Random Musings

So, in another pathetic, and yet sadly not a last ditch, effort to stop Obamacare the GOP has said it will shut down the government if they don’t get their way.

I say, Shut it down, vote the motherfuckers out. Tell the GOP that they are not there to process their racist agenda against the president they are there to work for us. And they haven’t done One.Single.Thing. since Obama took office because all they wanna do is stop him.

That’s the GOP. Vote.Them.Out.

Maybe marriage equality will come to New Jersey after all.

It seems that two Republicans, Holly Schepisi and Declan O’Scanlon, and two Democrats, Wayne DeAngelo and Gabriela Mosquera, have announced that they will vote to override Governor Chris Christie's 2012 veto of the marriage equality bill.

And O’Scanlon believes there might be more:

“The narrative that the governor strong-arms Republicans in the Legislature is false. I think you’ll see some other folks vote for it, but I don’t know exactly how many at this point. We’re some time away from that vote actually happening."

Hopefully the New Jersey GOP will not take a page from the Washington GOP and they’ll actually do something.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it half a billion times — no exaggeration — Grampa John McCain needs to retire already, head back to Arizona, park his wrinkled ass on the front porch and bark at the neighbor kids to get off his lawn.

Seriously, with everything happening in this country, and around the world, John McCain was most pissy about the night the LA Dodgers bested the Arizona Diamondbacks they celebrated by diving into the stadium pool. And this got McCain’s knickers — and you just know he’s wearin’ knickers — in a twist. He instantly Tweeted out:

Now, some politicos let their staffs do the Tweeting for them, but not Gramps McCain. This was all him and apparently it was the most pressing issue of the day for him.

The most unfortunate outcome is that the Dodgers players appeared to keep a more level head than the senior senator from Arizona, except on Twitter, though, where Dodger Brian Wilson Tweeted his response:

Suh-nap. Of course, McCain didn’t respond that day because they were serving applesauce in the Senate cafeteria and then it was time for his nap.

Dexter finished up it series run last Sunday night. I'm ambivalent about the ending — as happens every time a favorite series ends — feeling both glad and sad. He may have been a serial killer, but he was one of the good guys.

We also watched the finale of Devious Maids AKA Desperate Housewives If the Housewives Were Maids. Lifetime promised an OMG ending; seriously, they said I'd go OMG at the ending when all I said was Really? That's it? And the last episode of Broadchurch on BBCAmerica; I love a good British copper show and this one didn’t disappoint.

Now for some new shows:

Loved The Blacklist. James Spader is oily. That's all. Hated Mom. I should have known it would suck when I saw it was created by Chuck '2.5 Men' Lorre. Cheese from start to finish.

I liked Trophy Wife because at least the premiere had some irreverent humor. I loathed Lucky 7 which is about a bunch of stereotypes — though thankfully not one gay stereotype in the bunch — who with the Lottery. Yawnery.

Revolution is back. Loved it. Law & Order: SVU; I'm a huuuge fan. Modern Family — let’s just say Cam and Mitchell changing the tire was sweet ... in case you haven't yet seen it. Nashville? Hunks. Yes.

What are you watching?

Okay, for a long time now I have refused to donate used goods to the Salvation Army or drop any loose change into one of their holiday buckets because of their anti-gay stance, but this is just over the line.

While the Salvation Army has expressed their, um, distaste for the LGBT community in the past, citing their Christian beliefs — because it is impossible to be Christian and gay, you know — but recently Major Andrew Craibe, a Salvation Army Media Relations Director, went on public radio to discuss a call by LGBT parents for a boycott them for their anti-gay policies and beliefs. He said that LGBTQ parents should be put to death as the bible instructs and when radio host Serena Ryan continued the questioning it went like this:

Ryan: According to the Salvation Army, gay parents deserve death. How do you respond to that, as part of your doctrine?”

Craibe: Well, that’s a part of our belief system.”

Ryan: So they should die.”

Craibe: You know, we have an alignment to the Scriptures, but that’s our belief.

So, um, yeah, think about that the next time you have old clothes to donate or the next time one of their obnoxious bell-ringers is outside the grocery store asking for money.

Let ‘em know how you feel about their stance that gay parents deserve to be murdered.

I don't like Elton John saying he'll go to Russia because The Gays want to hear him. I think he likes the attention he's getting, he has a new album to promote, and he likes the dough.

It';s like when he sang at one of Rush Limbaugh's weddings and said maybe it might change Limbaugh's mind about marriage equality; all it turned out to be was  payday for Elton.

Take a note from a real gay man, Cher, and Just say No!

Good news, bad news.

The Berkeley City Council is set to vote on a proposal to close their domestic partner registry, now that same-sex marriage is allowed in California.

