Politics

Well, you have seen prior GOP attempts at intimidating voters at the polls refreshed in the news by the SOTUS refusing to undo a law several decades old the prohibited GOP poll watchers from acosting voters to question their legitimacy. Then there was the photo ID issue ginned up to ferret out nonexistent fraudulent voters. The only cases of fraud found in the last election were a couple of GOP functionaries, one attempting to vote twice and another one or two trashing voter registrations of Democrats that their voter registration drives unfortunately produced. Also recall the OH Secretary of State and the Florida Governor who attempted to cut back early voting, some e…

In marriage equality news, the Rhode Island House has passed the marriage equality bill, sending it to the Senate for a much tougher fight. Hawaii has introduced a marriage equality bill, bringing the fight full circle, as it began in many ways in Hawaii. And in the UK, the marriage equality bill has been formally introduced in the House of Commons.

On his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh claimed that Hillary Clintons Benghazi hearing is staged. Limbaugh claimed that Republicans were in on the conspiracy too, because this was all part of getting Hillary Clinton elected in 2016. LOL Rush is a douche and hates that a strong woman kicked the ass of his Republican cohorts. Way to go Hillary. You have been a great service to the USA in the last 4 years and I look forward to whatever you decide to do in 4 more years.

Progress Does Not Always Come Easy by Jimmy Carter As a legislator in my state I drew up my first law to say that citizens could never vote again after they had passed away. My fellow members faced the troubling issue bravely, locked in hard debate on whether, after someone's death had come, three years should be adequate to let the family, recollecting him, determine how a loved one may have cast a vote if he had only lived to see the later voting day. My own neighbors warned me I had gone too far in changing what we'd always done. I lost the next campaign, and failed to carry a single precinct with a cemetery. From Jimmy Carter's Always A Reckoning and Other Poems…

Maybe worth re-reading, on this Inauguration Day, the full lyrics of 'America the Beautiful.' So familiar an old warhorse that we may not always stop to hear its felt pleas for the better angels of the national soul to stand up against the Gilded Age greed, nationalistic overreach, general hubris of its time. Themes only too relevant still. It won't happen, nor maybe should it, but still I feel glad each time there is a little swell of agita for this to be made our national anthem. America the Beautiful (Katherine Lee Bates, 1904, 1913) O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! G…

By Michelangelo Signorile: President Obama didn't just make history by becoming the first president to refer to "our gay brothers and sisters" in an inaugural address. That alone was a stunner: he put gay rights on the agenda for his second term in a way no other president had committed to before. But by referring to the Stonewall riots of 1969 in the same sentence as Seneca Falls and , he also put LGBT rights within the context of the great civil rights movements in American history. Standing before the Republican leaders fighting against gay rights, the Supreme Court which will be deciding on gay rights this year, and the American people who are fast embracing gay …

Here's the full text of President Barack Obama's second inauguration address, courtesy of the White House: "Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens: Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional – what makes us American – is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago: “We hold these…

All day during the inauguration, John Boehner cannot muster at least one smile. He can't even smile while listening to Beyonce or even staring at her booty. . .

If they get this foppish but symbolically potent thing done before we manage to get rid of DOMA, it will be a bit dispiriting. http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/01/20/mps-to-plan-for-gay-royals-marrying-same-sex-partners-and-their-children-becoming-king-or-queen/

Droll... http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/20/opinion/greene-hail-to-the-chief/index.html?c=homepage-t&page=1

The other day another thread (http://www.boytoy.com/forums/index.php?/topic/12717-jindal-wants-to-eliminate-all-income-taxes) got briefly onto the topic of religion: fer it or agin' it. Just now I was browsing Wikipedia on physicist Paul Dirac, and noticed this relevant bit, which I think has a lot to it. ...Heisenberg recollected a conversation among young participants at the 1927 Solvay Conference about Einstein and Planck's views on religion. Wolfgang Pauli, Heisenberg and Dirac took part in it. Dirac's contribution was a criticism of the political purpose of religion, which was much appreciated for its lucidity by Bohr when Heisenberg reported it to him later. Among …

