After 238 Days...Sen. Al Franken (Democrat-MN)

Finally!

Franken beat Coleman by 312 votes. The final official result:

Al Franken
Democratic
1,212,629
42.00%

Norm Coleman
Republican
1,212,317
41.98%

Dean Barkley
Independence
437,505
15.15%

Others
Various
25,195
0.87%

The LGBT Event at the White House

A few key excerpts from the president's speech to LGBT leaders yesterday.

On the administration's slow pace in tackling LGBT issues:

...I know that many in this room don't believe that progress has come fast enough, and I understand that. It's not for me to tell you to be patient...

But I say this: We have made progress and we will make more. And I want you to know that I expect and hope to be judged not by words, not by promises I've made, but by the promises that my administration keeps...We've been in office six months now. I suspect that by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration.

Indirectly addressing the Justice Department's defense of DOMA in a legal brief last month:

Now, I want to add we have a duty to uphold existing law, but I believe we must do so in a way that does not exacerbate old divides. And fulfilling this duty in upholding the law in no way lessens my commitment to reversing this law. I've made that clear.

I wouldn't put it past the Fascist wing of the Republican Party to clamor for impeachment if Mr. Obama were to make any moves on the LGBT front that even resembled breaking current law, however the brief filed by the administration regarding DOMA sounded more like a Bush administration argument than one coming from Obama. But, I digress.

On "Don't Ask, Don't Tell":

I know that every day that passes without a resolution is a deep disappointment to those men and women who continue to be discharged under this policy -- patriots who often possess critical language skills and years of training and who've served this country well. But what I hope is that these cases underscore the urgency of reversing this policy not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it is essential for our national security.

On the HIV travel ban:

...my administration is committed to rescinding the discriminatory ban on entry to the United States based on HIV status. (Applause.) The Office of Management and Budget just concluded a review of a proposal to repeal this entry ban, which is a first and very big step towards ending this policy.

On changing minds:

There are unjust laws to overturn and unfair practices to stop. And though we've made progress, there are still fellow citizens, perhaps neighbors or even family members and loved ones, who still hold fast to worn arguments and old attitudes; who fail to see your families like their families; and who would deny you the rights that most Americans take for granted. And I know this is painful and I know it can be heartbreaking.

...And yet all of you continue, leading by the force of the arguments you make but also by the power of the example that you set in your own lives -- as parents and friends, as PTA members and leaders in the community. And that's important, and I'm glad that so many LGBT families could join us today. (Applause.) For we know that progress depends not only on changing laws but also changing hearts.

The entire speech below...



(PS: I absolutely abhor MSNBC's new graphics package.)

Jackson's Will

Contradicting reports on CNN last night, the Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that Michael Jackson drafted a will in 2002 which divides the late superstar's estate among his mother, three children, and various charities.

But, of course, the estate is a huge mess. This will take years to sort out.

I leave town for a few days...

Just back from our long weekend and I am catching up on all the crazy news of the last few days. I was able to receive texts on my iPhone but couldn't respond to them or log on to the internet. (AT&T: More lost calls in more places!)

I am tired and cranky and am about to veg on the sofa, but a few quick thoughts on the major items of the weekend:

Michael Jackson: His death came out of nowhere, but I am not all that surprised...that his heart gave out, that he didn't have his affairs in order, and that his father is using the tragedy to make a few bucks.

Farrah Fawcett: The poor woman is no longer in pain.

Billy Mays: Well, your TV will be a lot more quiet, no?

Obama and the gays: He talks a good talk, and I will certainly hold him to his promises. If we get to early 2012 and nothing has been done regarding DADT and DOMA, I will have to take a serious look at other candidates.

On Vacation

Brent, Chloe and I are hopping in the Explorer this morning, grabbing Gil and Duane, and heading up to Humboldt County for an extended weekend of camping in the beautiful redwood forests of northern California.

Unless something comes up, you won't hear from me while we are away. I plan to return to the blogosphere at some point late Monday or early Tuesday.

Everyone enjoy your weekend. And Happy Pride! Be safe.

From Five to Ten

Starting next year that will be the number of Academy Award nominees in the Best Picture category for the first time since 1943.

Michael Cieply:

In a question-and-answer session that followed the announcement, [Academy president Sidney Ganis] said: "I would not be telling you the truth if I said the words ‘Dark Knight’ did not come up.” Earlier this year, “The Dark Knight,” a critically acclaimed blockbuster fantasy, was excluded from a list of nominees that included “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Reader” and the winner, “Slumdog Millionaire.”

None of those films were as widely seen as “The Dark Knight” or “Wall-E,” another favorite that was snubbed, adding heat to a debate about whether the Oscar voters had drifted too far from the audience.

