Day Two: Democratic National Convention ... Or ... A Woman's Place Is In The House ... The White House

I’ll keep it simple: the Democratic Party made history again last night with the first woman to be nominated by a major party for President of the United States.

Think on that … 240 years in and this is the first woman ever nominated.

And it comes on the heels of eight years of America’s first Black president, Barack Obama.

I won’t even comment how this speaks volumes about the differences between the two major parties … except that one is making history while the other wants to take us back … somewhere.

After formally voting to nominate Hillary Clinton, the nominee made a surprise appearance by breaking that glass ceiling once and for all — though the next step is to see her on the Capitol steps next January — and speaking briefly about this historic vote, and historic moment for America, and American women.

I’ve been saying for years that we’ve had rich white men screwing up this country for over 200 years, so let’s give a woman a shot and here we are.

But, before the shattering, we had former President, and future First Gentleman, Bill Clinton, offering an intimate tribute to his wife, telling us about their meeting and their courtship and their marriage.

"In the spring of 1971, I met a girl ... "

A lot of people have said things about Bill Clinton’s infidelities, and what kind of marriage the Clinton’s have, and no one really knows except the Clintons, but I will say this:  they’ve been married forty-one years, stood side-by-side during all the things thrown at them, and managed to raise a remarkable young women in Chelsea.

"I've lived a long, full, blessed life. It really took off when I met and fell in love with that girl."

But, while Bill got all personal, he also managed to talk about Hillary’s “grit”, about [t]Rump being the status quo — rich get richer and nothing else gets done — and continued change with Hillary. He asked that we, well, you, some of you, forget about the cartoon of Hillary offered up by the GOP and see her for what she is and for what she’s done in service to this country.

"Some people say she's been around a long time and she sure has and she's been worth every single year of making people's lives better."

That counts for something, [t]Rump, service to the country. And it counts that she has plans and ideas and not just vague promises about walls and deportations and such; she wants change …

"She's the best darn change-maker I've ever met in my entire life … [and] … a real change maker represents a real threat...you nominated the real one."

And he made us a promise, one that I have seen in Hillary Clinton since way back in the day:

"She will never quit when the going gets tough. She will never quit on you."

Think of all that’s been thrown at her; the accusations, the innuendos, the outright lies, and yet nothing comes of it; think of all of those investigations into every bit of her life, think of the millions spent trying to discredit her and nothing’s come of it—oh, except that maybe, maybe, she was a little reckless in her emailing ways –as were Rice and Powell before her but no one cares about them; think of all those Benghazi investigations, think of her testifying, of looking the GOP in the eyes and standing firm, and then nothing comes of it.

She never quit.

And think of it like this …

Donald [t]Rump has heaped praise on people like Vladimir Putin and Saddam Hussein, and as former secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, said:

“Putin is eager to see Trump win and that should worry every American.”

Think about this …

Lucia McBath, the mother of a black teenager in Florida who was shot and killed by a driver after an argument over loud music:

 “The majority of police officers are good people doing a good job and we’re also going to keep using our voices and our votes to support leaders like Hillary Clinton, who will help us protect one another so that this club of heartbroken mothers stops growing.”

Hillary Clinton wants change; she wants to fix what’s broken between our police force and the Black community. She doesn’t lay blame, she wants solutions.

And then what about that “revolution”? After that historic roll-call vote dozens of Sanders supporters stormed out of the hall to take refuge in one of the media tents where they vented and ranted and raged about the party’s nominee.

Inside the hall, though, there were no boos and no shouts; sure, Hillary could lean a little more to the left, and I think she might, with Bernie Sanders with her, with Elizabeth Warren with her. But isn’t it better to have Hillary in office, working with the people you like, that having some bloated bigot talking about walls with his tiny hands?

Can you lay your head on the pillow at night, knowing that, by not voting, or even, goddess forbid, voting for someone else, you elected [t]Rump as president?

Just remember what Bill said:

She’ll never quit.

I Didn't Say It ....

Dan Savage, on Tony Perkins and the FRC and LGBT suicides:

"Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council—First of all, they tell, Tony Perkins tells parents whose kids come out to reject them. Tony Perkins tells the parents of queer kids to do what Tony Perkins damn well knows drives those kids to suicide—doubles their already quadruple rate of suicide. Why would someone who calls themselves a Christian do that? Because every dead gay kid is a victory for the Family Research Council. They argue that the gay lifestyle is sick and sinful and dangerous and they point to the suicide rate, and then they turn around and do everything in their power to make sure that suicide rate does not come down and to drive it up. Tony Perkins sits on a pile of dead gay kids every day when he goes to work—and he calls himself a Christian. I don’t understand how real Christians let that little fucker get away with that."

As usual, Dan doesn’t mince words, and as usual, he’s right.

I don’t care if you think being gay is wrong, or being gay is a sin, or being gay is a One Way Direct Flight to Hell, but when you keep saying that, all the while praising yourself as a good Christian, and you watch young LGBT youth kill themselves rather than live in a world of hate, you are not of God.

You are disgusting. You are to blame.

Harry Jackson, “Bishop,” who says he prayed a newspaper into bankruptcy:

"One night I walked past one of those newsstands. As I was walking past it, I looked at that newsstand and they had some article about same-sex marriage and all that blasphemous stuff. And I laid hands on that newsstand and I said, 'In the name of Jesus, I CURSE THIS PAPER!' Less than two months, that paper went bankrupt. It was part of a six-newspaper chain! It went bankrupt! It went out of business! IT WENT UNDER! It did!"

It appears that Harry was taking about the Washington Blade, which did file for bankruptcy, but then resurrected itself and remains in business three years after Jackson's failed "curse." 