Interesting alternative argument as to why the 2nd Amendment exists. Thom Hartmann: The Second Amendment Was Ratified to Preserve Slavery Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison were totally clear on that ... and we all should be too. January 15, 2013 The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says "State" instead of "Country" (the Framers knew the difference - see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia's vote. Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison were totally clear on that . . . and we all should be too. In the beginning, there w…

Breaking News: The New York Senate has approved a gun control bill by a vote of 43 to 18. The bill targets assault rifles, high-capacity clips of ammunition and requires reports of the mentally ill who pose a threat to others with illegal guns. The Democrat-led Assembly is expected to easily pass the measure. http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/politics&id=8953877

Republican pundit warns GOP to tread lightly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ_na53972Q

Fascinating history of the NRA's about-face from its pro-gun-control origins: http://www.alternet.org/suprising-unknown-history-nra?paging=off

The Supreme Court has turned down an effort by the Republican National Committee to end a 30-year-old court order aimed at preventing intimidation of minority voters. The justices did not comment Monday in rejecting an appeal of lower court decisions that left the order in place at least until 2017. The order stems from a lawsuit filed by Democrats in New Jersey in 1981 that objected to a "ballot security" program the RNC ran in minority neighborhoods. Republicans said the order hampers efforts to combat voter fraud, but U.S. District Judge Dickinson Debevoise said voter intimidation remains a threat and preventing it outweighs the potential danger of fraud. The court…

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/11/16466568-jindal-wants-to-scrap-income-corporate-taxes?lite Bobby Jindal wants to eliminate all income and corporate taxes in Louisiana. And he wants to pay for it by raising sales tax. So in this case you are taxed on what you pay not on what you earn. Guess who that will benefit the most? And who will suffer the most? This is a horrible idea of all horrible ideas.

For Small Things Let Us Be Grateful Dept.: The Rev. Louis "homosexuality is sin" Giglio won't be giving the benediction at BO's inauguration. http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/10/giglio-bows-out-of-inauguration-over-sermon-on-gays/

Something I hadn't known about til just now... http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse Rather cool.

This is unbelievable. This is a great representation of corporate greed at its finest. I like how they say in the article that feel they have no choice as they have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to sue to get the best possible deal. Elizabeth Warren has already sent out emails to her constituents about this potential outrage. http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/washingtons-jaw-drops-at-possibility-of-aig-lawsuit-85924.html

Time magazine is doing a profile of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. Christie's PR is already beginning. In order to have a better chance at the nomination in 2016, he needs to win re-election as Governor of New Jersey later this year. So watch this space, we will see more and more of Christie this year.

Five things Chuck Hagel should do for gay troops. For whatever reason that is not entirely clear, the Log Cabin Republicans have been well funded by someone (they won't say) to place big full page ads against this Chuck Hagel nomination. Yet they endorsed Romney who was far worse on LGBT issues than Chuck Hagel.

The Economist excoriates the administration's continued trampling of civil liberties: Transparency and secrecy Score one for the thicket Jan 3rd 2013, 21:43 by J.F. | ATLANTA WHILE everyone was watching the fiscal-cliff debacle, Congress and Barack Obama decided that they could still eavesdrop on Americans' putatively private conversations without putting themselves to the trouble of obtaining a warrant. The FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Amendments Act, which Congress extended following weeks of fierce, impassioned a rushed single day of debate, allows federal agencies to listen to the phone calls and read the emails of American citizens' international…

The Guardian advocates an intriguing proposition... http://m.guardiannews.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/05/paul-krugman-obama-treasury-secretary

The Court has scheduled arguments in challenges to Prop 8 and DOMA for March: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/275903-supreme-court-to-hear-gay-marriage-cases-in-march