TELL IT, BROTHER!

Our man with the plan : Lt. Dan! At the " Meet in the Middle Rally" In Fresno , California on Saturday.

Mendon Fireman's Carnival

Yesterday. 

A large time was had by all.

If you are going to have a pretty lengthy parade, it's good to have it in front of a bar.

Field Trip Buddy

We made out annual pilgrimage to Borglums Iris Farm on Friday, taking Mert with us! 

It was just the absolute perfect time of year to go, everything , well , at least all the Iris' were at their peak.

This is what we brought home with us


Mert  and my finger in the flowers
The weather held out for us

Ever so sorry....

SO! Much fun stuff has gone on, and I have just been as sick as a .. sick dog . I'll post about it all, asap...

Welcome Harry!

( from Time.com) "On Friday, the 24-year-old prince begins a two-day tour of New York City, his first international trip as a representative of the British royal family. Among other things, he'll meet with families who lost loved ones on September 11 and visit soldiers injured in Afghanistan and Iraq at Manhattan's Veterans Affairs Medical Center. (See pictures of Prince Harry in Afghanistan.)

With those engagements in mind, the royal heartthrob, who has a well-known penchant for long, alcohol-fueled nights, won't be hitting New York City's dance floors. "Quite frankly I think he will be cream-crackered and will want a good night's kip," said the prince's private secretary, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton.
By which he meant that Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, will need his rest."

We have to go out this morning, BUT, the key is under the mat, make yourself at home. Walk Pookie the second you get inside....

Ghandi, King, Chavez.... Choi?

"We need a King" 

We need a leader, someone who can , with a single voice, take our message to the masses. Have we found him in Lt. Dan Choi ??? From yesterdays rally in front of the hotel where President Obama was at a fund raiser.

David and Ted's Excellent Adventure, part two.

Yesterday I wrote that " For Marriage Equality be successful in California and Nation wide, we can not rely only on the GLBT community, but are  Going to need a little help from our friends". Ted Olsen and David Boies are some pretty high powered friends. If the names sound a little familiar, it is because of a little case the two lawyers argued in front of the Supreme Court in 2000 : Bush v. Gore. ( Ted was the bad guy )

Seriously, when it comes to legal power-houses in the country in 2009 America, it is these two men, and it looks like they are on our side. From the NYT :

"Eight and a half years after their epic partisan battle over the fate of the 2000 presidential election, the lawyers David Boies and Theodore B. Olson appeared on the same team on Wednesday as co-counsel in a federal lawsuit that has nothing to do with hanging chads, butterfly ballots or Electoral College votes.

Their mutual goal: overturning Proposition 8, California’s freshly affirmed ban on same-sex marriage. It is a fight that jolted many gay rights advocates — and irritated more than a few — but that Mr. Boies and Mr. Olson said was important enough to, temporarily at least, set aside their political differences."

Its all a very complex legalese sort of case, but boils down to" arguing against Proposition 8 on the basis of federal constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process." 18,000 same -sex couple ARE married, but no one today can be. Seems cut and dried to me, and a no brainier to file the case. People and groups much much wiser than me do not think so.

All the gay powers that be, save Madonna, Cher and David Geffen have come out and said SLOW DOWN, don't go this Federal route, now is not the time. BUT, Isn't that just these groups being self serving and protecting THEIR turf? The umbrella group FREEDOMTOMARRY says not:

New York, May 27, 2009 — In response to the California Supreme Court decision allowing Prop 8 to stand, four LGBT legal organizations and five other leading national LGBT groups are reminding the LGBT community that ill-timed lawsuits could set the fight for marriage back. The groups released a new publication, “Why the ballot box and not the courts should be the next step on marriage in California.” This publication discourages people from bringing premature lawsuits based on the federal Constitution because, without more groundwork, the U.S. Supreme Court likely is not yet ready to rule that same-sex couples cannot be barred from marriage. The groups also revised “Make Change, Not Lawsuits,” which was released after the California Supreme Court decision ending the ban on marriage for same-sex couples in California.

I just don't know. Why are GLBT groups so very afraid of the courts? Gay Marriage in the United States started with the Massachusetts courts GIVING marriage equality to the people of their state. Do we have Scalia and his lap dog Thomas, gosh no, but we never ever will. I do think that if anyone on the planet can argue this case successfully before the Court, it would be these two men, NOT lawyers for the GLBT groups. 

