Civil Rights

Yesterday's decision by the California Supreme Court to uphold Proposition 8's ban on gay marriage is a sad, though expected, decision.

Now gay Californians have no way legally to protect themselves; they have zero legal recognition. All these couples have are California state domestic partnerships, which provide every single legal protection that marriage provides. The difference being the use of that dreaded (antiquated) "M" word. Read more...

Queerty points out that President Obama hasn't said anything about any of the recent gay marriage victories.

Why should he? He thinks it's best left up to the states, and the states are deciding. Robert Gibbs said that as plainly as he could at the White House: "I think the president believes this is an issue that's best addressed by the states." Obama continues to support civil unions. Read more...

Maine leaped to the right side of history today with the passage of a gay-marriage bill through legislative channels. I'm impressed with the momentum of the LGBT movement post-Iowa, and it looks likely that advocates will reach their goal of marriage equality throughout New England by 2012.

What's overblown is all this talk, from Meghan McCain to Jon Huntsman, of the Republican Party "embracing" gay marriage. Not taken into account is what is sure to be a brutal 2012 primary decided largely by Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. In a recent poll, only 3 percent of Iowa Republicans found candidates who favored gay marriage appealing. And does anyone seriously think Huntsman has a shot at the GOP nomination? Republican primary voters in early 2012 states are too conservative for him, and he's the governor of Utah! Read more...

The recent kerfuffle over comments made by Miss California Carrie Prejean in response to openly gay blogger Perez Hilton is a prime example of why Hollywood should never attempt to insert itself into politics. Quite simply, Hollywood elites like Hilton stink at it, and have no bearing on what goes on outside their twisted, rose-colored view of how the rest of the country lives and functions.

Perez Hilton clearly has an agenda that is out of America’s mainstream, on any level. He crafted his own little box of entrapment, and sprung it on an unsuspecting contestant more worried about her next dance routine than some curveball question. What did it accomplish, other than elevating Perez Hilton’s agenda and no one else’s? Why not ask about the military junta forming in the jungles of the Congo or the next diagnostic platform for chem-bioterrorism countermeasures? It’s a pageant, not a science fair or mortarboard. Read more...

Last week was quite a week, teabags and all. We could chew over Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) urging ATM withdrawals as a response to the economic crisis, impeached former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) being offered $80,000 per week to do a reality television show, Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) raising less than $1,000 since taking office, French President Nicolas Sarkozy seeing fit to bash the president of the United States, or Gov. Rick Perry (R) musing on whether Texas may soon need to secede from the union. Read more...

It won't happen but it should. Democratic Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska won't step aside, but he should. Chances are, former Sen. Ted Stevens (R) would clean his clock in a new special election, so don't look for Begich to do the right thing.

Stevens has become the latest symbol of how things worked at the Justice Department in the Bush administration. In fact, it's fair to say that during those eight shameful years it could more accurately be called the Miscarriage of Justice department. Read more...

"President Kennedy didn't have the luxury of choosing between civil rights and sending us to the moon," President Obama lectured us during his education speech yesterday.

Unfortunately, the president has his history wrong. It was LBJ, not JFK, who signed the Voting Rights Act. Read more...

Earlier today the U.S. Senate cleared a procedural vote that will allow a bill to reach the floor to allow voting representation for the District of Columbia in the United States House of Representatives. That we've reached this point, where the direct words of the Constitution are ignored regarding how composition of the House shall be formed, is nothing less than stunning.

Consider the following, from Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman (I), a man I genuinely admire for his independence and strong support for the protection of Americans from terrorist attacks. During his remarks on the Senate floor this morning, Lieberman noted that citizens of our nation's capital are "the only residents of a democratically ruled national capital in the world who have no say" in how their nation is governed. "It's time to right this injustice," Lieberman said. Read more...

Since we're supposed to be in a post-racial era, it was surprising to see race explode as a major part of last week's national discussion. As usual, when the issue flares up, it's done so by words and actions that are inflammatory and/or have no basis in reality.

What first caused it? Am image seen a million times over — an editorial cartoon of two police officers hovering over the bloody carcass of a dead chimpanzee. "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill," the caption read. Read more...