30 May 2009

Disco, Damn It!

Thirteen disco classics for your weekend...



Playlist:
I Need Your Lovin' (Album Version) - Teena Marie /
You're the First, the Last, My Everything - Barry White /
Dance to Dance - Gino Soccio /
One More Minute (Single Version) - Saint Tropez /
Rumour Has It - Donna Summer /
Star Fire - The Sylvers /
Woman - Barrabas /
You Know How to Love Me - Phyllis Hyman /
Subway - Bee Gees /
The Boss - Diana Ross /
You Keep Me Dancing - Samantha Sang /
You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else - The Jones Girls /
Native New Yorker - Odyssey /

17 Years of Experience

The President's weekly address...

29 May 2009

Safe Ride

At CRACK:0 DAWN this Sunday morning, Larry and the rest of the AIDS/LifeCycle gang begin their seven day, 545-mile journey from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

Safe ride, everyone!

If you haven't already, and if you have a few spare bucks, it's not too late to donate.

End-of-the-Week Levity

Bat-shit christianist Kirk Cameron: The next Ted Haggard?

I report, you decide...

What Obama Really Said

There's been a small shit storm brewing over comments made by President Obama during a fundraiser in L.A. the other day. Acknowledging gay and lesbian protesters outside the event, the President said:
One of them said, “Obama keep your promise." I thought that’s fair. I don’t know which promise he was talking about.
Many thought Mr. Obama was mocking the gay and lesbian community just days after the California Supreme Court ruled that Prop 8 would stand.

I thought the whole thing rather odd. To be sure, Obama has been extremely slow to act on LGBT issues. But to get shrill isn't his style.

Alas, video of his comments put everything in perspective...



From the bubble known as the presidential limo, with staff and Secret Service joining him in that back seat, it should surprise no one that the President didn't realize there were protesters outside until he was well into the facility and leaving the limo, at which point he probably heard their muffled chants to "keep his promises." I am not surprised he didn't know what, exactly, they were protesting.

I am not saying this as someone who has gulped the Obama Kool-Aid. I am fully aware of the President's lack of attention to gay and lesbian issues. I am also fully aware that he has a few things on his plate at the moment that take priority over most social issues: Two wars, North Korea, the recession. But I also hold firm to my personal belief he needs to tend to a couple of key LGBT issues before the end of his first term. If he becomes another Bill Clinton, then my support could wane.

28 May 2009

Your Daily Santorum

To the individual who placed the following ad in the Warren Pennsylvania Times-Observer:
May Obama follow in the footsteps of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy!
Today's Santorum also goes to the idiot at the paper's classified desk who, according to the paper's publisher, "didn’t recognize the significance of the names."

To the Times-Observer's credit, the information on who placed the ad has been handed over to the Secret Service.

Narcissitic Mommies

Matt Taibbi, on the farce that is still Sarah Palin:
It was one thing when we found out that super-religious governor Palin was letting Bristol’s hunkface beef accessory Levi nail her daughter more or less regularly under the family roof. It was another when we found out that the governor’s sister-in-law got popped for a B&E while her little daughter was waiting outside in the car. And it was still another thing when we found out that Levi’s Mom was going to eat a bust for dealing Oxycontin (and there’s apparently a lot behind the governor’s interest in that story). For the most part, none of this stuff is any of our business — we all have family members with issues, although mine tend to leave their kids at home when they go out to commit burglaries to support their drug habits.

But this abstinence thing with Bristol, to me, is just too much. This sort of thing always grosses me out: this country has way too many people who do stuff like this, dragging their helpless minor kids with them on national media tours or publishing lengthy parenting memoirs in which their unwitting babies play starring roles as props in Mom’s narcissistic fantasies. But this goes even beyond that. This poor little kid is going to grow up someday and find out she’s been brand-marketed to the human species by Madison Avenue as The Great Mistake. Bristol’s quote about how girls need to close their eyes and imagine spending the rest of their lives with a screaming baby before they have sex — her daughter is someday going to cough that line up, through sobs, in her fourth or fifth year of very expensive therapy. If this little kid isn’t hooked on black baggy clothes and cutting by age 11 I’ll be shocked.

Umm...What?

