Last night was beyond historic and amazing. Tears of joy streamed down the faces of all the people that I love and those that I do not yet know at the election party I attended last night. That evening was the greatest election I have ever witnessed and oen of the best nights of my life. Thank you to everyone who worked towards this. I am going to plan on going to the inauguration in January. Anyone else going?
Yes we did!
I have been attending a weekly community service event with other Obama supporters as often as I am able. I was not elected to be a delegate and with the loss of my job I was unable to run again due to my unstable financial state at the time. Basically, I did not know if I could afford to travel to the convention. If I had known that I would be working again so soon I would not only have run but I would have a discount ticket already whether I was elected or not. That being said, it is extremely maddening to hear that some elected delegates are not interested in participating in the process to the fullest. If I had been elected, I would be at every meeting, fundraiser, public event, rally, effin clam bake, whatever was necessary to be the best representative I could be for Obama and the ideals on which this country was founded. I would consider it a golden opportunity and so would many people I know who ran and were not chosen. Why did you run if you just wanted to go to Denver and not Spokane or any other primary events? Why not just give up your spot to someone who not only wants to go to Spokane, Denver and anything else in between, but will do so with grace, dignity and a sense of civic responsibility? I consider it completely irresponsible and arrogant for anyone to blow off these responsibilities in favor of a vacation to Denver. We are not on vacation. We are not electing a beauty queen for the county fair. We are electing a President. And not just a President but someone who has to "clean up" the mess that has accumulated and grown to a festering pile of our rotting rights and civil liberties that have been trashed over the last eight years.
As my boss, mentor and friend always says, "It's time to put up or shut up."
(Extended text did not work so I am trying this here again)
I am having a wonderful days filled with awesomeness.
Watch this video about Edwards endorsing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGzFtflx0S4
And Cai legalized same-sex marriage!
California's top court legalizes gay marriage
By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer 27 minutes ago
California's Supreme Court declared gay couples in the nation's biggest state can marry — a monumental but perhaps short-lived victory for the gay rights movement Thursday that was greeted with tears, hugs, kisses and at least one instant proposal of matrimony.
Same-sex couples could tie the knot in as little as a month. But the window could close soon after — religious and social conservatives are pressing to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would undo the Supreme Court ruling and ban gay marriage.
"Essentially, this boils down to love. We love each other. We now have equal rights under the law," declared a jubilant Robin Tyler, a plaintiff in the case along with her partner. She added: "We're going to get married. No Tupperware, please."
A crowd of people raised their fists in triumph inside City Hall, and people wrapped themselves in the rainbow-colored gay-pride flag outside the courthouse. In the Castro, the historic center of the gay community in San Francisco, Tim Oviatt wept as he watched the news on TV.
"I've been waiting for this all my life. This is a life-affirming moment," he said.
By the afternoon, gay and lesbian couples had already started lining up at San Francisco City Hall to make appointments to get marriage licenses. In West Hollywood, supporters were planning to serve "wedding cake" at an evening celebration.
James Dobson, chairman of the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, called the ruling an "outrage."
"It will be up to the people of California to preserve traditional marriage by passing a constitutional amendment. ... Only then can they protect themselves from this latest example of judicial tyranny," he said in an e-mail statement.
In its 4-3 ruling, the Republican-dominated high court struck down state laws against same-sex marriage and said domestic partnerships that provide many of the rights and benefits of matrimony are not enough.
"In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation," Chief Justice Ronald George wrote for the majority in ringing language that delighted gay rights activists.
Massachusetts is the only other state to legalize gay marriage, something it did in 2004. The California ruling is considered monumental by virtue of the state's size — 38 million out of a U.S. population of 302 million — and its historic role in the vanguard of the many social and cultural changes that have swept the country since World War II.
California has an estimated 92,000 same-sex couples.
"It's about human dignity. It's about human rights. It's about time in California," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, pumping his fist in the air, told a roaring crowd at City Hall. "As California goes, so goes the rest of the nation. It's inevitable. This door's wide open now. It's going to happen, whether you like it or not."
Unlike Massachusetts, California has no residency requirement for obtaining a marriage license, meaning gays from around the country are likely to flock to the state to be wed, said Jennifer Pizer, a gay-rights attorney who worked on the case.
The ultimate reach of the ruling could be limited, however, since most states do not recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere. Nor does the federal government.