Gay District 2 Councilman Darryl Moore has placed a resolution on the council's October 1 agenda that would direct the city manager to close the registry October 11, twenty-two years after the registry was first launched:

"I am happy to say that the City of Berkeley's domestic partnership registry is obsolete. With the adoption of marriage equality in the state of California, we no longer need it, and on the 22nd anniversary of the registry being established, we are now able to officially close it in celebration of Marriage Equality Day."

Moore is also proposing that the October 11 celebration be marked by marriages conducted at Berkeley City Hall from 6 to 8 p.m.

It’s sad that the people who worked there might be out of a job, but it’s nice to see this relic of the olden times when inequality existed in California be shut down.

An Early Christmas Gift: Wisconsin Court Upholds Domestic Partner Registry

So, up there in Wisconsin, LGBT rights advocates scored an early Christmas victory when an appeals court ruled that state’s domestic partnership registry was constitutional. But the bad news is that, as sometimes happens at Christmas, the gift might be returned.

Conservatives vow to take the case all the way the Wisconsin’s GOP-leaning Supreme Court because, they say, the domestic partner registry is a little too much like marriage, and that it violates a 2006 state constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage or anything that even remotely resembles marriage equality.

And while the 4th District Court of Appeals disagreed with the right-wingnuts, and actually listed all the rights that opposite sex couples enjoy that same-sex couples don't, including joint property ownership, joint adoption and the ability to share health benefits even after a divorce, the GOP is still unhappy. And will likely stay unhappy until they make absolutely certain that gay and lesbian couples remain legally unequal. 

Members of the conservative group Wisconsin Family Action—isn’t it odd that every single anti-LGBT group feels the need to use the word family in its name?—filed a lawsuit in 2010 claiming the registry created a legal status a little too similar to marriage for same-sex couples and therefore violated the constitutional ban on gay marriage. And they did not like it. Gay folks marrying and being all equal and stuff? Well, I never…..

So, naturally, Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen refused to defend the registry, declaring it was clearly unconstitutional, which forced former Governor Jim Doyle, a Democrat, to appoint private attorneys to defend it. But when GOP asshat, wingnut and Republican Scott Walker became governor in 2011, he instantly fired those attorneys.

But, last summer, Dane County Circuit Judge Daniel Moeser ruled that the registry was constitutional and not substantially similar to marriage.

Wisconsin Family Action members appealed, and when the 4th District tried to send the case directly to the state Supreme Court, that body—dominated by conservative justices—refused to hear the case and sent it back to the appellate level. And the appeals court issued a unanimous decision, saying voters believed the marriage equality ban amendment wouldn't block benefits for same-sex couples, in part because Republicans who sponsored the amendment said as much in news releases and newspaper stories.

In fact, one of those GOP led groups that, at first seemed to support the registry, is that same Wisconsin Family Action group, whose president, Julaine Appling, wrote in an article about the marriage equality ban that legislators could consider some "legal construct ... that would give select benefits to co-habiting adults." Only now she’s saying that the registry is too much like marriage and, therefore, must go.

Flippety-flop.

It's a bit like a tennis game,, following this story, but now that it seems headed back to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, maybe this time they'll rule, and maybe this time the domestic partner registry will stick. At least until marriage equality in passed in the Land Of Cheese.

And it will pass, my friends, one day it will pass.

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It's Gettin' Gayer In Orlando

It's pretty common to find gay folks in Florida; it's a pretty gay place. And, by Florida, I mean, of course, South Florida, mainly Ft. Lauderdale, South Beach and Key West, a veritable trifecta of HomoDom. North Florida, though? Gay? Not so much.
Except now, maybe The Gay is gaining a foothold up north. The Orlando City Council voted unanimously to enact a domestic partnership registry. And while the measure stops just shy  of marriage it does grant gay couples some of the same rights as marriage. it's marriage-like, marriage-lite, everything but marriage, kinda.
Attorney Mary Meeks, who helped push for the registry, says, "This is an historic event for Orlando, and it is a monumentally important event for our community. It will be the first time in our lives that our families are recognized by our government. At least here in Orlando, our relationships are recognized as real, and they are valued and they are accepted."
Once the registry opens next month, unmarried couples--gay or straight--will be able to record their relationship in a government database for a $30 fee. Registered couples will then have some of the same rights that married people take for granted: the ability to visit one another in the hospital or jail, to make health care decisions for an incapacitated partner and to make funeral plans.
Like couples do for one another.
One snag, is the the would apply only to hospitals, funeral homes and other institutions within the Orlando city limits, although couples who live outside the city are free to sign it. And it seems that Orange County, where Orlando is located, is considering bringing similar legislation that would apply countywide.
Though the registry doesn't start for 30 days, gay activists have begun encouraging gay men and women who vacation in Orlando to stop at City Hall and sign the registry.
So, if you're headed for gay Florida, you can now add Orlando to the mix.
Disney World, South Beach, Wilton Manors, the Lighthouse Court in Key West. It's gettin' good, and gay, and good for gays, down there.