LOOK at the dismal job that the lawyers who argued prop 8 before the California Supreme Court did. The Court likes gravitas.. They like seeing the big guns come in. Olsen and Boies elevate our argument to a whole new FEDERAL level. It also helps that neither lawyer has a dog in this fight. Neither is gay, neither is one of the shaggy old skeletons that have been rattling around the lgbtqi legal closet for years and years. Let's just see where this goes. The US Supreme Court would not be decided " GAY MARRIAGE" but the specific merits of the case that Olsen and Boies present them, right?

And you know, HOPEFUL Kyle, has visions of a little Amicus love coming down from the White House.

Olbermann and John Dean's take on the case.

Rainy, Rainy, Rainy Mendon Morning

All itsy bitsy spiders have long been washed out to sea, soggy has set in. "Where on Earth has the sun, hid away?"

O.K., really GOP : STOP MAKING IT SO DARN EASY...

I need a little bit of a challenge.


Rove explains: "I know lots of stupid people who went to Ivy League schools."

The County Seat, Cumberland Mall, 1978.....

Good Ole Levi-Straus!



From the NYT : " LEVI’S is getting in the spirit of the season by dressing its storefront mannequins in white. In Levi’s-owned stores in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco, that means more than just marking the passing of Memorial Day, the traditional date to begin wearing white: in 20 stores, the mannequins’ white Levi’s jeans and shirts are adorned with White Knots, a symbol of solidarity with the same-sex marriage movement....."

THANK YOU!

SURPRISE! Hey, we just thought we'd drop in......

From the timing is everything file:

President Obama is jetting west today to appear at a fund raiser tonight at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Not sure who we are raising funds for - I could use a few - BUT, there are going to be a few Party Crashers out front as Mr. Obama makes his spiel.

From the very popular a very cute Andy Towle :

" President Obama, the alleged "fierce advocate" for LGBT rights, is scheduled to attend a Democratic Party fundraiser at the Beverly Hilton tonight, one day after White House spokesman Robert Gibbs refused to offer any official response to the Supreme Court's decision to uphold Proposition 8 in California.

A Courage Campaign-organized demonstration is scheduled to take place in front of the Beverly Hilton this evening. The group writes: "Let's take this opportunity, just one day after the CA Supreme Court makes its decision on Proposition 8, to show our President our support for his daring promise to our community and to highlight the growing movement towards FULL FEDERAL EQUALITY."

Attending the demonstration will be recently discharged (under 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell') Lt. Dan Choi and other LGBT military servicemembers: "They will ask for response from President Obama to the letter signed by 136,000 people asking the president not to fire Lt. Choi by ending DADT."


How long can President Obama remain mute on his promises to the LGBT voters who elected him? "

I guess you could say that if the President is getting grief from the right and left that he is doing a good job. This will be the first time he has faced this sort of large protest from the left. Will be interesting to see how or if  the Pride of Auburn press secretary Robert Gibbs addresses the protest. 

The Great White Way......

Hugh Jackman ( Wolverine) and Daniel Craig ( James Bond) will be on Broadway TOGETHER this fall in Keith Huff's " A STEADY RAIN ". The play is about two Chicago cops whose lifelong friendship is put to the test when they become involved in a domestic dispute in a poor neighborhood.

Lets all hope that these two cops tend to dance a lot... shirtless.

We Shall Overcome - 2009, [with a disco beat]

I was born in Atlanta , Ga. - let's just go with " in the early 60's". I grew up with the tornado of the civil rights movement all around me. I'm not saying I was all cool and a part of it or anything, no not at all. I was pretty much totally unaware of - well, anything. But, people and places that have become Icons of that movement were very real to Georgians, not just pictures in books or grainy black and white tv moments.

John Lewis was my Congressman for ever. Andrew Young was the Mayor and Hosea could not stay off the 6:00 news, ( not always for good reasons...) on and on. One of the , if not THE, iconic moment/word/event of the 1960's Civil Rights movement ( ok, second behind the I Have a Dream speech..) were the marches from Selma , Alabama - across the Pettus Bridge.

