teke184

I vehemently disagree with that statement, as one of the major problems within the gay community is the self-repression that comes with actually being a taboo, and the fact that so few gays are fighting the good fight. I would venture to say 3% of gay marriages would go this route. However, it's important to remember that resistance is created out of denial of rights, and if gays were allowed to get married, the militance would decrease over time. The majority of African Americans aren't the type who get in people's faces just begging for hints of discrimination, even if there will always be a few who do. They've mellowed as society has become more accepting. The same thing would happen here. Minorities of ALL kinds typically are sane... it's their leadership that are typically nuts. The average black man in Baton Rouge tends to be sane but the de-facto leaders of the black special interest groups (Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, Charles Rangel, Julian Bond, Kwesi Mfune) scream "RAY-CISM~!" at the drop of a hat to get whatever they want. If there was a gay leader who had widespread support within that community that DIDN'T compare the Religious Right's views to those of the Nazis, they would have more mainstream support.

A partisan Secretary Of State is still better than an entrenched civil servant... At least a Secretary Of State can be removed if the people aren't happy with their work. Civil servants are entrenched somewhat permanently unless they do something illegal or insubordinate.

His ripping on Fred Silverman was hilarious. He's a real funny guy- Why Not Me is hilarious The Silverman bit WAS hilarious. However, his tendency to abuse guests on other NBC shows like Spiro Agnew on the Tom Snyder show and Henry Kissinger, who was trying to get tickets for his kid to see SNL, were just mean-spirited.

Ummmm... BOB I expect YOU of all people to recognize sarcasm considering your the big SNL afficionado on this board Franken was using all of the extreme right wing crap as a joke. Notice how he said "Kerry should've have said he would ban the bible... especially in the christian communities. Maybe the atheists..." Franken is so far out on the lunatic fringe that it isn't even funny. His tendency to do the outrageous to guests of NBC while working there was a severe CLM (career limiting move) and has been listed as a reason why Jean Doumanian took over SNL in 1980 and flushed the show down the toilet. (Franken was Lorne Michaels' choice to take over but Al decided to be an ass and did a skit disparaging the embattled head of NBC. That stunt kept Lorne from being involved in naming his successor.)

I don't think this is a realistic concern. Many churches refuse to do marriages for a variety of reasons, the most popular of which is previous divorce. In fact, the general consensus within the gay community is that no church should be required to marry a gay couple that chooses not to do so. If lawsuits could happen in such a situation, heterosexual couples might have already tried suing churches. It's just not plausible. Heterosexual couples don't have special interests looking out for them. While 95-99% of homosexual couples would probably be sane, I'm sure there's a lunatic fringe that would insist on going to the most conservative churches they can find and insist that they do some kind of outrageous ceremony there, threatening to sue if their rights are abridged.

I'm still waiting for Janene Garafolo's hangover to wear off and for her to start claiming there were enough voting irregularities that she doesn't have to pay off her bet with Sean Hannity over the election results.

It's not heterosexuals attempting to brand a pink triangle onto homosexuals... It's more of an expression of rage at the courts for using their decisions to legislate from the bench. If the Massachussets Supreme Court hadn't decided that the state had to allow gay marriages within X number of days, we wouldn't have seen the civil disobedience in Oregon, California, New York, and other states that saw gay marriages that were later annulled.

Give them a little credit... At least they didn't run a complete raving nutball like Howard Dean.

All I gotta say is that if the Democratic party decides to try and appeal to the evangelicals, I'll change my affiliation to Libertarian. If the Dems try to appeal to Evangelicals, we'll see the Green Party become 20% of the electorate each year.

Precisely. I have a question. If you are not gay and it does not affect you, then why do you care? Name one way legalizing gay marriage will affect your life. If gay marriage is legalized, it will affect tax law and benefits paid by state agencies if nothing else. Married people have to file taxes differently from single people and legalizing gay marriage would mess around with the rules in place to ensure that married people either file a joint return or file as "Married filing separately". That would affect the amount of taxes collected by the Feds and the states, so that directly impacts everyone. As for benefits, that could get very costly to companies and state agencies. Most benefits packages are set up so that a large population of single individuals (typically males) have to pay the burden of those with families. If 10% of that single population becomes a married couple, it eats away at the margins set up to ensure all benefits are paid for.