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Wisconsin Doesn't Like the Gays

Up there in Wisconsin, which is slowly turning into Wisconsizona, wingnut Governor Scott Walker believes a new law that gives gay couples hospital visitation rights violates the state constitution. He has asked a judge to allow the state to stop defending it.

A law that allows people to visit their loved ones in the hospital is unconstitutional? Oh, not 'people,' but gay people.


Back in 2009, when Democrats controlled the Legislature, they changed the law so that same-sex couples could sign up for domestic partnership registries with county clerks to secure some--not all--of the rights afforded married couples.

Like being able to visit your partner in the hospital, like you'd visit any family member. But Scott Walker doesn't think gay couples are a family. he thinks, along with the homophobic, bigoted, Wisconsin Family Action, that the registries violate a 2006 amendment to the state constitution that bans gay marriage and any arrangement that is substantially similar.

See, gay folks and gay families and gay couples don't deserve to be treated equally in Wisconsizona. At least while Scott Walker is governor, which, hopefully, won't be more than one term.

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Sound Bites

I honestly didn't think this would happen but it did.

Yesterday, Scotland released Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan agent jailed for life for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, most of them Americans, because he is dying of cancer. He was returned to Libya to live out the three months he supposedly has left.

I am with most people on this. Howsabout looking al-Megrahi in the eye when he asks to go home to die and tell him he should have thought about that before he took the lives of 270 other people.

He was shown compassion after he chose not to show compassion.

Big mistake, Scotland. Big mistake.

__________________________

Senator Edward Kennedy, terminally ill with brain cancer, has asked state legislative leaders to change the law and let Governor Deval Patrick appoint a temporary replacement upon his death.

As it stands now, Massachusetts would hold a special election months after Kennedy dies to elect a replacement. Kennedy would like the transition to be much quicker because he wants Massachusetts to have full representation in the Senate during that five-month period.

Until 2004, state law called for the governor to appoint a temporary replacement if a Senate seat became vacant, but when John Kerry was running for president that year, the Democratic-controlled state legislature wanted to deny the governor at the time--Mitt Romney--the power to name a successor if Kerry won.
In his letter, Kennedy says that he supported the 2004 law, but added, “I also believe it is vital for this Commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election.” he also asked that Governor Patrick “obtain, as a condition of appointment of the interim Senator, an explicit personal commitment not to become a candidate in the special election.”
Edward Kennedy does not want a temporary appointee to run for his seat because he wants "to ensure that whomever received that appointment did not have any head start or advantage in the special election.”

Sounds like a reasonable request. of course, the Republicans aren't going to like it, but then they apparently don't like anything except for adultery.

____________________________

Out there in the wild, wild west, round Nevada way, the secretary of state's office will begin taking applications from couples who wish to register as domestic partners.

Same- and opposite-sex couples who apply soon will receive their certificates of domestic partnership on October 1.

That's the day a new state law goes into effect extending rights similar to those held by married couples to cohabitating couples, whether gay or straight, who register with the secretary of state's office.

I don't get Nevada. They legalize prostitution. They have gambling and drinking and organized crime and $1.99 All-You-Can-Eat buffets, but they don't like the idea of the gays getting married. I mean, the domestic partnership thing is nice, but it's 'less than' and I don't like it.

See, it's like this, without the gays, who'd wait on all those tourists in all those restaurants; there'd be no bellhops and room service attendants; who'd sew the sequins on the stripper's G-string? Back-up dancers and chorus boys? Not any more!

Nevada needs the gays and should give them whatever they want to keep 'em happy.

Just sayin'.

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Michael Moore: "I'm still in a stupor of stunned ecstasy that Obama won. And I approve of most everything he's done, from apologizing to the Iranians for America overthrowing their democratically elected president in 1953 to appointing Kumar to a White House position. He is doing the best he can with the mess he inherited, and I and millions of others are counting on him never to forget that he came from the working class and that his people need him now more than ever. As for the congressional Democrats, what a bunch of losers -- weak, scared, stupid. They had better get a clue pretty quick or the Dark Forces will return."

__________________________

The Iowa Civil Rights Commission, a seven-member bipartisan panel whose duty is "to enforce state and federal statutes that prohibit discrimination in employment, public accommodations, housing, education and credit by investigating and litigating civil rights complaints," voted unanimously yesterday that it would formally oppose any effort to overturn any constitutional amendment that would overturn the state's same-sex marriage law. In addition, the panel also voted to formally support the decision of the Iowa Supreme Court in allowing same-sex couples to marry.