Listening to all these right wing blowhards caterwaul over the fact that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is a woman (!) and a hispanic (!!) is fucking hilarious.

Memo to Limbaugh, Hannity, et. al.: The last three appointments to the high court have been....drum roll please...

Middle-aged white men.

Federal Marriage Lawsuit

The lawyers for both sides of the Bush v. Gore case (Ted Olson for Bush and David Boies for Gore) have teamed up to represent two same-sex couples filing a federal lawsuit after being denied marriage licenses because of Proposition 8. Their suit, to be filed in U.S. District Court in California, calls for an injunction against the proposition, allowing immediate reinstatement of marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Is Ted Olson, the right-wing former solicitor general under George W. Bush, really that much more progressive on the issue of marriage than President Obama?

Keith Olbermann discusses the issue with John Dean...

27 May 2009

Mid-Week Brain Break

KRON-TV, San Francisco, 1981:
Engineers now predict the day will come when we all get our newspapers and magazines by home computer, but that's a few years off.

26 May 2009

The Prop 8 Ruling

Reactions from around the "inter-web"...

Melissa Etheridge:
So, will anyone be sleeping better tonight? Those full of hate and fear will surely be disappointed that 18,000 same sex couples will be living in wedded bliss, kissing their spouses goodnight, checking off those little "married" boxes on all those forms we fill out nowadays. That’s really going to drive them crazy. Then there are those of us like me who still dangle in "domestic partnership." We can adopt our own children, but we can’t bring our partners who might be citizens from out of the country, here. We can’t file joint tax returns. I could go on. Who will be happy tonight? How do I explain this to my children? Well, you know Ellen? She is married but Mommy and I are not. That is liberty and justice for all? I am hopeful as I see more and more states turn to the inevitable future of equality, California will get there. Change takes time.
Marriage equality's staunchest (and earliest) advocate, Andrew Sullivan:
Politically, this seems to me the perfect decision. It would have been dreadful if voters were retroactively told their valid vote was somehow null and void - it would have felt like a bait and switch and provoked a horrible backlash.

It would have been equally dreadful if those couples lawfully wed were subsequently forced into divorce by the court. And these married couples and their families and children will now become the focus of the debate in California, as they should be. They are the evidence that we are right: that extending the blessings and responsibilities of full family life to gay men and lesbians is a good and conservative and integrating thing. We need now to put these families forward as our core argument. Their lives are our best case. Like mixed-race married couples in another era, they will show that there is nothing to fear here and much to celebrate.
One of Sullivan's readers (a legal expert of some sort):
Being able to lay claim to the word "marriage" is important, but in all other respects this appears to be a spectacular decision in favor of gay rights.

The decision leaves intact the holding of the Marriage Cases that gays have the fundamental "right to marry" under the California constitution, now and in the future; but unless and until the California constitution is again amended to the contrary, such unions cannot be called marriage.

Opponents of gay civil union rights could try another ballot initiative to expressly amend the constitution to ban such rights, but under the Court's ruling, that proposed amendment would have to ban such rights expressly to be effective. The Court's opinion makes clear that generally, amendments will not be interpreted to repeal constitutional rights by implication. The disfavor of repeal by implication is a longstanding legal principle, and the Court's use of it here is a deft way of sending this issue back to the political process while upholding gay civil union rights for the foreseeable future. Under this approach by the Court, opponents of gay civil union rights would have to word any future proposed amendments in such a way as to expressly ban gay civil union rights, and as a result, their ability to secure a sufficient number of petition signatures to get the amendment on the ballot, and then a majority of votes at the polls, will be all the more difficult.

This is a very, very good day for the cause of gay marriage rights.
Expanding on the same line of thought, Seneca Doane:
...if you look at who won and who lost today, we lost something emotionally important and our opponents, the people who paid for Prop 8, lost almost everything of substance. In time, they will realize that the battle was really over In re Marriage Cases, and they got their butts kicked.

So, while I'm disappointed, I'm no longer outraged. It's hard to be outraged when a unanimous California Supreme Court just reiterated that California law gives every couple regardless of gender the fundamental right to be married in fact, even if voters have messed with the labels. Our opponents lost more today than we did.
Pete:
The once-great St8 of California now is not only in the toilet financially but more importantly is outshone in commitment to justice and equality by Iowa, Vermont and the other states which have moved on from h8red and bigotry.

