Here are some things you can be doing today during the commercial breaks or the downtimes of the inaugural events. Please note, I was having problems getting on to some of these websites today. With all of the events going on, I bet these sites are very popular.
Hairspray composer Marc Shaiman (whose boycott lead to the resignation of Sacramento's California Musical Theatre creative director Scott Eckern following his donation to Prop 8) wrote and conceived this hysterical short piece (presented with a wink and a nod by the 'Sacramento Community College Players'), which was directed and staged by Hairspray director and choreographer Adam Shankman and features plenty of folks you will recognize.
Shaiman plays the piano. Jordan Ballard, Margaret Cho, Barrett Foa, J.B. Ghuman, John Hill, Andy Richter, Maya Rudolph, Rashad Naylor, Nicole Parker star as 'California Gays and The People That Love Them'. John C Reilly as a Prop 8 leader, and Alison Janney as his wife. Kathy Najimy as his second wife. Jenifer Lewis as a riffing Prop 8'er. Craig Robinson as a preacher. Rashida Jones, Lake Bell, Sarah Chalke as Scary Catholic School Girls from Hell. Katharine "Kooks" Leonard, Seth Morris, Denise "Esi!" Piane, Lucian Piane, Richard Read, Seth Redford, Quinton Strack, and Tate Taylor as The Frightened Villagers.
Jack Black stars as Jesus Christ, and Neil Patrick Harris is billed as 'A Very Smart Fellow'.
This video has been going around all of the gay news blogs. By far one of the best videos I have seen about the impact of Prop8. Thanks to Towleroad.com for the transcript. And a million thanks to Keith Olbermann.
This comes from Jake at No Fo. For all of you that believe gays shouldn't marry, and heterosexual marriages are the only marriages, please read this and tell me that again.
| Thomas (not his real name) came to live with us on October 13, 2007. Developmentally disabled since birth, Thomas had been essentially abandoned by his father years ago. He’d been living with his mother for the last 15 years in a personal hell he still doesn’t have the skills or even the understanding to describe. From what he’s been able to tell us, she was grotesquely abusive. Instead of merely beating him, she’d make him bring her whatever she was going to beat him with to prolong his terror and humiliation. When she beat him until he bled, she wouldn’t let him clean up the bloodstains on the walls and floor … so he couldn’t escape the reminders of his beatings anywhere he went in the house. When he didn’t make his bed the way she wanted, she made him sleep on the floor next to it. For five years. When a man she was having an affair with committed suicide, she told Thomas she wished he had been the one to kill himself. She clearly had never taken him to a dentist. Or even taught him how to brush his teeth. And while she was constantly dressed in sequins and hats, she dressed him like a retarded, homeless stereotype: pants that were too short, used underwear that was 12 sizes too big and cracked plastic shoes that made him walk with a limp. Once the domestic partner and I realized what was going on and rescued him (his mother had left him alone for a week while she went on a cruise, telling him he couldn’t go outside or even watch TV while she was gone … and that she’d call the cable company when she got back and beat him severely if they told her he had turned on the TV in her absence) we brought him to live with us. The poor guy was a shell of a man, afraid to talk, assert himself on any level or even make eye contact. And he was clearly terrified that he was going to be punished for causing so much fuss on his behalf. In those first few days in our house, he even apologized to me when I “caught” him using one of our glasses to get a drink of water. Over the last 13 months in our home, he’s learned to smile and talk to strangers and make terrible jokes and hold a part-time job and be responsible for the simple chores we’ve assigned him and feel safe functioning in a world where he knows his caretakers won’t repeatedly, relentlessly abuse him. In our house, he’s free to watch the shows he loves (which, to our chagrin, involves heavy rotations of WWE), socialize with our friends, sleep in a big comfy bed, and live a life free of the fear of beatings and psychological cruelty. In short, we’ve been the first to give him the responsible, loving parenting that gay-hostile “Christian” conservatives arrogantly declare can come only from straight people. And Thomas’ very existence blows massive holes in the meaningless “every child deserves a mother and father” inanity that these cretins parrot endlessly in their emotionally violent crusades against marriage equality. NO child deserves Thomas’ mother and father, so what these moral charlatans are saying is a grotesque oversimplification of the truth. Rational people call it a lie. Legitimate Christians and their autocratic, jealous god call it “bearing false witness.” Now consider the fact that Thomas is my domestic partner’s brother. If the domestic partner dies, their parents have legal access to all our shared property, including our house. The mother who told her other son that Thomas “made her” beat him could share ownership of our home and have every legal right to move in and resume abusing him. The father who has NEVER ONCE contacted us to see how Thomas is doing after surviving 15 years of abuse and then living for more than a year with me, a complete stranger, could assume half ownership of our house and try to sell it, leaving Thomas and me struggling to find a place we could afford to live. And I’d have no legal