Obama's Open Letter to the LGBT Community

Well, better now than never, Senator. Personally, I find his position of wanting to leave it up to the states to decide how many or what specific civil rights LGBT folks have downright awful and reeking of pandering. Not to mention how reminiscent of the calls for states' rights in the South during the Civil Rights Movement. If equality is a "moral imperative," why would you let Gerogia or Vermont or Utah decide how equal LGBT people are to everyone else? Anyways, at least he's at long last finally "talking" about the issues:

I’m running for President to build an America that lives up to our founding promise of equality for all – a promise that extends to our gay brothers and sisters. It’s wrong to have millions of Americans living as second-class citizens in this nation. And I ask for your support in this election so that together we can bring about real change for all LGBT Americans.

Equality is a moral imperative. That’s why throughout my career, I have fought to eliminate discrimination against LGBT Americans. In Illinois, I co-sponsored a fully inclusive bill that prohibited discrimination on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender identity, extending protection to the workplace, housing, and places of public accommodation. In the U.S. Senate, I have co-sponsored bills that would equalize tax treatment for same-sex couples and provide benefits to domestic partners of federal employees. And as president, I will place the weight of my administration behind the enactment of the Matthew Shepard Act to outlaw hate crimes and a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act to outlaw workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

As your President, I will use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality in their family and adoption laws. I personally believe that civil unions represent the best way to secure that equal treatment. But I also believe that the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide on their own how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples — whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage. Unlike Senator Clinton, I support the complete repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) – a position I have held since before arriving in the U.S. Senate. While some say we should repeal only part of the law, I believe we should get rid of that statute altogether. Federal law should not discriminate in any way against gay and lesbian couples, which is precisely what DOMA does. I have also called for us to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and I have worked to improve the Uniting American Families Act so we can afford same-sex couples the same rights and obligations as married couples in our immigration system.

The next president must also address the HIV/AIDS epidemic. When it comes to prevention, we do not have to choose between values and science. While abstinence education should be part of any strategy, we also need to use common sense. We should have age-appropriate sex education that includes information about contraception. We should pass the JUSTICE Act to combat infection within our prison population. And we should lift the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of infection among drug users. In addition, local governments can protect public health by distributing contraceptives.

We also need a president who’s willing to confront the stigma – too often tied to homophobia – that continues to surround HIV/AIDS. I confronted this stigma directly in a speech to evangelicals at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, and will continue to speak out as president. That is where I stand on the major issues of the day. But having the right positions on the issues is only half the battle. The other half is to win broad support for those positions. And winning broad support will require stepping outside our comfort zone. If we want to repeal DOMA, repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and implement fully inclusive laws outlawing hate crimes and discrimination in the workplace, we need to bring the message of LGBT equality to skeptical audiences as well as friendly ones – and that’s what I’ve done throughout my career. I brought this message of inclusiveness to all of America in my keynote address at the 2004 Democratic convention. I talked about the need to fight homophobia when I announced my candidacy for President, and I have been talking about LGBT equality to a number of groups during this campaign – from local LGBT activists to rural farmers to parishioners at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Dr. Martin Luther King once preached.

Just as important, I have been listening to what all Americans have to say. I will never compromise on my commitment to equal rights for all LGBT Americans. But neither will I close my ears to the voices of those who still need to be convinced. That is the work we must do to move forward together. It is difficult. It is challenging. And it is necessary.

Americans are yearning for leadership that can empower us to reach for what we know is possible. I believe that we can achieve the goal of full equality for the millions of LGBT people in this country. To do that, we need leadership that can appeal to the best parts of the human spirit. Join with me, and I will provide that leadership. Together, we will achieve real equality for all Americans, gay and straight alike.

Happy President's Day!

(lower the volume if surrounded by impressionable youths...or not)

There Will Be Milkshakes

ok, enjoy this until this "I drink your milkshake" becomes the next endlessly referenced quote a la anything mike myers did as that 007 satire guy who shagged everything...cause you know it will...but in the meantime, it's hilarious:

It's Not an American Election Without Voting Irregularities!

hmmm, zero votes for Obama on Supecalifragilistic Tuesday in Harlem and 80 of NYC's election districts? Yeah, I'm sure it's just a "clerical error." Via NY Times:

Black voters are heavily represented in the 94th Election District in Harlem’s 70th Assembly District. Yet according to the unofficial results from the New York Democratic primary last week, not a single vote in the district was cast for Senator Barack Obama.

That anomaly was not unique. In fact, a review by The New York Times of the unofficial results reported on primary night found about 80 election districts among the city’s 6,106 where Mr. Obama supposedly did not receive even one vote, including cases where he ran a respectable race in a nearby district.

City election officials this week said that their formal review of the results, which will not be completed for weeks, had confirmed some major discrepancies between the vote totals reported publicly — and unofficially — on primary night and the actual tally on hundreds of voting machines across the city...On Feb. 5, Mrs. Clinton carried 61 of the state’s 62 counties but won Brooklyn by a margin of less than 2 percent. Because delegates are awarded proportionately on the basis of the primary vote in each Congressional district, Obama supporters expressed hope that if the official count continued in their favor, they might gain an additional delegate or two.