Too bad that 6 so-called Supreme Justices put their comfortable blinders on when making their historic-for-all-the-wrong reasons decision. They’ve just Dred-Scott-ed this state and the implications are not good for anyone.

As Expected...

Land of the free? Yeah...but no.

The California State Supreme Court upheld Prop 8, as well as the 18,000 marriages that took place between May and November last year.

More later.

Violet McCrandall Mischler, 1932 - 2009

My great aunt - my grandmother's youngest sister (the youngest of nine) - passed away last night after a brief battle with cancer. In my grandmother's eyes Violet and I could do no wrong. We were, as Violet coined us, the "chosen ones."

My thoughts are with her husband Jim and their kids and grandkids on this day.

And to Violet...it is with a heavy heart that we wish you a sweet farewell. Rest peacefully - and you and Grandma take good care of each other.

Obama to Nominate Sotomayor

President Obama is expected to nominate second circuit appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court of the United States. If confirmed, she will become the first Hispanic justice to sit on the high court, and the third woman.

Prop 8 Ruling Today

The California State Supreme Court is expected to hand down its ruling on Proposition 8 this morning at 10:00am. A ruling is also expected on the validity of the same sex marriages that took place between the time of the court's previous ruling on gay marriage and the passing of Prop 8.

My hunch: They uphold Prop 8, saying it will require another ballot initiative to overturn it, but will keep the marriages in place.

21 May 2009

On Vacation

I am spending a few days in Yosemite with Brent and his family, and will be back here on Tuesday.

20 May 2009

Your Daily Santorum

The administration and staff at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida.

Senate Blocks Obama's Gitmo Plan

By a vote of 90 to 6, the United States Senate voted to block a funding request by President Obama that would close the shameful military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The six brave "no" votes belonged to Sens. Durbin (D-IL), Harkin (D-IA), Leahy (D-VT), Levin (D-MI), Reed (D-RI), and Whitehouse (D-RI).

Sen. Durbin:
...you ought to have a little more respect for the men and women who are corrections officers and put their lives on the line every single day to keep us safe and to make sure that those who are dangerous are detained and incarcerated. The reality is that we’re holding some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world right now in our federal prisons, including the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the shoe bomber, the Unibomber, and many others.
Josh Marshall expands on that thought:
C'mon! I'm assuming these guys aren't going to be deposited at the county jail in Baltimore or Baton Rouge. We've got an incredibly secure and incredibly hellish Super Max facility in Florence, Colorado. And it seems clear that that's where these guys would end up. (That's where Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, now resides, along with a bunch of other high-profile terrorists.) So can't we at least stop [senators] from Texas and Idaho from pretending these guys are coming to their state?
Chicken shits, all ninety of 'em.

Mid-Week Brain Break

Bambi vs. Extras : The Mash-Up...

The Lion Roars

The Hill is reporting that Sen. Ted Kennedy's brain cancer is in remission, and that he plans to return to work full time after the Memorial Day recess.

Defeated In a Landslide

By overwhelming margins, four of the five initiatives in yesterday's California special election were defeated. The sole winner was Prop 1F, which prevents pay raises for elected officials when the state's budget is in deficit.

Full election results here.

19 May 2009

Sticking His Foot Balls In His Mouth

Republican Party chairman Michael Steele...

Your Daily Santorum

Sen. Jeff Sessions (Fascist-AL), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

No...No, No, No

That is how I voted in today's special election here in California. Until state officials get their act together and call for a convention that throws out the current state constitution and puts a more sane, stable document in place, then I refuse to support any special ballot measures that come before me.

Decades worth of ballot meaasures, rules, and amdendments have created annual financial straightjackets that bring California to the precipice of financial ruin year after year after year. Legislators have put too many important decisions in the hands of voters who know absolutely nothing about governmental budget matters. Each and every initiative they pass or reject have landed us in our fix.

The system is broken. It's time to fix it. And continually putting these issues before the voters isn't the way to do it.

Vote NO on propositions 1A through 1F.

