Politics

Despite passing the Senate 89-8 with a bill no one is happy with, it looks like House Republicans were willing to drive the world economy off a cliff rather than allow a vote on the bill the Senate and the White House agreed to. But They passed it, barely. I'm just glad that unemployment insurance was extended for a short time. I'd like to see some real work on how to modify Social Security and Medicare going forward instead of this PR oneupsmanship stuff.

Rick Warren on the same-sex marriage debate Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life," talks to Rock Center Special Correspondent Chelsea Clinton about his views regarding love, compassion, acceptance and same-sex marriage. She tries to pull out his views but he never really makes sense. This is why I stopped going to his church as well as I found out that I had to repent my gayness and get baptized again otherwise I wasn't allowed to be a member. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/50265085#50265085

The Iowa Supreme Court says it's perfectly legal to fire someone because you find them too attractive to resist, even if they're not flirting with you in any way. This has to be the dumbest court ruling I've ever heard. . .

The Top GLBT Political Moments Of 2012.

Fox News Pushing Karl Rove, Dick Morris Off The Air The Huffington Post | By Chris Gentilviso Posted: 12/04/2012 7:42 pm EST Updated: 12/04/2012 10:35 pm EST Karl Rove's familiar 2012 presence on Fox News appears to be coming to a halt. New York Magazine reports that President Roger Ailes is limiting Rove and fellow contributor Dick Morris' presences for the time being. A Fox News representative affirmed the situation to NYMag, adding that programming chief Bill Shine conveyed "the election's over." Rove turned heads with an Election-night meltdown on Fox News, where he questioned the network's "premature" decision to call Ohio and, subsequently, the race for Pres…

'Sequestration II': The Latest Stupid Idea That People Will Be Stupidly Talking About Jason Linkins -- The Huffington Post -- Posted: 12/13/2012 2:15 pm EST | Updated: 12/13/2012 8:55 pm EST So, every day for the past month or so we have been told that we are nearing a "fiscal cliff" and without a "grand bargain" we will "go over" it and "bad stuff" will happen to us, the American people. Now, in my capacity as a real-keeper, I must tell you that the size and depth and horrors of the potential "bad stuff" has all been overblown by partisans and a political media that understands tragically little about the underlying issues. But the simple fact of the matter is that i…

Fact-checkers Sputter And Flop Attempting To Explain How Social Security Works, Affects Deficit Jason Linkins and Ryan Grimm -- The Huffington Post A gaggle of fact-checkers recently attempted to bring clarity to the question of whether Social Security adds to the deficit. Much as they did during the campaign, the fact-checkers have instead confused what is in fact quite a simple issue. Social Security, by law, does not add to the deficit. It is not a driver of long-term debt.We’ve been over this. The reason no one can get it right is because here in this season of the fiscal cliff, no one is getting anything right. It’s a full-on headless chicken panic. Everyone needs…

Why Republicans Can’t Propose Spending Cuts By Jonathan Chait “Where are the president’s spending cuts?” asks John Boehner. With Republicans coming to grips with their inability to stop taxes on the rich from rising, the center of the debate has turned to the expenditure side. In the short run, the two parties have run into an absurd standoff, where Republicans demand that President Obama produce an offer of higher spending cuts, and Obama replies that Republicans should say what spending cuts they want, and Republicans insist that Obama should try to guess what kind of spending cuts they would like. Reporters are presenting this as a kind of negotiating problem, based…

I guess he does. But do we really care? I guess the minions that follow him blindly might just follow him on this too perhaps. . . http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/11/glenn-beck-gay-marriage_n_2277885.html

Barney Frank is retiring from office this year. I first became aware of him when the scandal broke out with the prostitute he was assisting. I didn't think he would survive that but he did. Thank goodness he did. He has been active on many issues that I believe in and he has been a true champion of gay rights. I saw his interview with Bill Maher a few weeks back and loved it. Frank was so engaging and funny in every interview I saw him give. I really enjoyed him a great deal. Great piece in the Washington Post today about him and the impact he made on other openly gay lawmakers! http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/barney-frank-charted-path-for-other-openly-gay-…

Is Karl finally fed up with fighting the unwinnable war? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/11/30/karl-rove-american-crossroads_n_2218080.html?icid=hp_politics_art_nxt Much of what he says here is double talk, to be sure. But then he would know better than anyone else that this is the only way to get up his own party's backside and begin to fix some of the many things that ail them.

Why is it that those from Clinton's White House are so good at explaining things? LOL It is more than just "arithmetic." Acclaimed author, Berkeley professor, and Clinton-era Secretary of Labor Robert Reich lays out the what, why and how of the Fiscal "Cliff", the showdown in Congress that Republicans created to demand painful cuts in vital domestic programs in exchange for raising taxes on the top 2%. Learn the facts, and the best way out of this forced showdown.

I am not sure why Americans don't take more notice of this. When I first saw the reports on NYT and other papers, I thought, Ahh Ha, things will really heat up now in America. Nope. It didn't happen. Why not? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_L4jkHzWJE&list=UL

Gripping piece re-presenting Rosa Parks as much more of an activist firebrand than the usual depictions: http://smuttystuff.mexcam.mx/2012/11/30/sex-in-the-straw/zz67f88t439g4/

Yes Romney is going to the White House for a luncheon.

A partisan war is brewing that could bring the government to a screeching halt as early as January — and no, it’s not over the fiscal cliff. It’s all about the filibuster. Democrats are threatening to change filibuster rules, in what will surely prompt a furious GOP revolt that could make those rare moments of bipartisan consensus even harder to come by during the next Congress. Here’s what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is considering: banning filibusters used to prevent debate from even starting and House-Senate conference committees from ever meeting. He also may make filibusters become actual filibusters — to force senators to carry out the nonstop, talkathon se…

President Obama has nominated the first out Latina judge to the federal bench with Nitza Quiñones Alejandro. Alejandro has the unique plus of being recommended by Democratic Senator Bob Casey and Tea Party Republican Rep. Pat Toomey.

Of course. . .

Here is a documentary from history channel about how what we call as the Bible came about... Whether you believe in religion or not I think it is a very informative documentary since Someone mentioned the book of Leviticus on the other thread. I love the fact that people can freely discuss research findings and share scholarly opinions freely without raising the issue of blasphemy like that we see in the Middle East. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MDCroKsfUog

While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may be eyeing the exit door next year, while she's still the Secretary of State, she's continuing to use her office to advance the rights of LGBT people around the world. Her latest endorsement is Out On the Street, a summit of powerful financial heads in London coming together to decide how the financial industry can advance LGBT rights. “The inaugural Out on the Street summit in Europe is an exciting opportunity to connect with one another and share strategies on how to advance the rights of LGBT individuals in the workplace and beyond, and to underscore why this issue matters for the industry”

If you can watch one hour of TV this week, try this one. It's a stunner. Once you hear these people speak, you'll know what's happened to the American Dream. Whether we can still salvage our democracy remains to be seen.