The conservative Alliance Defense Fund said it would ask the justices for a stay of the decision until after the fall election in hopes of adding California to the list of 26 states that have approved constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage.
"We're obviously very disappointed in the decision. The remedy is a constitutional amendment. The constitution defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman," said Glen Lavy, senior counsel for the organization.
Randy Thomasson of VoteYesMarriage.com, a campaign to amend the California Constitution to ban gay marriage, said the decision was in effect telling children that they have a "new role model — homosexual marriage, aspire to it.
"This is a disaster," he said.
Opponents of gay marriage could also ask the high court to reconsider. If the court rejects such a request, same-sex couples could start getting married in 30 days, the time it typically takes for the justices' opinions to become final.
The justices said they would direct state officials "to take all actions necessary to effectuate our ruling," including requiring county marriage clerks to carry out their duties "in a manner consistent with" the court's decision.
James Vaughn, director of the California Log Cabin Republicans, called the ruling a "conservative one."
"The justices have ensured that the law treats all Californians fairly and equally. This decision is a good one for all families, gay and non-gay," Vaughn said.
The case was set in motion in 2004 when the mayor of San Francisco — the unofficial capital of gay America — threw City Hall open to gay couples to get married in a calculated challenge to California law. Four-thousand gay couples wed before the Supreme Court put a halt to the practice after a month.
Two dozen gay couples then sued, along with the city and gay rights organizations.
Thursday's ruling could alter the dynamics of the presidential race and state and congressional contests in California and beyond by causing a backlash among conservatives and drawing them to the polls in large numbers.
A spokesman for Republican John McCain, who opposes gay marriage, said the Arizona senator "doesn't believe judges should be making these decisions." The campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton said they believe that the issue of marriage should be left to the states.
Ten states now offer some form of legal recognition to same-sex couples — in most cases, domestic partnerships or civil unions. In the past few years, the courts in New York, New Jersey and Washington state have refused to allow gay marriage.
Outside the San Francisco courthouse, gay marriage supporters cried and cheered as news spread of the decision. Jeanie Rizzo, one of the plaintiffs, called Pali Cooper, her partner of 19 years, via cell phone and asked, "Pali, will you marry me?"
Shannon Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights said same-sex marriage advocates could not have hoped for a more favorable ruling by the Republican-dominated court. "It's a total victory," Minter said.
California already offers same-sex couples who register as domestic partners many of the legal rights and responsibilities afforded to married couples, including the right to divorce and to sue for child support.
Citing a 1948 California Supreme Court decision that overturned a ban on interracial marriages, the justices struck down the state's 1977 one-man, one-woman marriage law, as well as a similar, voter-approved law that passed with 61 percent in 2000.
The chief justice was joined by Justices Joyce Kennard and Kathryn Werdegar, all three of whom were appointed by Republican governors, and Justice Carlos Moreno, the only member of the court appointed by a Democrat.
In a dissent, Justice Marvin Baxter agreed with many arguments of the majority but said that the court overstepped its authority and that changes to marriage laws should be decided by the voters. Justices Ming Chin and Carol Corrigan also dissented.
California's secretary of state is expected to rule by the end of June whether the sponsors gathered enough signatures to put the gay-marriage amendment on the ballot.
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has twice vetoed legislation that would have granted marriage to same-sex couples, said in a statement that he respected the court's decision and "will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this state Supreme Court ruling."
___
Associated Press writers Terence Chea, Jason Dearen, Juliana Barbassa and Evelyn Nieves in San Francisco and Liz Sidoti in Washington contributed to this report.
Today I was lucky enough to come across three gems.
1. John Edwards endorses Barack Obama. Finally! :)
2. Keith OBerman: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/24635229#24635229
3. Saturday Night Live gets it right (amazingly enough): http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/play.shtml?mea=250052
I am so excited that Obama is ahead in superdelegates and the popular vote. He is our candidate in my book.
Please visit this link to urge our remaining undecided Superdelegates in Washington to support Obama and end this thing once and for all.
http://www.petitiononline.com/wasprdel/petition.html
Ticker Tape Ain’t Spaghetti
Posted on Apr 30, 2008
By Amy Goodman
Food riots are erupting around the world. Protests have occurred in Egypt, Cameroon, the Philippines, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Senegal. Sarata Guisse, a Senegalese demonstrator, told Reuters: “We are holding this demonstration because we are hungry. We need to eat, we need to work, we are hungry. That’s all. We are hungry.” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has convened a task force to confront the problem, which threatens, he said, “the specter of widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale.” The World Food Program has called the food crisis the worst in 45 years, dubbing it a “silent tsunami” that will plunge 100 million more people into hunger.