Changing Minds

Meet Paul Bockwoldt, a straight 28-year-old athlete who joined a gay rugby team so that he could bond with his brother.

His story, in his own words, here.

So, let me get this straight...

...George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and their minions shouldn't be held accountable for war crimes, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should resign because she allegedly knew of the possibility that they were being committed?

Today's Republican Party...ass-backward hypocrites of the highest order.

Bush's Legacy

The Republican Party: Irrelevant and out of touch...

18 May 2009

Little Miss Chloe

Brent and I spent the weekend up at the Russian River in Sonoma County, and our good friends Trevor and Larry watched Chloe while we were gone. Trevor took these pictures Saturday afternoon.

"Hiccup!"

It's hard out there for a Chloe...

Thor cools himself in the shade while Chloe suns herself...

Another big "thank you" to L & T! You guys rock.

Turning the Page

Quote of the Day:
No matter how hard President Obama tries to turn the page on the previous administration, he can’t. Until there is true transparency and true accountability, revelations of that unresolved eight-year nightmare will keep raining down drip by drip, disrupting the new administration’s high ambitions.

...the 9/11 investigation did illuminate how, a month after Bush received an intelligence brief titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.," 3,000 Americans were slaughtered on his and Cheney’s watch. If the Obama administration really wants to move on from the dark Bush era, it will need a new commission, backed up by serious law enforcement, to shed light on where every body is buried.
-NY Times columnist Frank Rich, on why he thinks there needs to be full disclosure on the crimes of the Bush administration.

I couldn't agree more. If we are to learn any lessons from our immediate past, if we are to turn the page on the war crimes of our previous president and his administration, and if we are to repair the damage done to our global reputation by that administration, then we need to investigate who did what and when, and punish the appropriate individuals to the fullest extent of the law.

16 May 2009

12 Songs

Twelve songs for this beautiful May weekend. This week's set begins with a stellar Police track and a sweet jam from Nickodemus. The playlist also includes former Morcheeba front-woman Skye Edwards and her beautiful take on a Gorillaz classic, plus M.E.G., the Bamboos, and some old school R&B from the Spinners, among many other superb songs.

Press play and enjoy...



Playlist:
When the World Is Running Down - The Police
Give the Drummer Some - Nickodemus
Stoned, Pt. 1 - Lewis Taylor
As I Went Out One Morning - Mira Billotte
I'll Be Around - The Spinners
Tighten Up - The Bamboos
1,000 Miles - Blake Lewis
Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters - MGMT
Hometown Glory - Adele
Feel Good, Inc. - Skye Edwards
How Was I To Know? - M.E.G.
17 Again - Eurythmics
(Play button photo, courtesy of Mayitaazul.)

15 May 2009

Protecting His Mom

As any boy would...

Your Daily Santorum

President Barack Obama. Yes, President Obama. It's been a rather rough week for our relationship. We're in counseling though, and we'll work it out. Not to worry.

I'll let our therapist explain...

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c
Moral Kombat
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Economic CrisisPolitical Humor

End-of-the-Week Levity

Christianism...genetic or learned?

The GOP: A Sad State of Affairs

Their arguments hold no water, so they go after the President's dog? Pathetic...

14 May 2009

On Torture

Two excellent clips from last night's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." Do yourself a favor and take the time to watch these...



13 May 2009

"The Snow Moose?"

Quote of the Day:
There's been so much written about and spoken about in the mainstream media and in that anonymous blogosphere world also, that this will be a wonderful, refreshing chance for me, you know, to get to tell my story, that a lot of people have asked about, unfiltered.
-Sarah Palin, the 2008 farcical Republican vice-presidential candidate, announcing that she is...drum roll please...writing a book.

Never mind that any editor who reads that announcement is going to want to stick a pen in their eye.

Sigh!

She continued:
Also, being a voracious reader, I read a lot today you know and have read a lot growing up. And having that journalism degree there, all of that, will be a great assistance for me in writin' this book, talkin' about the challenges and the joys, balancing the work and parenting...
Pardon me, Gov. Palin, while I channel Katie Couric, but...tell us...exactly what books have you read recently. Come on! Name just one.

