Dear John Boehner

Mr. Speaker,

It has certainly been a rowdy couple of days, what with all the rulings being handed down by the United States Supreme Court. Today the Supremes struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by Bill Clinton several years ago, and vigorously defended by your own Congress to the tune of 2.3 million dollars of taxpayer's money, when the White House ordered the Department of Justice to stand down.

But you knew this was gonna happen because most of the country, your constituents were against you before you committed the money. But it's no biggie. The duckets didn't come out of your pocket. It's not like you are sequester-bound or in a budget crunch like the rest of us. And you still have DOMA solidly in place in Ohio for the foreseeable future.

I'm happy that DOMA went down but I'm not here to gloat. That's not the purpose for this letter. I want to talk about the decision that came down on Tuesday. You know the one that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The law that was signed by Lyndon Baines Johnson and effectively changed the United States for the better, according to some of us, anyway.

Judging from the response by the Grand Old Party of which you are considered to be one of the guiding lights in your capacity as Speaker of the House, you guys are being very quiet. I mean you got what you wanted. Your posse on the high court just about knocked the Black off us, shoving us toward the back of the bus once again, reminding us of our place in your country. You have real cause for celebration, after all you all have been working for years to remove this particular thorn in your side and change the course of history. Yesterday must have felt almost as good as rewriting the ending to the War between the States. Symbolically at least, you slapped my people back into chains.

But let me put a bug in your ear, if I may. The GOP took quite a beating in the last national election. I mean that Kenyan has laid two beat downs in a row on ya, now. The good news is he can't run again. But it looks like you're headed for oblivion electorally because you and your boys in Congress spend more time in the bars and on the golf course than you do legislating. Other than making laws to disenfranchise women, you're not legislating at all.

Doing nothing is hurting the President, yes. But it's also kicking your ass, too. In order to take back control permanently your party really and truly does need to attract Blacks, Browns and everybody else who is not white and male, in order to win the next election and survive. Your GOP chairman and all other speaking members of your party say you must be more inclusive. So why not take this nugget from the Supreme Court and repackage the Voting Rights Act. What have you got to lose. Everybody expects you to let it lay. Let it die. Not act on it. I mean that's been your modus operandi for five years now.

Flip the script. Do something to remind Black people that you once were the party of Lincoln. Call a meeting with the NAACP. Invite the Revs Al, Jesse and TD. Talk about millions of brownie points. Man, just think of all the Clarence Thomas wannabes or little Herman Cains or Mia Loves who will come popping out of the woodwork to join the Grand Old Party and become bonified Republicans instead of closeted ones. Give us a reason to like you and to wanna be you. You need to come out of your shell, John, and teach poor people how to make money like republicans. But you can't teach unless you can get them to listen to you. And that is not gonna happen as long as you guys continue to play bigot monopoly in America.

Let's just talk plain English here. You guys are dying out. Your party of old white people is about to go extinct. Soon it will be too late, especially given the kind of laws you're attempting to push through against women. Women already outnumber you. Women are the sleeping giant, the 600 pound gorilla in the room taking a nap. What happens when women wake up. I mean really wake up and realize they don't have to vote like their husbands or daddies do anymore. What happened overnight in Texas should have scared you to death.  Smart guys like you think you all are, would dump the stupid anti-woman language and laws asap. Smart guys would announce that you're going to rewrite the VRA law and make it current, just like the Court said to do.

The announcement alone would make a lot of folks happy. Following through might win you the next election or at least make you more competitive than you appear now. Why not try it?

What have you really got to lose?

John since you're from the Nati, too, you're very familiar with the phrase “when pigs fly.” Well, I figure you'll read this and act on my suggestions when Porkie takes off from Lunken.

Have a great day Mr. Speaker because I think  your days are numbered whether you act or not.

Respectfully yours.

Same Sex Marriage

Will Clarence Thomas, speak, clear his throat or sit like a lump of coal waiting patiently for Scalia to whisper in his ear....

60% of people recently polled by ABC news say same sex marriage is okay in America. That same poll found that 80% of those under 30 support the idea. Those numbers should make it a done deal, right? Majority rules, right?

