Very good news. From the ruling in Perry v. Schwarzenegger:
Plaintiffs have demonstrated by overwhelming evidence that Proposition 8 violates their due process and equal protection rights and that they will continue to suffer these constitutional violations until state officials cease enforcement of Proposition 8. California is able to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, as it has already issued 18,000 marriage licenses to same-sex couples and has not suffered any demonstrated harm as a result ...
Because Proposition 8 is unconstitutional under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, the court orders entry of judgment permanently enjoining its enforcement; prohibiting the official defendants from applying or enforcing Proposition 8 and directing the official defendants that all persons under their control or supervision shall not apply or enforce Proposition 8.
It will be stayed, appealed, and eventually make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Passing marriage equality in a few more states legislatively, and managing to defeat some anti-gay-marriage ballot initiatives, would certainly help its chances there. Public perceptions are changing, but the Supreme Court, with Justice Kennedy as the swing vote, under the best case scenario won't get too far ahead of public sentiment. There is work to be done.
We'll also have to see how this plays out come November in California, with the GOP senate and gubernatorial candidates opposing gay marriage and favoring Prop. 8. Things certainly would have been brighter if, in the GOP senate primary, gay marriage opponent Carly Fiorina had lost to former GOP congressman and gay marriage supporter Tom Campbell. But sadly, that didn't happen.
Bad News. Bradley Manning, the alleged leaker of the Afghan war memos that put at risk the lives of Afghans identified as aiding the U.S.-backed war against the Taliban, is, reportedly, openly gay. Thanks guy, if it was you, this will be a big help with ending don't ask, don't tell (already, we're seeing responses like this one). But hey, what does the fight against Islamofascism matter when there's a chance to boost your cred with the left.
27 Comments for “Quite a Day!”
posted by Infovoyeur on
Was the right thing done? In any case, the Puppet Theatre continues its run. We (including judges etc.) can only dance to the tunes of the current Norms, Mores, Today’s Truths. By now it’s gotten into X% of the public awareness that homosexuals are 1.no actual danger,2.variants not deviants, 3. don’t choose and can’t change orientation, 4. sexual orientation includes Love also, 5. marriage is not only religious sacrament & personal bond but also civil rights status, 6. homosexuals are not “partial people” but “complete citizens.” With this new mindset over the last decades, bingo it’s now easy indeed mandated to “equalize” gays. Good that it’s happening, but “justice, if she arrives, arrives not when or because she should arrive, but because she happens to arrive; and justice remains not as long as she should remain but as long as she does remain.” End of simplistic, monistic, reductionistic “sociocultural determinism” rant–stimulated by reviewing the history of gays in the culture in the last several decades…
posted by JP on
Irrelevant if you ask me.
posted by Jorge on
Well, I suppose it’s obligatory to condemn pond scum like Mr. Manning. It would be highly entertaining indeed to open up an era of a newly integrated military with an execution fit for Iran. He is traitor to the country. Now our community has something to be ashamed of, just like everyone else.
About the Prop 8 victory, I hope the country will accept it. If they don’t I am more than willing to do things the hard way. The activist scene has died down a bit and I think we need an opportunity to seek some solidarity.
posted by Debrah on
This post contains a copy of the opinion which can be transposed to full screen with a click.
The comment section is also interesting.
posted by Julian on
Wrong about Manning, Mr. Miller, you statist tool/fool. According to Arthur Silber:
At the age of 22, Bradley Manning has attained a moral stature most people never reach in an entire lifetime. He came to understand the unforgivable brutality and horror of what the U.S. government is doing, and he sought to stop it in any way he could. He wanted to do the right thing, he “wanted people held accountable,” and he wanted to make sure “this didn’t happen again.”
For more of Mr. Silber’s comments see:
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/
posted by Debrah on
Excellent comment regarding the Manning/Wikileaks case by Stephen Miller.
posted by Julian on
“what does the fight against Islamofascism matter when there’s a chance to boost your cred with the left.”