But, this begs a bigger question, if Harry Jackson’s prayers are answered why are gay folks still here? Why are they still getting married in DC?

Why is Obama still president?

Ann Romney, putting another nail in Mittsy’s chances of being elected:

"You know, I think my biggest concern, obviously, would just be for his mental well-being....I have all the confidence in the world in his ability, in his decisiveness and his leadership skills, in his understanding of the economy, in his understanding of what's missing right now in the economy - you know, pieces that are missing to get this jumpstarted. So for me I think it would just be the emotional part of it."

Seriously? Is she saying he can do the job, that he has the skills necessary to do the job, that he’s the best man for the job, but he’s just not emotionally prepared to do it?

Wow. For once I agree with Ann; her husband is not now, nor ever will be, emotionally equipped to lead this country.

Maggie Gallagher, on marriage equality:

"If marriage really were dead, people would not respond so powerfully to the idea that marriage matters because children need their mom and dad. If you despair, I respect that, but why try to get others who have hope to despair? Do the things for which you have hope. But you may be wrong about the future. Do not discourage others who have hope from acting on it.  Our 'traditional' view of marriage was won by the Church over several hundred years of argument with pagan philosophers. What we did once, we can do again."

No, Maggie, you can’t do it again, because we no longer live in the Dark Ages where your kind of fear mongering pays off.

You’re on the wrong side, Maggie, so best for you just to sit down and be quiet.

Matt Barnes, Los Angeles Clipper forward, apologizing for using a gay slur [f**king faggot] against a police officer who arrested him last year:

"I would like to apologize for the unfortunate language I used.  I know that certain words are extremely hurtful. I meant absolutely no disrespect to anyone.  This comment, spoken in the heat of a difficult moment, does not accurately reflect my actual point of view."

Um, Matt, asshat? If you know certain words are hurtful, then why do you use them? And you did disrespect a group of people, and, well, if the words fall from your lips in the heat of the moment that means the words are always in your head.

You meant it; you’re just trying to save face for getting caught.

Try this apology, next time, and I’m sure there will be a next time: “I’m sorry to be such a dick. I am going to work to erase that word from my brain. I will never, ever, say that word again. I’m sorry, I’m a dick.”

Madeleine Albright, on Mitt Romney:

"He is so two-dimensional. I mean, up close and personal, there's just nothing going on.  It's the sense that I've had throughout the campaign that it's unclear what [Romney] really believes in. I think when you contrast him with President Obama, who also gave a speech later there, and President Clinton, who spoke several times there, there is not, kind of, a sense of depth."

He’s cardboard. He’s nothing. He says whatever needs to be said to whatever audience to whom he is speaking. He’ll do and say anything to get elected so, yeah, we have no idea who Mitt Romney really is.

Except for being a failed presidential candidate, again.

Janice Fountaine, co-founder of the New Independent Christian Party:

"The practice of homosexuality and self-pleasure, are age old systems, being recharged and reorganized for end-time warfare. It is being orchestrated from the diabolical realms of the supernatural and manifested on earth, with the overall intention, to silence the church forever. These actions, by Satan, is an all out declaration of victory, as the church finds itself caught off guard and intertwined in his evil end-time warfare, strategies and systems.”

First off, Janice, I don’t “practice” homosexuality, I was born this way so it just comes naturally.

And are you really saying that two men having sex, or two women, or me, say, um choking my chicken, is a weapon in the battle?

Yeah, sign me up for that army.

Rachel Maddow, on the 2007 Jeremiah Wright tape that was dragged out by right-wing as an attempt to paint Obama as some kind of race-baiter:

"See this is supposed to make you think that in this tape from before he was President Barack Obama he's revealing his secret plan to be way more Black than he seems to you now. This is how he snuck into the White House. People actually didn't know he was this Black and if they had known he was this Black they never would have elected him. That's the idea here, right? The efforts to make President Obama's race sound like new news and to make it seem shocking are now ramping up aggressively."

It’s the GOP rightwingnut, Teabaggin’ answer to Mittsy’s secret tapes where he tells all of us that he doesn’t care about half of us.

That dog won’t hunt.

Dan Cathy, of Chick-fil-A-hole, still hating The Gays:

"Families are very important to our country. And they're very important to those of us who are concerned about being able to hang on to our heritage. We support Biblical families, and they've always been a part of that."

Um, Dan, you dipshit? Gay families exist. Gay parents exist. Children of gay parents exist. And for you to somehow say that we don’t matter, that those of us who are gay and choose to be Christian, somehow don’t matter, is oh-so-very Christ-like.

Seriously, when Jesus comes back, his first stop will be at Burger King.

He doesn’t like Chicken Roasted in Hate.

Paul Ryan, on what a Romney presidency will do about marriage equality:

Ryan when asked his thoughts about marriage:

"First of all, Mitt Romney and I—I’ll just say it, it’s worth repeating—we believe marriage is between one man and one woman, that’s number one. Number two, you know where I come from we had one of those amendments in Wisconsin, I was a big supporter of it and we passed it like you say, where it’s put on the ballot it passes. The second point is, President Obama gave up defending the Defense of Marriage Act in the courts, I mean, not only is this decision to abandon this law the wrong decision, it passed in a bipartisan manner, it is very troubling because it undermines not only traditional marriage but it contradicts our system of government. It’s not the president’s job to pick and choose which laws he likes. A Romney administration will protect traditional marriage and the rule of law and we will provide the Defense of Marriage Act the proper defense in the courts that it deserves."

There you have it, straight from the horse's ass: if you are gay, have a gay relative, friend, or neighbor, and vote Romney/Ryan, you are voting for discrimination to be written into the US Constitution.
Discrimination is not an American value, no matter how many times Hound Dog Eyes tries to spin it.