Behind the hunger, behind the riots, are so-called free-trade agreements, and the brutal emergency-loan agreements imposed on poor countries by financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund. Food riots in Haiti have killed six, injured hundreds and led to the ousting of Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis. The Rev. Jesse Jackson just returned from Haiti and writes that “hunger is on the march here. Garbage is carefully sifted for whatever food might be left. Young babies wail in frustration, seeking milk from a mother too anemic to produce it.” Jackson is calling for debt relief so that Haiti can direct the $70 million per year it spends on interest to the World Bank and other loans into schools, infrastructure and agriculture.
The rise in food prices is generally attributed to a perfect storm caused by increased food demand from India and China, diminished food supplies caused by drought and other climate-change-related problems, increased fuel costs to grow and transport the food, and the increased demand for biofuels, which has diverted food supplies like corn into ethanol production.
This week, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, called for the suspension of biofuels production: “Burning food today so as to serve the mobility of the rich countries is a crime against humanity.” He’s asked the U.N. to impose a five-year ban on food-based biofuels production. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, a group of 8,000 scientists globally, is also speaking out against biofuels. The scientists are pushing for a plant called switchgrass to be used as the source for biofuels, reserving corn and other food plants to be used solely as food.
In a news conference this week, President Bush defended food-based ethanol production: “The truth of the matter is it’s in our national interests that our farmers grow energy, as opposed to us purchasing energy from parts of the world that are unstable or may not like us.” One part of the world that does like Bush and his policies are the multinational food corporations. International nonprofit group GRAIN has just published a report called “Making a killing from hunger.” In it, GRAIN points out that major multinational corporations are realizing vast, increasing profits amid the rising misery of world hunger. Profits are up for agribusiness giants Cargill (86 percent) and Bunge (77 percent), and Archer Daniels Midland (which dubs itself “the supermarket to the world") enjoyed a 67 percent increase in profits.
GRAIN writes: “Is this a price blip? No. A food shortage? Not that either. We are in a structural meltdown, the direct result of three decades of neoliberal globalization. ... We have allowed food to be transformed from something that nourishes people and provides them with secure livelihoods into a commodity for speculation and bargaining.” The report states: “The amount of speculative money in commodities futures ... was less than $5 billion in 2000. Last year, it ballooned to roughly $175 billion.”
There was a global food crisis in 1946. Then, as now, the U.N. convened a working group to deal with it. At its meeting, the head of the U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, former New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, said, “Ticker tape ain’t spaghetti.” In other words, the stock market doesn’t feed the hungry. His words remain true today. We in the U.S. aren’t immune to the crisis. Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Costco have placed limits on bulk rice purchases. Record numbers of people are on food stamps, and food pantries are seeing an increase in needy people.
Current technology exists to feed the planet in an organic, locally based, sustainable manner. The large corporate food and energy interests, and the U.S. government, need to recognize this and change direction, or the food riots in distant lands will soon be coming to their doors.
Dennis Moynihan contributed research for this column. Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 650 stations in North America.
© 2008 Amy Goodman
Distributed by King Features Syndicate
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright's defense of himself ought to be welcomed asan exercise of his rights. We have no idea how it will actually playinto the campaign. But as pundits suggest, any mention of Sen. BarackObama's pastor leads to the media's Pavlovian response: Run sensationalvideo loops, check ratings, charge advertisers. Repeat.Aspredictable as that may be, it's up to voters to decide how to respond,especially in deciding what, if any, significance the whole overhypedsubject has to the Democrats' primary battle. Most will never like theexcerpts but many already view them in a wider context ofAfrican-American history, religious and civic. A wider acquaintancewith Wright and his work may neutralize the discussion.We'recertainly no experts on Wright, his congregation or Chicago. But thenarrative of a wild, angry anti-American extremist doesn't ring true.As some have noted, Wright volunteered to join the Marines in the early1960s, went on to become a Navy cardiopulmonary technician and earnedletters of commendation for his White House service. A white congregantrecently wrote about how Wright took hours to talk his African-Americanfiancée out of breaking their engagement over concerns about marryingoutside her race. They've been married 25 some years.Over thecourse of a long public career, Wright has misspoken a time or two.Americans can listen to him directly address the criticisms and go onto have a presidential election that revolves around greater matters.