33 in New York is a lot, but that may not fully counteract losses in Louisiana (9), Mississippi (6), North Carolina (11), South Carolina (8), Florida (27), etc. They wouldn't lose the whole South BUT they may lose enough to cancel out the gains there and in New Jersey or Pennsylvania.

Fun fact- The first gay marriage in Canada fell apart in record time but they are legally still together because the country never anticipated a gay divorce.

Winning New York would be good but, in order to guarantee victory, they'd have to pick up a good chunk of the South and Midwest as well. While those are currently VERY pro-Republican, that could change if the party's platform goes far enough to the left and the Democrats move enough to the center.

A judge can overrule it but the state can appeal it to a higher court. I think that the Louisiana ban is on its way to a portion of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. They'll get a ruling by a portion of the Third Circuit, appeal it to get a hearing by the full court, then send it to the USSC. By then, 5 years will have passed and this probably won't be a huge issue anymore. (Gay marriage wasn't an issue until early this year and support for it may flame out, no pun intended, before a ruling is issued)

That and the ethics investigations, regardless of whether they have merit or not, could no doubt be used effectively by a Republican candidate running against him in the primary or the Democrat in the actual election That's a connected issue... he was accused of strong-arming people in the House by threatening to pull the party's support for them if they didn't vote the party's way.

Plus, Americans are stupid: The Whip? What's a Whip? Sounds a little too kinky for me. I don't want no leather queers in my White House Whip = Second in command of a party within a chamber of Congress The Whip, traditionally, is the party's enforcer. Dick Cheney was in this position in 1988 before Bush Sr. appointed him to the Cabinet.

The Louisiana ban passed last month was overturned by a judge in record time. (It took about a week and a half)

Well, it depends who they (and the Democrats run). If it's Hillary vs. Rudy, good god. Rudy Giuliani might be too moderate to appeal to the whole base, but who knows. It's him or Frist, I think, but legislators don't quite make the best Presidents. Rudy's pro-gay at a time when that seems to be the Republicans football issue which guarantees the evangelicals would think twice. The choice is McCain: Moderate, loved by moderates. McCain would have a better chance at winning than say DeLay who would only appeal to the party's extremes Tom DeLay knows better than to run for the Presidency... His history as the Republican Whip would be used against him, as he was pretty much the party's enforcer in the House.

Well, it depends who they (and the Democrats run). If it's Hillary vs. Rudy, good god. Rudy Giuliani might be too moderate to appeal to the whole base, but who knows. It's him or Frist, I think, but legislators don't quite make the best Presidents. Hillary vs. Rudy would be something I'd like to see... I wanted to see Rudy clean the floor with Hillary in 2000 but his cancer diagnosis scuttled that one. Lazio SHOULD have been able to beat her, but those questionable pardons by Bill Clinton in the last days of his term sure swung things towards Hillary in New York state. (To clarify, Lazio was a piss-poor candidate to begin with... He was in trouble before any of the pardon-trading swung votes Hillary's way)

The Scott Peterson murder trial is in jury deliberations, so that will be the big news story for the next two weeks.

The Republicans haven't put forward their choice of a candidate yet. If it's a centrist like a John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, George Pataki, or (with a Constitutional amendment) Arnold Schwartzeneggar, they'll probably pick it up again. If it's someone on the far right, it depends on who the Dems put up and if there are any good Third Party candidates.

Another factoid... The previous holder of that record is Ronald Reagan, another candidate that the Left hates with total abandon.

Anyone else think that we'll see a HUGE crackdown on voter fraud in the next month? If nothing else, I can see 50,000+ snowbirds being sued for voting for the President in Florida as well as New York and/or California.

I don't usually post in CE, but... What? If Kerry thought that the Democrats could survive another Florida, he'd sue. However, since the Dems are hurting and the numbers are so far against Kerry in Ohio, he knew better than to push his luck.

Partly, that's because I've been cleaning up the folder as some of the Dems around her completely lost it like St. Gabriel of Djibouti. That must've been pretty amusing... I didn't take it nearly as hard as I thought I would. I just kind of said a few cuss words under my breath, shook my head when Florida was called for Bush and then... decided I have more important things to worry about. The world will not end now that Bush gets a second term, and in all honesty, I wish him well It was up until a point... He was advocating that Kerry illegally produce enough votes in his favor to win because HE didn't vote for Bush and, therefore, Bush wasn't HIS president.