"The first march took place on March 7, 1965 — "Bloody Sunday" — when 600 civil rights marchers were attacked by state and local police with billy clubs and tear gas. The second march took place on March 9. Only the third march, which began on March 21 and lasted five days, made it to Montgomery, 54 miles away."

Congressman Lewis, under the billy clubs of Governor Wallace.

The racist South won on that first bloody Sunday, but awakened the sleeping tiger of righteous anger. Imagine, people just marching for equality, beaten back my the majority. There was a second and a massive third march over that bridge, and within five months of the third march, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Turns out , there is a Selma , California.

Equality March ~ Sat May 30th
from Selma, CA to Fresno, CA

Leaders from the Civil Rights Movement, the United Farm Workers Movement and the Gay Rights Movement will March from Selma, CA to Fresno, CA in a symbolic sign of respect to the social movements before us.

This 14.5 mile march will take 5 hours and will arrive after the MITM rally has started, where rally participants will be anxiously awaiting the march arrivals.

MITM is the group MEET IN THE MIDDLE in California, who are doing the BRILLIANT task of taking the Pro Marriage Equality movement out of We-ho, and San Francisco and Marin into the heart of RED California. Re phrase our movement, get people over the ICK factor and view it as what it truly is, a CIVIL RIGHTS movement. 

I hope that yesterdays " setback" will make , not just Californians but everyone involved in our movement realize that WE CAN NOT DO THIS ALONE. Yes, you are the vast majority there in the happy gay ghetto where you live, and life is good, but there are Fresnos, and Macons, and .. Mendon , New Yorks out there as well. We shall overcome this, but we are going to need a little help from our friends.

This march will be controversial, the African American torch bearers are VERY protective of the words " Civil Rights", and many , many African Americans proudly voted FOR prop eight. This is what Pam Spaulding (♥) of Pamshouseblend has to say on that: 

 

"As someone who is black and lesbian, it's tiring and absurd to encounter the argument that the black civil rights movement somehow exclusively owns the ability to use "civil rights." And the result of that is any challenge to this thinking amounts to stepping on the third rail.

There is no Oppression Olympics that requires a certain level of historic suffering by a group of people to be able to use those words. I refuse to cede them to anyone."

Morning Iris Fix

Battle: Bigotry and fear / War : unknown

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger. . . .
  - Henry The Fifth Act 3, scene 1, 1–6

The not unexpected vote from the California Supreme Court : Prop 8 is the law of the land. Sacred marriage in the Golden State is ONLY the right of Opposite sex couples. Except for the 18,000 or so men and women who were married pre prop 8, they are married. So in my glass half full world, California has same sex marriage. It was not about law I guess, as much as the ability to find a caterer in a hurry.

Too many thoughts , and really, we just got kicked in the teeth as a group, so its a little early for all out reflection. " IT'S NOT FAIR" , said with that bottom lip stuck all the way out. Our thick skin becomes us.

It is so SO!, very black and white for gay and lesbian Americans , -right is right and wrong is wrong, etc.. I think this ( get ready for some Orwell) , I think this clarity clouds our vision . I just don't understand why it is such a freaking big deal, why does the other side care so much ? Why do they pick THAT particulate verse in Leviticus to get all bent out of shape over? I don't see throngs of marching Evangelical Hispanics demanding that there be boil and lice checkers at all entrances to public buildings , but they will miss Sunday Lunch to stop same sex marriage. I think it is also news to the larger " US" on what a tiny minority we are....

So, back on the ballot it goes in California, it's already in the works. Pour a truck load more of that LDS money into the state. HEY! on the bright side , there will be NO money out there to keep up roads and sidewalks and such, So, the percentage of buff weho boys who are capable of making to the polls will go up.

How self destructive is the GOP in 2009 ?

President Obama's first nominee for the Supreme Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor is Hispanic, a long needed first for the Court. The usual rabid dog Republicans are already out in force. 

"She is an activist", " She just is not smart enough", on and on and on. Judge Sotomayer was appointed by President Bush the first and approved by the Senate twice , for two lower Courts. Go for it Grand Old Party, and you will entrench yourself even more as the party of Southern white guys over 40 named LeRoy. Piss off the fastest growing electoral block in the country see how far that gets you.

