From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Little Gay Billy's BIG Gay Newsapalooza!
I'm here, I'm queer, I brung ya a beer and some LGBT cheer:
- History will be kind to the conservatives who signed an amicus brief calling on the Supreme Court to agree with Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling that California's Prop. 8 is unconstitutional. I gotta say, I'm looking forward to hearing Ted Olson and David Boies rain rhetorical body blows on whoever tries to poke holes in their arguments next month.
- Gold star to a state Supreme Court for affirming the rights of same-sex couples to both be recognized as the legal parents of the children they raise together. That state: Kansas.
- A Mississippi newspaper, the Laurel Leader-Call, published a story about a lesbian couple's wedding (sadly not recognized by the state or federal government), and got an earful from the haters. The paper pushed back, with owner Jim Kegielski publishing this unflinching response:
Good on ya, Laurel (Miss.) Leader-Call.
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Many of the calls I received had the caller stating something to the effect, “I don’t need my children to read this.” Ugh. We have stories about child molesters, murders and all kinds of vicious, barbaric acts of evil committed by heinous criminals on our front page and yet we never receive a call from anyone saying, “I don’t need my child reading this.” Never. Ever. However, a story about two women exchanging marriage vows and we get swamped with people worried about their children. [...]
You have a right to believe whatever you want. We weren’t trying to change your mind about that. We were simply reporting the story to the best of our ability. We are also happy to report the other side, too. We have run numerous letters that have attacked gay marriage in the LL-C since that story ran.
However, I can’t help but be saddened by the hate-filled, viciousness of many of the comments directed toward our staff.
One of the women, by the way, suffers from brain cancer. Not that the knuckledraggers care. Haters gonna hate. The rest of us, however, say: "Mazel Tov, y'all."
- One of the arguments the fundies like to cough up like a narrow-minded hairball is that gay people should turn straight because they'll be healthier and happier. Wrong again! A new study concludes that once people come out of the closet and stop living a lie they have "lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and fewer symptoms of anxiety, depression and burnout." In other words: it gets better.
- When was the last time you heard of a gaggle of college fraternity brothers raising money to help a fellow brother pay for gender-reassignment surgery? For me it was, um, yesterday. Speaking as an ancient human, what amazes me about the You Tube the Emerson College (Mass.) students made is how matter-of-fact they are about it. Oh, you kids.
- PFLAG founder Jeanne Manford, who died in January at 92, was posthumously awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal a couple Fridays back. Her crusade for equality goes back to 1972:
Historic moment: PFLAG founder Jeanne
Manford marches with son in 1972.
"When Jeanne Manford learned that her son Morty had been badly beaten up at a gay rights demonstration, nobody would have faulted her for bringing him home, holding him close, and just focusing on her child,” said President Obama. “But instead...she took to the streets with a simple message: No matter who her son was, no matter who he loved, she loved him.”
The President personally selected Mrs. Manford as one of the 18 recipients of the medal, which is the second-highest civilian award in our country, and recognizes individuals “whose service has had a sustained impact on others’ lives and provided inspiration for others to serve.”
Can't be said enough: without our straight allies, the LGBT movement wouldn't be nearly as far ahead as it is today. For that, you can all take the rest of the day off.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Note: Due to the sequester, Wednesday has been shortened to Wedneshour. You now have 59 minutes to report to work on Thursday.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Easter: 32
Days 'til the 133rd Bok Kai Festival in Marysville, California: 17
Number of leading lawyers in the BP trial: 34
(Source: The Washington Post)
Percent of sports editors who are white: 90%
Percent of sports editors who are men: 90%
(Source: Sports Business Daily)
Projected minimum percent increase by 2050 in the number of kids worldwide with Type 2 diabetes: 49%
(Source: Harper's Index)
Size of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's annual ice cream budget: $2,700
(Source: Time)
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Mid-week Rapture Index: 188 (including 3 Marks of the Beast and 1 furry photobomb). Soul Protection Factor 9 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Pass the mustard….
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WIN!!!
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CHEERS to The Victor. Golly, it wasn't even close. In yesterday's primary for the Illinois 2nd congressional district special election, Daily Kos favorite Robin Kelly
steamrolled her way to a win. Among other things, it tentatively proves that Chicago-area Democrats prefer their candidate to have an unambiguous "F" from the National Rifle Association. Given how blue the district is, she's a shoe-in for the special election in 20 days, adding an African-American woman's voice to the House. And she's also a
card-carrying Kossack. Our plan is unfolding right on schedule. Bwoo ha ha titter titter tee hee. (Yeah yeah, I know---I still suck at maniacal laughter.)
