News and Current Events - 2012

[fritzkep]

While I don't subscribe to any particular news organization, whether it is visual or print, this whole decision of the Prez today raises more questions than answers.

Regardless of what it is called, flip/flop, etc.; the president is a mature and educated individual; why didn't he take this stand four years ago?   I see this entire move simply as him playing along with what his political advisors tell him.   It's an election year, if they tell him he can get 50K more votes out of certain states by hopping around on one leg and barking like a dog; he will do it.

Well, why did it take Lincoln until 1862 to declare emancipation? He could have just as easily run his first campaign on it.

Perhaps the NC vote is like the Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg, if one insists).

The timing has some amazing parallels.

[CellarDweller115]

Well, why did it take Lincoln until 1862 to declare emancipation? He could have just as easily run his first campaign on it.

Perhaps the NC vote is like the Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg, if one insists).

The timing has some amazing parallels.

History does repeat.

[brokebacktom]

Have the Right completely lost their marbles?? All this festering, albeit infantile homophobia that plagues the rightwing in America, leaves me aghast & troubled, by its virulent intensity. How irrational, bigoted & hate-filled can they be??

When so many far more pressing & important issues face the nation, how can they keep obsessing over something as trivial & irrelevent as gay marriages? Fills me with shame & shock, to realise just how paranoid, bigoted & fanatical, some among us are.

[brokebacktom]

Well, why did it take Lincoln until 1862 to declare emancipation? He could have just as easily run his first campaign on it.

Perhaps the NC vote is like the Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg, if one insists).

The timing has some amazing parallels.

Thanks, even Chaney changed his mind about gay marriage. So, I guess when Obama does it, it's about something else. And do people think this will help Obama in November? I don't. I think it hurt him.

[huntinbuddy]

Thanks, even Chaney changed his mind about gay marriage. So, I guess when Obama does it, it's about something else. And do people think this will help Obama in November? I don't. I think it hurt him.

I don't know.   It's for sure a political roll of the dice at this point in the election.   We know for sure Romney is going to take the other side, and as I have said earlier, the only reason I see that Obama FINALLY took a stand one way or the other is his political advisors said to do it for the sake of a few votes here and there.   The question now becomes just how much of an issue will the two camps make this in the upcoming election.

Personally, if they dwell on it too much, rather than examine the REAL problems facing the country, it could destroy both of them.

[Marge_Innavera]

The one I saw in a yahoo news story about Fox's reaction said:
OBAMA DECLARES WAR ON MARRIAGE

How the hell do they keep track of all these 'wars'? 

They must have an Excel spreadsheet somewhere with linked pages: the War On Christmas, the War On Religion, the War On Incandescent Light Bulbs, the War On Drugs, the War On Our Lady of the One Percent (a/k/a Ann Romney).  Wonder if we'll see drones over Macy's and Mayor's Christmas Trees across the nation this December?

[Marge_Innavera]

I don't know.   It's for sure a political roll of the dice at this point in the election.   We know for sure Romney is going to take the other side, and as I have said earlier, the only reason I see that Obama FINALLY took a stand one way or the other is his political advisors said to do it for the sake of a few votes here and there.   The question now becomes just how much of an issue will the two camps make this in the upcoming election.

Personally, if they dwell on it too much, rather than examine the REAL problems facing the country, it could destroy both of them.

Nevertheless, we can all be proud of how well everyone here is holding up and coping with this terrible, terrible news.   

[garyd]

"North Carolina -- on the wrong side of history since 1861"

Brilliant.
I love it.

(oh, they have an underground War Tracking Room, deep in the bowels of Rockefeller Center.  Tours held daily for only $25.00 per person)

[Cally]

I just hope that Obama will give will give fresh courage to David Cameron (British prime minister or whatever ), who is being hard-pressed by the Conservative right and showing signs of delaying, although I don't doubt his personal support for gay marriage.

[Marge_Innavera]

If the timing was calculated, Obama might have figured it would be better to make this announcement now rather than wait until late summer or fall.  The 24-hour news cycle will have run through it thoroughly and all the apocalyptic predictions and all the 'this isn't really such a good thing' and 'this isn't really such a bad thing' theories will have been launched by then.

[Marge_Innavera]

some comments from John Aravosis:

"Brad Dayspring, the former spokesman for the number two Republican in the US House, Eric Cantor, had the following to say about President Obama's support for same-sex marriage:"

    

Brad Dayspring ‏ @BDayspring
    With the economy in stagnation and crippling amounts of debt, the President seeks to further divide America by launching in a culture war.

"Your culture war is my life.

"And isn't that the problem with so much that the modern Republican party stands for. They've turned all of our lives into one big culture war.

"Access to affordable health care is a culture war.

"Jobs are a culture war.

"Protecting the environment is a culture war.

"Student loans are a culture war.

"Civil rights are a culture war.

"What isn't a culture war to these people?"

http://gay.americablog.com/2012/05/mr-cantor-your-culture-war-is-my-life.html


and a few words for the "who's in the White House makes no difference; they all stink" contingent:

"First, this is major news and these aren't 'just words.'  When the President of the United States makes a statement about an issue this big, the words have impact.  They can impact court cases around the country, and just as importantly, people's attitudes. Those attitudes matter at the ballot box and in the schoolyard.  The President's opinion[ s] matter.  This is an important day for gays and lesbians, our allies, and for all Americans who believe that our country stands for more than cheap political slogans.  Today we showed that it does."

http://gay.americablog.com/2012/05/breaking-president-obama-supports.html

[janjo]

I just hope that Obama will give will give fresh courage to David Cameron (British prime minister or whatever ), who is being hard-pressed by the Conservative right and showing signs of delaying, although I don't doubt his personal support for gay marriage.

I really second this. David Cameron has spoken with passion about gay marriage, and it is also a key plank of the Liberal Democrats schedule in government, (that's the other party doing something or other in government over here ), but as both parties did very badly in the local elections last week, the right wing of the Conservative party ramped up the pressure, and said ridiculous things like, " we only lost because of gay marriage."
Absolutely stupid of course, but I can only hope that Obama giving such a lead will enable both Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg to really give direction on this and refuse to be intimidated.
I have completed the government consultation document on gay marriage which is on their website.

[Cally]

I have completed the government consultation document on gay marriage which is on their website.

Yes, I did too, Jess, a couple of weeks ago, but I got the impression that I was already too late - that the survey was over.  I hope I was wrong though.

[Sandy]

Conservatives don't flip-flop because they don't believe in evolution. They put their faith in intelligent design which explains, uh-oh, Mitt Romney.

[janjo]

Yes, I did too, Jess, a couple of weeks ago, but I got the impression that I was already too late - that the survey was over.  I hope I was wrong though.

It still came up on, or linked to, the Lib Dem website last week, but I didn't note the dates.