QOTD

Presidential candidate Bobby Jindal's measured, constitutionally sound response to today's Supreme Court ruling in the Obergefell v Hodges gay marriage case.

"The Supreme Court is completely out of control, making laws on their own, and has become a public opinion poll instead of a judicial body," he told the crowd, as quoted by The Advocate newspaper. "If we want to save some money lets just get rid of the court."

"If we want to save some money?" Was that even the question, though?  Bobby, we're on marriage equality here. The money stuff ended when you signed the budget last week, remember? Besides, I don't think you can just line-item veto all of Article III of the constitution like it's some made up tax credit.

You'd think that a smart guy like Bobby who's spent so much time trying to be President would learn a few things about how the country runs.  It's really hard to "just get rid of" Supreme Court justices. Technically, Congress could impeach them but that's, like.. a whole thing. And it's never happened, anyway. (Once. It's happened once. Unsuccessfully.)  But you don't get to just fire them because you don't like the decisions they make. We know that's how it worked with the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority but this different.  Is he sure he knows how this job works?

You don't have to perpetuate the hollow branding

The reason they go around calling their anti-civil rights bills, "Religious Freedom" legislation is because they are banking on the fact that the press will carry this branding forward for them.

The press doesn't actually have to call it that, though.

So far behind we're ahead

Or.. maybe, in this case, Louisiana is just ahead at being behind.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman has ruled that Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriage is constitutional. His decision makes Feldman the first federal judge to uphold a state’s ban amid a wave of similar legal challenges across the country.

Hope everyone had a good time at Decadence this weekend. 

Bobby Jindal's perpetual media tour to nowhere

You never know where Bobby and/or his byline is going to show up next.

Jindal stopped at Liberty University over the weekend in order to tell the young freethinkers there about the First Amendment and what it means to them.

Jindal felt right at home. A Hindu-turned-”evangelical Catholic,” he knew how to package his First Amendment defense for maximum appeal to clean-cut Christian conformists. Anti-gay bigotry was recharacterized as an expression of traditional Christian views. Discriminating against homosexuals by denying them jobs or goods and services — that’s simply practicing one’s religion.

As the demons in this travesty of New Testament theology, Jindal ominously evoked a vast liberal elite, intolerant of religious-based speech that also happens to be anti-gay. You see it’s the free speech crowd — not the censors at a place like Liberty U — who are the small-minded one in Jindal’s world. The “politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with,” he opines in a press release from the governor’s office. (Your tax dollars at work!) It’s a switcheroo tactic he used to defend anti-gay comments by Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson, much like the “liberals are the real racists” meme that the right has been peddling so hard recently. Bigotry seems more justified if you see yourself in the oppressed group.

Last weekend, the St. Louis Rams made history by selecting 2013 SEC Defensive Player of the Year Michael Sam in the seventh round of the NFL Draft. Sam becomes the first openly gay football player to be drafted in the NFL.  At first glance, this may seem to you like progress. But apply a little Jindal logic and you'll see the "real bigots" are Christian athletes who, of course, will never recover. They'll always have Twitter, though.

"@livinglegend_44: Y'all praise Michael Sam for being gay but y'all mocked Tim Tebow for being a Christian. Smh #Society"valid point
— Scott Shanle (@scottshanle) May 12, 2014

That's former Saints linebacker Scott Shanle expressing solidarity with Florida State linebacker Demarcus Walker who clearly knows what's what. 

You see, Tim Tebow was going to be the Jackie Robinson of Christian athletes. Unfortunately, thanks to the unrelenting scorn of the godless hordes who comprise American football fandom, he was never given the chance break down the barriers to Christian participation in professional sports and showcase his remarkable talents.  Because of this tragedy we may never see an openly devout professional athlete in our lifetimes.

And now that one openly gay player has been picked in the final round of one draft, Christians everywhere are under assault.  The "double standard" at work is intolerable. Or at least that's the gist of the article Saints tight end (no snickering, please) Benjamin Watson links to here.

