Vast Variety

Peter Sprigg from the Family Research Council, one of America’s leading Anti-gay groups that has been fighting very hard along side other groups like the hurtful National Orginization for Marriage, was on Chris Mathew’s show debating the hearings that went on today in congress in regards to the repeal of the discriminating Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy which continues to force gay and lesbian services members out for no other reason that they were born gay.

Oddly, toward the end of the segment, Peter, at the questioning of Chris, stated that he felt that homosexuals should be locked up. This is what they are really after when they pass constitutional amendments in state after state stripping us of our rights to things like marriage, or adoption, or protection under non-discrimination laws and hate crimes laws. In the end, these people, who would turn America into a Christian Theocracy (boy that works well in Iran don’t it?) will not be satisfied until people like me are rounded up, tattooed, and sent to camps to await our turn in the shower.

The ridiculous policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell that was signed into law by President Clinton that supposedly gave GLBT people the ability to serve in the military as long as they don’t reveal that they are gay looks like it is on it’s way to being repealed. In the state of the union address the President mentioned repealing the process, much like he did during his campaign. Today, Defense Secretary goes before a congressional committee today to discuss ways on how the Military will adapt to the removal of the discriminatory policy that forces military members to lie and hide who they are which is completely the opposite of the ideals that the military tries to instill in people. Here’s to hoping that this time they get it right and abandon this policy that has forced career military personnel out of the service for no reason other than what they born to be.

I’ve been pretty pre-occupied the last few days which have kept me away from the blog. Here are some pictures of what I’ve been up to.

More after the break.

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To celebrate the release of the upcoming new MMO, Star Trek Online, I’m reporting this list from something that was posted in the forums. It’s hilarious.

1. When Data died, Picard had a funeral. When Spock died, Kirk reconstituted the body, forced it’s soul back in, and even got him laid along the way.

2. When Picard senses that Wesley is having emotional problems he sits down and talks with him about it. When Kirk sensed that Charlie X was having emotional problems he took him to the gym and threw him around on the mats until he got over it.

3. When Picard went back in time he brought back Data’s head. When Kirk went back in time he brought back a blonde.

4. Picard’s Enterprise was destroyed by a couple of Klingon chicks while he was stranded on a desert planet. Kirk’s Enterprise was destroyed when he blew up a crew of Klingons, stole their ship, and resurrected Spock from the dead.

5. Kirk has caused computers to self-destruct by out-thinking them on three separate occasions.

6. When Picard was in the Academy he got stabbed in the heart. When Kirk was in the Academy he beat the unbeatable Kobayashi Maru scenario and bagged Carol Marcus in his spare time.

7. When Sisko met Picard he told him he hated him. When Sisko met Kirk he got his autograph.

8. Kirk does not play the flute.

9. Picard is from France.

10. When Picard has a problem he talks to Guinan about it. When Kirk has a problem he shoots it.

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This morning the unofficial entry of former Governor Terry Branstad into the 2010 Governors race for the state of Iowa becomes official. Odds are good that he will win the heavily contested GOP primary. Craig Robertson of the Iowa Republican reported this morning that a leaked internal GOP poll had Branstad in a comfortable lead.

Hill Research Consultants Survey dates:

1/10 through 1/12

N=750 Iowa Republicans who are very likely to vote in the June 8 primary

Here are the top-line results: Four Way Primary Test

Terry Branstad 63% Strongly 42%

Bob Vander Plaats 18% Strongly 10%

Christopher Rants 04% Strongly 02%

Rod Roberts 02% Strongly 00%

This of course has made Bob Vander Plats and the Iowa Family Policy Center, who has thrown all of their Anti-Marriage Equality cards into Vander Plats pledge to sign an unconstitutional executive order overruling the state supreme court and stopping same sex marriages from occurring in the state until the group can get an amendment before voters to strip away my civil rights even if such an amendment is in violation of the US Constitution. Yet another reason why the Proposition 8 trial is so important to both sides.

I’m pretty certain that Branstad will win the GOP primary. I’m not ready to make any predictions about Branstad’s chances against Culver except to say that I think the race will be very competitive. I won’t vote for Branstad as he has all ready stated that he is in favor of a amendment to the state constitution banning same sex marriage, but I am very curious to see what his ideas on improving the state economy are and I’m interested in how he will run against his own record. Iowa Democrats are all ready working on digging up all the dirt they can on the former Governor and even plan to follow his campaign bus around the state with their own “Terry vs Terry” campaign.

If your wondering about the picture, it’s from 1984 when Branstad attended the recommissioning ceremony for BB-61, USS Iowa. He was in his first term at the time, with 3 more in front of him. Now he is trying to convince Iowans he deserves a 5th term after having been out of office since Jan of 1999.

I’ve been fairly preoccupied by the goings on in the Prop 8 trial and haven’t paid all that much attention to the special election going on in Massachusetts to fill the senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy.

Unfortunately, it appears that the Democrats took for granted that they were going to win the seat and didn’t pay hardly any attention to it either, until just a few days ago when it became utterly obvious that Martha Coakley had run probably the worst campaign in Massachusetts history.

So now it looks like the seat that the Democrats thought that they should have been able to sleep through is going to be taken by a Republican, Scott Brown, thus ending the filibuster proof 60 seat majority the Democrats have in the Senate. Nate Silver of 538.com only gives Coakley a 25% chance of winning.

This will certainly compound the disaster that has been the health care debate. Brown has campaigned on the fact that he will vote against the health care reform bill which has rallied the Tea Partiers to his side and has generated huge amounts of voter enthusiasm. Democrats have struggled to keep up in what is one of the Bluest states in the country. The outgoing question here is, what does this foretell of the races come November. Pundits across the board are saying it’s an anti-incumbent election year and I tend to agree with them. While Coakley isn’t technically an incumbent she represents the incumbent party.

One of the more interesting things to note about Scott Brown’s campaign, he hasn’t really advertised the fact that he is a Republican. Even his website looks more like one you would expect to see for a Democrat as opposed to a Republican.

Twitter feeds from the Prop 8 trial after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

After a 3 day weekend the Prop 8 trial will back in action today starting at 8:30am PST. I’m still working a writing a review of last week and will have that up shortly. Be sure to check up on the twitter feeds and the live blogs that being out out by great organizations like the Courage Campaign and Fire Dog Lake.

With the US Supreme Court intervening and disrupting local district court rules by disallowing the broadcasting of video from the Prop 8 trial we have been left with twitter feeds and liveblogging. Now however, using partial transcripts and those liveblogs, the John Ireland Film production company is going to to do reenactments of the trial and post the videos.

Book mark this link to see them as they should start showing up this week.

2010 The Year We Make Contact is classic sci-fi at it’s best and it just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t make it a Movie of the Week in this year of it’s name sake.

Based on the novel by Arthur C. Clarke, it continues the story started in 2001 A Space Odyssey. Nine years after loosing contact with the spaceship Discovery, another group of explorers set out to find out what happened to the Discovery and it’s murderous computer, the HAL9000.

These two movies, with nearly 20 years between them are among my all time favorite sci-fi Movies.

Ways to Purchase 2010 The Year We Make Contact after the break

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Rachel Maddow

http://www.twazzup.com/search?q=Haiti

Before and after of the Presidential Palace