Well, not exactly. In the Land of the free, home of the brave, very few decisions are made by majority rule.

Proposition 8 and DOMA are before the United States Supreme Court today and despite the garbage rhetoric coming from FOX News, the Supreme Court is not a liberal court by any stretch of the imagination. If it was we wouldn't be stuck with last year's Citizens United ruling making corporations people.

For those of you who don't know, Prop 8 is the measure in California that revoked same sex marriage. DOMA stands for defense of marriage act. It was passed on the federal level back in 1996 and signed into law by a now repentant Bill Clinton. It says that marriage is only for men and women who marry each other. No boy-boy, or girl on girl unless its pornography for lesbian-loving straight men.

DOMA is like all those old sodomy laws that used to be on the books, outlawing oral or anal sex, but only gays and lesbians were charged and prosecuted. Straight couples doing exactly the same doggie style were never criminalized and cited, ever.

So today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments to overturn both laws. Actually one will be argued today and the other tomorrow. Regardless, it will make for an exciting week at the nation's highest court. Tickets to get inside were at a premium.

However, one ticket was scarfed up by a cousin of Chief Justice Roberts. Seems cuz is a lesbian and wants her big cousin to act like Ohio Senator Rob Portman and support his family. She says she wants to get married legally in the near future.

U.S. Supreme Court

Of course, no one has any idea what Chief Roberts is thinking, nor any of the other Associate Justices for that matter. Insiders will start guessing when they start asking questions during arguments.

Have to admit, I'm curious about how Justice Thomas will vote, especially since his own marriage to a white woman used to be illegal. Wonder if he will throw off his chains of servitude and vote like a proud Black man for a change.

The intellectual machinations of all the possible rulings in these two cases is mind boggling, so I'm just gonna pop some corn and wait for the outcome. I will say this, I don't see how the Court can frame this so narrowly that it won't take into account just how mobile our society is. In other words how can you make law that applies to one state but not another. I mean, if a couple is legally married in Omaha, they should also be legally married in Ohio, right?

It was like that in the interracial marriage ban, Loving vs Virginia. Once that law was struck down, it was made to apply to the whole country, not just Virginia. The same thing

should logically happen with Prop 8 and DOMA.

I honestly see it falling this way, Alito, Scalia and possibly Thomas will do what they always do. So will Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayer. I see Kennedy and Roberts as swing votes.

Rob Portman Comes Out

So today one of my Ohio Senate representatives on Capital Hill is a changed man. Today he favors gay marriage, where yesterday, he was agin it. Yesterday, he voted in favor of amending the Constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman, thereby relegating gays and lesbians to permanent second class citizenship. Today, Rob Portman tells CNN, the Columbus Dispatch and everyone else who'll listen that he favors repealing DOMA, that marriage is for everyone, straight or otherwise.

What a difference a day made. Well it's not that it's a different day or even daylight saving time or he had a V-8. No, it's the fact that his Yale attending son, Will, has come carefully out of his velvet-lined closet, to the surprise of his ultra conservative and religious parents. Young Will actually came out two years ago, but it took Dad a while to sort out the possible consequences to his political career.

In other words, do I tell Mitt that my kid likes boys now that he wants me to be his VP? Portman says he told him, but it had nothing to do with Romney switching horses in mid stream to run with Lyin' Ryan, the pariah from Wisconsin.

So now because Will is queer, the world needs to be made to fit his perception of privilege and equality, or so says his power broker Daddy.

I can just see Portman now, “tradition and religion and the GOP be damned! I'm gonna make this world safe for my homo son! And if he wants to make me a grandfather down the road, I'll pretend to be as happy as a good father can be!”

Whoopie! We the people have been given yet another glimpse into the lives of the rich, famous and white of America. If the world doesn't fit your perception, change it. Trickle down equality works as well as trickle down economics, right?

Well, no it doesn't.

Equality is a right garnered at birth. It is not predicated on the size of your bank account, color of skin, social station or what church you attend. It is a human right to be equal to every other human being on the face of this planet.

This is what the Rob Portmans of the world don't understand. Will's coming out was a personal situation for the Portmans. However, even if he had stayed securely strapped in the closet and “straight-acting” for the comfort of his parents, Rob Portman should have supported equality from jump. He should never have voted in favor of DOMA. He should never have supported Don't Ask, Don't Tell. He should be jumping all over, showing his support for ENDA.

