Mark Kelly for Veep?

Kamala made her first campaign speech at a rally held yesterday in Milwaukee, and it was powerful:

Now, your Head Trucker has been reviewing potential VP picks for Kamala, just in case she phones and asks my advice.  And I want to say that Senator Mark Kelly stands very high on my short list.  He's a butch white man, for one thing, and that is no small consideration.  (Drop the PC sputtering, girls - we are talking reality here.)  For another, his life and career are exemplary.  And he's the kind of self-confident guy who is very comfortable supporting women's rights (with a wife and two daughters, he'd better be).

Kelly has been a senator from Arizona since 2020, but come to find out, he was born and raised in New Jersey, son of a mom and dad who were both police officers, so he is a working-class guy.  He graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, joined the Navy, and became a combat pilot who flew 39 missions over Iraq in the Gulf War.  Then he got picked by NASA to fly four space shuttle missions, commanding two of them.  A 25-year Navy veteran who earned lots of medals for service to his country, he's been a senator since 2020.

Kelly is also the husband of former U.S. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was left permanently disabled after an assassination attempt and mass shooting in Tucson in 2011.  After Gabby partially recovered from her injuries, the couple founded a gun-control advocacy group now known as Giffords.

Kelly was born in the same month as Kamala Harris, October 1964.  He supports all the issues you'd expect a Democrat to support, and he sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee.  He's not exactly telegenic, but he's a decent speaker, and his record of public service is unimpeachable.  What's not to like?  

Thirty-two!

Latest marriage map from Freedom to Marry - click to enlarge.

A flurry of legal developments happened yesterday, so now there are 32 states where people like us can marry: hit the links to read up on the mind-boggling good news.

Alaska

Arizona

Wyoming

Federal government


And although this is not my idea at all of a proper do, I still had to get my hanky out - Kevin Patterson and David Larance have the first gay wedding in Arizona:




And here's a great piece on Karen and Nelda, the lesbian couple you see in the video above, who have been waiting since the freakin' Eisenhower Administration for the right to marry!




Finally, a sweet pic from Idaho taken earlier this week:

45 Years Together: An Arizona Love Story

Via Joe.My.God., Lambda Legal presents this clip about a couple denied the dignity of marriage even in death:

Fred McQuire and George Martinez, both veterans, were married in July 2014 after 45 years together, but their marriage is not respected in Arizona. In recent years, both Fred and George battled life-threatening illnesses. George passed away on August 28, 2014 following a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Read more about the couple and the court case here.


Update, 9/12/14, 9 p.m.:  Today, U.S. District Court judge John Sedwick ordered Arizona to issue a death certificate for George which shows him as married, with Fred the surviving spouse.  Unfortunately, it seems that Fred will not be able to draw Social Security or veteran's benefits on George, because they were married for such a short time.  But the court recognized that Arizona's marriage laws violate the constitutional rights of the couple.  Full text of the ruling here.

Gay Marriage OK in Texas! But Not Just Yet

As fate would have it, your Head Trucker slept through the breaking news stories yesterday.  I reckon all you boys have already heard it, but just for the record I'll summarize.

First, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vetoed that state's antigay "Religious Freedom Restoration" bill, saying she saw no fucking reason for giving anyone a free card to deny service to gays - or anyone else, for that matter - just because "it's against my religion."



Of course, the potential loss of the Super Bowl and the objections of a hundred or so major corporations operating in Arizona just might have had a little something to do with the honorable Guv's decision, ya think?

BTW, your Head Trucker vividly recalls that fifty years ago, the preachers and politicians were all in a lather, pounding their Bibles to denounce racial integration as a sign of the last days, a scheme of the devil, and rebellion against God Almighty, which would surely and quickly cause the destruction of the family and the downfall of the country. Do watch all of this little clip from 2012:



But even more wonderful yesterday was the ruling of U.S. District Court Judge Orlando Garcia striking down the Texas ban same-sex marriage as being unconstitutional on grounds of due process and equal protection.  He also stayed his ruling, pending appeal by Texas to the Fifth Circuit.



The map below from the Dallas Morning News shows the current situation in these United States; click here for the interactive version.

Click to enlarge.
Federal court rulings are stayed pending appeal in 
Nevada, Utah, California, Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia - and now Texas.

His Honor said, in part:

Regulation of marriage has traditionally been the province of the states and remains so today. However, any state law involving marriage or any other protected interest must comply with the United States Constitution. In United States v. Windsor, U.S. -, 133 S. Ct. 2675 (2013), the United States Supreme Court recently held that the federal government cannot refuse to recognize a valid state-sanctioned same-sex marriage. Now, the lower courts must apply the Supreme Court's decision in Windsor and decide whether a state can do what the federal government cannot:  discriminate against same-sex couples.

