• Gay Marriage

    Catholics Condemn Gay Marriage Ad for Religious Biogtry and Intolerance of the Mormon Faith

    Michael Barber, Professor of Theology, Scripture and Catholic Thought – John Paul the Great Catholic University

    Remember the disgusting ad attacking and ridiculing the LDS (Mormon) Church from the supporters of California gay marriage?

    The television ad:

    Courage Campaign’s television ad: “Home Invasion”: Vote NO on Prop 8

    And, remember the California Catholic Conference condemned the ad?

    The California Catholic Conference on Monday condemned the ad as “bigoted and intolerant.”

    Most Rev. Stephen Blaire, Bishop of Stockton and President of the California Catholic Conference, commented in a press release, calling the ad “a blatant display of religious bigotry and intolerance” and expressing dismay any public media outlet would air it.

    “The YES on 8 campaign is not about discrimination and intolerance; it is about restoring the traditional definition of marriage for the good of society and children,” said Bishop Blaire. “All individuals and groups, whether religious or not, have both a right and a responsibility to participate in a civil debate about this important issue. From the beginning of this campaign the Catholic Conference has stressed the importance of mutual respect and denounces this type of religious bigotry.”

    This ad and the violent demonstrations targeting the Mormon Church are bigotted, intolerant, and border on “HATE CRIMES.”

    If this conduct is how the homosexual community wishes to win the hearts and minds of religious people of all faiths to their cause – well, good luck with that.

    Homosexuals and others who support gay marriage should condemn this bigotry.


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  • Barack Obama,  Nancy Reagan

    Barack Obama Debut – Apologizes to Nancy Reagan

    President-Elect Barack Obama is NOT getting off to a good start as he is forced to apologize to Nancy Reagan about a quip he made about seances.

    Flap thought it was Hillary Clinton that had those?

    Didn’t President Ronald Reagan’s widow consult an astrologer after he was shot?

    Anyway it is not good form to insult a former First Lady of the United States with a cheap shot laugh that was too clever by half.

    Flap thinks it is going to be a rocky ride…….


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  • Sarah Palin

    Sarah Palin – Naked Airhead Shopaholic is Sorting Through Clothes Today

    Sarah Palin vs Anonymous McCain Campaign Staffers on the Bill O’Reilly Show

    Ok, the McCain Campaign and the Republican National Committee will get their damn clothes back. The ‘Cuda is sorting them herself today with an aide. And, surprisingly, Palin NEVER went shopping herself – debunking another rumor.

    The question now is what’s going to happen with the clothes. The Republican National Committee has said they’ll be donated to charity. The New York Times reported anonymous advisers describing the campaign as incredulous about the shopping and saying Republican National Committee lawyers were likely to go to Alaska to conduct an inventory and try to account for all that was spent.

    Stapleton said Palin has no notice of any RNC lawyers coming to town. She said Palin asked that everything not belonging to her — including clothes — be taken off her campaign plane in Phoenix before she returned to Alaska on Wednesday.

    That didn’t happen, Stapeleton said, so Palin and another aide were going through the luggage in Wasilla on Thursday, sorting through what belongs to Palin and what does not.

    The clothes are “not her property. It’s the property of either the RNC or the campaign and so they have said it will go to charity. The governor would love for it to go to an Alaska charity but I don’t know,” she said.

    Nicolle Wallace who was the brain donor in charge of managing the Alaska Governor gave her mea culpa on the Today show earlier this morning. Guess Wallace wants to have a GOP campaign job after this campaign fiasco featuring Maverick Mac, Davis and Schmidt.

    Randy Scheunemann, Team McCain foreign policy aide who was assigned to Sarah Palin defended the Governor today.

    Randy Scheunemann, McCain’s foreign policy aide, contacted the Anchorage Daily News at Stapleton’s request Thursday and defended the governor. He praised Palin and said anonymous attacks from other staffers are “disappointing and dishonorable.”

    “It’s really amazing, I think it’s unprecedented in terms of presidential politics to have this level of vindictiveness and pettiness. It’s like these people fell out of favor with a middle school 14-year-old girls’ clique. It’s really unbelievable,” Scheunemann said.