His son's sexual orientation should never have mattered in the first place. It's about doing the right thing, as Christians and conservatives like Rob Portman always claim to do. It's that compassionate conservatism thingey.

So forgive me, if I don't jump up and down and congratulate the junior senator from Ohio for finally doing the right thing. 

All  I can say is, what took you so long?

10 Questions for Mitt Romney and The President-Presidential Debate Day USA

(understanding that all aspects of American life are affected by the economy)

Romney

1. Your proposed tax plan for the country consists of a 20% across the board cut for all Americans...Since all progressive tax plans are redistribution of wealth from one segment to another, how do you justify giving more to the rich at a time a time when they obviously don't need it.
2. You have stated that you believe life begins at conception. If that is the case, how do you justify any exemption based on rape or incest, and why do you place so little value on the life, and well being of women who find themselves pregnant.
3. You recently formed a Council made up of several of your Black colleagues to advise you on how to reach out to the African American Community, yet so far, we've heard nothing from them or you, for that matter. How do you plan to convince Black people to vote for you instead of the President
4. You are on record as favoring the use of vouchers in place of several programs such as medicare and medicaid or to fund public education for students in the hope of gaining a better education for them. My question: vouchers are a fixed amount of money...what happens to the individual when the money doesn't cover even basic costs of what is needed to buy services.
5.  You have said that President Obama is too timid in his approach to dealing with the Middle East, specifically Iran. Are we to understand that a President Romney would follow the preemptive strike doctrine created by former President George W. Bush, whose approach led America into two unfunded and some would say illegal wars, one of which we are still fighting.

President Obama

1. For the past four years, you have worked diligently if unsuccessfully to get Congress to approve your programs. If re-elected, what will you do differently in the next four years.
2. The afghan war is winding down. More of our troops are being killed by so called allies than Taliban. Why not just bring our guys home now instead of waiting until 2014?
3. Our roads, highways and bridges are crumbling under our feet. How do you get the money to fix these problems and how soon does the work begin once you secure funding.
4. The past four years have been tough on the middle class, yet the wealthy such as your opponent have prospered, so much so that you wonder why they are complaining about your policies. How do you bring parity back to the country so that all Americans get an equal share of the pie. I guess what I'm asking is why should I vote for you, if you're going to continue to aide the rich and let folks like me suffer.
5. On January 1, 2013 the sequester will take effect. Do you plan on preventing this or are the mandatory cuts the medicine that America as a whole needs to swallow, understanding that the poor and middle class will suffer the most.

10 Questions for Both

1. Do you favor codifying discrimination into the US Constitution in the form of DOMA-the defense of marriage act, and why or why not ENDA.
2. What is your plan for immigration reform.
3. Marijuana- legalize or not and why
4. What would you do to ensure that women are finally elevated from second class citizenship when it comes to health care and living wages.
5. Do you favor the repeal of tax exempt status of all churches and 501 C4 alleged social service agencies, considering they don't adhere to the separation of church and state rules of the American Constitution.
6. How do you reverse the trend of more black men in prison than in school
7. What will it take for a Black man or woman to get elected to the US Senate under this current two party system.
8. Creationism  or evolution and which should be taught in school
9. Is the 1964 Civil Rights Law unconstitutional and why or why not
10. Affirmative Action has it over extended its expiration date and why or why not.

So Much S***, Can't Wait for Friday

Another one Bites the Dust....

After dithering around for weeks on end building up the suspense, the twice divorced Governor of Hawaii stood tall in defending the sanctity of heterosexual marriage and vetoed the same sex marriage proposal that was wilting on her desk....

This, as a judge in Boston declares the Federal Defense of Marriage Ban...DOMA for those who like acronyms.....unconstitutional...

His reasoning...the Federal ban interferes with states rights...

And the beat goes on....doobie doobie do...the beat goes on........

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Meantime...down in Loosiana...Little Bobby Jindal took time out from haranguing the Feds about the Gulf oil spill to sign a measure allowing all his good Christian buddies to carry guns in church...