Washington Post Hails John McCain As Hobbit King Of The Potomac

Last night, America elected its first co-presidents of Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia: a charismatic young senator, and some sort of midget goblin.
via wonkette

god supports obama over clinton

...or maybe god is simply pissed at hillary supporters. mind you, i did not create this map, it's all the fault of the new york times, those morally bankrupts heathens of far-leftism. actually, gawker took two nyt maps and superimposed them, but lets be trendy and blame the times anyway!

*note: obama won alabama, but hillary won each county in that state with a recorded death from tuesday's storms.

super tuesday thoughts

so, i will be off later today to vote in the primary, and for once it will mean something. my good friend (and sorkin pal) meredith sent me a wonderful piece she wrote, and i feel the need to share it with y'all:

Hello my fellow friends and family - thought you might be interested in what I came up with at 11:30pm last night when I couldn't sleep:

My version of the (almost) perfect world. It's simplistic and idealistic, I know, but whatever. It's my (almost) perfect world. It is what I say it is. FYI - I limited myself to the "real" world, so while I would like to see a female president in my lifetime, I don't think there's anyone in U.S. politics right now that really fits the bill (and that includes Billary) and therefore I had a choose a different "perfect" president.

Enjoy!


In my (almost) perfect world, Al Gore would be president. Because we need a president who already has an Oscar, an Emmy and a Nobel Peace Prize. We need someone who actually cares about more than his (or her) political agendas.

John Edwards and Barack Obama would be Co-Vice Presidents. Because in my (almost) perfect world, I say two people can get twice as much done. Then maybe the VEEP wouldn't be such a do-nothing position.

Bill Richardson would be Secretary of Energy and Joe Biden would be Secretary of State. Mike Gravel would have some kind of Cabinet job because I like crazy Alaskans.

The Clintons would drop out of public life and retire to fight with each other for all eternity.

The Axis of Evil - Bush, Cheney and Rove - would be in jail in The Hague, on trial in the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The county would discover that, in a wonderful little twist of irony, Larry Craig and Rick Santorum have been having a secret affair for years.

All overtly radical right-wing media would be shut down - Rupert Murdoch would be bankrupt, Bill-O and Rush Limbaugh would be forced off the air and have permanent pieces of duck tape slapped across their mouths.

Education would be free and universal all the way through high school. Schools would be palaces, with the best equipment and technology. Competition for teachers would be fierce. Teachers would have passion and high salaries. There would be a national curriculum that still gives each state, school district and school its own flexibility and creativity. Classes would emphasize world history and culture, languages, math, literature, science, art and music. Creationism would be laughed at and everyone would recognize Darwin and evolution.
Every single citizen would have free and quality health care. No one would ever be turned down for coverage based on their ability to pay. Prescriptions for seniors and low-income citizens would be covered by health care and no one would ever have to choose between paying rent or buying medicine. Preventative care would help stop most emergency cases before they became emergencies. Stem-cell research would thrive and flourish and medical professionals would have all the funding they needed to eradicate diseases.

There would be no threats to a woman's right to choose. Abortions would be safe and legal (as they mostly are now) and free from radical attacks. Schools would be required to teach more than abstinence only in sex ed classes. And with the proper education about safe and effective birth control, abortions and teen/unwanted pregnancies would be less frequent because people would actually use the birth control.

Marriage would be possible for any two people who wanted to get married, regardless of their gender. Gay and lesbian couples would be afforded the same rights and privileges as any hetrosexual couple. "Family values" would actually value the family, in any form the family happened to take.

The U.S. would ratify the Kyoto Protocol and take serious and significant steps to reverse global warming and protect the environment. American cars would have better gas mileage, people would strive to reduce their own carbon footprints and the naysayers would be silenced. ANWR would be protected from drilling and the U.S. would develop alternative energy sources and ween itself off Middle Eastern oil.

There would be no such thing as the NRA and the U.S. would have strict gun control laws. It would be nearly impossible for anyone (besides law enforcement officials and the military) to own or buy a gun. Wal-Mart and Kmart wouldn't be allowed to sell bullets.

The War in Iraq would end. The U.S. and its allies would defeat the Taliban and Al Queda in Afghanistan and establish stable local governments (i.e. governments made up of the people of that country, not U.S. military forces) in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The U.S. would devise of policy to diplomacy over war and would never again invade a sovereign nation that had not attacked us first. It would use the military to help with humanitarian missions, esp. in Darfur (and possibly in Kenya and Chad).

There would be a multi-nation, multi-religion world peace summit to address issues and problems, especially in the Middle East. While world peace may not be achieved in my (almost) perfect world, the U.S. would at least try to get fighting countries to listen to each other. A real effort would be made to establish a Palestinian state. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wouldn't be allowed to speak publicly unless he had something constructive and helpful to say. Radicals and/or fundamentalists of ANY religion who would seek to harm people whose faith disagreed with theirs would not be tolerated.

No one, in any part of the world, would be discriminated against based on race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, or political views.

And Britney Spears would finally get her act together and behave like an adult and mother, but no one would be paying attention because they're all too busy with more important things.