recourse. Because legally I’m little more than a roommate. And the blame for all of this falls squarely on the shoulders of “Christian” hatred junkies who are so consumed by their unholy loathing for me and my domestic partner and gay people everywhere that they’ve spent billions of dollars convincing voters across our country to deny us equal access to the legal and financial protection of marriage. In addition to “every child deserves a mother and a father,” these self-professed “Christians” use meaningless, grotesquely misleading catchphrases like “sacred institution” and “threat” and “protect” and “redefine” and, when they don’t get their way, “activist judges” to further their loathsome agenda to vilify gay people and teach the nation to hate and fear us. The fact remains that nobody—“Christian” or otherwise—has yet to articulate a plausible or even fact-based justification for denying us marriage equality. “Sacred institution,” “threat,” “redefine” and their ilk are nothing but a lazy, artless code for “religious extremists are consumed by a pathological loathing for gay people.” And whether or not they choose to own up to it, they know in their cold, black hearts that it’s the truth. And while these cretins spent a staggering $73 million in California alone to scare voters into passing Proposition Hate, the domestic partner and I struggle to pay exorbitant dental bills to undo decades of damage wrought by Thomas’ parents’ neglect. And after 13 months, we’re still searching to find someone who will provide him basic health insurance and a social services caseworker who isn’t too overwhelmed to return our calls and help us understand how to care for him and help him build a network of peers beyond the adult gay men who come to our house for the occasional movie or game night. This grotesque juxtaposition of robustly funded propaganda vs. cash-strapped social services is the perverse, inexcusable legacy of Proposition Hate and the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” and every related money-wasting act of gay-hostile social, political and emotional terrorism wrought by the American Taliban. If you have ever used words like “sacred institution” or “redefine marriage” or “threat to family values” without irony or—worse yet—harbored thoughts or cast votes against marriage equality, you are not my friend. You are not welcome in my life. I honestly see you as intellectually compromised. And I don’t care what you think your god tells you to believe. Your mythology does not trump my reality. And if you try to defend your indefensible thoughts or words or actions to me, be prepared to have your vile, repellant opinions reduced to the vile, repellant garbage that they are. And when I’m done with you, the domestic partner and I will calmly go back to caring for Thomas and working to repair the decades of damage caused by the celebrated heterosexuals who are apparently free to marry and divorce and have affairs and abuse and ignore their own children without generating interest a single constitutional amendment, television ad, campaign platform or even a godfuckingdamned T-shirt by the godfuckingdamned American Taliban. |
All I can say about Prop8 is thanks to all of the people who voted NO on Prop8. And a very big thanks to those who donated their time, money and voices to try and defeat the hatred. This fight is far from over. There are at least 3 different lawsuits to declare Prop8 as illegal. I am not sure if they can pass or not, but there is still hope.
Now the religious right, fresh from their kills wins, have decided to hit up the rest of the states. 30 of the states already have hatred same sex marriage bans as part of their laws. They want to hit the other 20 states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut who have legalized same sex marriages. This fight is far from over! There have been demonstrations in Los Angeles and San Francisco about Prop8. There is another one planned today in Los Angeles.
I am "borrowing" from Joe.My.God. This is a very well written piece about Prop8.
| "To the kind souls who decided that I’m not equal, and voted to strip me, and others in my community of their constitutional rights, congratulations. Your bigotry and fear have won this day. In 40 years, when viewed through the prism of history, you’ll find yourselves as respected and loved as the racists and segregationists of the 1960s. In 40 years, when the first gay or lesbian wins the highest office in the land, you’ll be sharing the same lonely corner as those folks who yesterday couldn’t “vote for a n*gger,” and woke up to discover that an African American was president, and that history had passed them by. "Until that day, I fear for the lives of your gay sons and lesbian daughters. The ones who can’t talk to you about it, and suffer silently. They’ll be dying for your choice, because teen suicide rates in gays and lesbians is driven by fear, and by feelings of worthlessness that proposition 8 reinforces. No doubt the ones who finally do come out, will suffer the indignity of either the scam of “reparative therapy” or homelessness, as so many do. Until that day, I fear for the children of gays and lesbians, who will face ridicule and discrimination at school because their families “aren’t real” and their mommies or daddies “aren’t really married.” "Finally, I fear for you. If the God you worship is the one about whom I’ve read, you’ve got some serious explaining to do. Like the woman in John 8, I’d offer you the first stone, but I’m already bloodied by Proposition 8." - Lee Tucker |
This comes from the Talking Points Memo Blog .
