Society: November 2008 Archives

Finally! California is going to investigate the amount of influence the LDS church had in pushing Prop 8 down people's throats.

You know, separation of church and state and all that still applies in this country.

I hope they yank their tax exempt status and tax them into the ground for cramming their narrow belief system down the throats of millions. No, this isn't an anti-Mormon thing, I think a lot of evangelical churches need to be fined and taxed for violating the spirit of America in their hateful, bigoted way.

This just makes me seeth.

Honestly, let's go whole hog on this. If we own companies that name stadiums and if Rethugs swear Obama is a socialist, then let's name the Mets' new field the People's Metropolitan Stadium.

I can hear neocon heads exploding as I type this. Good.

Here is a somewhat broad and incomplete list of Mormon-owned businesses. Basically, if they can't support civil rights in this nation and want to be allied with the worst forms of religious bigotry, they don't deserve my money.

More on the rough patch for actual thinking LDS members who think becoming more hateful than a Southern Baptist bodes ill for their church.

Read this. Thanks.

A scene from Florida.

First, I have a Modest Proposal of my own. Let's find every church that has preached politics from the pulpit and given out highly partisan "voting guides" since the 2000 elections and strip their tax free status for the next, say, 20 years.

Also, since we're busy taking their rights away, let's let gay couples - especially the ones whose marriages will probably be invalidated - to be exempt from all federal taxes, as well as state taxes in places that explicitly ban their marriages.

If you hit the hatemongers in the pocketbooks, maybe they will learn to separate Church from State and let people truly live their private lives without fear of intolerant repression.

Going back to the evil churches, a few examples from across our great land. This is from Kansas:

From Greenville, SC Catholics are being denied communion for voting for Obama. But this is a problem across the Catholic Church. Yet another reason I'm not a practicing Catholic.

Aside from being against the law, this level of hate coming from supposedly "compassionate" conservatives is just plain mean. And you wonder why millions are turned off on religion.

But it gets worse. Racism writ large is on the rise in the US, with more reports of hatred and bigotry across this land. Here's another report on this, plus the apology from the mayor of the Idaho town where students chanted "Assassinate Obama". The superintendent of said school blames the media and not the intolerant parents. Figures.

This as threats against Obama are on the rise. Stay classy GOP.

Incidentally, since the founder of Home Depot says any retailer not supporting the GOP should be shot, then fired, I'm totally only shopping at Lowe's.

Bonus BS: Can you hear me now? Fuck Verizon. Asshats there have spied on Obama's calls. If they are ballsy enough to spy on the next president, how safe do you think YOUR records are?

More racists plus commentary.

Want another indicator on how bad the economy is getting? Spam production is at an all-time high.

From Urban Dictionary:

Palin

1. An applicant lacking even basic job skills

2. Someone supremely un-self-aware or lacking any relative sense of what he/she does or doesn't know.

HR sent me another Palin for the marketing manager job.

Turns out the Secret Service may be linking Sarah Palin's hate-filled rhetoric into a rise in Obama death threats. Gee, big surprise.

Early reports on the schism between the McCain and Palin camps.

Meanwhile, Palin is blaming Bush for their loss. Apparently running a lie-based, racist campaign doesn't count?

If any of the following is true, I'm amazed Palin can breathe without assistance. And she thought (and STILL thinks?) she should lead America?

But as we all know. It isn't just Sarah Palin. Unfortunately so as one would hope racism disappears with her race to irrelevancy in Alaska.

Even among those who wish Obama well lies the taint of dark days ahead.

Even as the New York Times applauds the diminished role of the South in our politics, the hate simmers out across America.

In Mississippi, you can be kicked off of a school bus and suspended by the basketball coach for even saying the name "Obama".

Thankfully, a little more justice in Pittsburgh, where a teaher's aide was suspended for making offensive statements about Obama. Comments included Obama would be shot and killed, but only after replacing the US flag with a KFC flag and change the national anthem to "Movin' on up".

Stay classy Rethugs.

And then there is gay marriage. Mormons have gone WAY beyond the pale in trying to take rights away from Americans, gay Californians who ALREADY HAD legal marriages until last week. Yeah, their rights were taken from them.

Look, I have LDS friends and while I think I know how they think on this, I don't want to damn them, but what the fuck people?!

And then there's sci-fi author Orson Scott Card. Now, after reading his last book, Empire, I realized he was pretty conservative kook, but I did not realize he wanted to violently overthrow the American government if support for gay marriage was ever approved.

