..and for which Don Carcieri richly deserves it for his latest bit of asshattery by vetoing a piece of legislation which would have allowed for funeral arrangements among same-sex couples. Via Wikipedia:
Carcieri is the last remaining New England governor to vigorously oppose same-sex marriage; he is a member of the anti-same-sex marriage group National Organization for Marriage.
In November 2009, Carcieri vetoed H 5294 which, if enacted, would allow domestic partners to oversee and care for a same-sex partner's funeral arrangements. The bill's impetus was motivated by an event when the State refused to release the body of a man to his 17 year same-sex partner. In his veto message, Carcieri made the following statement: "This bill represents a disturbing trend over the past few years of the incremental erosion of the principles surrounding traditional marriage, which is not the preferred way to approach this issue."[
In October 2009, Carcieri was the keynote speaker of the annual banquet of the Massachusetts Family Institute, a group openly opposed to same-sex marriage.
In 19 days we will know whether we beat back NOM and the Catholic Dioceses and protected marriage equality for Mainers, or took yet another step backwards at the ballot box for equality. 30 states have had votes on marriage equality since 1998 and the right-win has won in all 30 of them. We are going to stop that streak in Maine, but we can't do it without the resources to fuel a massive get-out-the-vote operation.
Today at midnight is the last major financial reporting deadline and it also marks the first day of early voting. If you were planning on giving to No on 1 and haven't yet, or have the resources to give again, today is the day to do it. Luckily, we at Blue America have a little sweetener, courtesy of Howie:
Meanwhile we have something nice to offer to donors today. The first 9 people who kick in at least $30 at the Blue America '10 page each wins a special DVD of Barbra Streisand's spectacular 1966 television special Color Me Barbra (which includes a rare poster). And if that wasn't fabulous enough, we also have something pretty mind-blowing for the person who donates the most by 6AM (PT) tomorrow. The picture is above. It's a gorgeous Joan Osborne RIAA custom double platinum award for both Relish and "One of Us." It's rare, collectible, unique and... well, what a gift it would make for anyone who you happen to know who went bonkers over the song below! And, more important, what an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Maine!
I take you back to 1997 when, after nine attempts spanning 20 years, the Maine legislature finally passed a basic civil rights bill preventing discrimination in employment, housing, credit and public accommodation on the basis of sexual orientation. Governor Angus King signed it. The law was put on hold while the religious conservatives---trying to marginalize our very existence by denying us any official state recognition---launched a war to repeal it by a citizens veto referendum, very similar to the kind they're waging now. They got the signatures they needed and the fight to take away our newly-won civil rights was on.
The polls had our side up by several points. The result? The 1998 referendum passed. The fundies won. The final vote: 51.9% to 48.1%. It's one thing to feel disappointment when your favorite candidate loses. It's quite another when you are the one being voted on by your neighbors, and a majority of them agree that, yes, it should be legal for a Maine business owner to pull you aside and say, "I don’t want no faggots workin' here. You're fired." It took another seven years to finally make that against the law. To this day I still get a knot in my gut when I think about what happened 11 years ago.
The only way we stop this from happening again is to make sure that we can get our voters out to the polls. The No on 1 campaign needs your help to make sure they have the resources to execute their field plan. So give today and maybe take home a platinum Joan Osborne album, or a rare Barbara Streisand poster and DVD.
The Courage Campaign is sending me back to Maine in a week or so. Expect more reports from on the ground there on how your generous donations are being spent. I was there a couple weeks ago and can assure you, the campaign is a tightly run ship, simultaneously on the offense and firing back at the lies spewed from the other side. No on 1 is IDing and turning out their voters, relying on thousands of in state volunteers and assisted by out of state phone bankers from around the country. They know how to win in Maine "and can do it with your help.
Yesterday, the No on 1 campaign released this great new ad, featuring a Catholic mom who wants nothing more than for her gay son to have the same rights as everybody else.
“Everybody knows the Catholic Church is opposed to counterfeit marriages. The Church believes marriage is a natural institution, vindicated by common reason that serves both men and women, and the needs of children. The Church defends marriage as a civic institution believing marriage and family to be the fundamental unit of society,” explained Burch.
“For homosexual groups to suggest that the Catholic Church believes otherwise is disingenuous, dishonest, and an insult to the intelligence of Catholic voters in Maine,” said Burch.
We are on offense here in Maine, pushing back at the Catholic Church which has raised over $214k for Stand for Marriage Maine last quarter.
But the campaign needs your help to win this election, to be the first to protect marriage rights at the ballot box, to keep the momentum up that we have gained since Prop 8. And they need the resources to do it.
We are launching a "moneybomb" for Maine, with a big push to get as much cash in the door for No on 1 by Oct 15th, the last major financial filing deadline and the first day of early voting.
After that date money in the door just isn't as useful for the campaign. They need to figure out their budget for the last few weeks of the campaign.
Give now if you can on Blue America's ActBlue page. Maine is a cheap state. Here's a breakdown of what your donation will "buy".