    Scheunemann, who played a major role in preparing Palin for the vice presidential debate, said he doesn’t believe the claim that Palin thought Africa was a country and not a continent.

    “Her debate performance speaks for itself. … The idea that she could stand up on the stage with somebody who’s been in the Senate for 35 years and discuss domestic and foreign policy as effectively as she did, and yet somehow she doesn’t know who is in NAFTA and doesn’t know that Africa is a continent and not a country is laughable,” he said.

    The Africa as a country or continent smear is a little hard to believe. Maybe she made a speaking error as everyone does. Flap is still waiting for Barack Obama to name all of those 57 states he mentioned during the campaign.

    So, will Sarah Palin accept Bill O’Reilly’s offer to go on his show on Fox News next Monday and respond to these rumors/smears?

    Probably not Monday since it has just been announced that Greta Van Susteren will be interviewing Palin on her Fox News show Monday.

    But, Sarah will have plenty of opportunities to tell “HER” story since Oprah, Barbara Walters and Larry King all want to take with her.

    Stay tuned…..


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  • Gay Marriage

    California Proposition 8 – Protect Traditional Marriage By The Numbers

    Prop-8-by-numbers-1

    These graphics paint the winning picture for the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign which restored the traditional definition of marriage (man and woman)in California on Tuesday as a California Constitutional amendment.

    Proposition 22 was the initiative statute law that was overturned in May by the California Supreme Court. It, also defined marriage as a man and woman.

    prop-8-by-numbers-2

    No surprise that support for gay marriage was concentrated around San Francisco and coastal areas of California which voted overwhelmingly no on Proposition 8. Most of the land mass of California voted to ban gay marriage, including the Latino and African-American communities. The anglo or white community of voters favored gay marriage.

    So, did the Obama campaign which attracted MORE African-American voters to the polls actually aid Proposition 8 passing?

    Apparently.

    Go over to the Los Angeles Times site and play with their interactive maps. It is very revealing.


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  • Nicolle Wallace,  Sarah Palin

    Nicolle Wallace Defends Sarah Palin Over Anonymous McCain Campaign Staff Smears

    nicolle-wallace-on-today

    Nicolle Wallace, former CBS political analyst and McCain campaign staffer assigned to Sarah Palin

    On NBC’s Today Show, Nicolle Wallace lately of Team McCain and rumored to be behind the latest of Sarah Palin smears defends the Alaska Governor.

    Watch the video here.

    The latest Flap started with these damning reports by Carl Cameron on the Bill O’Reilly Show.

    Key graph from Nicolle Wallace:

    Calls the Alaska governor “perhaps the most un-diva politician I’ve ever seen,” and says all she ever saw Palin request was a diet soda.

    Last night Bill O’Reilly offered Sarah Palin the opportunity to come on his show and defend herself. In the meantime, a long-time aide of Governor Palin lashed back at Palin’s critics.

    Regarding another stinging criticism, Stapleton claims that the Fox News report Thursday — that quoted unnamed sources inside the now defunct McCain campaign, saying Palin didn’t know Africa is a continent — was taken out of context.

    Stapleton says that during a briefing session, someone asked Palin to explain the McCain-Palin stance on an issue, and as she was responding, “in the middle, she said, ‘country of Africa’ and somebody instantly wrote it down, and said, ‘Oh, my God, she thinks it’s a country.'”

    But Stapleton insists, “She knows it’s a continent. It was just a human mistake, just like Obama saying 57 states. I don’t think anyone ever doubted that Obama knows there are 50 states.”

    Now, is the time for Senator John McCain to step up and defend Sarah Palin. All of these charges that she is an airhead shopaholic who meets campaign staffers in a towel are BS and he knows it.

    Do the RIGHT thing, Senator McCain.


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  • Hannah-Beth Jackson,  Tony Strickland

    Tony Strickland Takes 840 Vote Lead in California State Senate Race

    strickland-and-jackson

    Former California Assembly Members Tony Strickland and Hannah-Beth Jackson and candidates for California State Senate District 19

    The lead comes from Ventura County mail-in ballots which were received after the time to process them before election day.