CHEERS to America's new quartermaster. If you need any weaponry from the armory, ya gotta go through the new guy now. Chuck Hagel was approved by the Senate 58-41 yesterday, giving America its first enlisted man (circa Vietnam War) as our Secretary of Defense. Hagel will competently deal with complex budget and resource-allocation issues while improving morale for current enlistees and post-military life for our veterans. Or as Republicans call it: coddling Iran, stealing Israel's lollipops, having daily tea with his friends of Hamas, destroying our military, engaging in tyranny and committing impeachable offenses on day one---TYRANNY!!! And then a salad for lunch.
JEERS to the war on women: round ??? (I've lost count). Republicans in the Indiana legislature have reluctantly decided that they're cutting the proposed number of mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds women will have to go through before they can take the RU-486 abortion pill from two unnecessary and invasive probes to one. Damn, this sequester is affecting everything.
CHEERS to rhymin' Simon. Happy 206th birthday to poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, born February 27, 1807 in…oh, wow!...Portland, Maine! He liked to walk to Portland Head Light for inspiration, and people reckon that's where he wrote his famous poem, The Lighthouse:
The restored Longfellow
House sits on Congress
street in downton Portland.
The rocky ledge runs far into the sea,
and on its outer point, some miles away,
the lighthouse lifts its massive masonry,
A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day.
Even at this distance I can see the tides,
Upheaving, break unheard along its base,
A speechless wrath, that rises and subsides
in the white tip and tremor of the face.
And as the evening darkens, lo! how bright,
through the deep purple of the twilight air,
Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light,
with strange, unearthly splendor in the glare!
Well, he ain't no Dr. Seuss. But not bad. Not bad.
JEERS to Grumpy McTeabag. I know you're jonesin' to know if Maine's infamous far-right Republican Governor Paul LePage has become a bit more sensible lately, what with his re-election coming up next year 'an all. Here's your answer:
Maine's governor wants to pipe tar sands
from Canada down to Portland. Yeah,
well, good luck with that.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage was in Washington, D.C., this past weekend to meet with other Republican governors but left town for vacation before a bipartisan group gathered at the White House to talk with the president about looming budget cuts.
LePage attended several meetings and events held by the Republican Governors Association. He also met Saturday with Alberta Premier Alison Redford, apparently to discuss the possibility of crude oil being piped from tar sands oil fields in Alberta to Portland.
[
Sigh] Thank god for Democrat-controlled legislatures.
CHEERS to green-lighting the gals. On February 27, 1922, the all-male U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the 19th Amendment that gave women the vote. Shortly after, their wives released them from their chokeholds.
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Five years ago in C&J: February 27, 2008
JEERS to reason #499 why adults suck. Last Sunday on This Week, Cokie Roberts laid into the chitlins for no other reason than to prove she's a clueless old fart:
"You look at these [poll] numbers and you still see lots of landmines. Not necessarily in the nomination but in the general election. I mean, you start looking at young voters. Are they gonna show up? Probably not. They never have before. By the time November comes they'll be tired. ... You have all these groups who are not necessarily gonna show up. ... You wonder if the enthusiasm holds through November."
Cokie, you owe America's young people a big apology for being so pathetically wrong. And I owe you a swirlie.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to Tomorrow's news today. I've been a fan of Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World comic strip for at least a decade, and I got fanboy fever when it was announced two years ago that he was going to be posting here at Daily Kos. He classed the joint up, that's for sure. And now he's adding some fresh hardware to the trophy cabinet:
And Sparky the penguin gets
a lifetime supply of herring.
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Dan Perkins, pen name Tom Tomorrow, was named the winner of the 2013 Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning.
Perkins is the creator of the weekly political cartoon, This Modern World, which appears in approximately 80 papers, mostly altweeklies. He is the editor of the comics section he created in April 2011 on Daily Kos. … The prize is awarded annually by The Herb Block Foundation for “distinguished examples of editorial cartooning that exemplify the courageous independent standard set by Herblock.” The winner receives a $15,000 after-tax cash prize and a sterling silver Tiffany trophy. Perkins will receive the prize April 25th in a ceremony held at the Library of Congress.
Congratulations, Tom. It's well-deserved. I wouldn't last long as a cartoonist. About the only thing I'm good at drawing these days is a blank.
Have a nice Wednesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Stressed? Do someone else (not Bill in Portland Maine!) a favor
---Women's Health
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