Dick Likes Bush

Jeb, that is. When asked by Faux News who he would like to see win the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, Dick Cheney said:
I like Jeb. I think he's a good man. I'd like to see him continue to stay involved politically...I'd probably support him for president.
As if we needed any more proof that his party is so far out of touch with the American people!

Mr. Cheney...believe me when I say none of us want to see the name "Bush" on a presidential ballot for a very, very long time.

If not, forever.

Mid-Week Brain Break

Meet Dominic, the greyhound who has no right legs...

12 May 2009

Bears In Central Park !

"Sometimes I feel that I should have gone with my own morality."

Your Daily Santorum

The State Appeals Court for the Fourth District in Wisconsin.

Changing Minds

President Obama's handwritten note to Second Lieutenant Sandy Tsao, who was discharged from the United States Army for being gay...

The letter reads:
Sandy -

Thanks for the wonderful and thoughtful letter. It is because of outstanding Americans like you that I committed to changing our current policy. Although it will take some time to complete (partly because it needs Congressional action) I intend to fulfill my commitment.

Barack Obama
The President's National Security Adviser was on one of the Sunday talk shows this past weekend hinting that repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell might not take place in the first term. That is unacceptable, and gay, lesbian, and straight Americans should hold Mr. Obama to the promise he made to Lt. Tsao.

The SCOTUS Short List

From First Read:
According to a couple of sources in the know, there appears to be a working short list of about six names for President Obama’s Supreme Court pick. The co-frontrunners (in no particular order): Diane Wood of the 7th Circuit, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Merrick Garland of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals...Five are women; one’s Hispanic; one’s male; and all are in their late 40s or early 50s, except two (Wood, 58, and Garland, 56)...For this pick, it would be surprising if Obama named someone he didn't either know well or trust personally. Wood, Kagan, and Napolitano all fit this bill (Wood taught at the University of Chicago with Obama, and Kagan and Napolitano already have top slots in the administration)...people familiar with the president's thinking [say] he's been as impressed with Napolitano as anyone in his cabinet. They click. That matters...
Then again, maybe the President will surprise us all with a pick not named on this short list.

Little Miss Chloe

The summer winds have arrived up here near Twin Peaks, rattling the windows and keeping the apartment rather cool. If she isn't curled up next to Brent on those blustery evenings, we often find Chloe keeping herself warm in front of the heating vent in the guest room...

Goodbye Onion

The venerable Peabody Award-winning satirical newspaper folded its San Francisco edition last week.

11 May 2009

Two Years On

Happy Anniversary, Gil and Duane.

Your Daily Santorum

In the first of many likely Santorum designations, former vice-president Dick Cheney.

Wanda Sykes Brings Down the House

Another Donation Plea

As I mentioned earlier in the month, my dear friend Larry is getting ready to take part in the 2009 AIDS/LifeCycle ride. Seven days, 545 miles, San Francisco to Los Angeles. If you could spare a few bucks it would be appreciated greatly. His donation page is here. His training journal, here.

I mean...come on...a donation in his name is well deserved if only for the day five "red dress" theme!

Suh-NAP!

Really?

This is the only hand the opposition has to play? Pathetic.

Say It Ain't So, Sammy Joe

"Joe" the "Plumber" has left the Republican Party.

Via TPM:
Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, tells TIME he’s so outraged by GOP overspending, he’s quitting the party — and he’s the bull’s-eye of its target audience, the article says.

Mr. The Plumber has been a figurehead among Republican activists since last October, when a chance encounter with Barack Obama and the active promotion by McCain campaign turned him into the face of blue-collar conservatism. If he’s not willing to call himself a Republican, they’re really in trouble.

He also said he wouldn’t support any cuts in defense, Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid — which, along with debt payments, would put more than two-thirds of the budget off limits.
And here I thought the GOP were going to run Mr. Plumber for something.

Palin/Wurzelbacher in 2012? Anyone? Bueller?

10 May 2009

Barack Obama, Comedian

In addition to his superb leadership style, the man has a wicked sense of humor, too. Michelle certainly struck the jackpot with this guy, didn't she?