    Republican Tony Strickland took an 840-vote lead over Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson Thursday in the oh-so-close balloting in the 19th Senate District, the first day of what could be a monthlong process to determine the winner of the most expensive political contest in Ventura County history.

    Strickland emerged with a lead after Ventura County election officials counted 11,294 mail-in-ballots that hadn’t been received in time to process before Election Day. His 948-vote net gain allowed him to leapfrog ahead of Jackson, who led by 108 votes after election night.

    The votes counted Thursday were exceptionally rich for Strickland. He was the choice on 58.6 percent of the new ballots counted, well above the percentage by which he carried Ventura County and also above the percentage he received of the mail-in ballots from the county that were tabulated on Election Day.

    The lead may be short-lived since Santa Barbara County will release its mail-in ballots today. On the other hand, Strickland supporting Los Angeles County is liable to add to Strickland’s total.

    Next, will be the fight for the provisional ballots and a possible state mandated audit.

    Flap bets Strickland will win this race eventually but hang on because the lead may change a couple more times over the next few weeks.


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  • Barack Obama,  Day By Day

    Day By Day by Chris Muir November 7, 2008 – Noblesse Oblige

    Day By Day 110708

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    There will be a honeymoon period for Barack Obama that will run through the 4th of July 2009. However, the conflicting demands of the LEFT, including Labor Unions, the anti-War crowd and the various minority Democrat Party constituent groups like Latinos and homosexuals will keep the pressure on the “rookie” President.

    Obama can only hope the economy improves dramatically (doubtful) or a safe-LEFT Supreme Court retirement is announced (Ruth Bader Ginsburg or John Paul Stevens). In the meantime, the RIGHT will consolidate its positions, hire new leadership and look forward to making gains in 2010, particularly in governorships for reapportionment fights after the census.

    Previous:

    The Day By Day Archive


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  • Del.icio.us Links

    links for 2008-11-07

    • The global economic downturn hit Walt Disney Co's quarterly results harder and faster than Wall Street expected, with the company on Thursday reporting a sharp decline in hotel bookings and softness in advertising revenue at its networks.

      Disney's shares slid 9 percent in extended trade but recovered a bit after executives announced plans to discount stays at Walt Disney World to stimulate bookings in the first half of 2009.
      +++++++
      The recession hits Disney

      (tags: economics)
    • Wow -that is some savage cutting & gutting that Nicole Wallace has just performed upon Sarah Palin. Nicole & I crossed swords once, during the Harriet Miers nomination battle. Watching what Nicole can do when she is seriously annoyed, I am grateful that I got away from that fight with nothing worse than a few bumps and bruises ….

      That said: Some of these stories do not ring quite true to me, especially the story about Palin allegedly not realizing that Africa was a continent rather than a country. Apparently she did not grasp that "South Africa" was not the same thing as "southern Africa." But there a lot of possible innocent explanations for a mistake like that.

      Larger point: Would it not better serve the cause of understanding for Nicole Wallace to give an on-camera interview to Carl Cameron and state these points in her own voice – and allow viewers to asses their credibility? Wallace's fingerprints are all over these leaks anyway, so it's not as if she has any anonymity to los

    • Opponents of a ballot measure to end gay marriage in California conceded defeat today – two days after voters repealed a state Supreme Court decision that has allowed same-sex couples to wed since May.

      With all precincts in the state counted, Proposition 8 was leading by a 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent margin. Opponents had held out hope that they could overcome a 400,000 deficit when provisional and absentee ballot were counted.

      But during a telephone conference today with reporters, opponents acknowledged that waiting for the final tally would be fruitless.

      "While we think the margin will close, we are convinced that we will not be able to overcome what the current small deficit is and that Prop. 8 will pass," said Geoff Kors, a member of the executive NO on Proposition 8 Committee.
      ++++++++
      Finally, they concede. Now, the lawsuits.