Yes, nobody acts out of moral principles, Mr. Miller, and if you say the government is fighting Islamofacism, it must be true, right?
posted by Julian on
Excellent ignorant pro-government, pro-death, pro-war fawning, Deborah and Stephen.
posted by Jorge on
At the age of 22, Bradley Manning has attained a moral stature most people never reach in an entire lifetime.
Move over Sadaam. Satan’s got a new bedmate. [Disclaimer: I did not watch South Park: The Movie.]
posted by dc on
Who cares about Bradley Manning? I feel like this incident is blown out of proportion to draw attention away from the horrific realities of this country’s TWO WARS. What about that injustice? What about that morally bankrupt cornerstone of American foreign policy?
posted by Bobby on
“At the age of 22, Bradley Manning has attained a moral stature most people never reach in an entire lifetime. He came to understand the unforgivable brutality and horror of what the U.S. government is doing, and he sought to stop it in any way he could. He wanted to do the right thing, he “wanted people held accountable,” and he wanted to make sure “this didn’t happen again.”
—Really? I think in the military when you see someone doing something wrong, you inform your superior officer and if he doesn’t care, then you talk to JAG. In fact, when someone doesn’t like someone gay in the service, the first thing they do is call the NIS and tell them there’s someone gay in the military, then the NIS starts an investigation.
What Manning did is not only treason, he actually managed to put our soldiers in danger.
Bradley has no moral statue whatsoever.
posted by John on
Exactly. I could less what the man’s reasons were, what his sexuality is, what his childhood was like, etc. All that matters now is this: If Manning is guilty of what he is accused of than he should be punished to the FULL extent of the law. Lock him up and throw away the key – after getting the SOB out of the uniform he allegedly betrayed. If his purported actions led to the death of any US soldiers or Afghan civilians: hang him.
posted by Jesse on
My understanding from the original Wired articles was that Bradley Manning released the helicopter video and claimed that he’d leaked diplomatic cables related to “almost-criminal political back dealings,” (which wikileaks denied having received). Then there was a dump on wikileaks of documents of a very different type, which contained mostly on the ground reporting from Afghanistan. Has he been actually accused of leaking the documents with Afghan names, or is this an issue of his leak and a different leak being conflated because he’s a convenient person to blame? (honest question. Nothing I’ve read states that he did the more nefarious one, they just stick the two stories side by side when reporting them)
posted by Jorge on
I suppose he’s innocent until proven guilty.
I say people often throw decoys to cover up misdeeds.
posted by Bobby on
“I suppose he’s innocent until proven guilty.”
—In a court of law, yes, in the court of public opinion, there’s too much evidence against him. Of course, the anti-war people are hailing him as a hero, yet when Valerie Plame was outed as a spy, it was the end of the world for this people. What a joke, Plame was such a low-level operative, and her husband? And incompetent fool who became the United States Ambassador in Iraq after the real ambassador left.
posted by Debrah on
LOL!!!
Bobby–
You are so right about Plame and Wilson.
They’re more like the Salahis.
Wannabes.
In fact, the party-crashing Salahis probably got some pointers from them.
Plame has written a book which is supposedly being made into a film.
Someone will write a knock-off musical score for the “screenplay” and the whole phony and trumped-up tale will be turned into “high drama” inside the Beltway.
LOL!!!
posted by Jimmy on
” Plame was such a low-level operative, ”
It’s one thing to be partisan, but to be a complete liar is another thing altogether. Mr. & Mrs. Wilson have more patriotism in their pinky toes than you’ll ever hope to have, Hack.
posted by Jorge on
It’s one thing to be partisan, but to be a complete liar is another thing altogether. Mr. & Mrs. Wilson have more patriotism in their pinky toes than you’ll ever hope to have, Hack.