First, please watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHi32mKjkSo
I have thought long and hard about Obama, the people that I know in my life, the people that have touched me both via YouTube and in real life (www.youtube.com/missdivinestalls) and I think that Obama has served as the last straw for me. I have decided that I am going to go to the national campaign headquarters for Obama and volunteer my paid weeks vacation. I am willing to work 14 to 16 hours a day for this man. And not just for him. But for us. There is no us vs them (i.e. have's and have nots, the two America's that Edwards tlaked about in 2004). I HAVE to do something. I don't care if I make a penny out of it. What will I achieve from it? I dunno. I will find out. I am on a pilgrimage for peace, for equality, for freedom of self. Live brave. I have to live brave.
I realized today after receiving "your rent is late" valentine on my door that I forgot to pay my rent in the midst of all the excitement from the caucus. I have not heard about being a delegate in Denver or not but if it does not work out I will not be deterred. I am also going to apply for the fellowship program too. I still plan on taking a week's vacation in the summer to work full time for Obama. I changed my voice mail to a quote from Obama that is on his campaign website, "I'm asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington...I'm asking you to believe in yours." I also made a video for the youtube group I belong to regarding how inspiring Obama has been for me and asking the other members of the group what speeches they found inspiring growing up. That video can be seen on www.youtube.com/fiveawesomelesbians.
I want to work like mad for Obama. I have his logo downloaded to my phone wallpaper. I find myself staring at it from time to time in awe of what I have seen thus far. I can't stand the idea of that war monger McCain in office. I also can't believe that talk radio host Ed Shultz is under fire for calling McCain a war monger. If it walks like a duck, IMO. Ed Shultz can be found on Air America Radio which in Washington state is on AM 1090.
I can't wait until my next day off. I will be going to the Washington headquarters for Obama and seeing what they need done.
I was a delegate for the 43rd legislative district here in Seattle. The 43rd legislative district is the most powerful for democrats in Washington State and the largest in members due to the fact that the city of Seattle pretty much populates the whole thing. I rushed to the caucus via Metro. At one point I got up to ask the driver where my stop was hoping that I had not missed it. Guess what? The ever so fantastic website that is metro gave me the wrong information! I was on the wrong bus!! Luckily a nice older man gave me his transfer and luckily knew the area enough to know where Lincoln High School was located. Even better, I was very near the site. I jumped onto a bus and got there just in time. I was so excited but also very nervous as I had never been a delegate before. I signed up to go to Spokane and then to Denver along with some 300 other people running for less than 100 seats. I saw a lot of people I recognized from work and one girl I went to high school with whom I had not seen since graduation. We were herded into an auditorium where we waited about for the final tally for maybe an hour or so. Lemme tell ya these were some restless people. The Zen like calm of this morning which had turned us into Hindu cows was over, and the ugliness that can creep up during the democratic process was upon us. Bickering, complaining and interruptions abounded. We had Ed Murray speak on behalf of Obama and a lovely young gentleman whose name escapes me speak on behalf of Kucinich. But guess who spoke for Hillary? Sean Astin from The Lord of the Rings. I know! Politics and LOTR in the same day! If Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher or Mark Hamill had been there my head would have exploded (i.e. I am THE Star Wars nerd). After waiting some two and a half hours through thirty second speeches I got to speak and said that I REALLY want to go to Spokane and Denver (which is true) and hopefully that dream will be a reality. I have also decided that I will donate my time off work (before shifts and on days off) to the Obama campaign. I have also started a group for the LGBTQA community in Washington so that we can connect and work together for Obama. I will also donate some time to the PRIDE coalition for Obama even if I don't get to march with them. It's still important to me. This whole campaign is important to me. I am addicted. I am hooked. I don't care what anyone says anymore. I am onboard with Obama more than I have been on board with anything in a loooong time. I hope you will be too.
As soon as the link for my group is approved I will be posting it here. Also please check out my youtube show at www.youtube.com/missdivinestallstv where I am dedicating a huge portion of my channel to getting young people to vote.