You know, for one of the squares states in the middle, Iowa sure is progressive.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: I Heart Iowa!

They Say It's The Same But It's Not The Same

In Wisconsin gay couples are now able to register as domestic partners.

I don't like this. Not one bit.

Oh sure, it sounds well and good on paper. The registry will afford same-sex couples some 40 legal protections previously extended only to married couples, but it falls short in making all couples equal.

And there's the rub. Not equal is not good. But not equal was enough to get the Wisconsin Family Action's granny pants in a bunch. They've filed suit, claiming the registry violates the state's constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Okay, I'll say this once asshats, and i want you to remember it: A domestic registry is not marriage, so it doesn't violate anything. It.Isn't.Marriage.

Clear?

But still, it pisses me off. What's to stop people from denying the LGBT community in Wisconsin the full rights and benefits and privileges and equality of marriage one day if they have domestic partnership registries now? All they have to say is Look, we gave 'em a registry! We don't need to change that and make 'em all equal and stuff. We have marriage, they have a registry.

I don't want to register my partnership. I want to register my china pattern for my wedding. What they've offered in Wisconsin is the crumb off the rosette off the top of a wedding cake, and it isn't right, or fair, or equal.

See the difference?

Separate is not equal.

If You Like Their Cheese, You'll Like This, Too

If you live up Wisconsin way, mark your calenders for August 3rd; it's gonna get crazy busy up there, or so they say.

That's the day same-sex couples all across the state will be able to take advantage of a historic piece of legislation that was signed into law this past Monday by Governor Jim Doyle that recognizes domestic partnerships in Wisconsin.

And it isn't simply "Hi there, we recognize you." There are dozens of legal protections that were previously available only to those who formed an opposite sex marriage, including the right to take family leave to care for a sick or dying partner, the ability to access a partner's medical records and the right to inherit a partner's property. In addition, Governor Doyle approved granting health care benefits to the same-sex partners of state employees.

Way to go, Governor!

Madison resident Dan Ross, who has been in a committed relationship with his partner for 17 years, says the cost--$115, which is the same price as an opposite sex marriage license--is a small price to pay for the assurances it will provide, particularly with inheritance issues.

The law makes Wisconsin the first state with a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage to also legally recognize domestic partnerships; so the bad seems to have brought about the good, in this case. People are saying that the campaign to bring about the marriage equality ban strengthened the fight for the domestic partnership bill. It didn't hurt that the state Assembly and Senate were both controlled by Democrats for the first time in 14 years.

Go Democrats!

Now, Wosconsin, you've taken this one small step for man, and man, or womena nd woman, why don't you prepare to take that giant leap for mankind and get to work on marriage equality?

Take That Gibbons

So, this is what history looks like.

The Nevada State Assembly voted last night to override the veto of Governor Jim Gibbons on a bill giving legal rights to domestic partners. Nevada has become the 17th state to recognize the relationships of gay and lesbian couples under state law. Not marriage, but at least we're being recognized. it's a step. The new law takes effect October 1.

The governor says the people of Nevada were against the bill. He says gay folks are okay, but that we don't deserve the same rights as regular people; if we want some--and we only get some, not all--protections, we ought to get down to a lawyer's office and draft up a contract to protect us. Everyone else can just shoot craps, hit the drive-thru wedding chapels and follow up with a 99-cent buffet, but the gays gotta get it in writin' with all the proper signatures and stamps.

However, assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, a Democrat from Reno, called the Gibbon's smackdown an “historic vote for equality and justice,” and added, “This is the most important civil rights legislation we’ve had in all my years here and I am so happy and honored to be a part of it.”

Yes, it is, Sharon. Indeed.

And, way to go, Nevada. Now, it's just a hop, skip and a jump for marriage equality.

Cleveland Rocks.....Well, It's Lite Rock But It's A Start

Just yesterday, for the first time ever, in Cleveland, unmarried couples--same-sex and "opposite"-sex--began signing up for the city's new domestic partner registry.
Supporters plan a celebratory rally; detractors will kick off a National Day of Prayer.

Pfffft.

This isn't a big deal, nor is it a little deal. it's a mostly symbolic gesture: It does not guarantee any rights, though it may encourage employers and hospitals to give unmarried couples the same rights usually reserved for the married.

"It's not about marriage," said Councilman Joe Cimperman, who sponsored the registry. "It's about recognizing relationships. And this is just the beginning. Come on, it's 2009! This is the battle of human rights for our generation."
This may not sound like much to y'all, but it is one of those, and here I go again, baby steps. I think allowing same-sex partners to register as domestic partners will show some opponents of marriage equality that it isn't an affront to traditional marriage. It's simply a commitment to share your life with the person you love and having it recognized.
A small step, but a step.

Cleveland.com has the full story.