And I agree with John that this is the wrong time for Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin and Jared Polis to be honoring Joe Biden with a DNC fundraiser.

Of course, the argument will be “Where else are you going to go and whom else can you support?”

Which is a quite specious argument on its face, but it’s in line with the actions of so many politicians, who apparently believe that they are deserving because of who they are. Birthright/legacy writ large.

This makes perfect sense. Since we have no internal strife or domestic conflicts, a booming economy,no foreclosures and no on-going wars, let’s have a party fundraiser at a fancy DC hotel, ostensibly highlighting and honoring a man who is VP by accident and has virtually nothing to do with DOMA, which is being used as the excuse to eat chilled shrimp and drink white wine. If Barney were being truly frank about this, they would do some real work, instead.

Maybe no one will show up for this from the gay community. It should be boycotted after DOMA AND DADT debacles. I mean, why would anybody go unless to hold a big old protest out in front of it.

Kaine-as usual-is tone deaf and trying to be a “can’t we all get along” politician.

If Barney were being truly frank about this, they would do some real work, instead.

my impression is that they think fund raising is their real work. :(

For many of us, it’s our lives.

this is the story of every fight for human rights.

their ONLY work since they base their votes on stuff on how much money they can raise or lose according to how they vote.

One wonders where is the Leadership is in the Leadership Council. Tone Deaf Tim Kaine honoring Tone Deaf Joe Biden? For What Leadership? Most recent events indicate that zero headway has been made on equality for LGBT citizens. It can be argued that these Democrats are moving this issue backwards!

No, it’s OUR lives Dammit!!!!!!

President Barry Prejean has made it abundantly clear that we are not a civil rights issue as far as he’s concerned. And the Daily Kos Taburnacle Choir is in complete agreement.

Needless to say, I regard this all quite differently — and here’s why.

Is this the sort of thing you meant when you said the U.S. might have been involved in the Iranian election? /s

I lifted this from David E’s blog. I hope he doesn’t mind. I love the Obama as Maitre D analogy:

Because Teh Gheys of the HRC and NLGTF can be played so easily and so often.

Which is why theyre not leaders.

President Prejean isn’t a leader either. He’s merely a Maitre D. He prsides over the room, gets people seated, tells everyone what the “specials” are.

He doesn’t cook them. Nor does he dictate the menu.

That’s done by our corporate rulers — who are of course unelected.

As I’ve trust we’ve all learned by now “Change” is an advertizing slogan for President Prejean. Not anything at all real.

Actual change will come with the overthrow of Capitalism and the Heterosexual Dictatorship that holds it in place.

Has any Democrat criticized the DOMA brief? Have any of them even made clear that they are aware of it?

Like so many present disappointments, this is a failure of the party as a whole. When Obama himself has made clear statements that are contrary to the actions his administration is taking, it should not be so difficult for members of Congress to raise questions, or move forward with legislation repealing DOMA and DADT which the Admin has publicly supported.

No. They’re all cowards.

Well, that’s true, but the issue is also what they fear. I wonder how many of them have gotten angry letters, faxes, emails or calls, demanding that they start acting like leaders on this issue.

Jane’s right to spotlight the role of Democrats in Congress here – the first step to getting them to do something is for us to acknowledge that there is blame to go around here – the problem is not just Obama.

Like I said — THEY’RE COWARDS!!!!!!!

Do you have so much as the slightest idea of the risks I’ve taken over the years being an openly gay man?

I’m 62 years-old and I came out in my first year of High School. That was 1961 — the year Todd Haynes was born.

(Also George Clooney.)

When Stonewall arrived I was more than ready.

Not a word as far as I know. Guess they’re afraid Rahm and Obama might be mean to them.

“the problem is not just Obama.”

Actually it IS.

He’s made it abundantly clear to both houses of Congress that we are expendable.

The Democratic Party didn’t become mostly symbol and little substance on the issue of equality overnight when Obama got the nomination. It’s been that way for some time.

Obama would be in no position to do this if the rest of the party was willing to take a stand. Presidents rarely deviate from the zone of acceptability within their own party. Nothing Obama is doing at the moment is outside that zone – but then again, I think he could be pushing to end DOMA and DADT and still be in that zone as well. And it’s far easier to pressure individual members of Congress to change than it is to pressure a president.

