Saturday, June 25, 2011

Milestones

Maryland Match Company
Libby woke me up in the night to tell me about New York's vote to make it legal for two people to marry.  Here's Tbogg's take on this very significant moment:

http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2011/06/24/our-hearts-were-young-and-gay/

There's a general principle hidden in there too, in a week in which the "other side," meaning those folks Tbogg mentions in his piece, have basically outlawed all abortion clinics in Kansas by virtue of the mischievous application of building codes.  Odd that the very people who seem to relish this utter fantasy of Sharia Law being imposed on the US are themselves actually bringing Sharia Law to various of our states.

And at the national level, Mr. Cantor walks out on negotiations concerning the debt limit.  I think Digby's probably exactly right on this--it's a kabuki dance, period.  That's sad.  It means Mr. Obama is thoroughly entangled, when he should be standing up for America and explaining clearly, every day, that the Republicans are bent on destroying the entire fabric of social programs which have been put in place since the '30s.  At the very least, this really ought to be said:  if the Debt Limit is not raised, it is Republicans who are blowing up a fragile economy, and their smarmy, misleading ads about Obama's record don't change that fact a bit.  The rightwingers like to complain about Mr. Obama "apologizing" to world leaders (something he didn't do, by the way).  But it's the rightwing that he's reticent about standing up to at the moment.  Are they going to say, sometime towards next November, that it's Obama's fault because he didn't stop them from playing with matches?  Answer: of course they will, and you heard it here first.

4 comments:

  1. i like your sharia law analogy. in minnesota the legislature has forced this onto the ballot for next year--even as the state is in dire financial crisis and they can't agree on a budget and we are days away from a government shutdown, they took time out to force through this anti-gay marriage referendum.

    our governor, bless him, is deeply opposed to the opposition and has promised to fight hard against the amendment. thank god for him.

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  2. We're in your situation here in NC--a solid Democratic governor who is vetoing with some success many of the right-wing measures being enacted by our now Republican-dominated Legislature. What's shocking to me is how this state-by-state right wing advance wasn't particularly expected--or at least not by people I read. I only hope that the right wing is going so far overboard that there will be a voter backlash. But it's a long time till 2012.

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  3. it was anticipated here simply because Michele Bachmann pushed it hard when she was in the legislature. it was an issue she cared deeply about, for whatever reason. and once ignited it was not going away, even after she went off to Congress.

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  4. It looks to me like the successful women's movement of the late '60s and '70s is going to have to be revived--and by women.

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