| I Didn't Vote For Obama Today November 4, 2008, 9:37AM I have a confession to make. I did not vote for Barack Obama today. I've openly supported Obama since March. But I didn't vote for him today. I wanted to vote for Ronald Woods. He was my algebra teacher at Clark Junior High in East St. Louis, IL. He died 15 years ago when his truck skidded head-first into a utility pole. He spent many a day teaching us many things besides the Pythagorean Theorem. He taught us about Medgar Evers, Ralph Abernathy, John Lewis and many other civil rights figures who get lost in the shadow cast by Martin Luther King, Jr. But I didn't vote for Mr. Woods. I wanted to vote for Willie Mae Cross. She owned and operated Crossroads Preparatory Academy for almost 30 years, educating and empowering thousands of kids before her death in 2003. I was her first student. She gave me my first job, teaching chess and math concepts to kids in grades K-4 in her summer program. She was always there for advice, cheer and consolation. Ms. Cross, in her own way, taught me more about walking in faith than anyone else I ever knew. But I didn't vote for Ms. Cross. I wanted to vote for Arthur Mells Jackson, Sr. and Jr. Jackson Senior was a Latin professor. He has a gifted school named for him in my hometown. Jackson Junior was the pre-eminent physician in my hometown for over 30 years. He has a heliport named for him at a hospital in my hometown. They were my great-grandfather and great-uncle, respectively. But I didn't vote for Prof. Jackson or Dr. Jackson. I wanted to vote for A.B. Palmer. She was a leading civil rights figure in Shreveport, Louisiana, where my mother grew up and where I still have dozens of family members. She was a strong-willed woman who earned the grudging respect of the town's leaders because she never, ever backed down from anyone and always gave better than she got. She lived to the ripe old age of 99, and has a community center named for her in Shreveport. But I didn't vote for Mrs. Palmer. I wanted to vote for these people, who did not live to see a day where a Black man would appear on their ballots on a crisp November morning. In the end, though, I realized that I could not vote for them any more than I could vote for Obama himself. So who did I vote for? No one. I didn't vote. Not for President, anyway. Oh, I went to the voting booth. I signed, was given my stub, and was walked over to a voting machine. I cast votes for statewide races and a state referendum on water and sewer improvements. I stood there, and I thought about all of these people, who influenced my life so greatly. But I didn't vote for who would be the 44th President of the United States. When my ballot was complete, except for the top line, I finally decided who I was going to vote for - and then decided to let him vote for me. I reached down, picked him up, and told him to find Obama's name on the screen and touch it. And so it came to pass that Alexander Reed, age 5, read the voting screen, found the right candidate, touched his name, and actually cast a vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Oh, the vote will be recorded as mine. But I didn't cast it. Then again, the person who actually pressed the Obama box and the red "vote" button was the person I was really voting for all along. It made the months of donating, phonebanking, canvassing, door hanger distributing, sign posting, blogging, arguing and persuading so much sweeter. So, no, I didn't vote for Barack Obama. I voted for a boy who now has every reason to believe he, too, can grow up to be anything he wants...even President. |
A hilarious spoof on the debates. This is a debate between McCain and Palin. Watch to the very end...I mean the very, very end!
| Tuesday is Election Day. I can't remember a more important election than this one (I might say that each time though!) Not only do we need to elect a new president to bring CHANGE and HOPE to this great country. We also need to voice our opinions of the past 8 years. Also, three states, California, Arizona and Florida have an equally important item to vote on. All three states are trying to pass amendments to ban gay marriages. I have been as non-political as possible up until this election. I have never been an activist. I have never been out there pushing any kind of agenda on anybody. I have always lived by the policy of let others do as they wish, because as long as it isn't bothering me then they are fine. But the push by the Religious Right has gone to far. This is by far one of the best ads I have seen so far for the No on Prop 8 campaign. And honestly, why has the Mormon church spent over $20 million to tell others on how to live their lives? That is $20 million to deny rights to Americans! $20 million to put their nose into something that has nothing to do with them. And what exactly is next??? What is the Mormon church going to tell us to do next time? I'm sorry, if you vote yes on this, you are voting for Religion to tell the government what to do. This issue has nothing to do with religion, it is a basic issue of basic rights being offered to EVERYBODY! So instead of spending $20 million to alienate a percentage of the USA, why not spend $20 million on something worthwhile and helpful for their fellow americans! Love knows no boundaries, it doesn't matter if you are gay or straight, love is universal! |
The last 8 years hasn't been very kind to the Budweiser Wassup guys.