What’s more, these are laws – the primary responsibility for repealing them belongs to legislators. That said, Obama should be calling on them to so.

Also, Congress doesn’t bear primary responsibility for the arguments the DOJ presents in court. But they should be condemning those arguments (as they move to make them moot by repealing this unconstitutional legislation.)

So no, I don’t agree its all about Obama. Especially when its comes to thinking about how to fix this.

Same here Cellar47; I was born the year you came out and I came out 15 years after you, but I have been harassed out of a job for being gay, shot at and beaten up because I’m gay, endured second-class citizenship my entire life because I’m gay yet I have worked tirelessly for to elect Democrats who promised they would work to change that for better than 33 years.

I’m sick and tired of the bait and switch crap. Clinton did it over and over. Obama’s doing it. I’ve already worked through my own issues of letting other human beings take advantage of my compassion and desire to help others in order to abuse and hurt me repeatedly in the name of acceptance. No more.

When will our progressive allies say “enough” and help us gain the numbers to actually change things? Telling us to be patient, to stop criticizing, to accept that we are a low priority (we always will be — there’s always a “more important issue” in the pipeline that we can’t queer up) is insulting, degrading, and unacceptable. We stood by everyone and gave our money, our time, and our votes to support change. Now when we question the administration we are sent to our rooms. I’m beyond disgusted.

I’m not gay. I feel strongly about this issue because I don’t like the inequality. I abhor religiosity and piety and their related hypocrisy. Political pandering to religious bigots on the part of Republicans is nauseating. Breaking Campaign promises of equality – and giving only lip service by Democrats on this issue is not any better.

Many Democrats are guilty of pandering to “religious conservatives”. I am equally disgusted by their behavior. I’m for Freedom From Religion and Separation of Church and State.

You’re forgetting that Obama is the Capo di Tutti Capo of the Democratic party. Like no one since JFK.

Stylistically he’s a cross between JFK and Ronnie Raygun.

Which if you come to think about it is not much of a cross at all.

Holding the right people accountable

If you believe, as I do, that the DOMA is a disgrace, you should agree with me that the only appropriate remedy, the only thing that will blot out that shame on America, would be to have the legislature that passed it now repeal it.

I’m not happy that the administration is defending it in court, but, unlike the Congress, which cannot plead that its job is taking away the rights of any Americans, the administration can make the perfectly valid claim that it is its job to defend from court challenge the constitutionality of all laws that Congress passes, however dubious. It goes without saying that any defense of DOMA will include arguments that are disgraceful. How could you defend a disgraceful law, one that has no purpose beyond scape-goating a distrusted minority to garner cheap votes for re-election, without repeating, in however sanitized a form, the ugly stereotypes upon which the popular discrimination is based?

Maybe the courts will rescue us and the true villain here, Congress, from the consequences of its shameful behavior by finding unpersuasive the disgusting arguments the administration makes to defend DOMA, and overturning that law. But even if that happens, we still need to remedy the original fault. We need, not just to get Congress to repeal DOMA, but we also need to get rid of each and every legislator who voted for it, because they thereby showed themselves categorically unfit for office. We should be getting rid of most of the incumbents every cycle anyway, but since the exact opposite is our actual practice, and Congresscritters have more job security than Politburo members, of course they proceed unthinkingly to do incredibly irresponsible things, like voting for DOMA or the USA PATRIOT Act, or every AUMF a president bothers to ask them for. No one holds them accountable, so of course they behave irresponsibly as a matter of course, and shamefully when they want to excel at what they do.

The disgusting arguments have yet to be mentioned much less seriously challeneged by anyone in powerat any level.

And the Daily Kos thinks they’re perfectly valid.

And the Daily Kos thinks they’re perfectly valid.

Huh? Here are two front page diaries attacking the brief.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..ng-…

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..g-promises

Long story short – Dkos has some people that have gotten this right, and some who haven’t.

A day late and a dollar short.

Maybe we’ll get our Big Gay Pride Month Surprise from Barack Obama between now and then, so there will really be something to celebrate! Or even if we don’t, maybe Joe Biden will go back to the President and they can talk about what our Big Gay Pride Month Surprise should be! Or maybe the Administration will issue another proclamation, extending Pride Month into July! Or maybe they will announce their dog Bo is gay!