I'm still trying to figure why someone who claims to be Christian needs to carry a gun in the house of their Lord...

Maybe it's so the Christian men can protect themselves from all the women pissed off because Governor Bobby also signed a measure banning insurance plans from carrying riders to pay for abortions and birth control pills for women....ya think....

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The tanning tax is Reverse Racism....Huh?

Some white people are upset because they say only white people who want to look like John Boehner have to pay the tanning tax at salons and that does not afford them equal protection under the law and is therefore violating their constitutional rights....WTH?

First off.....there is NO SUCH THING AS REVERSE RACISM....DOES NOT EXIST...look up the definition of racism and get back to me.....

Now....

Repeat after me....Or for those of you who can write...take out your chalkboard and write this down....

Here are some examples of racism....... African Slave Trade (no Texas, not the Triangle Trade) Slavery...Jim Crow...White Flight....Redlining......forced to fight in wars for a country that refuses to recognize your humanity......lynching parties to prevent people from voting....hanging chads in Florida.....Stolen votes in Ohio....

Using vouchers to kill the public school system..... Teabaggers......threats of physical violence against America's first Black President and his family....openly seditious statements by right wing bloggers, radio and TV announcers and so called pundits.....carrying guns in public....

being shot 55 times as you exit a club the day before you're due to get married and having the cops who pulled the trigger be exonerated, and the one who shot and reloaded 31 of those 55 lethal bullets, sue the family of the dead man because he said he got hurt in the process of executing their loved one, who was not carrying a weapon of any kind.....

Glen Beck's “I have a scheme” fake ass rally in DC next month...his bigoted attempts to insert himself into the civil right movement of Blacks is overwhelmingly offensive and racist...

Arizona...the whole fucking state....

the refusal of the federal government to give me my 40 acres and a Volvo (don't need no damn mule) okay I'm kidding...

Nobody makes you be Black, people...Nobody makes you patronize a tanning salon...

When you're poor, you make due.....so jump into your SUV drive to Walmart...buy yourself a spray bottle...some orange dye and DIY....presto...you're an Oompa Loompa.....

Altogether now (pretend you're Sarah Jessica Parker)...SING!....”the sun a come out too morrow...bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow...there'll be sun........2 morrow! 2 morrow! I love you, 2morrow...you're only a daaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy aaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”

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Rush Lump-ass

Will some conservative please explain to me how the so called Obama manufactured recession is payback for historic white racism?

I know Obama's good...he's damned intelligent....but I'm still trying to figure out how he got this recession going on in America and he wasn't in office when the shit hit the fan...

Even if he somehow is Barack the magic negro and worked a spell on America...

My second problem is that Black people and minorities are still holding the shit end of the stick...do we look happy at how things are going in the country...Are we all employed and making 20 million dollars a year to talk stupid stuff while our collective ass grows ever larger, on the radio?

Can we afford all the hill billy heroin we want without twisting the arms of our live in maids?

Just askin'

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Lady Sarah...

Don't know what to think about this woman...she's got this bestiality thing going on, always invoking analogies to huge and dangerous animals....

Now she is talking about Mama Grizzlies and how all her conservative women folk are like bears...

Last time somebody called me a bear I was ready to kick their ass....

And....does Sarah realize that a female bear is called a Sow...as in pig...

So...in effect the girl is now a self avowed pig.... so go ahead and slap on that lipstick, girl!

Ya'll need to stop talkin amongst ya selves and pick up a book....inbreeding, non diverse activity of a singular race....makes you stupid....

Jim Barack The Hammer Obama Shaft Kelly

I'm at that point in the blaxploitation movie on loop in my head, where I'm ready for some action. We know who the good guys are, we know who the bad guy is, and we know who is supposed to be saved and why.

I'm ready for the big chocolate gun carrying, Jim Brown lookin' actor to whip it out and tell everybody;

“we got to go this way, 'cause if we go back we die, 'n I ain't ready to die just yet!”

