A Plea for Your Help from No on 8 to Save Marriage Equality

The No On 8 folks have a new ad that can be an effective tool in support of saving marriage equality in California and the hope of marriage equality rights in other places if it survives. But they need your help to keep it on the air. Please support this. I have. Here's the plea:

This morning's Field Poll carries news that Prop 8 is narrowly losing, 44 to 49%.
This initiative battle is razor thin. We know that 7 to 10% of voters are still up for grabs.

And Tim Gill and Scott Miller will match your donation up to $100,000 if you respond NOW.

We knew we needed something more. Something big. Something to remind California voters that there were times in our history when we did not stand up against discrimination, and these are times we now regret.

So our new ad -- which we call "History" -- focuses on the central fact of this campaign: it is wrong to discriminate and wrong to treat people differently under the law.

This new ad, narrated by renowned actor Samuel L. Jackson, drives home the message that discrimination is always wrong. Watch the ad and make a donation to keep it on the air.

Now it's our turn. It’s our turn to make sure we do everything we can do so the next generation grows up in a more decent society -- a society where discrimination against LGBT Americans remains part of that sorry past rather than enshrined in our Constitution.

We must keep this ad on television statewide through Election Day. To make that happen we must raise at least $1.5 million today. Please donate NOW

Halloween Humor

So, it's Halloween. The clerk at my gym is dressed as Elvis (and pulls off a pretty good one at that).

After my workout I go back to the front desk and say to Mark a.k.a. Elvis:

"I've lost an item...I wondered if maybe someone turned it in."

Mark/Elvis cocks an eyebrow at me as if to say, "Tell me what it is, thankyouverymuch."

Pause.

"It was a pair of blue suede shoes."

They just love me at my gym....

Save Marriage Equality

The Mormon Church has poured $20 million into the fight for Prop 8 in California. Prop 8 would make marriage equality, already a fact in California, unconsitutional.

You may not live in California and think this doesn't affect you, but you're wrong. I have four friends who just returned from California. They were married there. You may have friends who have married in California or would like to. And other jurisdictions are watching -- the DC City Council will likely introduce a bill to enact marriage equality in the District of Columbia IF it is not voted unconstitutional in California (if Prop 8 passes).

If you know people who live in California, email or call them. If you live in California vote NO. And write Gov. Schwartzenegger (who opposes prop 8) and ask him to speak out publicly.

Go here to find out what you can do. Polls say that it is very close.

And if you want to know what the other side is saying, listen to this. You won't be surprised.

Reason Number 8

Obama's spending will add less debt to the budget over the next four years than McCain's, according to the CBO. And he gives a larger portion of the economy a tax break than McCain. Spends less, taxes less. Sorry, Joe the Plumber.

Reason Number 9

A president who will be calm and rational in a crisis.

Sometimes

I think there is progress. And then find out you've been written out of the story. I guess I now fully understand the difference between "accepted' and "tolerated."

Identity Politics Over?

Andrew Sullivan thinks so:

Yes, there do appear to be some older white voters in Appalachia and other
pockets of the country who simply will not vote for a black man.But unless we
are all drastically shocked on November 5, the broader truth is that vast
numbers of white Americans are prepared to vote for a black candidate.

Not so fast. It's not just the older generation of white voters who will not vote for a black man. From the St. Louis Post Dispatch:

...Johnson, a lanky 20-year-old white man who works as a meatcutter at a
grocery store, starts to talk about an issue that has persisted throughout the
campaign: race.It is not just that Obama is black, Johnson says. He has heard
that Obama is Muslim. (Obama is Christian.) He also has heard rumors that Obama
refuses to salute the American flag, and that Obama has promised that black men
will have more rights than white men. (Independent fact-checking groups say
these rumors are false.)

Reason Number 9

A president who will be strong, thoughtful and deliberate on foreign policy, not knee-jerk reactive and risky.

Redskins Sunday

You can always tell when the Redskins are playing -- you see guys walking down the street wearing Skins jerseys headed to the stadium if it's a home game or to the bar or a friends house when it's away. Often with a 12 pack of Bud or Miller in hand.

Today was Redskins @ Detroit.

