News and opinions you may have missed, as well as the thoughts and observations, ramblings and musings, rants and raves, and other long-winded comments of a politically opinionated gay man in the red(neck) state of Texas.
From the Left: If you guessed Maggie Gallagher, Tony Perkins, Rick Warren, Pat Robertson, Joyce Meyer, Billy Graham, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Schlessinger, Michael Savage, Sarah Palin, and John McCain, well, you would be partially correct.
Less than 24 hours after a Federal judge overturned Proposition 8, California’s gay marriage ban, President Obama dispatched White House spokesman David Axelrod to reassure the president’s Christian-base that while Mr. Obama opposed Proposition 8 as “divisive and mean spirited,” and he will “continue to promote equality,” just not equality that includes marriage equality.
“The president does oppose same-sex marriage, but he supports equality for gay and lesbian couples, and benefits and other issues, and that has been effectuated in Federal agencies under his control.”
Got that?
Sadly, overturning Proposition 8 did not change the president’s narrow mindedness on same-sex marriage, and frankly, I didn’t think it would and, I don’t fault him.
So I hope President Obama won’t fault me in 2012 when he asks for my time, money and vote in his bid for reelection and I am forced to decline his request. I’m through with the president’s fence straddling on LGBT rights. Especially, on the fundamental right of marriage equality.
LSB: Sadly, Mr. President, you can't count on me anymore either. The hypocrisy is staggering and intolerable. I'll be searching for a new candidate for the White House job in 2012.
John Aravosis, AmericaBlog.com: I'm neither Jewish nor Arab. And if anything, I've often tilted towards Israel in the Arab-Israeli conflict. But this debate over the mosque near Ground Zero sickens me. And what sickens me even more is civil rights groups siding with the likes of Newt Gingrich. Not only has the ADL come out against the mosque, because allegedly it might make people uncomfortable, but now the Wiesenthal Center is opposing the mosque too.
In a move one might call supremely ironic, the Wiesenthal Center opposes building the mosque near Ground Zero because, it now claims, the former site of the World Trade Center "is a cemetery." The irony comes from the fact that the Wiesenthal Center is currently building a new "Museum of Tolerance" in Jerusalem on top of an old Muslim cemetery, in spite of the complaints of Muslims who have family members buried there.
[F]ifteen of the oldest families in Jerusalem filed a case before the United Nations in Geneva and held news conferences there, also in Los Angeles and Jerusalem. Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University has members of his family buried there and calls it further desecration of a cemetry that they have been nibbling away at for over three decades, despite many protests. "the fact that it was desecrated in the ’60s doesn’t mean that it’s right to desecrate it further. What happened in the 1960s was that part of the cemetery was paved over for this parking lot. What they have now done is to dig down and disinter four layers, according to the chief archaeologist for the Israeli Archaeological Authority, four layers of graves."
Yes, a Jewish tolerance museum built on top of dead Muslims. Think that makes anyone uncomfortable?
Oh, and it's not like the museum is about promoting tolerance between Jews and Muslims. It's about promoting tolerance between Jews.
So, to summarize. Mosque near cemetery, bad. Jewish museum on top of cemetery, good.
Navy imam Chaplain Abuhena M. Saifulislam lifted his voice to God as he called to prayer more than 100 Department of Defense employees Monday at a celebration of Ramadan at the Pentagon.
God is most great, sang the lieutenant commander and Islamic leader, in Arabic, as iftar -- the end of the daily fast began.
Uniformed military personnel, civilians and family members faced Mecca and knelt on adorned prayer rugs chanting their prayers in quiet invocation to Allah.
When it comes to Muslims praying at Ground Zero, it doesn't get much Ground Zeroier than that! As Elliott observes:
Yes, Muslims have infiltrated the Pentagon for their nefarious, prayerful purposes -- daring to practice their religion inside the building where 184 people died on Sept. 11, 2001. They haven't even had the sensitivity to move two blocks, let alone a mile, away from that sacred site.
Oh, my stars and garters! These Muslims at the Pentagon probably even have security clearances! (Because they are Department of Defense employees who protect America from al Qaeda death cultists, I'm guessing.)
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public." — Theodore Roosevelt
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” — President Abraham Lincoln
"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things... every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." — Matt Santos, The West Wing