$1,000 we can blanket the state with radio ads for 1 day
$800 pays for one field organizer for a week
$720 would fund 20 canvasses in key counties around the state on a Saturday
$550 pays for one channel of cable for a day
$420 pays for one much needed field organizer for a week
$330 is 2 radio commercials to beat back their lies
$210 pays for 70 $3/day cell phones to talk to targeted voters
$186 about the cost of 1 radio commercial
$137 will buy supplies for 4 door-to-door canvasses
$108 buys about 100 yard signs for visibility
$72 will pay for signage for visibility for one weekend on a targeted campus
$66 pays for about 20 $3/day cell phones to talk to targeted voters
$54 buys 50 yard signs for visibility
$36 will fund supplies for one door-to-door canvass
During the 2008 presidential campaign, I documented 10, then 10 more and yet another 10 moments in the extremism of Mike Huckabee. Now, fresh off his victory in the straw poll at the so-called Values Voters Summit, the one-time Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor turned Fox News host called for the United States to leave the United Nations. Following his use of the late Ted Kennedy to fight mythical "death panels" and his tacit endorsement of ethic cleansing in the Middle East, the 2012 White House hopeful's latest statements can mean only one thing.
It's time for still another 10 moments in the extremism of Mike Huckabee:
31. Huckabee Calls for the U.S. to Leave the UN
The United Nations has been a favorite right-wing punching bag for generations, the bogeyman of Birchers and Birthers alike. At this weekend's "How to Take Back America" shindig (an event which featured sessions such as "How to Recognize Living under Nazis & Communists"), Mike Huckabee added his name to the list.
Looking to top John Bolton's hypothetical about lopping off 10 floors of the United Nations building, Huckabee called for casting the whole institution into the sea. To a standing ovation, Huckabee declared:
"It's time to get a jackhammer and to simply chip that part of New York City. Let it float into the East River, never to be seen again."
To make his version of the case, Governor Huckabee turned to the example of the late Senator Kennedy. Just moments after criticizing Democrats for defying "good taste" by claiming "Congress must hurry and pass the health care reform bill and do it in his memory," Huckabee announced:
"It was President Obama himself who suggested that seniors who don't have as long to live might want to just consider taking a pain pill instead of getting an expensive operation to cure them. Yet when Sen. Kennedy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at 77, did he give up on life and go home to take pain pills and die? Of course not. He freely did what most of us would do. He chose an expensive operation and painful follow up treatments."
Greetings from Maine! I arrived on a red-eye yesterday to help out Maine's "No on 1" campaign to protect marriage equality. Everyone around here is pumped up, but they just crunched the numbers for their quarterly fundraising goals. As of a few minutes ago they are $112,000 short of the goal.
The reporting deadline is Wednesday at midnight and they need to get to $803,208 on ActBlue. Contribute on the Blue America ActBlue page.
If you need more reason to give, than me just saying they really need the cash (and they do), check out this quote from the other side via the Baptist Press:
"Until this point, our opponents have presented a rose-colored glasses view of homosexual marriage," Stand for Marriage Maine campaign director Marc Mutty said in a statement. "Starting today, Mainers across the state will hear about the real cost to society should traditional marriage be replaced by genderless contracts whose sole focus is the adults involved in the relationship."
Rose-colored glasses? What the heck is he talking about? (Note the use of homosexual marriage, not same-sex or gay) It's simply an attempt to sow doubt about marriage equality "scary unforeseen consequences" boooo!
Repeat after me: marriage is a civil contract. It is a legal binding agreement between two adults. Letting gays get married changes nothing about this.
Mutty is seems to be insinuating that some how kids from straight couples will be effected when the forms people fill out when they get married no longer read "male" and "female" and instead are some version of "party 1" and "party 2". That of course is patently absurd.
The other side is counting on prayer to help them. In honor of Yom Kippur, I ask for you to atone for your sins and promise to make next year even better with a win in Maine. ">Do that by contributing to the No on 1 campaign.
Although funding certainly is critical, Joey Marshall, a local Southern Baptist pastor, says the pro-Question 1 side must not forget the importance of prayer. It's vital to "inform the people in the state of Maine of the dangers of same-sex marriage," he said, but it's more important to pray.
Iowa lawmakers are unlikely to pass legislation that would undo an Iowa Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. Newt Gingrich believes he knows why the legislature won't take action. "The fix is in," he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos.
How dangerous is gay marriage to the fabric of our society? No matter how bad you think it would be for the country, it's worse. Way worse. This little video will let you know that even though gay marriage is the worst thing that could ever happen ever, there are things you can do to keep gay marriages from happening. Watch and learn.
After his retirement from tennis, Björn Borg founded a clothing company which has become among Europe's largest brands of leisurewear. They've recently begun expanding into the American market but are known also for their edgy and irreverent advertising. Earlier this decade, in response to Swedens's declining birthrate, they had an advertising campaign called "Fuck For The Future", which as expected, garnered international attention. Social mores being what they are, we're unlikely to see anything like that on this side of the Atlantic. Nor, regrettably, will the ad above make it onto your television as it has in Sweden. Ane Brun’s cover of Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors just climbed to #1 on iTunes’ Swedish hit list as a result.
With the controversy over the passage of Proposition 8 in California expect more savvy marketing such as this, yes, even in North America.
Speaking on " Late Edition," Jerry Falwell in talking about same sex marriage said:
"Why not polygamy, why just two, why not a dozen. Why not...what's wrong with bestiality?"
How does sex with animals enter into the discussion about gay marriage or civil unions? I know what they are doing, but these Judo-Christian moralists should look in the mirror sometime! He also cited "no evidence" to support stem cell research!
If that is his argument, then where's the evidence in Intelligent Design? Where's the scientific evidence Moses parted the Red Sea? It's laughable to watch these guys use science and lawyers when it suits them to make certain points, then espouse the power in faith to make others. I'm sure Tort reform will be a high priority for this lot, but how many lawyers do you think they have on staff?