This is my homophobic rant against Michael Sam | Page 2 of 2 | The Matt Walsh Blog http://t.co/VqkGEjKWoC via @po_st
— Benjamin Watson (@BenjaminSWatson) May 13, 2014

Saints linebacker Curtis Lofton added his voice by manually retweeting Watson's tweet.

RT @BenjaminSWatson This is my homophobic rant against Michael Sam | Page 2 of 2 | The Matt Walsh Blog http://t.co/UOY3lveT2t via @po_st
— Curtis Lofton (@CurtisLofton50) May 13, 2014

If you look through that thread, you'll notice that Lofton was applauded for having "the courage to express your opinion" via this retweet of someone else's approval of another person's opinion.

In any case, as you can see, Jindal's lecture on the "real victims" of religious discrimination does not fall on deaf ears... for better or for worse.

Oh and one more post-script.  John Barry has been in the news a lot this year as Bobby Jindal's primary foil regarding the oil and gas industry's culpability for destroying Louisiana's coastal wetlands.  It's worth pointing out, also, that Barry's most recent book is an examination of the historical roots of American religious freedom.  As fond as Jindal is of this topic, perhaps we should see about getting him a copy.

Quote of the Day

“A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality,” he told Father Spadaro. “I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person.”

Pope Francis I 

I'm not someone who needs religion to make sense of the world. (I don't really need it to make sense at all but that's another conversation.) But many people seem to like it, so I figure it's caught on and so the kids can have fun with that if they like.

Anyway, despite the many crazy things your grandmother or Bill Donahue may have said to you over the years, the Catholics were never the most socially backward Christians. (At least not during the most recent century or so.) They've only been really really bad.  And, relatively speaking, that's pretty OK.

So it's not surprising to see a somewhat less hardline stance from a Pope every now and again. Now, if only they'd fix that whole child sex abuse thing they've got going on, they'd be halfway to becoming a semi-legitimate global fraud conglomerate just like any other large bank.

In other words, nice going.

Yay DOMA is dead

So what we've learned from the court this week is that equal protection under the constitution is a pretty important thing.. except for when it applies to your right to vote, I guess.

I'm not someone who buys into the feel-good line about the "arc of history bending toward justice."  I don't think there really is much of an arc to history.  And justice under the law is a thing that exists sometimes for some people in some places but only until it doesn't anymore. Or until someone inevitably shows up and tries to take it away.  For example, get ready to watch last night's situation in the Texas legislature play out again in several states next year as Republicans try to re-write the voting laws in light of the Shelby decision.  Can't imagine they'll lose every filibuster.

But let's not be too grouchy.  A stupid stupid law is gone and that's a good thing. Even if it only took two decades to happen. 

Technophobia

Justice Alito:

Justice Samuel Alito described gay marriage as newer than such rapidly changing technological advances as cellphones and the Internet, and appeared to advocate a more cautious approach to the issue.

"You want us to assess the effect of same-sex marriage," Alito said to Solicitor General Donald Verrilli. "It may turn out to be a good thing. It may turn out to be not a good thing."

If you get gay married to AT&T, the reception is terrible and the pre-nup contract does not work in your favor, so.. maybe he's on to something. 

Taking risks

Salon: 

Though many gay marriage advocates cheered the Supreme Court’s decision to take up Proposition 8 and DOMA on Friday, a few were wary of the Court’s decision to hear both cases at once.

“There is no question that it is a risk,” said Gavin Newsom, California’s lieutenant governor, the Daily Intel reports. “If they nationalize it and reject it, that’s going to take decades to come back to the court.”

Katherine Franke, director of Columbia Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality, told HuffPo’s Lila Shapiro that because the lower court’s ruling on Proposition 8 was very narrow, she would have preferred if the Court just decided to take up DOMA. ”I’m not thrilled. I would have preferred they took the Windsor case alone.”