09 May 2009

12 Songs



Playlist:
Get Used to It
Brand New Heavies

Ghetto
Supreme Beings of Leisure

Postales
Federico Aubuele

The Power
Cher

What It Feels Like For a Girl
Madonna

Undress Me Now
Morcheeba

Beautiful Awkward Pictures
Toni Collette

Talkin' to My Heart
Fleetwood Mac

Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley
Robert Palmer

Lose That Girl
Saint Etienne

Fight For Love
Elliott Yamin

Chicago Song
David Sanborn

"We cannot rest..."

The President's weekly address...

08 May 2009

"God hates gays...and scallops."

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c
Gaywatch - Marion Barry
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Economic CrisisPolitical Humor


(Shout out: Joe.My.God.)

End-of-the-Week Levity

Happy Mother's Day...

Still Swamped

The audit at work is taking up a lot of my time, so a reminder that posting will remain light today. Work beckons this weekend as well, and the audit is expected to linger into the Monday and Tuesday of next week. Bare with me, please. :-)

06 May 2009

Santa Barbara

The news is devastating, as it seems the entire city is in danger of being consumed. Dear friends from our old hometown are heavy in our thoughts tonight. Brent and I hope that you - and everyone else - are safe and out of harm's way.

Maine

The governor there signed the bill that made marriage equal in the State.

Coming next: New Hampshire.

Your Daily Santorum

Sen. Arlen Specter, Democra...Repu...De...aww fuck, I don't know...Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

Mid-Week Brain Break

It seems like it was just yesterday that we witnessed this, but six months have actually passed. I saw the network projections coming and had the champagne ready to go at 8:00 straight up, Pacific time.



And the crowd's reaction at the 7 second mark in this clip still puts a lump in my throat...

Big Fat Gay Collaboration

The clip features Lily Allen's song, "Fuck You." Thus, fair warning: Language not safe for work.

04 May 2009

Happy Anniversary, Sweet Girl

Five years ago we picked you up at Day Boston Terriers. Little did we know just how much you would alter our lives. You are our companion, our friend, our joy.







Light Blog Week

I've got corporate in the office this week for their annual audit. At this point I'm not sure how it will effect my schedule, but be ready for a light blogging week.

"Outrage"

I am looking forward to this documentary...

02 May 2009

Jack Kemp, 1935 - 2009

Jack Kemp, the former Buffalo Bills football player, United States congressman, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the first President Bush, as well as the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 1996, died today after a battle with cancer. He was 73.

Update: This diary at DailyKos includes the letter Mr. Kemp wrote to his family following the election of Barack Obama last November. Kemp's fellow Republicans would do well to make it mandatory reading among their ranks.

"On her radio, she'd turn the disco down..."

I didn't have time to put together a playlist for this weekend (you'll get one next week, I promise). But this song popped back onto my radar a few months back, so I thought I'd share it here as a "song of the day."

"Lose That Girl" by Saint Etienne...

Maher and Vidal

I meant to post this after it aired last month, but it somehow left my "remembory." Bill Maher's excellent conversation with Gore Vidal. It's in two parts of about ten minutes each, but well worth the time...



"Paul Krugman is having an aneurysm."

Obama's Facebook page.

Doing it Twice

Quote of the Day:
I had to do it twice, so now everyone has to do it twice.
-President Obama, making a funny at the ceremonial swearing-in of Gary Locke and Kathleen Sebelius, who had both already been sworn in.

01 May 2009

Souter to Retire


CNN is reporting this morning that Supreme Court Justice David Souter will retire at the end of the current session in June. Souter was appointed to the bench in 1990 by the first President Bush, but has been a rather reliable liberal jurist, even going so far as to vote against Bush's son in the 2000 presidential election case.

More from me later, but two quick things:
1. This will not change the balance of the court all that much. As I said, Souter is a left of center jurist and it is assumed President Obama will appoint someone of the same philosophy.

2. Confirmation hearings will be interesting. With 60 members in the Senate (assuming Al Franken gets seated before a nominee is named), the Democrats have the votes to stop any Republican filibuster IF Senate leaders are able to keep conservative Democrats from balking at whoever Mr. Obama nominates.

Your Daily Santorum

The California State Supreme Court.

(A reminder of the definition of "santorum" here.)

Shitty Diddies - 1983

This one went to #7 in 1983...

End-of-the-Week Levity

Junior high school humor...