Clap louder!

We’ve already gotten our Big Gay Pride Month Surprise from Obama. Didn’t you read the DOJ ruling on DOMA?

Happy Gay Pride Month! SURPRISE! You guys and gals got played! LOL Maybe he’ll make a proclamation or some other such gesture with no real impact on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots? Damn, hope springs eternal, don’t it? Pardon my inner cynic. One too many abuses at the hands of the big tent Democratic Party, I guess. It’s a sad day when Dick Cheney is more enlightened than our Democratic leadership on LGBT rights. Sigh.

Dick Cheney “enlightened”?

Just because one of his daughters is a lesbian and Pete Williams was his second in command under Bush I?

I’m sure you recall Lynn Cheney screaming bloddy murder when a reporter mentioned that Mary munched carpet.

I’m sure you recall that Mary worked fro Coors, trying to win back the gay and lesbian customers lost in one of the most successful political boycotts in U.S. history .

Darth Cheney’s “leaving it to the states” is of course cleveryl stupid. He knows full well that DOMA must be defeated for any state action to mean anything in the long run.

Well, Cellar47, let’s do a little compare and contrast:

From the AP article 6/1/09 by Pamela Hess:
WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday he supports gays being able to marry but believes states, not the federal government, should make the decision.
“I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone,” Cheney said in a speech at the National Press Club. “I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish.”
Cheney, who has a gay daughter, said marriage has always been a state issue.
“And I think that’s the way it ought to be handled today, that is, on a state-by-state basis. Different states will make different decisions. But I don’t have any problem with that. I think people ought to get a shot at that,” he said.”

And then we have the DOJ brief arguing the same thing except without the freedom part:

“DOMA Is Consistent with Equal Protection and Due Process Principles Plaintiffs further allege that DOMA violates their rights under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, including its equal protection component. DOMA, however, merely preserves for each State the authority to follow its own law and policy with respect to same-sex marriage for purposes of State law. And it maintains the status quo of federal policy, preserving a longstanding federal policy of promoting traditional marriages, by clarifying that the terms “marriage” and “spouse,” for purposes of federal law, refer to marriage between a man and a woman, and do not encompass relationships of any other kind within their ambit.”

Of course this was after Obama said in 1996 that he unequivocally supported gay marriage and then backtracking and claiming separate but equal domestic partnerships were the way to go on the presidential campaign trail last year. So, yes, I see Cheney as more enlightened. Without a doubt.

Several Gay activists have now returned to Prozac as a means to deal with the true reality of their fictionalized demigod Obama.
The public demand for a “pure” president is not without consequences as the former smoking Humanist senator is now the Nicotine free sociopathic president.
I am sure that fanciful stories will be created justify every twist of the knife but all in all the more things change the more they stay the same.
If you are churning rhetorical doubts remember Laura Bush used three packs daily in an effort to organize her consciousness against the onslaughts of her forced socialization of DC politics. Environment is everything and expect the divide to grow! Perhaps a one term, but the GOP is on the endangered species list so another “New” party is a future quest.

I have NEVER fictionalized Barry Brejean. I WARNED YOU PEOPLE ABOUT HIM BACK IN 2007!!!!

Go peddle your papers elsewhere Priscilla. Anyone with an ounce of sense knows what Cheney’s up to.

Hate preachin’ on either side is still hate talk.
You got a bunch of comments out of your dialogue with Priscilla. But, what do you have to say? Go somewhere else is what you said.
Name calling and hate begets what it begets.
And, I don’t think your attitude helps the debate.
That’s just my opinion. You are welcome to yours, but if you are trying to move your cause forward, you may want to rethink how you speak to people.
You are not the only person on the planet who hurts.

Do not speak to me in that manner again, Cellar47. Your age doesn’t excuse you from common courtesy. I have been attempting to engage you in a dialog because I thought we are on the same side. I don’t accept nastiness from anybody for any reason. And don’t insult me without knowing me. I argued against Obama here too. We’ve got what we’ve got. The known enemy is always better than the pretend friend.

(((Priscella))
You tried. Some people just refuse. Blinders. Doesn’t help the situation.
Still, you tried. And, good on ya.

We’re not on the same side. Not at all.