I think you need to review the parable of the wooden beam.
posted by Jimmy on
“I think you need to review the parable of the wooden beam”
I think you need to dry up.
posted by Carl on
“Thanks guy, if it was you, this will be a big help with ending don’t ask, don’t tell ”
Considering that the right already virulently opposes gays serving in the military, since straight men will be forever traumatized by the idea or whatever, I doubt this case makes a big difference. The GOP is hostile to gays and the Democrats are hostile or cowards. Nothing is ever going to change this.
posted by Bobby on
“It’s one thing to be partisan, but to be a complete liar is another thing altogether. Mr. & Mrs. Wilson have more patriotism in their pinky toes than you’ll ever hope to have, Hack.”
—LOL, Jimmy. These people aren’t patriotic, they’re fame-seekers.
“Considering that the right already virulently opposes gays serving in the military, since straight men will be forever traumatized by the idea or whatever, I doubt this case makes a big difference. The GOP is hostile to gays and the Democrats are hostile or cowards. Nothing is ever going to change this.”
—Actually, this isolated incident might be used by people against ending the ban. It’s the same game white supremacists play whenever they read a story of a Jewish person charged with a crime, they make stereotypes of isolated incidents. Suddenly all jews are crooked because Bernie Maddoff and Milken are crooked. That is why this man is so shameful to our community.
posted by BobN on
Whatever you think of the Wilson/Plames, there are two incontrovertible facts about their case and Manning’s.
1) In both cases, illegal disclosures most likely led to the deaths of people who spied and cooperated with the U.S. government and compromised national security.
2) In one case, the leaker will be severely punished, and quite rightly so. In the other, no one was prosecuted, in what can only be seen as a travesty of justice.
posted by Bobby on
I never heard of anyone dying because of the Plame leak.
posted by Jimmy on
“I never heard of anyone dying because of the Plame leak”
I don’t think that is the criteria by which the charge of treason is levied.
posted by BobSF_94117@yahoo.com on
I never heard of anyone dying because of the Plame leak.
And, of course, you would have because foreign governments always issue press releases when they disappear someone.
That the Taliban will track and kill people based on disclosures in the Manning case is speculation. It’s rather sensible and logical speculation, in my opinion. I accept the likelihood of grave consequences in both cases. You only accept them in one. Only you can explain that. I’ll just have to speculate.
posted by Bobby on
“And, of course, you would have because foreign governments always issue press releases when they disappear someone.”
—And maybe nobody died because maybe neither Joe Wilson nor Plame had anything of importance. In fact, even our current traitor was only a private first class, the lowest rank in the army, so it is probable that those 90,000 files of sensitive materials are worthless. After all, if he had a higher rank his security clearance wuold have been hired, but what kind of security rank do you think a private first class has? Probably none.
Anyway, read this article about Joe Wilson, from Ann Coulter.
http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/article.cgi?article=146
I’m telling you, these people are puppets of the anti-Bush media, and even they stopped talking about them after realizing there wasn’t much in their story. Remember the talk about making a Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson movie? Notice how it hasn’t happened.
posted by BobN on
—And maybe nobody died because maybe neither Joe Wilson nor Plame had anything of importance. In fact, even our current traitor was only a private first class, the lowest rank in the army, so it is probable that those 90,000 files of sensitive materials are worthless. After all, if he had a higher rank his security clearance wuold have been hired, but what kind of security rank do you think a private first class has? Probably none.
It’s a bit odd that you were railing about Manning without understanding who is at risk and why. Among the tens of thousands of documents he released are memos with the names of local Afghan informants and civilian workers cooperating with U.S. forces. Those people are now exposed. Similarly, though with much less certainty than having ones name listed as an informant, everyone who had contact with Valerie Plame in all her years as an undercover businesswoman — two decades — was suspect. Some “sources” said the damage was serious, some said there was no damage. The truth, of course, is that no one will ever know, and the CIA will never issue a report (though they may, or may not, have an internal one).