And how did I spend my Redskins Sunday?

Well, today I had brunch with my two bestest gal pals*, followed by a full body massage**.

I just love Redskin Sundays.

*when a gay guy says "girl friend" he could be referring to either gender. Gal pals connotates friends of the female gender.

**by my massage therapist, not by my gal pals. We're close, but not that close.

***I totally stole this asterisk thing from Lacochran's bloggery

McCain - Palin

Sent by D.R. I couldn't resist.

Reason Number 10

We need a president who can inspire the rest of the free world to be pro-American after eight years of arrogant, go-it-alone foreign policy.

Prop 8, McCain and My Straight Friends

I'm trying to work something out. I can't quite put my finger on it.

The other day a straight colleague who is a staunch McCain supporter said to me, "I'm sorry about your father-in-law."

Father. in. law.

Although I think of the LTR's dad in those terms I was kind of startled to hear him acknowledged as such by someone who supports the political party that would use the highest law in the land to ensure that he would never get that designation. That even now the candidate he supports is in favor of Prop 8 in California which would take the right for gay people to have father-in-laws away.

It brought to mind all the straight friends and co-workers who individually have no problem with my relationship and have said to me that it's "silly" we can't marry, but who then give money to and vote for the party and its candidates who support constitutional amendments that would prevent this from ever happening.

I understand that its not a pressing issue to them. They have the right to marry, after all.

But if the shoe were on the other foot...if I were supporting candidates who wanted to take the right to marry away from them, would they be civil to me? Would my support for such a candidate be a matter of passing lightheartedness the way I currently deal with my Republican friends and co-workers?

Doubtful. After all, Romeo and Juliet died for their love; the Greeks went to war with Troy so Theseus could marry Helen. Love and marriage would seem to be a deadly serious business.

So, I appreciate the fact you recognize my relationship with my life partner's father as equivalent to that of a "father-in-law."

And the fact that you vote contrary to that sentiment I'll try not to take personally and ignore it -- even though I doubt the opposite would be true.

11 Days, 11 Reasons

With 11 days until Election Day, I've written 11 reasons to Vote O. I've tried to keep it as pro-Obama and less anti-McCain, but in an election that's a choice between two men it's difficult to not draw contrasts. So, with no particular order, here is my first reason:

We need a president who respects the rule of law and won't bend the Constitution into a pretzel to expand presidential power.

Celebrity?

Joe McCain (John's Bro) Calls 911: to Complain About Traffic

Hotheadedness appears to run in the family. It's now a trifecta of distracting McCain stories -- the $150,000 wardrobe, the highly paid makeup artist and now the brother abuses 911.

A Time for All Things

The LTR's father passed away this morning at 6:45. His eldest son was with him, playing his guitar for him as he passed.

There are men who made more money than he did; who were more successful in their careers; but there damned sure weren't any men who laughed harder or loved their families more.

In short, he was a very rich man.

The McCain-Palin Legacy

Buh-Bye, Marilyn Musgrave

The NRCC is pulling out of Rep. Marilyn Musgrave's race for re-election. Musgrave was the principle sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment and was rated by the American Conswervative Union as the most homophobic conservative member of the House. She is in a tough re-election bid. And with this news, it just got tougher.

Keep your bigotry in your house, Marilyn, and out of the U.S. House.

"Why I'm a Republican" -- the GOP Freakshow Continues

This will be John McCain's legacy, as expressed in this letter by a Republican official in New Mexico. Sad, since he once seemed to bring out the best in people, and now he has encouraged some of people's baser fears:

I believe there is a moderate and a socialist in this election. I agree with a
two-party system, but Obama isn't a messiah or a democrat.

He's a Muslim socialist.

I'm surprised she didn't say "terrorist." Maybe that's just implied.

Palin's Clothes (or, how happy are you RNC donors?)

Sam Stein puts it in context:

Palin's fashion budget for several weeks was more than four times the median
salary of an American plumber ($37,514). To put it another way: Palin received
more valuable clothes in one month than the average American household spends on
clothes in 80 years. A Democrat put it in even blunter terms: her clothes were
the cost of health care for 15 or so people.