Today is the celebration of the birth of Our Lord and Hustler, Barack Hussein Obama, the new Liberal Messiah. Sorry, Al Gore, but we are constitutionally required by Liberitical law to take an underqualified black Messiah over more qualified white ones.
I forgot to post this hilarity up -- the fundies at MASSResistance provided unique coverage of the Massachusetts House repeal of the "1913 law" last week that enables same-sex couples from other states to travel to the Bay State to marry.
Poor head of MassResistance Brian Camenker -- he was probably frothing at the mouth while he was typing this.
Yesterday afternoon, despite widespread internal dissention and overwhelming negative outpouring from the public, the House leadership kept their promises to the homosexual lobby and forced a vote to repeal the "1913 Law".
Pandagon readers up there in Massachusetts -- was there "overwhelming negative outpouring" anywhere in sight over this?
The leadership of both houses had publicly promised the homosexual lobby to repeal this before the end of the session, July 31. But after the Senate passed it with a cowardly voice vote on July 15, public outrage erupted. It's generally agreed that outpouring against the bill came in at a 6-1 ratio. Newspaper reports indicated that lot of reps were very uncomfortable (we promised to remember their vote this November).
More below the fold. Camenker featured several photos in his exclusive, and the captions are hilarious:
Scene of the crime. We took this shot of the empty House chambers while the reps were in "caucus" just before the debate and the vote.Rep. Paul Donato (D-Medford) walks toward House chambers to enter session. The liberals like Donato more and more, as he abandons his former pro-family principles.
...Indimidation factor. During the session, homosexual lobbyist Bill Conley stood outside the entrance to the chambers so anyone entering or leaving could clearly see he was watching them.
ROTFLOL! You should see the picture accompanying this -- Conley is simply standing in the hallway looking down at papers. What is Camenker smoking?
He continues with a blow-by-blow account of the proceedings, profusely backhanding pro-repeal legislators; what's amusing is how he pumps up his ego by mentioning that his pitiful work at MASSResistance is indirectly cited.
Byron Rushing (D-Boston), for the repeal, was the point person for this in the House, like Diane Wilkerson in the Senate. He gave a fairly rambling talk. He tried to claim that the law had never been enforced, so it was not "fair" do so now. He said it was probably racist in origin, but he admitted there wasn't a direct link -- not the strong emotional argument we heard in the Senate. Rushing addressed the flood of MassResistance messages everyone's been getting: "There's been a considerable amount of misinformation distributed to us over the past several weeks," he said. And again he referred to "lots of emails" that the legislators have been receiving....Paul Loscocco (R-Holliston) spoke for the repeal. Loscocco, who flipped against us at the last minute in the Amendment vote, loves to fancy himself as a serious thinker. But his speech in support of the bill was pretty dumb. Being able to cause havoc in different states is a good thing, he argued, because of the "laboratory of ideas" it brings. Plus, not repealing this law would be "patently offensive to same-sex couples". (Well, we certainly wouldn't want to offend them!) Note: MassEquality did a fundraiser for Loscocco several months ago.
Boston Bud at MassResistance Watch took this screen shot at the time the piece was initially filed, and said
MassResistance is so disturbed they can't even tell what year it is (hmm...this seems to be happening quite a bit lately
I guess all the spinning around that Brian's doing it throwing him for a loop and today's neither Thursday OR July 28th. )
***
Also, Camenker's getting a little tired on the headline-writing front. That, or we are on a rampage of terrorist homosexualist activities in the Bay State. Here is a peek at a section of the mASSresistance web site, "Brutal fascist tactics against citizens":
Homosexual activists terrorize Boston church during ex-Gay conference while police watch.
Using coffins, signs, loudspeakers, etc. Demonstrators had no permit, but Boston police stand by and do nothing. MassResistance.
Homosexual activists terrorize church group in Worcester during Christian event.
Police force pastor to pay $6200 in "protection" expenses, but allow homosexual group to block streets and chant. MassResistance.
Homosexual activists terrorize pro-marriage rally; Catholic activist outrageously charged with "assault".
Also charged with bogus "civil rights violation" after pro-gay activists disrupts event, then fakes a fall to the ground. MassResistance.
FYI -- the Southern Poverty Law Center lists MassResistance as a hate group.
My favorite Netroots Nation booth
There's not a single item in this article that doesn't make me stuff-throwing, puppy-kicking angry.
Federal agents raided a Culver City medical marijuana dispensary and spent more than four hours there, making no arrests but leaving the shop in disarray, it was reported Friday.
Nice place you have here. Shame if anything were to happen to it...on the taxpayer's dime.
Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrived about noon Thursday at Organica Collective in the 13400 block of Washington Boulevard, DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen told the Los Angeles Times.
"Marijuana remains a controlled substance, and it is illegal under federal law to possess, dispense or cultivate marijuana in any form," she said.
Someone should probably teach DEA spokesperson Sarah Pullen a little bit about the timing of public statements:
The federal operation came on the day an appellate court in San Diego ruled that federal law does not preempt the state's law allowing the use of medical marijuana -- a ruling touted by supporters of California's medical marijuana law as a significant win.
Unless Congress passed that one law making DEA spokespeople pope-like in their infallibility, this is a real black eye for the feds. Or it would be, if I thought any of them cared. Doghouse Riley has a photo which suggests that DEA agents are big Blackwater fans, which is probably consistent with this whole authoritarian clusterfuck of an operation.
At the dispensary, agents left behind trash, counters strewn with open and empty glass jars, piles of receipts thrown on the ground, upturned couch cushions, bits of marijuana on the edges of counters and an ATM with its doors torn open and emptied, The Times reported.
Not only that but they ate all the damn Fritos! You know, ATM tampering is a federal crime. I'm sure once local police refer it up the chain, the FBI will want to know...about...
Culver City police assisted federal agents at the scene.
I've tried at least three times to find the words to describe how wrong this is. Local police cooperating with the DEA to enforce a law which contradicts local law may be the worst thing I've heard this weekend, and I heard a detailed story about medical waste.
As for the dumbass in the Blackwater t-shirt, one reporter wonders something which should have occurred to me instantly:
Is the Bush Administration Using Blackwater Mercenaries in the DEA?
Or more to the point, are we contracting with Blackwater to provide backup for the DEA? For that matter, whatever became of the Blackwater hearings?
But let's assume for a moment that this was purely a DEA operation. Federal agents storm a private business, purportedly due to illegal activities, but make no arrests. They do it in contradiction of local laws, with the help of local law enforcement. They break shit, intimidate citizens, take a bunch of stuff and leave. And all this just happens to occur on a day when the courts are about to deliver a bit of a slap in the face? I hate to be the boy who cried fascism, but: Fascism, for fuck's sake.
I agree with Ezra---this article about trolling doesn't really give a lot of insight into what drives the trolls on political blogs, which is a disappointment. I can't but think that right wingers who relentlessly troll and obsess over liberal blogs---especially those written by members of hated races, or who are female or gay---are motivated by the same weird obsessive energy that leads people to join the KKK. People who must have so little personality or life of their own that they make hating other people the focus of their energies. I'm not talking about light amounts of trolling, which can be a fun way to spend an hour. I'm talking about the non-stop relentless obsession that captures a certain kind of middle class white guy, that eats up hours of his day trolling and fuming that his perceived inferiors are permitted access to society.
Maureen, I was not aware that angry Hillary Clinton supporters equaled the body and full membership of feminism.
Jonah Goldberg takes it into his hands to defend capitalism from its detractors using an argument never made before with such detail or care. Now, a warning: given that this is Jonah Goldberg discussing a large-scale social, political and economic concept, he could very well be talking about photosynthesis. Or Netflix. Nobody ever really knows.
It's long been a philosophy of mine that the main purpose of comments pages on newspaper and cable news sites is to justify the inherent feeling of wounded journalistic superiority that seems to peek through every so often. By ensuring that there's a forum which will more likely than not attract someone with a penchant for using the word "nigger" in all caps to describe the subject of your piece (and/or send in a bizarrely-worded death threat involving Hedy Lamarr and a cheese grater), it also ensures that you're constantly validated in your view of yourself as the victim of the constant slings and arrows of your profession, standing up to the onslaught of pissed-off office workers e-mailing you on their morning breaks.
In what is clearly seen as a Custer's Last Stand for the professional homophobe set, someone at the Tupelo, Mississippi-based gay-hating American Family Association managed to pry $500K from the miserly, decrepit "Christian" hands of Don Wildmon to underwrite the pro-Prop 8 activities of ProtectMarriage.com. (CNS News):
Marc and I decided the theme for our housewarming party is going to be "Fuck It, We're Staying", a sentiment inspired by the recent moves of some friends out of the state, and just a general willfulness in an era where we're supposed to choose between red states and blue states. It's a celebration of things Texas---the food, the beer, the salsa, and the music. On the last one, I've got a pretty solid list going, but could always use more inspiration. So, Pandagonian, are there Texas musicians and bands you like? Country, rock, hip-hop---I'm for it all. Vent your favorites in comments.