But hey, you know, marriage itself is kind of a risk in the first place.  Tonight I'm going to stand in what because of our stupidity will be an extra-legal ceremony... or maybe I'm accomplice to a murder-like event depending on whom you ask. 

Creeping medievalism

Hunting witches

North Carolina Pastor Charles Worley shared with his congregation this weekend how he thinks the country should deal with the scourge of gay men and lesbians: Lock them into a pen with an electrified fence, drop food down to them, and because they can’t reproduce, they will die out.

Worshiping relics

LONDON — A Channel Islands online auction house has angered Ronald Reagan's foundation by claiming to offer a vial that once contained his blood.

The PFCAuctions house says the vial contains some of Reagan's dried blood residue. The auctioneers say it was used by the laboratory that tested Reagan's blood when he was hospitalized after a 1981 assassination attempt in Washington.

Buying indulgences

Further, (Tom) Benson has undergone an almost St. Paul-like conversion in his personal life, thanks in part, friends and associates say, to the faithful work of his wife.

In recent years, he has made millions of dollars in contributions to Catholic Charities, Ochsner Medical Center, Loyola and Tulane universities. And for every lucrative donation, there've been countless more behind-the-scenes gestures.

So.. how is Mitch's evoloution coming along?

Gambit reminds us that the Mayor's position on marriage freedom is not as "evolved" as the President's

Earlier this year, at the winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, more than 80 mayors of U.S. cities signed the Freedom to Marry pledge in support of same-sex marriage rights. Democratic Mayor Mitch Landrieu was not among them. Asked by Gambit's Alex Woodward whether Landrieu supported same-sex marriage, administration spokesman Ryan Berni said Landrieu supported civil unions, but would not elaborate on Freedom to Marry.

Update:  Mark Moseley's latest column on this matter explains with greater detail and precision the political trend I alluded to last night. 

While I’m not claiming that gay marriage has been the driving force in American politics for the past decade, it’s very interesting to graph the change in national attitude alongside the electoral results over that same span. The issue has unseen importance, because it relates to the key tensions in the Republican Party. The GOP has a real problem on their hands with this one. Their libertarian and pragmatic moderate factions are increasingly pro-gay marriage. But Republican pols, who painted themselves into an ideological corner trying to appeal to the fundagelicals, will have to continue opposing gay marriage, as the rest of the country continues to “evolve” around them.

Obama likes teh gay Mitt wants to change the subject

A couple of quick points about Obama's somewhat tepid and many years late acknowledgement of basic human dignity his campaign people staged for him this afternoon.

First, insofar as Obama's announcement... which changes nothing and basically reiterates Dick Cheney's position that the legality of gay marriage should be left to the states to decide... insofar as that is an advance of any value, the credit for it goes not to Obama who has spent most of his time with this issue basically twisting in the wind. Instead it goes to the critics who have continued to drag him along on this "evolutionary" path. Glenn Greenwald and David Sirota both said this quite well today. Here's Greenwald's bit.

As David Sirota explained today, this demonstrates why it is so vital to always apply critical pressure even to politicians one likes and supports, and conversely, it demonstrates why it is so foolish and irresponsible to devote oneself with uncritical, blind adoration to a politician, whether in an election year or any other time (unconditional allegiance is the surest way to render one’s beliefs and agenda irrelevant). When someone who wields political power does something you dislike or disagree with, it’s incumbent upon you to object, criticize, and demand a different course. Those who refuse to do so are abdicating the most basic duty of citizenship and rendering themselves impotent.

The only problem I have with that paragraph is the part that implies there are supposed to be politicians we "like and support." When you get down to it, they're all just hollow vessels of ambition and suckassery.  None of them deserve your support and certainly not your affection.  But, depending on circumstances, some of them may be more susceptible to pressures that work in your favor and that's how you decide which way to vote.