Here's some video from the LA protests of the Temple there:

Plus reports on the coalition building against the LDS, and Utah in general, in Salt Lake City.

It has gotten to where folks think it is fine to beat up a lesbian couple outside their son's school. I don't know if the assailant was of any religious persuasion but, given his behavior, I'd have to say he might be a Satanist.

The last word on this goes to Keith Olbermann, for taking a stand against this particular brand of hate as only he can.

Being Veteran's Day, I wanted to link you to Community of Veterans, a site set up by the IAVA and the Ad Council and others. More on this effort here.

Thanks to all of you who served.

Frankly, the whole thing has exhausted me. Plus, Gabriel has been a little sick and keeps us up all night. So, yeah, I've waited a week to post a lot of this.

I've re-read and re-watched most of it and am still so proud of this country. Yes, there are evil, dirty racist dirtbags that mutter hate and I will get to those cretins, but enough of us stood up and said Enough! to hate and division, at least for one bright, shining day.

Thanks everyone.

"A Night to Remember"

Newsweek's How He Did It.

"The festive scenes of liberation that Dick Cheney had once imagined for Iraq were finally taking place -- in cities all over America."

From the New York Times editorial board, as well as opinions from Frank Rich on the election and Nicholas Krisof on the return of intellectualism.

Other African-American firsts:

Unrequested advice is pouring in from all over for Obama. That's not to say it is all bad but it makes for interesting reads.

Ron Elving's Memo to the President. Also from NPR, a request to not censor or meddle with science as Bush has done. Plus the challenge of fixing the Justice Department.

Consult every other political site in the world for similar discussions.

Obama's message to his supporters.

The moment history was called:

Plus a longer version:

The election night speech at Grant Park:

Bob Cesca's take on election night.

Courtesy of Bob Cesca's Goddamn Awsome Blog.

"In most of us colored folks was the great desire to [be] able to read and write. We took advantage of every opportunity to educate ourselves. The greater part of the plantation owners were very harsh if we were caught trying to learn or write. It was the law that if a white man was caught trying to educate a negro slave, he was liable to prosecution entailing a fine of fifty dollars and a jail sentence. We were never allowed to go to town and it was not until after I ran away that I knew that they sold anything but slaves, tobacco, and wiskey. Our ignorance was the greatest hold the South had on us. We knew we could run away, but what then? An offender guilty of this crime was subjected to very harsh punishment."

-- Former slave John W. Fields

Now, I'm not saying I approve of violence, but I can totally see why the Black Panthers would be on guard to protect black Obama voters.

The comments are being heavily filtered and STILL the trash remains. Ironically, before YouTube admins got on the ball, there were 666 comments. Ironic, no?

"Don't think for a minute that power concedes."

- Barack Obama

Go Vote. Watch as needed.

More "compassionate conservatives".

I hope you all choke on a pretzel.

VOTE! If for nothing else, to ensure THESE idiots lose their voice in governing our nation.

Republicans are pieces of utter total shit. They don't deserve to have a voice if the following is all they have to offer.

Read the vile comments on Barack Obama's grandmother's passing and tell me I don't have a right to be pissed.

I was reading the following Huffington Post article about how the RNC is attacking Barack for visiting his gravely ill grandmother. I was thinking about how low they have fallen as a party, and how reprehensible such an attack is, when I got a news update that the worst has happened and that Madelyn Dunham has passed on.

My family's best wishes and condolences to the Obama family in their time of grief.

My loathing for a party of cretins that would speak family values and act on politicized hatred. Shame on them for their loathsome behavior.

Vote for Obama. Get others to vote for Obama. Drag them if there are willing but unable to get to the polls. Offer them a sandwich, or a beer. This is not a time for lethargy and slacking.

Barack is having a horrible day today. Let us work to make tomorrow one he can be pleased with.

What a piece of shit. I'll take my chances voting against fear, torture, war, racism, and bigotry in general.

I'm pretty sure I know where God stands on those things.

This saddened me. If you have never read any of Stud's works, you really owe it to yourself to go do so.

He did not write so much as be the scribe for Americans of all stripes. Through him, I heard stories of World War II I would not have heard elsewhere. Not to mention discussions of race, of the working class, or stories of the Depression my grandparents would never have tried to burden us with.

All this pass, as do people, but I don't know if we'll see the likes of him any time soon.