contributions.
I say it’s time for the Democratic Party to grow some stones. Until they do, I’ll be hanging out over here with the gays.
BTW, the Stonewall riots took place on June 28, 1969.
More links are on the way, probably. If you want to follow along yourself, AmericaBlog, Pam’s House Blend and Joe. My. God. are all providing some excellent coverage. They’re all over it.
UPDATES:
###
Here’s a real hodgepodge from the past week!
• And you thought Episode I was bad? Check out an early draft of the original Star Wars.
• These two girls totally outdo Robert Loggia and Tom Hanks, but then again, they’re not supposedly improvising.
• Things disappear! Like the Aral Sea and the Amazon Rainforest — and beyond that, farms sink!
• Food from around the world: in hospitals and in schools (and speaking of school lunches, there’s this too)!
• How much do we love to defend marriage?? Oh, so much that the fun overflowed from one video into another! Also, we like to mock Pat Robertson with beautiful music videos.
• In medical and curing blindness news, this is really awesome.
• Do you like to have pictures with your data? Something to make it seem less dry and less science-y? Then you’re going to like these sites.
• Did you have a video made of your wedding? If so, it’s going to seem so incredibly lame after you watch this one.
• Watch out, all you greedy, overbearing religious cult-like groups! Scientology has Scientologists have been banned, and those awful Mormons have been taken down another notch. Ha.
• Attention Ferris Fans! Cameron’s home is for sale!
• And finally, some quotes for the week (we’ll start with the icky and work our way to the more reasonable):
Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something, or just before she’s going to menstruate.
– G. Gordon Liddy, troglodyte, doing an awfully good job of making the other neanderthals of his ilk look almost human by comparison. (Update: and there’s always the problem of bears.)
Honestly folks. If we paid as much attention to the sexual activities of Catholic priests as we do to homosexuals wanting to marry, we probably could have saved a lot of children from years of guilt, shame, anger and pain.
###
I’ve got two videos to share with regard to the California Supreme Court’s ruling on Proposition 8 today. It was, of course, extremely disappointing (though the news is not all bad). I don’t understand what’s happened in California — it used to be a cutting edge/frontier kind of place. Kooky sometimes, but generally leading the rest of us in the right direction. Somehow, though, it’s become an atavistic, mean-spirited place, run by mob rule and led by old fogeys who have the state teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. It’s been a sad transformation to watch.
Anyway, this first video comes from France and is not Prop 8 related, but it expresses an appropriate, though visceral, response to the day’s events. Don’t play it if you have an aversion to the f-bomb. The music is from Lily Allen.
And after that bit of venting, here’s a video that’s a little more level-headed in its response, looking toward the next battle, which, of course, is preferable to spending too much time agonizing over today’s decision (the music is from Regina Spektor). (Also, sign on to the campaign — especially if you’re in CA!)
###
First the original ad, created by the forces of wing-nuttia, or the National Organization for Marriage (Oh, the gays! If they can get married, then my life will be ruined!!!! And the sky is falling!!!):
And then came the truth…
Continue reading ‘Nom, Nom, Nom-nom!’
###
Today Vermont joined Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa in allowing gay marriage, and they did so in dramatic fashion.
Vermont on Tuesday became the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature’s vote.
The House recorded a dramatic 100-49 vote — the minimum needed — to override Gov. Jim Douglas’ veto. Its vote followed a much easier override vote in the Senate, which rebuffed the Republican governor with a vote of 23-5.
Step by step, little by little, this country is ending the segregation that holds an entire community of people at a lesser level than the rest of the humans. Years from now, once marriage equality is universal — and federal — history will look back on these battles and wonder why anyone could possibly object to extending basic human rights to all people. But in the meantime, these victories are sweet. The ball is rolling, and I’m looking forward to it picking up some speed soon.
UPDATE: DC jumps on board!
(image credit is unknown — let me know if you can place it)
###
Just a reminder, that Prayers for Bobby is on TV tonight. Andy’s got some more info, along with a few reviews (and this link to FOF reaction). Here is the book.
###
I got back from a weekend in the woods (and — gasp! — away from the internet!) early this afternoon. I’ve been unpacking and trying to get caught up in all the various forms of communication since then and all the while, in the background, I’ve been enjoying the coverage from DC. This really is an extraordinary moment in history and I’m often left breathless as I take it all in. Barack Obama represents so many levels of change — not just a huge step toward becoming a post-racial country and a dramatic generational shift, but also, if Obama lives up to his promise, a whole post-partisan, post-petty paradigm that could really, truly make Washington a different place. We have a lot of badness to get through, there’s no getting around that, but after so many years of divisiveness and cynicism (how can people who don’t believe in government do a good job at running a government?), we can, hopefully, at least feel good about the process again.
I am thrilled at the thought that we have elected our first African-American president. That is a huge thing — a breathtaking accomplishment, which takes us a long way toward becoming a true melting pot as a nation. But Barack Obama was not elected because he is a black man — and that is the real transcendent matter here. A hundred years ago, many Americans would never have even considered the possibility that a black person might be superior to all other candidates for a job. But last November, millions of Americans of all shades chose the best person, not the black person, to fill the highest office in our land. It may be a fine distinction, but an important one nonetheless. We’ve finally reached that point described to us by Martin Luther King, Jr. — we live in a nation where we have shown that people can be judged by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin.
The really cool thing, though, is that this moment in time is about far more than inaugurating our first African-American president. It is about change and hope; thoughtful sacrifice and healing; innovation and progress. Barack Obama is many things — one of which is the son of a Kenyan man — but his accomplishments and failures as he governs will be about what he brings to the job, and not about what his parents brought to his conception. He has the potential to join that small number of exceptionally great presidents, bringing much-needed long-term change to the world. This is a point in time that might well end up being one of those major shifts in history that is only really visible from a distance. And we will have been here to see it.
###
Loading ...
Recent Comments