| Original Commercial... | ...and 8 years later! |
| Yesterday the exec VP of Fox News said: “This incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election. If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee. If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.” Well, I guess it's over for McCain then. Police sources tell KDKA that a campaign worker has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter "B" in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker. Ashley Todd, 20, of Texas, initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car. Police investigating the alleged attack, however, began to notice some inconsistencies in her story and administered a polygraph test. Authorities, however, declined to release the results of that test.It's been so very fascinating watching this story unfold on Free Republic. It was like being inside the collective hive mind of a drone colony of wingnuts. Here's how the collective saw Ashley Todd's story: Hour One, Outrage: "Damn! Poor girl! I hope they catch the fucker and FRY HIM!" Hour Two, Blame: "This is Obama's fault. Remember how he asked his supporters to get into everybody's face?" Hour Three, Predictions: "This heinous and brutal mutilation is just a tiny sign of the widespread debauchery, violence, and perversion that will overtake the country when Nobama's socialist-marxist-communist-fag administration takes over. IT'S A SIGN, PEOPLE." Hour Four, Satisfaction: "Can you believe those pigs at Kos and DU are calling this a hoax? Guess they don't like their Savage Leader calling on the brothers to give us a taste of what's coming BEFORE the election. Sorry Commies, you screwed this one up." Hour Five, Planning: "McCain needs to get this Todd girl on the campaign trail. Her beaten and Barack-scarred face would show this country exactly the sort of ghetto filth that their Messiah will unleash on the rest of us." Hour Six, Dismissal: "The Pittsburgh cops say they're suspicious of Todd's story. Figures that inner city cops are covering up for this gruesome attack on a poor white girl." Hour Seven, Hope: "McCain and Palin have already called Ashley to express condolences. Let's hope the Ashley Todd ads are being made as we speak. Ashley is our Willie Horton!" Hour Eight, Anger: "The liberal elite MSM is casting doubt on the story. Why is anybody surprised? You can bet if this was a black girl with an "M" carved in her face this would be on EVERY CHANNEL." Hour Nine, SnopesZone: (This hour was consumed with dozens of traded theories on exactly how a person gets a backwards "B" carved into her face with little damage. People claiming to be ER doctors and plastic surgeons weigh in to SWEAR that Todd's wound's are "totally consistent" with her story.) Hour Ten, Suspicion: "If this IS a hoax you know this girl was planted by leftists to make us look bad. What's her background? Why did she just get to town? OMG! On her MySpace she friended RON PAUL!" CONCLUSION: "Obviously Ashley Todd was part of a very well-run campaign to discredit McCain. Congratulations are due to MoveOn for this one. Don't expect to the MSM to investigate this OBVIOUS plant by the Obamacons." Seriously. The hilarious photo was created by Gawker commenter Fetys. |
I know that I am a YouTube whore! But lately, I have been getting into the great politcal ads that have been coming out. Today, I found all of these on Towleroad.com, thanks Andy! After the jump watch McCain/Palin/Bush/Cheney all morphing from one to another, senior actors speaking out and Chelsea Handler teaches Chuy about gay marriages.
Morphing McCain - Two of a Kind
Ain't Funny - Vote Obama/Biden
Chelsea Handler's PSA - Vote No on Prop 8
The original video had some problems, so here is the YouTube version with 3 others.
You think you can just do what to that hot california constitution?
The No on Prop8 has come out with a good takeoff of the Mac/PC commercials that deals with upcoming Prop8 in California. As far as I am concerned, this ranks up there right behind the Presidential race as one of the most important issues this election. And I am not even from California! If this is to pass, that would be a huge strike for equality.
I am not sure how gay marriage would hurt heterosexuals, but the religious right wants you to believe that this will destroy marriage for everybody. Honestly, if 2 men (or 2 woman) marrying down the street is going to make a heterosexual marriage fail, well that heterosexual marriage has more problems than the gays down the street. The only thing that would happen if this doesn't pass, is that 2 loving committed adults will be able to marry, regardless of their sexual orientation. The world isn't going to end. The sky isn't going to turn purple. California won't fall into the ocean. And God isn't going to strike us all dead with lightning bolts. Come on, Massachusetts has had gay marriages for a few years now and life went on.
So my statement to the religious right...
Sorry, that last post was a bit much. But it did help me feel better after typing all of that out. I know that my fingers got a good workout!
Anyways, here is Betty White on John McCain, Sarah Palin and Barack Obama. She is freaking hilarious! The best line is about Sarah Palin, "That is one crazy bitch!"
