Month: November 2008
BLACK UP, GAY DOWN
November 5, 2008:
M.L.K.’s words in D.C. seem, in retrospect, to have been a blueprint for victory in the presidential personality contest between Obama and McCain. The content of Obama’s character – his obvious intelligence and genuine fair mindedness, his unassailable calm, his love for his family – won out against the white skin of his irascible opponent.
Yet as the first mixed race candidate was elected President of the United States, four of those States passed discrimination laws against homosexuals.
California, Florida and Arizona all passed ban-gay-marriage amendments, and Arkansas made it impossible for gay couples to become adoptive or foster parents.
In the two of these states that Obama won – California and Florida – Blacks and Latinos were instrumental in passing the discrimination laws.
In California, according to AP polls, 70% of African Americans and more than 50% of Latinos supported Prop 8, a state-constitutional ban on gay marriage.
The passage of Prop. 8 also puts into legal limbo the marriages of about 18,000 same sex couples, including that of Robin Tyler and Diane Olson. (Pictured above in black and white, they were the couple whose lawsuit defeated the previous California same-sex marriage ban, and were the first legally recognized same-sex marriage after the original ban was found to be unconstitutional.)
Although Obama did oppose Prop. 8, he didn’t do so very strongly and in fact supporters of the gay marriage ban could quote him accurately in their fliers:
“I’m not in favor of gay marriage…”
UPDATE (9/9/08): Of course, nothing in the above post is meant to excuse anything like this. Obviously, homophobia is not limited to African-Americans, and not all African-Americans are homophobic. And there are African-American homosexuals.
TRAINING POLITICIANS TO TAKE YOU FOR GRANTED
November 3, 2008:
To Summarize: Obama supported the Republican Class Action Reform Bill, there-authorization of the Patriot Act, the retroactive immunity amendment to FISA, off-shore drilling and the death penalty. He now thinks that the “surge” worked, does not rule out the continued use of private mercenaries, and, in Iraq, is now only committed to “reducing the number of combat troops within 16 months.” He has called for an increase in military spending and picked a running mate who supported the invasion of Iraq and the original Patriot Act. He supported the Wall St. bailout. He thinks Hugo Chavez is an enemy of the United States, but that “Israel’s security is sacrosanct.”
I get it. Barack Obama is intelligent, beautiful and he loves children.Or at least American children. The children of Afghanistan, who, like the child in black and white,too often suffer the consequences of U.S. air-stirikes, might have to look for an alternative daddy since this one pledges to escalate war in their country.
Matt Gonzalez, Nader’s running mate, asks progressive supporters of Obama / Biden: “What would they have to do to lose your vote?”
Alexander Cockburn, writing for the Nation magazine, also tries his hand at dissuading progressives from Obama.
The Hermit discusses Obama’s endorsement of the Bush Doctrine with wit and verve.
And in a personal message to my fellow Californians: Remember, we in California are free to vote on principle – there is no way McCain can win here, and Obama should know there would be a price to pay for continued support of corporate welfare and lawlessness, imperial war and destructive environmental policies.
And, for what it is worth, my brother and I discussed the state measures and came up with this: Yes on 1A, 2 and 3. No on 4. Yes on 5. No on 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. Yes on 11 and 12.
THE VICHY DEMOCRAT SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE
November 1, 2008:
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is the Representative of 8th Congressional District of California, but her seat is being challenged by Cindy Sheehan. Sheehan lost a son to the Iraq War, and her campaign is motivated by Pelosi’s collaboration with the Bush regime.
Before she became the Speaker of the House, Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi pledged that Bush would get no more “blank checks” for his Terror War. Since she became speaker in 2006, war appropriations have gone up $350 billion.
As Speaker of the House, Pelosi announced that impeachment of Bush was “off the table.”
In 2008, she voted to legitimize Bush’s warrant-less spying program and to grant retroactive immunity to the telecoms who collaborated with it. And she pushed the Wall Street bailout. And she capitulated on offshore drilling.
Pelosi was also one of the Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee briefed by the CIA on torture procedures in 2002, and kept it a secret from the public despite her pledge to defend the Constitution.
From an interview of Sheehan by Matt Gonzales:
“On a very personal and tragic level, the policies of torture at Abu Ghraib was one of the factors that led to a Shi’a uprising that killed my son, Casey, in Sadr City, Baghdad on April 4, 2004. Even with saying all that, my candidacy is not about vengeance, but about justice. Our elected officials from both parties must be held accountable for their crimes against humanity and our democracy.”
On Impeachment:
“I will work diligently to impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney even when they are out of office. As long as a President, or Vice President takes any Federal help, such as a pension, or Secret Service protection, he can be impeached.”