The issue before this Court is whether Texas' current definition of marriage is permissible under the United States Constitution. After careful consideration, and applying the law as it must, this Court holds that Texas' prohibition on same-sex marriage conflicts with the United States Constitution's guarantees of equal protection and due process. Texas' current marriage laws deny homosexual couples the right to marry, and in doing so, demean their dignity for no legitimate reason. Accordingly, the Court finds these laws are unconstitutional and hereby grants a preliminary injunction enjoining Defendants from enforcing Texas' ban on same-sex marriage.

Thank you, Judge Garcia!

New York University law professor Ari Ezra Waldman analyzes the ruling:

Judge Garcia's decision is notable for several reasons. I will highlight two here at the outset. First, he does not dive into the heart of the level of scrutiny debate. He is content to say that marriage discrimination cannot even pass a low rational basis test. Second, he gives us a law nerd moment that students of gay rights will read for years to come to show how one case leads to the next which leads to the next and so on. Without Windsor, this case would look very different; without Lawrence, we wouldn't have gotten Windsor. And without Romer, we wouldn't have gotten Lawrence. As Judge Garcia writes:

Without a rational relation to a legitimate governmental purpose, state-imposed inequality can find no refuge in our United States Constitution.

And how does he know that and that it applies to the notoriously marginalized LGBT community? Judge Garcia continues:

Supreme Court precedent prohibits states from passing legislation born out of animosity against homosexuals (Romer), has extended constitutional protection to the moral and sexual choices of homosexuals (Lawrence), and prohibits the federal government from treating state-sanctioned opposite-sex marriages and same-sex marriages differently (Windsor).

Given that, the unconstitutionality of Texas's discriminatory statute seems pretty clear.

All I can say is, unfuckingbelievable. And I have lived to see this day. I just wish my husband had too.  Back when we first got together, 15 years ago, we just couldn't imagine we'd ever be able to marry in Texas or anywhere else in the world.

Full text of the ruling in De Leon v. Perry:

De Leon v. Perry - Complaint by FindLaw

Update, 3/1/14:  Texas Attorney General filed notice with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on the 27th that he will appeal Judge Garcia's ruling.

No Gays Allowed - Is That Legal?

Anderson Cooper interviews Arizona state representative John Kavanagh on the expansion of the Arizona Religious Freedom Restoration Act, now awaiting Governor Jan Brewer's signature.



I never heard of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act until now - but it is a law, and the ACLU did indeed support it, on behalf of American Indians.

This will make a big ol' can of worms for the Supreme Court to unpack, if and when the Arizona law ever gets that far. However, after all is said and done and the shouting dies down, I can't believe the Supremes would ever allow carte blanche discrimination against the gays - or anyone else - just because "it's against my religion."

While we're on that note, it's also formally "against the religion" of the straight boys to go running after poontang they haven't put a ring on - but when has that ever stopped them from grabbing all they can get a-holt of?

Twelve Is Enough

I've run a story on Steve and Roger Ham before, but now the Arizona couple is in the news again.  They've finally been able to jointly adopt all 12 of their kids, thanks to the kindness of an attorney friend.

Read the full story at Towleroad, and check out the video below. Of course, I don't know the family, but it's hard to imagine these kids will grow up feeling a lack of good parenting. I seem to recall, BTW, that both daddies grew up in large families themselves.

Unwanted and Unmentionable

The willful refusal to see any worth in human beings outside one's own kind is a species of that evil I wrote about the other day.

Two cases in point:  first, the mayor of Yuma, Arizona - figures - uses a Memorial Day speech to condemn the worthless "lacey-drawered, limp-wristed" fags who would ruin our military:



Yesterday, in a telephone interview with the local newspaper, the mayor said:  "As mayor I must respect the lifestyle choices of others, no matter how disagreeable they are with my personal beliefs or my personal moral standards.  I apologize for my comments at the Memorial Day service at Desert Lawn cemetery on Memorial Day."

Notice that the translation into plain English is:  It's a choice, a filthy nasty perverted choice, and I ain't changed my mind one bit.  So bite me,  faggots.

The Yuma Sun article, picking up on the mayor's reference to George Washington, correctly notes that Washington's chief of staff in the Revolutionary War was Baron von Steuben - who brought his French lover with him to the battlefields.  And did a helluva great job of warfare too.

Oh, you didn't hear about that in history class?  Really?  No wonder - teh gayz have always been erased from history - wiped off the page.  Repeatedly.  Deliberately.

Why?  For this simple reason:  you are just too shocking to explain to a 7-year-old.  As Congressdouche Ike Skelton, R-MO, House Armed Services Committee Chairman, makes so clear:

Don't even mention the gays - the kids might ask questions!

Okay, so now do you get the picture:  not only are you a worthless fag that everybody, including God, hates with a passion - but also your very existence is unmentionable in front of children. In fact, you have no right to exist, period, you disgusting creep.