One part of me wants to get up on my soap box and rail against this, that the Academy is supposed to celebrate the art and science of movie making, not the box office (let the MTV Movie Awards do that). Then another part of me balances it all out, remembering that "Slumdog Millionaire" won Best Picture last year over four contenders more worthy of the prize.

So, we wait for January to see what the first list of ten nominations brings.

Your Daily Santorum

Everyone's favorite man-lady, Ann Coulter.

The Argentinian Affair

Gov. Sanford was fucking around on his wife.

And so another Republican hypocrite admits to having an affair. Let me see if I can muster up the energy to be shocked.

Update: As usual, when a REPUBLICAN politician admits wrong doing Fox "News" magically turns them into Democrats...

Mid-Week Brain Break

Meet Dua, a small-clawed otter at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, who plays the piano in an effort by his handlers to get him to eat more...



(Shout out: Maya)

Changing Minds

Meet Lt. Colonel Victor Fehrenbach, a stellar member of the U.S. military by any measure, who is being discharged because he is gay.


Really? With two wars being fought in the Middle East and a Cold War-like struggle going on with Iran and North Korea, the U.S. can afford to lose people like Lt. Col. Fehrenbach?

REALLY?

The Sanford Saga

I mean, really...this is just nuckin' futz:

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) will return to work today, the Columbia State reports, "cutting short a mysterious hiking trip along the Appalachian Trail" if that's where he's really been.

WYFF-TV reports Sanford's state vehicle "was tracked down, not to the Appalachian Trail, but to the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta." A federal agent spotted Sanford in the airport boarding a plane to Minneapolis.

However, CNN has pictures of a car believed to be Sanford's but at a different airport in South Carolina. There is a sleeping bag in the back seat.

Meanwhile, Sanford's wife said yesterday she still hadn't heard from her husband and wasn't concerned, but said "he had left to have time to write." The governor's staff still insists he's on a hiking trip.

Politico says Sanford's "disappearing act is reviving an often-whispered, if rarely written, question about presidential hopefuls: Just how strange is too strange?"

Update: Returning home, Sanford tells The State newspaper that he was in Argentina, not on the Appalachian Trail as his staff had said in official statements. He said he had considered hiking the trail but wanted to do "something exotic."

"Sanford said he was alone on the trip. He declined to give any additional details about what he did other than to say he drove along the coastline."

Did you follow that? Argentina by way of Minneapolis via the Atlanta Airport from the Appalachian Trail with a quick stop at a South Carolina airport.

James Patterson couldn't make this shit up.

American Health Care In a Nutshell

Heh!

Nixon Would Have Aborted Obama

Just when you thought ol' Nixon couldn't surprise you any further:

There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white.

(Shout out: Andrew)

Your Daily Santorum

We have two today.

Fox "News" White House correspondent, Major Garrett:



And, Chuck Todd of NBC News:



Honorable mention to CBS News' Chip Reid.

Notice how the president was able to slap each of them down without breaking a sweat.

(For those not in-the-know, a primer on Your Daily Santorum here.)

Like Petulant Children

Quote of the Day:

When I voted for Obama, I did so knowing he would not wave a magic wand and fix everything overnight. I voted for him thinking he was the best choice of the candidates available to choose from. I still support that decision. Was he perfect for gays? No. We knew that ahead of time. Will he deliver on everything he promised? Probably not. What President ever has? The last President who rushed into trying to overcome centuries of prejudice left us with [Don't Ask, Don't Tell]. Oh what a great compromise that turned out to be.

While I am disappointed by Obama’s lackluster support, I am also trying to see the bigger picture here. Our country is facing some of the largest crises in our history. Our financial markets are practically in ruins from rampant deregulation. Our country is virtually broke and we are “robbing Peter to pay Paul." Our healthcare system is on the verge of collapsing under its on mismanaged weight. More and more companies are going under daily and adding to the already record numbers of unemployed. Not to mention, we are facing two wars overseas, a pending disaster with North Korea, and now Iran’s turmoil threatens to embroil us even further.

-Moby, a San Francisco blogger posting a rare political piece.

He's right, you know. With everything this president inherited (the worst mess since Franklin Roosevelt), it is foolish for us to get so upset over the fact that he has decided to put some of our issues on the back burner while he tries to tackle the issues that, dare I say it, matter more.

For those who argue that he should be able to multi-task, I would suggest you take another look at the news...he is multi-tasking to the extreme at the moment. The financial meltdown, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan...if all of these issues go the wrong way we'd be facing the proverbial perfect storm. If our economy collapses and we lose "Cold War II," then it won't matter what President Obama or congress do on LGBT issues. America will be done.