The alpha male has spoken....the paler hued Beta Boy glares, and makes an ugly face, like he's going to do something. But he knows on a good day, he can't whip this Negro's ass in a fair fight. So reluctantly, Beta Boy drops his show for the ladies and turns in the direction that Chocolate Thunder wants to go, and starts walking, while the rest of the group meekly follows. No way are they getting in between these two fools, because while they quietly admit that Beta boy, may be their preferred cup of tea, they also know he don't know his ass from a hole in the ground and is totally useless in this situation.

Chocolate Thunder may be straight up crazy, but he knows what he's doing and can help them get home alive, and like all good Negroes, he is going to sacrifice himself and die so that all the good folks can live a better life, while remembering him fondly in their dreams of the good ole days.

So who would you follow? Camera ready Beta Boy or Crazy as a bedbug Chocolate Thunder?

Easy answer for me...I'm going with crazy, because sometimes the tried and true won't work and you can never go back and sometimes you can never go home again. So you keep marching forward until you see daylight or the end of the trail or the town located just over the hill.

President Obama was supposed to be the one. He was supposed to be the Jim Brown-Chocolate Thunder crazy, who was going to ride into DC and teach all the status quo Beta Boys and Catatonic Neanderthals how to save the people.

But what we've gotten so far, from Obama, is a weak imitation of Carlton, the dimwit cousin from Fresh Prince. All flash but so far, no substance.

I am truly troubled by all this talk of backing up and backing away from Health Care Reform, just because Ted Kennedy's seat was lost in Massachusetts.

One seat, people...ONE STUPID SEAT!.....That still leaves an 18 seat majority in the Senate. It's still a Democrat majority...I don't see the problem. Beta Boy Scott is singing the same song as the rest of his frat club-no plan, no clue. So the majority has to work a little harder. That's why it's called a job!

The American people or those who still have jobs, work everyday, without health care, without guaranteed holidays or carved in stone 4600-dollar yearly pay raises.

Now comes President Obama's first State of the Union Address and from the news reports, he seems more intent on placating us with peripheral bullshit then with delivering the goods. We don't need no stinkin' bipartisanship. We don't need feel good. We don't need 156 different ways to say “Change” in the course of a one hour speech, before a house full of unctuous people pretending to care.

Just once, I would like to see a State of the Union speech where all these fools sit on their hands and listen, quietly to what is being said.

We don't need the pep rally. I don't even care if they twitter to their follower twats, as long as they do it quietly and STFU!

So what should Obama say and do in his State of the Union Speech?

The American people need a jobs program. It's gone way past trickle down, need to work through the system kind of fixes. The guys at that top are doing what they always do, sitting on the money and jamming the feeder pipes so that nothings leaks down or out to the masses.

The American people need some liquid plumber, pronto. They need a powerful motorized snake to unclog the drain and get folks back to work. “F” the system...as in flush the system in order to get it going. We thought Obama would use an executive order or two to mandate some work projects to begin yesterday.

And to make sure that minorities get their fair share, open an office where minority workers or independent workers...those not allowed into the trade unions...to sign up and get hired and put to work alongside the union guys... If a contractor can't or won't use the independents, then his company can't work the project. This does away with the contractors who can't find anybody to work for them except illegal aliens.

Unemployment in my neighborhood is about 20%....yet....there is a lot of renovation going on the houses here.....all of it being done by whites and Hispanics.....in a nearly 100% Black neighborhood...now how does that happen? Not only do we no longer own the homes, we can't get work on them either. And you can bank that its happening everywhere else, too.

After he talks about Jobs, Obama needs to get back to the alphabet...DADT, DOMA, and ENDA. No more talk that it is going to happen. We need to know when it is going to happen. What day is it going to happen? The future is here, now.

Finally, he should now have a real plan for health care reform instead of that bill which is really an insurance industry subsidy program like the stimulus/subsidy program was for Wall Street. Dropping the age limit on medicare to give America what he and Congress already have in their own health care would be a start.

Better yet....why not just cancel the speech....and sit on camera and sign executive orders that really jump start the economy and let the people see that Chocolate Thunder has arrived and is ready willing and able to do crazy for the people in order to get this country back on track.

Sorry President Obama, But My Sugar's High

Obama passes out candy to the LGBT Community while urging patience....

Apparently seeking to placate the more vocal members of the LGBT community, the President signed a memorandum granting a few domestic partner benefits to federal employees-health and survivor benefits not among them.