      (tags: gaymarriage)
    • "While the election was close, and millions of votes still remain uncounted, it has become apparent that we lost," writes Dr. Delores A. Jacobs, CEO of the Center Advocacy Project, and Lorri L. Jean, CEO of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, in an e-mail to supporters.
      +++++++
      Nope. California voters have spoken
      (tags: gaymarriage)
    • Assemblywoman Audra Strickland appears to have prevailed in the toughest campaign of her career, as she held a 3 percentage-point advantage over Democrat Ferial Masry after the vote count on Election Day.

      About 86,000 votes in Ventura County remain to be counted, and about half of county voters reside in the 37th Assembly District. If the outstanding votes are proportionately distributed, that would mean about 43,000 votes remain to be counted in the district. Masry would have to win 55 percent of those votes in order to overcome Strickland's 4,000-vote lead.
      ++++++
      Alot of votes to be counted. Best to wait before calling the elction.

    • I'm no legal expert, but as a political matter, I do not favor litigating this. I favor continuing the work in educating people about marriage equality, about gay couples, and the good, integrative effect of allowing this reform. And I think the greatest way to do this will not be lawsuits but the witness and example of thousands of legally married couples in California. That's how fears of miscegenation abated in time: seeing inter-racial couples live and breathe defused the opposition. Remember, the anti-marriage equality forces lost over ten points in eight years in two consecutive initiatives. We're winning. Just not all the time.
      +++++++
      Sully knows they will lose the legal argument and the US Supremes could ban gay marriage for all time. Flap doubts winning hearts and minds will ever occur in sufficient numbers to be a majority – at least in Flap's lifetime
      (tags: gaymarriage)
    • Issue # 1: Did Prop 8 amend or revise the Constitution? There are two modes of changing the California state constitution. First, there is an amendment. An amendment can be effected in either of two ways: (1) passage of an amendment by a 2/3 vote of each house of the state legislature or (2) by ballot initiative, as was the case with Prop 8. Second, there is a revision. In order to revise the California state constitution, the change must be approved by a 2/3 vote of each house of the legislature and thereafter approved by public referendum via a legislatively-initiated ballot proposition.
      +++++++
      The lawsuits will now fly.
      (tags: gaymarriage)
    • And the two cases that I've found in other states that dealt with the same question have likewise concluded that an opposite-sex-only marriage initiative was an amendment, not a revision: Bess v. Ulmer (Alaska Supreme Court, 1999), and Martinez v. Kulongoski (Oregon Court of Appeals, 2008). Bess, in particular, expressly applied California precedents (though with a minor change that doesn't seem relevant here), and concluded that the opposite-sex-only marriage initiative was an amendment, not a revision: "Few sections of the Constitution are directly affected, and nothing in the proposal will 'necessarily or inevitably alter the basic governmental framework' of the Constitution."
      +++++++
      Should the CA Supreme court hold otherwise, voters will recall the entire court. Ronald George, Chief Justice will be not confirmed in 2010 anyway.
      (tags: gaymarriage)
    • California's black and Latino voters, who turned out in droves for Barack Obama, provided key support for a state ban on same-sex marriage. Christian, married and older voters also helped give the measure the winning edge, according to exit polls for The Associated Press.
      +++++++
      Yep. White bigots – not so much……
      (tags: gaymarriage)
    • The National Religious Broadcasters, for one, was concerned enough about Schumer's comments to issue a press release Wednesday saying it "foreshadowed an intolerance of ideas."

      NRB, which supports the FCC's indecency crackdown, took issue with Schumer linking the two.

      “I was stunned by Senator Schumer’s suggestion that by keeping filth off the air, the federal government has somehow become empowered to take over the control of legitimate programming content of broadcasters," said Craig Parshall, senior VP and general counsel for NRB and author of its brief supporting the FCC on indecency enforcement. "That paints a very grim picture for the future of broadcasting freedoms, particularly for Christian broadcasters.
      +++++++
      Christian right broadcasters must leave boradcast radio anyway and migrate to the internet and satellite boradcast radio.