Now that Obama is firmly reelected (and some people just can't handle that idea) a slew of petitions have appeared asking for individual states be allowed to secede from the union. Yep, Michigan is in the list (there is a strong Militia movement in the farm country north of Detroit). If a particular petition gets over 25K signatures within a month, Obama is supposed to consider and respond. The petition for Texas has topped 73K.
David Badash of the New Civil Rights Movement notes there are such petitions in 42 states. He tries to make the claim that the states without such petitions are the ones with gay marriage, but he includes Alaska and Hawaii and leaves out New York and New Hampshire. Oops. But why not let them secede? he asks. Progressives can take their part of the country in the direction they want much more quickly, and conservatives can remake society in their own fashion without big battles. So, if you can, go for it. Except progressives know that the children, minorities, the old, and the poor won't fare well in the conservative parts. Badash ends this way:
But sadly, it’s probably not possible.
So, Tea Party “patriots” will need to become compatriots. They’ll need to lose the attitude. Lose the wing nuts. Lose the hats. Send the GOP to the dust bins of history. And send the anti-gay radical religious right straight back to the Hell from which it came.
Let’s start anew — by recognizing we are a nation of immigrants. And gay people. And Black people. And Women. And…
But God Almighty, cut the selfish, racist, anti-science, anti-evolution, anti-gay, anti-math, anti-education, anti-truth crap. Or get the hell out.
Fred Karger, one-time gay GOP candidate for prez., ponders the invisibility of the Mormon Church in the recent four-state battle over gay marriage for an article in the Huffington Post. That church has been heavily involved in all such battles since the one in Hawaii back in 1998. They were also in the thick of it during the Calif. battle in 2008. The backlash from that battle gave the Mormons a very public black eye.
Karger is the one to talk about all this because he was the one in 2008 who documented and exposed how much money and effort the Mormon Church put into the battle.
Karger says the reason why the Mormons sat out these four battles (actually, five -- they sat out North Carolina last spring) is simple. One of their guys was a candidate for prez. and they didn't want their reputation of bullying gays to hurt Romney's chances.
But will they sit out the next marriage battle? They lost a lot of members over the Calif. fight, so perhaps they will.
In Karger's article I found that Mormon science fiction author Orson Scott Card is on the board of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM -- who were very much our opponents this year). I already knew Card was anti-gay. Now I have an even bigger reason to avoid his books.
NOM is whining they were outspent in the four marriage equality battles this fall. And not by a little, but by 3-4 times. Actually, NOM has been outspent starting with the Calif. battle in 2008. Even so, it leads to a couple questions. Would NOM have still lost if they weren't outspent? See the amount of money spent on the Romney campaign. And why weren't they able to raise as much money as the pro-gay side? Perhaps the Catholic Church is tapped out and nobody else wants to fund a losing cause.
Michelangelo Signorile, also writing in the Huffington Post, notes the shrinking influence of the Christian Right and lists some reasons why that is happening.
* There just aren't enough of them anymore.
* Reaching out to Latinos and Blacks isn't going to fix that demographic problem -- these two groups are changing their views of social issues, especially marriage equality, as fast as the rest of the country.
* Catholic Church members (not the leadership) can no longer be counted on as a reliable conservative vote on social issues.
* Single women (and there are a lot more of them) don't like politicians who want to control their wombs.
* Nine states now have marriage equality.
Signorile says that means the Fundies are getting desperate and their rhetoric is becoming more violent. We dare not dismiss them.
Joe Sudbay, again of the Huffington Post, looks over the last eight years. The string of marriage equality losses in 2004 were quite scary for gay people. It is a different world now, and feels much safer.
Janesville, Wisconsin City Council has extended domestic partner benefits to city and library employees. Lots of towns are doing that now (such as Grand Island, Nebraska, of all places), so why mention this one? It's Paul Ryan's home town.
From the crazy to the cute. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor stopped in to Sesame Street to talk to Abby Cadaby about careers.
And Sesame Street deals with a hurricane. This is in three parts. The first part (15 minutes) is all about preparing for the storm and riding it out. The second (15 minutes) deals with Big Bird trying to rebuild his nest, though it is only a small part of the episode. The third (10 minutes) features the actual nest building but is also just a part of the episode. I'm sure lots of East Coast kids had to deal with Sandy, so seeing their beloved characters deal with it would be a help. Beyond noting this episode exists, I'm not exactly recommending you watch it all -- unless you are a fan Sesame Street.
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