The point is politics isn't really about the politicians.  They're just the tools (in multiple senses of that word).  Policy change is brought about by the forces acting upon those tools be they money, personal influence, or... in very very rare cases... genuine organized active demand of the voters. But the minute that demand relents is the minute the power to create further change is ceded.  So, for the most part, I agree with Greenwald. I only disagree with the implication that we should ever stop and credit any politician for work they do not actually perform... such as leadership.

As to the politics of this thing, the stunt is a clever way to turn a poor election result in North Carolina into a "win the week" moment for Obama by momentarily firing up part of the much neglected Democratic base. Sure, the Fox and Freaks crowd responded predictably today but their pushback was so lame that it felt like going through the motions. I think they knew they'd been outmaneuvered... almost like a bluff had been called. 

And that brings us to a final  observation.  Liberals like me have long said that the best way to counter the old Republican phony "values" playbook is to just show a little backbone on issues like gay rights.  "Our" side has always enjoyed the true "moral" high ground in such matters. We've only suffered from a lack of candidates willing to articulate that clearly.

I actually don't think Obama has done that clearly enough yet but this was a strong enough move to cause an interesting reaction from the Romney camp and one that shows just how much the game has changed with regard to social wedge issues in national politics. It wasn't too too long ago that Republicans took it as a given that Democratic candidates could be separated from their "economic" base by a campaign strategy that highlighted issues like race, gay rights, abortion, recreational drug use, and the like.

I'm not about to say that this is no longer the case at all but I think those dynamics may be changing in a way that makes them less of a rout on the Republican side. For example, Mitt today, clearly knocked back on his heels, offered this reaction.

Mitt Romney would like to talk about the economy. He would apparently prefer not to talk about marriage equality, education for the children of illegal immigrants or medical marijuana. In an interivew with a CBS affiliate in Colorado, Romney was visibly annoyed after a string of questions that included his stance on gay marriage and civil unions (he’s against them), in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants (he’s against that) and medical marijuana (he thinks pot is a “gateway drug”).

“Aren’t there issues of significance you’d like to talk about?” he said, after the string of social issue questions, one of which came from a viewer. “The economy, the growth of jobs, the need to put people back to work, the challenges of Iran? We’ve got enormous issues that we face but you want to talk about medical marijuan–go ahead, you want to talk about Medical–”

“Marijuana should not be legal in this country,” Romney said finally, before calling pot a “gateway drug.”

Have we really come so far now that it's the Republican candidate, whose party even more than ever now is firmly ensconced as the party of the privileged "1%", who is so thrown for a loop by a Democrat who just (sort of) endorsed gay marriage that the best response he can muster is, "It's the economy, stupid"?  These are indeed the strangest of times.

Today in gay marriage

1) Prop. 8: Gay-marriage ban unconstitutional, court rules

A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down California's ban on same-sex marriage, clearing the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on gay marriage as early as next year.

The 2-1 decision by a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that limited marriage to one man and one woman, violated the U.S. Constitution. The architects of Prop. 8 have vowed to appeal.

The ruling was narrow and likely to be limited to California.

Because the ruling comes from a three judge panel, it could still be appealed to the full Ninth Circuit or possibly to the US Supreme Court but I don't think that's going to happen. Anwyway, if you like reading federal court decisions you can read this one at this link here.

2) Former Saints running back Ricky Williams, who was once gay married to and then gay divorced from Mike Ditka, announced his retirement today. Best of luck, Ricky.


Once again legal in California

Proxy campaigning is back

Yesterday we touched on the fact that Ron Paul is plenty nutty enough on his own accord that there should be no need to attack him through the utterances of those who speak either in favor of or near his campaign. But one can always tell that the campaign season is shifting into a higher gear when the proxy wars start heating up.

I've never been a fan of this although there are circumstances under which the attention it draws is valid.