I have a few problems with this scenario...

First, the action only affects a very few people...

Second, Obama used a memorandum...for those of you who don't know...memorandums are only in force for the lifetime of Obama's presidency...

In other words, if he should fail to be re elected in 2012, the memorandum dies...If he is re elected then it's good until 2016....

Memorandums come with a sunset clause....much like the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which must be renewed every 25 years or it expires...

Sunset Clauses are typically used by Presidents and Lawmakers to get the opposition to compromise...as in....”sign off on it now.... harvest the goodwill, now...it will go away later....”

Now I'm assuming, optimistically, that Obama thinks he can get things taken care of by 2012-meaning he can get DOMA repealed and DADT off the books and therefore all he needed was a memorandum today and the future will take care of itself...

I know he has only been in office for 150 days. I know that in order to spend political capital, you've got to make some first. In other words, he needs help changing this massive agenda so he has to quietly placate certain people in order to get them to go along with him.

However, while I still counsel younger community members to be patient, I am a little ticked.

Check that....I'm a lot ticked..

I've been waiting all my life.....and like Fannie Lou Hamer said....I'm sick n tired of being sick n tired...

I am ticked off at the President's silence....He needs to utter something other than tired platitudes.

And this not only includes the LGBT community...but the Black community as well...


Unemployment nationwide may be only 10%....In the Black community it is double that easily...

“last hired...first fired” is still in operation..

I'm sorry Mr President....but right is right.......

He has admitted the laws are wrong....He is the one who chose to do something about it...yet.. he remains silent...

There comes a time.....Like Lincoln and like FDR...like Truman...

When as President..you have to say....damn the law.....I will do what's right....like you promised...

Obama needs to remember that if Lincoln hadn't done what was right and just...Obama's Daddy's ancestors would only have seen the shores of America by disembarking from a slave ship...

Obama needs to remember that his mother and father literally broke the law to give him life....

It was right and it was just...

All these years...he has been chasing his destiny....Now that he is where he should be..in the White House...

He hesitates....I don't understand....

The Department of Justice equating same sex marriage with incest....cuts deeply...it is indefensible and completely wrong....

The White House defense of an indefensible act...is an insult to my intelligence and has me second guessing my vote back in November....

I remain in Obama's corner....

But today....I'm just too ticked to be a fan...

"We only want, we only ask, that when we stand up and talk about one nation under God liberty, justice for everybody, we only want to be able to look at the flag, put our right hand over our hearts, repeat those words, and know that they are true."

...Barbara Jordan, Late, Great US Congresswoman and member of the LGBT community.

Gay Pride Month...Big Whup!

Pardon me for being a day late, since I’m writing this on June 2nd, but there were other things on my mind from this past weekend....

Yesterday President Obama signed the first ever national proclamation designating June as LGBT Pride Month. Check out the statement here.

I will be perfectly honest with you, I feel the same way about Gay Pride Month that I feel about Black History Month....

I’m Black since birth....58 years....I’m lesbian since well, probably from birth, but I had the epiphany at the age of five the first time I fell in lust for a girl, so I figure I’ve been officially gay for the past 53 years...

So since I’m this way all of my life....24/7...365...366 during leap years.....one month don’t cut it....simply ain’t enough...I prefer to celebrate my fabulousness everyday and will....

However...

Black history is American history....I will not celebrate until all...history is taught as a part of the regular curriculum, period...It should not be a separate but unequal section in the Library, as it still is...There is more to Black history than Martin Luther King and the Black Panthers or Malcolm X....

The same holds true for LGBT Pride/history....let’s start with the Black openly gay man who stood beside Martin Luther King, yet is never mentioned when talking about the Black Civil Rights struggle....I’m talking about Bayard Rustin. You can read more about him here.

Suffice to say never got his due respect...

Obama’s proclamation comes 40 years after Stonewall...

Check out Stonewall history here...

During those 40 years, too many of us have been beaten or been killed.... The Black Community and Black Church remains as homophobic as ever.....Hate crimes continue to happen....two this past week in my neck of the woods...one passed off as a street robbery..but it was covered on the news...the other passed off as bar fight...instead of a homophobic attack...it, too received coverage on the news...that’s a good thing.....that is progress....