That's evil.

Us versus Them

Quotes from two posts on Sullivan's blog illustrate the old, old story, the sorry human condition - which is the cause of so much suffering in the world and always has been.  And that, at the hands of "good" people too - like you and me.

1. From a reflection by Robert Ebert on that school mural in Arizona:

I began up above by imagining I was a student in Prescott, Arizona, with my face being painted over. That was easy for me. What I cannot imagine is what it would be like to be one of those people driving past in their cars day after day and screaming hateful things out of the window. How do you get to that place in your life? Were you raised as a racist, or become one on your own? . . .  The hard-won social struggles of the 1960s and before have fundamentally altered the feelings most of us breathe, and we have evolved, and that is how America will survive. We are all in this together.

But what about the people in those cars? They don't breathe that air. They don't think of the feelings of the kids on the mural. They don't like those kids in the school. It's not as if they have reasons. They simply hate. Why would they do that? What have they shut down inside? Why do they resent the rights of others? Our rights must come first before our fears. And our rights are their rights, whoever "they" are.

2.  Sullivan recounts a conversation with a friend over the Israeli attack on that flotilla:

I grabbed some food the other night with a longtime Jewish friend. We had an honest conversation - the kind you cannot have on US television. He's a big liberal but strongly sided with Israel in this latest incident. Why? "They're my people." But you're an American, I countered, you're not an Israeli, let alone a supporter of Netanyahu. None of that mattered to him. His attachment to Israel was indistinguishable from his attachment to America, and, if push came to shove, Israel came first, right or wrong. This had been dinned into him since childhood. His iPhone was deluged with texts from relatives and friends all appalled by any criticism of the commando attack, and immediately seeing it as anti-Semitic or designed to end the state of Israel for ever.

To charge dual loyalty is described as a blood libel, a vile anti-Semitic charge, and it often is. But my friend was very frank about it and unapologetic. That's just the way it is, he said. It was deeply ingrained. . . .

No decent human being who has a grasp of history, let alone the enormity of the Shoah, can fail to have a deep sympathy for the Jewish people, Israel, and respect for its enormous achievements. But the fanaticism and emotionalism that many Jewish Americans have with respect to Israel is so intense that, for some, it overwhelms rationality, and makes a cool strategic analysis of America's national interest close to impossible. Their total identification with Israel is often emotionally as strong, if not stronger, as their identification with America. . . .

That tribal loyalty - my country, right or wrong - is a very human but very insidious thing.  As we have seen, it will cause "good," upstanding, devout citizens of this or any other land to perpetrate and justify every evil under the sun, not excluding the most extreme reaches of torture and murder and genocide.

It makes me remember a conversation nearly forty years ago with a great-aunt, now long deceased - the very upright sort of Sunday-go-to-meeting old-fashioned Southern lady.  She told me the story of how back in the 1920's in a small Arkansas town, a black man had shot her brother, the local sheriff, to death in some altercation.  Whereupon the entire town immediately turned out to hunt down the culprit and hang him in broad daylight in the public square.  About which my great-aunt said, with quiet pride, "I was there, I watched it all."  And never turned a hair.

Us versus Them.  If They get out of hand or overstep the line, no punishment, no retribution is too awful for Them, the nasty beasts.  Even elderly Southern ladies who crochet lace antimacassars and have their blue curls shampooed and set every Thursday afternoon agree, without the slightest hesitation.  Or shame.

A very human thing.  And very ugly.  The quiet cruelty, the everyday evil that we all are capable of, potentially. 

And yes, I mean evil in the full philosophical and theological sense of the word.  Evil is no monster of awful aspect and frightening mien - evil looks just like the people you see on the street every day:  driving to work, shopping for groceries, going to church.  Evil looks just like that man in the mirror, bud - just exactly like him.

Which is something none of us likes to realize or remember.  So on and on the long, tragic story of humanity goes.  Right here, right there, wherever we are, all over the globe:  except where those few scattered points of spiritual light shine through humble, chastened souls.

And I could tell you other stories - like the one of the old gentleman I happened to meet once when I was in high school who recounted with great amusement, laughing, how when he was a boy in rural Mississippi attending a one-room schoolhouse, they used to use the scalps of lynched Negroes as erasers for the blackboard - and swore to the truth of it.  Laughing.  He was a nice old guy, very friendly, would help a neighbor with any job, give you the shirt off his back if you needed it . . . . you, of course, being one of Us, not Them --

But I suppose you get the point.

Photo:  Barry Somers Photoblog.

Los Angeles to Arizona: Bite Me

You gotta read this one:  a concise response from the L.A. water and light department to the Arizona energy commissioner's suggestion that his state stop supplying them with electric power. 

Fucking brilliant, if you ask me.