One example. In 2008 candidate Obama was made to answer for remarks made by his campaign's foreign policy adviser Samantha Power in which Power referred to then rival candidate Hillary Clinton as "a monster". The episode was exceedingly silly because the comment, regardless of its accuracy, was rhetorically the sort of thing that our absurd "decorum" obsessed, fainting couch occupying establishment press considers so out of bounds as to demand the rolling of heads... or at least the symbolic rolling of those heads. Power was forced to resign her unpaid advisory position with the campaign and hang her (still attached) head in shame... for a few months anyway. Later she was hired by the Obama Administration to work in Hillary's monstrous State Department where she cheerfully contributed to such monstrous initiatives as the bombing and killing of people in Libya. But at least she didn't call anyone an ugly name.

Anyway the point is, in the case of Power, her comments about Hillary could have raised significant questions about just what kind of people were advising candidate Obama on key issues like the importance of bombing and killing people in the name of freedom. And it almost did that.. at least for those of us who were paying attention at the time although with minimal help from the decorum gatekeepers who manage our daily discourse.

But this is an unusual incident. Most of the time, attacking a candidate through proxy connections is a pointless parlor game for the bored and stupid campaign press. Examples of this abound from the obsession with Obama's pastor Rev. Wright in 2008 to this gay-hating preacher who endorsed Ron Paul. Paul is plenty homophobic on his own, thank you very much. No need to go looking for other loonies to throw in his face.

On the other hand, it's difficult to ignore Paul's latest monstrous endorsement... but we'll try. Oh how we'll try.

In case you haven't heard yet

Scott Walker is kind of an asshole.

Adding: In light of DOJ's decision not to defend DOMA, Scott Walker now allowed to take calls from "Amanda Hugginkiss"

I already lived through the 1990s once

And yet I've lived long enough to watch an ineffectual Democratic President get his brains beat in by a crazy angry GOP over health care (mostly anyway) and now Don't Ask Don't Tell as well.

What's next? If you guessed,ineffectual Democratic President pushes for a new NAFTA, you win!

Superman wants an anchor baby

And other shocking facts rarely discussed above basement level.


Note: Moseley's posts are always so freaking dense that they're hard to categorize. I started tagging this post with some of the topics covered but didn't quite get all of it. But that's not the really annoying thing.

The annoying thing about reading a Moseley column is that once the reader gets far enough in to pick up on the joke, invariably a witty line occurs to him that feels like it will make a fun riff on the theme. The problem there is the reader then spends the rest of his time with the piece hoping that Moseley hasn't already stepped on this line himself. And that combined with the aforementioned density makes the process of sifting through it all an increasingly tense experience which nearly always ends in the frustration of seeing one's fears affirmed. But fuck it I went with the damn line anyway. Enjoy.

Stuff

Just what we needed on a Wednesday afternoon. More randomly associated bullet points.

• Gambit's Matt Davis reports from the Mayor's budget hearing in New Orleans East Monday night.
  
  

  There was plenty of emotional testimony about the problems being faced, but the most newsworthy exchange came toward the end of the two-and-a-half hour meeting, when Mayor Mitch Landrieu directly addressed his race in the context of the city repossessing blighted properties from black property owners who have failed to return to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. “I want to talk about race,” said Landrieu, responding to the testimony at the end of the evening. “You start taking people’s homes, people start asking ‘why you trying to stop people coming home, Mr.Mitch, looking the way you do’ — do I need to say it?”
  
  The crowd murmured support for Landrieu.
  
  “The question is is this about race? Or is about the city?” Landrieu asked. “And when is the day when we start focusing on these properties? Is it now? Is it September? Is it November? Or yesterday?”
  
  The crowd cheered when he said “yesterday.”
  
  “I’m just asking, I just want to make sure I heard you,” said Landrieu. “Because I promise you as soon as I lay it down, somebody’s going to lay it down, and there’s going to be a march.”
  
  “We got your back, Mitch,” shouted several people in the crowd.
  