However...

I’m trying to be patient with Obama...but his foot dragging is honestly getting on my nerves...

Instead of the platitudes and "let’s all respect each other crap" I would love to see a little fire and kick ass attitude.... like.....I don’t know...."I’m the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces....and it’s gonna be this way from now on.....No More Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell..."

Worked for Truman when he desegregated the troops....

Or maybe...."I’ve changed my mind....gay marriage is better than civil unions... and prop 8 is bad law."

Smart man that he is Obama knows that there are a thousand federal benefits difference for couples between civil unions, domestic partners and marriage....so let’s cut the crap.....marriage between consenting adults is the only real equality....

Even if he can’t automatically reverse these crappy policies....he can at least speak out about them...decisively...instead of this namby pamby BS of....."We’ve got to love one another and respect one another".....or silence.....

Especially since I don’t see any bipartisan respect coming back in anything Obama’s done....

Don’t matter what he does....the so called right wing conservatives are so pissed off about having a Black man in their White House that he will never be able to do right in their eyes....

So...

When somebody spits in my face....I throw a left hook....plain and simple....Obama needs to flex those well honed muscles of his....

I would...

Obama’s got the people behind him....He’s got the numbers on Capital Hill....What are they going to do.....impeach him?....

they can try.....

Okay...given the choice of having an LGBT proclamation from the most powerful leader on earth....I am happy he did it....

Thank you Mr. President....

But I wish you’d put the hammer down and get to work....on some of the things that you promised during your campaign...

Cincinnati Rally Against Prop 8

Today is an absolutely miserable day in the Queen City. It’s an upside down day with the morning being warmer than the evening will be. Temperatures started falling amidst a chill rain almost as soon as daylight broke over the eastern horizon today.

Never the less I went down to City Hall, at the prescribed hour, to see if anyone was going to turn up for the planned prop 8 solidarity rally. I am happy to report that almost 1000 rainbow clad people braved the icey wind driven rain to take part in nationwide protests against the California vote that banned gay marriage in the sunshine state. The temperature at 1:30pm was 39-degrees and dropping.

The demonstration was orderly and pleasant as protests go. Mounted police were on hand to keep the peace, but the trio of 5-0 Mounties hung around for about 10 minutes before resuming their patrols. Nothing for them to police at the rally. There were several speeches and a moment of silence at 2pm in solidarity with protestors across the country. It was a good day. The numbers in attendance would seem to indicate that more people might have shown up if the weather had only cooperated.

I was troubled by the number of blacks who turned out....besides me...I saw just one other person of color. There may have been more, but everyone was covered, protected from the rain, so it was hard to see just who was who.

I also want to know where all these folks were when Ohio passed its ban on gay marriage back in 2004. You can read about it here. Ohio was the 38th state to enact such legislation and it passed here, almost unnoticed. I wrote about it back then because some of Ohio’s courts were interpreting the law to circumvent domestic violence and common law governance to the detriment of women. The Ohio Supreme Court, however, has since answered those questions.

But to date, no one has taken the State of Ohio to task for writing discrimination into the State Constitution. You will recall that Cincinnati tried it several years ago, too. That amendment passed, then was repealed, due in part to the city losing business and money because of its stated discrimination against the LGBT community.

Maybe the group that gathered today can turn its attention to Ohio and the laws making some of us second class citizens, right here in the Buckeye state. Or maybe, even better, we can all turn our attention on the coming administration in Washington....

Nothing like an executive order or congressional law to make all laws uniform on the issue, rather than the current cross pattern of state laws that exist now.

Obama called everyone to action...so be it...let’s get busy!

Heterosexual Privilege

Question: Did you know it’s okay to beat the crap out of your live in girlfriend in Ohio? And go ahead girls, it’s okay to kick the snot of your common law husband, too.

This is equal opportunity insanity, as long as it’s opposite sex. Same sex couples, roommates, etc don’t exist in Ohio under the law.

Ohio wrote discrimination into its constitution when it passed the Defense of Marriage Amendment a few years ago. That’s old news. Ohio was the 38th state to do so. They’re reasoning for doing so was to protect the sanctity of heterosexual marriage.

