"An analysis of the complicated, controversial and long road to full marriage equality"

LINK TO PART ONE OF PIECE AT EDGE PUBLICATIONS

This month's decision by the California Supreme Court, overturning the state's ban on gay marriage, has launched widespread speculation about how the ruling will affect the upcoming election.

Bush speaks with the press at Camp Brokeback about his revamped marriage amendment


Camp Brokeback, MD (APE) - After a stinging defeat in the Senate of his proposed constitutional marriage amendment, President Bush met with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen for a relaxing weekend mixed with policy and strategy. After meeting with the prime minister, Bush spoke with the press and offered conciliatory changes which might make his largely Anti-gay marriage amendment more palatable to congress in the next version.

With their focus solidly on the gay marriage amendment and estate tax repeal, the conservative movement is busy rearranging deck chairs on...well, not quite the Titanic, but on a rotting ship of state.

I'm not sure what it is about gay marriage that brings out the worst in people, but it really does. Take this classy little series of ads from Focus on the Family. Basically, Dobson is going with the "Will someone please think of the children?" route. Here's the header from the PA version:

Why Doesn't Senator Specter Believe Every Child Needs A Mother And Father?

Nice, huh?

While Sen. Specter may claim otherwise, his actions on homosexual marriage speak clearly. The reality is that homosexual marriages intentionally create motherless families or fatherless families.

Of course, social conservatives have been telling us for years about the magical side effects of gay marriage; how the nuptials of two men or two women will cause straight marriages to collapse and turn upstanding citizens into depraved, animalistic sex fiends. Until today, however, I'd never realized that the gay agenda included the elimination of the mothers and fathers who'd survived the gay ripple effect.

This diary was originally posted in my blog the Intrepid Liberal Journal on February 26th.

My favorite newspaper is The Onion because their satire typically nails truth's core in a manner the "respectable" media simply can't. My favorite article from them was a couple years ago about a husband and wife in Montana that divorced because they felt "threatened" by gay marriage. In their inimitable manner, The Onion illustrated just how asinine the debate over gay marriage truly is. The notion that one can feel "threatened" by gay marriage or equal protection under the law for an entire community is utterly moronic.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to approve a constitutional amendment stating that marriage in the United States shall consist only of the "union of a man and a woman." But the amendment is not expected to get the approval of two-thirds of the Senate, which is necessary to pass a constitutional amendment.

Stating the obvious, Democrats "complained that bringing up the amendment is a political move designed to appeal to the GOP's conservative base in a midterm-election year."

Well duh! Perhaps a clever Democrat could find a way to defer debate on the issue until after November?

CNN's The Situation Room reported "one Democrat walked out of the session that was held in a private chamber just off the Senate floor." Sen. Russ Feingold "complained to Chairman Arlen Specter that the meeting wasn't sufficiently open to the public. We're told that led to this exchange. Specter told Feingold, 'I don't need to be lectured by you. You are no more of a protector of the Constitution than am I. If you want to leave, good riddance.' Feingold then responded, 'I've enjoyed your lecture, too, Mr. Chairman. See you.'"

More interestingly, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said "Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, who supports the gay-marriage ban, has expressed support for polygamists in his home state of Utah. "I never said that," Hatch responded.
"I know some (polygamists) that are very sincere. ... Don't accuse me of wanting to have polygamy."

The nation is at war with no end in sight. 15,000 of our service-members have been wounded, several thousand are dead, and over 100,000 are suffering from PTSD. Iraq is burning while the White House fiddles. The national debt has skyrocketed and the trade and budget deficits are soaring. We're about to sign a pact with India that will increase the proliferation of nuclear weapons at the same time as we are saber-rattling against Iran and North Korea for their nuclear programs. Hundreds of thousands of Africans are dying from AIDS or starvation while genocide is happening right before our eyes in the Sudan. Members of Congress are being investigated, indicted, and convicted along with their crooked corporate sponsors. The President is spying on Americans without warrants and imprisoning people without due process. The EPA is gutting environmental protection laws, the Department of the Interior is selling off our national parks, and the Transportation Security Agency can't seem to notice weapons being snuck through airport security checkpoints or keep radioactive suitcases out the country. Millions of Americans have fallen below the Federal poverty level, millions more have lost their health coverage, and over 2 million Americans are languishing in jails.

What will Congress do about all this? Read on!

Canadians will elect a new government on January 23, and, unless trends change, the Conservatives will not only win a minority government, they are on the edge of a MAJORITY government.  The Conservative Party in Canada, led by Stephen Harper [who bears an uncanny resemblence to Spongebob] is much like the American Republican Party, heavily influenced by the so-called Christian Right.