  The idea of repossessing vacant properties in New Orleans East and the Lower Ninth Ward has been increasingly on council’s radar over recent months. At a meeting of the council recovery meeting on June 30, consultant Greg Rigamer told council that of 52,800 New Orleans applicants to the state’s Road Home program, 34,921 applicants have closed on their homes and are moving forward, but about 14,000 are showing no sign of progress after having received the money.

  
  
  I'm not sure that this is a conversation about "race". The Mayor and the people attending the meeting all seem to want it to be a racial kumbaya moment but it sure reads to me like a room full of comfortable middle class homeowners all agreeing that they don't care if the poor people make it back or not.




• St. Bernard child, Pistolette writes about the places Dow'na Road after reading Bob Marshall's series about the fishing village of Delacroix in the Times Picayune.



• Here's another T-P series on soon-to-be-inducted NFL Hall of Famer Rickey Jackson who was, to put it plainly, the best football player I ever watched. Ever.

  Despite the fact he never wore thigh or knee pads -- that slowed him down -- and never taped his ankles, Jackson played in 195 games with the Saints, starting every one, and he started 30 of 32 games with the 49ers. He missed just two in his career when he fractured his right cheekbone in an automobile accident on Sept. 11, 1989. Initially, it was expected that Jackson would miss four to six weeks. On Oct. 1, 20 days after the accident, Jackson returned to the field, starting for the Saints against the Washington Redskins, who, try as they might, were powerless that day to slow Jackson, even though they often double-teamed him with an extra tight end or a pulling lineman.

  When the Saints finally made the Super Bowl this year, a lot was written about the bittersweetness of Buddy D not being there to see it or Archie Manning not being able to enjoy it. Not enough was said about how great it was that Rickey Jackson got to see it happen. During his career, Rickey embodied the collective passion and frustration of the fans more than most players. Having him named to the HOF the same year the championship happened was pretty special for everyone.



• Prop 8 overturned and there was much rejoicing. That is until some right wing something or other says something stupid in 4, 3, 2....



• Favre. Shut up. No, make it stop. Seriously.



• Nagin. Shut up.



• Here are 100 great (nobody can really pick the 100 greatest) GBV songs with notes on each one including this which pretty much sums up why Pollard is God.

  Let's face it: GBV is to beer as the Grateful Dead is to LSD




• And finally, there's this Forecasters: Hurricanes' effect on oil unclear Seriously, though, at this point we're more interested in oil's effect on hurricanes. It's high season and everything that appears out there keeps breaking up. Not that we're complaining or anything.

City Council candidate says mean things in email. Doesn't think it's fair that she should have to explain them

See, it happens in other cities too.

Funny

Michael Rowe on this Prejean thing:

Only in America would the notion of a nearly-naked fundamentalist Christian beauty queen tossing her processed hair and parading brand new pageant-bought plastic breasts across a Las Vegas stage in front of millions of television viewers with all the modesty of a blue ribbon heifer at a county livestock fair (the same fundamentalist Christian beauty queen who would later tell a television reporter that she heard God whispering in her ear as she answered a celebrity-worshipping Internet gossip columnist's question about gay marriage) be treated as anything other than an occasion for high comedy and mirth.

Via Tbogg, who sees just about everything as "an occasion for high comedy and mirth."

Amazing

No, not the fact that some douchebag at a baseball game complained that teh lebians were corrupting his son. That's not very surprising. And no it's not such a shocker that the stadium officials went so far as to ask the couple to leave for... I guess being gay in public.

What's remarkable is this:

Stadium officials are investigating the incident, but Safeco Field's code of conduct includes a provision stating that "staff will proactively intervene to support an environment where guests can enjoy the Safeco Field experience free from unacceptable behavior, including … displays of affection not appropriate in a family setting."

The stadium has a written anti-PDA policy. That just blows my freaking mind. Seems a difficult rule to enforce.