In the mean time, Moby suggests we stop crying like babies and do something:

Oh yes, we were quick to point fingers and blame. And I ask you, what has that gotten us? Nothing, zero, zip, nadda, zilch. Personally, I see it as a cop-out. We blame others in an effort to absolve ourselves of any personal responsibility. In the process, we give up our power and relegate ourselves to the “helpless victim” mentality. How many of you reading this right now has contacted a single government representative at any level? Even simpler, have you done anything at all, besides complain?

I have a radical idea. How about we get off our collective asses and get involved. Whether it be thru voting, marching, volunteering, educating, donating, whatever. Everyone of us can contribute, one way or another. Contact your local, State, and Federal representatives and let them know you expect results. In an age of electronic communication, its as simple as type and click. We can forward stupid memes, pics, porn, and funny emails till we are blue in the face, but we can’t contact our elected leaders? How sad is that?

...The point here is pinning all our hopes on one man and then getting angry when he doesn’t deliver is foolish and naive. Yes, he could be doing better. Yes, we should hold him accountable for his promises. And yes, we should continue to demand more. But, the same is true of ourselves.

Don't get me wrong. The administration's defense of DOMA was way over the top and we should all be angry at the language used in that legal brief. That said, I expect President Obama to tackle at least DOMA and DADT before the end of his first term. In the mean time, the poor guy has much bigger fish to fry.

Tobacco Regulated By FDA

In perhaps one of the best domestic moves of his presidency thus far, President Obama yesterday signed legislation bringing tobacco products under the purview of the F.D.A.

I've never been a smoker and believe wholeheartedly that nicotine is a killer drug that should be banned outright. I understand it never will be, but regulating it via the F.D.A. is a tremendous step in the right direction.

Marijuana, on the other hand...it is not a killer drug and its medicinal use is well documented. The government should make it legal, regulate it via the F.D.A., and tax the hell out of it.

My hunch is we'd soon see a decrease in the drug dealer wars and a tremendous reduction of the federal deficit.

Ed McMahon, 1923 - 2009

Ed McMahon, the longtime sidekick to "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson, died early this morning in Los Angeles. He was 86.

WTF Is Going On In SC?

Gov. Mark Sanford (Republican-SC) seems to be missing. No one has seen him since Thursday and explanations of his whereabouts by his office and family are all over the place.

Josh Marshall puts it all together for us here.

Of course, I sincerely hope the governor is safe and that he will turn up soon.

But this is just way too weird.

Be Bold

Quote of the Day:

Approval ratings for Republicans hit an all-time low last week in both the New York Times/CBS News and Wall Street Journal/NBC News polls. That’s what happens when a party’s most creative innovations are novel twists on old-fashioned sex scandals. Just when you thought the G.O.P. could never match the high bar set by Larry Craig’s men’s room toe-tapping, along came Senator John Ensign of Nevada, an ostentatiously pious born-again Christian whose ecumenical outreach drove him to engineer political jobs for his mistress, her cuckolded husband and the couple’s son. At least it can no longer be said that the Republicans have no plan for putting Americans back to work.

-Frank Rich, beginning his column in yesterday's NY Times.

Now, if President Obama would only take the same approach to the opposition. Because if the roles were reversed (see "2002, election of") you know damn well the GOP would be kicking the Democrats while they were down.

I was all for the president's talk of bipartisanship, but the Republicans continue to refuse him at every turn. So fuck 'em. Our ship of state is perilously close to sinking, and it seems the Democrats are the only ones who wish to save her. But they need to be bold. Half measures aren't going to work.

Changing Minds

From Fayette County, Georgia:

Eric Mongerson's kids couldn't meet his partner of two years, much less join the couple for ice cream. His friends couldn't cheer on the children at concerts or Little League games.

The divorced dad spent thousands of dollars fighting an unusual ban imposed by a county judge in 2007 that kept the three minors from having any contact with his gay friends or partners.

He felt unfairly scrutinized every moment he spent with the kids, though he never was looking to make a statement. He just wanted to spend a day with his kids and his partner, Jose Sanchez - together.

This Father's Day, he finally will.

The ban stemmed from the bitter divorce between Mongerson and his ex-wife, Sandy, who were married for almost 20 years and had four children. Mongerson said the marriage ended when his wife discovered he was gay in November 2005.

Fayette County Superior Court Judge Christopher Edwards [awarded] Sandy custody of the children. The judge also issued a blanket order banning Eric Mongerson from "exposing the children to his homosexual partners and friends."

On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously agreed. Justice Robert Benham wrote in the scathing 10-page ruling that the trial court abused its discretion without evidence of harm to the children. He concluded it "flies in the face of our public policy that encourages divorced parents to participate in the raising of their children."