However, Ohio’s law also makes it illegal to live as a couple with someone who is not your spouse. In other words, if you aren’t married, you aren’t legal and therefore have no recourse under the law. This directly conflicts with Ohio’s domestic violence laws which protect people who “live as a spouse.”

Which brings me to my topic. There is a guy in Dayton, one Michael Carswell, who according to the Dayton Daily News,
is suing to get assault charges thrown out, because under DOMA, slapping your girlfriend around is no longer a crime.

Carswell’s arguments are scheduled to be heard by the Ohio Supreme Court, next month. There are in fact 60 cases pending, where the defendants have argued that beating up your girlfriend, is not a crime under this law.

The 2nd and 3rd District Appeals Courts have issued rulings agreeing with Carswell’s reading of the law.

The 2nd and 3rd Districts cover about 17 counties in northwest Ohio. But a number of other courts have rejected the argument, hence the need for the Ohio Supreme Court to settle the dispute.

In the meantime, Dayton police are using misdemeanor assault laws instead of the felony domestic violence laws when the partners are not legally married.

That means that a woman cannot get an order of protection, while this hassle is working its way through the court system. It means that the assaulter will still be on the streets and could pose a threat to the victim. We’ve seen this craziness in Ohio.

Alleged Christian groups Citizens for Community Values and Focus on the Family have filed briefs supporting Carswell’s argument.

These two groups led the fight to get DOMA passed. Now they are trying to protect abusers, victims be damned.

And they call themselves christian? Hmmmmmmmmm....

Smoke, Mirrors and a Whole Lot of Bull****

Dubya the number one compassionate conservative is planning another push to write discrimination into the Constitution. In his radio address today he plans to bamboozle his conservative followers by telling them he really, really, really believes that marriage should only be between a man and a woman and that furthermore it should be law.

The amendment is scheduled to be voted on next week in the Senate. It is largely ceremonial since even if approved, it can't get the three fourth state's votes necessary to make it into the Constitution. But that's not going to stop them from trying. Dubya says it's not politics just heart felt conviction on his part.

Bullshit! The polls show he has lost his conservative base and is once again trying to wake them up so they will vote for all those minor GOP politicos standing on his coat tail in the upcoming mid term elections.

Witness Ohio Congressman Steve Chabot who's half heartedly trying to push Dubya away. Chabot's quoted in the Cincinnati Enquirer as saying he's disagreed with President on a couple of issues. That may well be true, but Stevie you voted WITH him 89% of the time. Give me a break. If Dubya says "jump" you say "how high" Please, go sit down. Better yet, trim that fringe you call hair.

Bush and his conservative base are bigots, plain and simple. These pseudo-Christians follow the teachings of the Bible only when it suits them. The only threat to marriage in this country is the heterosexual divorce rate which is hovering at 60%. Instead of worrying about what gays and lesbians are doing, how about dealing with the very real problems of the divorce/adultery rate in this country among straights.

Last time I looked the ban on adultery was still a part of the Ten Commandments and the TC was still a part of the Bible (go find the story of Moses, for those of you have never read the Bible or seen the movie). And if you believe the Bible, it also says "let him who is without sin cast the first stone." That is real compassion, and why compassionate conservative remains an alliterative oxymoron.

To paraphrase a former President IT'S STILL THE ECONOMY, STUPID!"

It's still the illegal war on Iraq. It's still the lies that got us into Iraq. It's the needless deaths of our young soldiers in the military.

It's inflation. It's sky high gasoline. It's tax breaks that only benefit the rich. It's out of control corporate America. It's no health care. It's failing Social Security.

It's the phony war on terrorism. It's the inability to help our own people following the devastation of the past hurricane season.

It's immigration and the failure to deal with it realistically.

There are indications that even Dick Cheney the shadow president has differences on this issue. He is allowing his Lesbian daughter to speak out finally, even if he hasn't spoken himself.

First Wife Laura also apparently has problems with this amendment considering some of her utterings lately. She is quoted by FOX News as saying that same sex marriage should not be used as a campaign tool.

Ya listenin' Dubya?