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Sarah Palin has a cute time pardoning a tom turkey for Thanksgiving but later is interviewed while Turkeys are slaughtered in the background. Of course, MSNBC makes the snide comments.

NBC News could have had a laugh with this but have turned it into something gross because they love the ‘cuda sooo much. Catch Shuster’s condescending tone/remarks around 6:15.

California Supreme Court Justices, from top left, Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, Carlos R. Moreno, Joyce L. Kennard, Marvin Baxter and from lower left, Ming Chin, Chief Justice Ronald M. George and Carol Corrigan

In yesterday’s post about the California Supreme Court accepting California’s Proposition 8 that restored the traditional definition of marriage (one man and one woman) to the California Constitution for review, Flap briefly mentioned the fact that Justice Kennard did NOT sign the order.

From the order:

Justice Kennard would deny these petitions without prejudice to the filing in this court of an appropriate action to determine Proposition 8’s effect, if any, on the marriages of same-sex couples performed before Proposition 8’s adoption.

Justice Kennard, in fact, voted against reviewing the constitutionality of Proposition 8.

Why?

While both sides cheered the court’s decision to take up the cases, Kennard’s lone vote to deny review could spell trouble for opponents of Prop. 8.

Kennard is the court’s longest-serving justice, having been appointed in 1989, and has been one of its foremost supporters of same-sex couples’ rights. Without her vote, the May 15 ruling would have gone the other way. But she wrote Wednesday that she would favor hearing arguments only about whether Prop. 8 would invalidate the pre-election marriages, an issue that would arise only if the initiative were upheld.

“It’s always hard to read tea leaves, but I think Justice Kennard is saying that she thinks the constitutionality of Prop. 8 is so clear that it doesn’t warrant review,” said Stephen Barnett, a retired UC Berkeley law professor and longtime observer of the court.

For those seeking to overturn Prop. 8, “I would not think it would be encouraging,” said Dennis Maio, a San Francisco lawyer and former staff attorney at the court.

Flap thinks the court ultimately will support California’s voters and uphold the constitutionality of Proposition 8. Flap predicts a 6-1 vote with Justice Moreno dissenting.

Justice Kennard has sent a message to her fellow Justices yesterday that she plans to uphold Prop. 8.

Or did she?

Stay tuned……

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Technorati Tags: Joyce Kennard, California Supreme Court, California Proposition 8

The Survey USA poll of 500 Californians conducted November 19, 2008:

The Question: What should happen to gay couples who were legally married in California before the law changed? Should their marriage remain legal? Should their marriage be immediately annulled? Or, do you not know enough to say?

• 59% Remain Legal
• 34% Immediately Annulled
• 6% Do Not Know Enough
• 1% Not Sure

However, look at the cross-tabs of the poll and particularly the sample (which is small) of minority voters (majority of African-American and Latino voters opposed Proposition 8 whereas in the California election approved the measure) - Question 3 and page 2 of the Pdf.

This poll with an error margin of +/- 4.5% may be an outlier.

An earlier poll, however, conducted in San Diego on November 14, 2008 leads to similar results:

• 56%     Remain Legal
• 37%     Immediately Annulled
• 6%     Do Not Know Enough
• 1%     Not Sure

Regardless, the California Supreme Court will likely decide the issue sometime early next year since the disposition of these marriages should Proposition 8 be found constituional is at issue: “If Proposition 8 is not unconstitutional, what is its effect, if any, on the marriages of same-sex couples performed before the adoption of Proposition 8?”

What are the options before the court?

UCLA Law School Professor Eugene Volokh outlines:

1. One option is that they may remain valid, whether because the initiative is construed as not applying to existing marriages, or because the courts conclude such an interpretation is constitutionally mandated by the Contracts Clause (”No state shall … pass any … Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts ….”).
2. Another is that pre-initiative same-sex marriages will become domestic partnerships, which under California statutes give most of the rights of marriage.
3. A third option is that same-sex marriages will be eliminated altogether, and that married couples will remain domestic partners only if they had entered both into a marriage and into a domestic partnership.
4. Finally, it’s possible that the legislature will step in, specifically providing that any invalidated same-sex marriage will become a domestic partnership.

Flap bets 3 or 4 of the above should Propositon 8 be ruled consitutional - which I think it will. The new California Legislature is set to meet the first week of December and watch to see if such legisation is introduced.

Of course, the anti-proposition 8 folks could circulate an initiative, but it would leave the same sex married couples hanging until June 2010. Flap’s guess is that they would wait a ruling by the California Supreme Court due sometime late Spring or early summer next year before any such action.

Stay tuned…..

Loud mouth married lesbian Rosie O’Donnell has been conspicuously quiet about California’s Proposition 8 that banned gay marriage.

Why?

Well, Rosie has a new NBC variety show she is trying to sell to NBC network execs.

Some reporters questioned why O’Donnell has been “oddly absent” from the uproar of California’s passing of Proposition 8, which denies same-sex marriage.

But the comedian scoffed. “This is nothing new for me. When I got married it was an act of civil disobedience as much as it was a love story. There is not any person in the country who doesn’t know I’m for gay marriage.

“I’m not vocal enough? I got married before anyone else did. I’ve been living it and living it for a very long time.”

Yeah right.

Money talks and the NBC producers told you if you want to work again, keep it down, like Ellen.

No, not really a shock since the United States and EU have been screwing around with Iran regarding their uranium enrichment program for years.

Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts analyzing the latest report from global atomic inspectors.

The figures detailing Iran’s progress were contained in a routine update on Wednesday from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been conducting inspections of the country’s main nuclear plant at Natanz. The report concluded that as of early this month, Iran had made 630 kilograms, or about 1,390 pounds, of low-enriched uranium.

Several experts said that was enough for a bomb, but they cautioned that the milestone was mostly symbolic, because Iran would have to take additional steps. Not only would it have to breach its international agreements and kick out the inspectors, but it would also have to further purify the fuel and put it into a warhead design — a technical advance that Western experts are unsure Iran has yet achieved.

“They clearly have enough material for a bomb,” said Richard Garwin, a top nuclear physicist who helped invent the hydrogen bomb and has advised Washington for decades. “They know how to do the enrichment. Whether they know how to design a bomb, well, that’s another matter.”

United Nations sanctions have been ineffective since China and Russia (Iran’s business and trading partners) have watered down the resolutions. Lately, the Bush Administration has downplayed any tougher measures to punish Iran.

The ball will now be in the Obama Administration’s court or in Israel’s military ability.

The danger now is that Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, Syria (already has developed a program that Israel bombed with USA help) and Egypt will desire to develop their own nuclear programs to counteract Iran’s hegemony in the region.

An announcement from Iran of BREAKOUT CAPABILITY may be next.

Map of Iran’s nuclear facilities

Previous:

Another Worthless United Nations Resolution on Iran

Sarah Palin Watch: The Iran Speech Palin Was NOT Allowed to Give

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran May Be Hiding Secret Nukes

Iran Nuclear Watch: More Nuclear Power Plants

The Iran Nuclear Watch Archive