Add this to the mix "U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, a Republican candidate for governor of Georgia, has proposed changing the long-standing federal policy that automatically grants citizenship to any baby born on U.S. soil, a move opposed by immigrant rights advocate. That "long standing federal policy" as the AP is calling it, is known in some non caveman circles at the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” 

Guess Mr. Deal can get elected with just the LeRoy vote.

A little lesser known Buffett

Sand, Summer, Jimmy...


watch this , if only for the low country boil ...

North Korea, meh.....

You want a real explosion? Watch the gay blog-o-sphere over the next twenty-four hours , as the California Supreme Court comes down with it's ruling on Prop 8. Can the majority, - a slim majority, but never the less... remove Constitutionally given civil rights from a tiny minority???

Will the couples that got married while " it was legal" get to remain , in the eye of the state, legally married? 

I mean there is precedent. The South got to vote on Brown V. Broad, and luckily, their better Angels came through and blacks and whites got to go to school together....

Your Holiday Iris fix:

And their good pals, the Alliums

Memorial Day

Mendon  at its most Mayberry. 

Veterans, the ones of a certain age in convertibles. Middle School band, cub scouts. Really, it could rain apple pie and baseballs.....

It's a fast moving parade. They march up to an OLD cemetery around the corner and lay a wreath. Taps and 21 gun salute. Very old school Americana. I like it.

Dinner

Salad, Grilled turkey breast, spinach with mushrooms, brown rice.

Sunset over Lake Ontario

" Messrs Houghton and Crawford traveled last night to dine at the lovely Lake Ontario home of Bishop and Mrs. Jack ( and Linda ) McKelvey. As the sun set over the lake the couples dined on a delicious chicken french, rice and asparagus with hollandaise sauce. As night fell the couples lingered over delightful conversation....."

This is only a little bit funny if you grew up with your Great Aunt reading the social column of the Jackson Country Herald to you. " Mrs. Maddox traveled to visit her sister, Mrs. Holland, where they had pie". It was news people....

But as for me and my house, we shall serve Frank

Make sure to read Frank Rich's column in the New York Times this morning. Adam Lambert, Dr. Martin Luther King and  Evan Wolfson , come on, you know it has to be a barn burner!. A mild spanky of our President for his fence sitting. 

"The gay civil rights movement has fewer obstacles in its path than did Dr. King’s Herculean mission to overthrow the singular legacy of slavery. That makes it all the more shameful that it has fewer courageous allies in Washington than King did. If “American Idol” can sing out for change on Fox in prime time, it ill becomes Obama, of all presidents, to remain mute in the White House."



As Mr. Rich points out, President Obama went very GAY positive during the campaign to out flank Senator , now Secretary of State , Clinton on the left. Smart move on his part. Did She return the favor this week?

 ( from that same Sunday NYT ) "The State Department will offer equal benefits and protections to same-sex partners of American diplomats, according to an internal memorandum Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sent last week to an association of gay and lesbian Foreign Service officers.
Mrs. Clinton said the policy change addressed an inequity in the treatment of domestic partners and would help the State Department recruit diplomats, since many international employers already offered such benefits."

Great!, all those over achieving, overly pretty Harvard's Kennedy School of Gov't  graduates can take their husbands with them when they go off to serve in East bumble Whatever. Good for them, but let's look a little bit deeper. This is against Federal Law, that pesky little troll under the bridge that is my life : DOMA.

1.) No state (or other political subdivision within the United States) needs to treat a relationship between persons of the same sex as a marriage, even if the relationship is considered a marriage in another state.
2.) The federal government may not treat same-sex relationships as marriages for any purpose, even if concluded or recognized by one of the states.

Hmmmmm... not exactly sure how the Department of State will get around this minor caveat, but looks like they are. ( and I apologize for this next sentence, but sometimes a cigar is just a cigar) Is this the first crack in the dike that will lead to the ultimate downfall of D.O.M.A.?

I do not for one second think that Barack and Michelle Obama , as double Ivy League Graduates, who are my age, do not FULLY support all out  register- at- Pottery Barn - pick- out-a- hat- to -wear- to- the- fabulous- afternoon-wedding , Gay Marriage. Really, it just does not make sense to think so. I also understand why , still in 2009 he can not do so publicly. We just have to hope that A CHANGE IS GONNA COME....

Snowballs and lemon meringue pie!

adventures in your own back yard.