While I am really very emotionally happy about the California legislature passing AB0849 (“Gender-neutral marriage” bill), I cannot help but remember that the voters of this state have already spoken on this issue and they overwhelmingly said “NO” to gay marriage with Prop. 22.

That being said, I hate the proposition system in this state. I have even advocated getting rid of it. The typical voter is uninformed and ill equipped to make a decision based on anything else except raw emotion.

We are a Republic and if you don’t like what your elected officials do, you vote them out of office.

Support the bill.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633

Thanks to The Malcontent for the contact info, and the nudge his post on the subject provided.

My gut tells me that Americans and a great many others around the world may finally get their heads back in the game when it comes to the GWOT. I don’t know why – call it wishful thinking if you want. But it strikes me that things have been very unfocused of late. Maybe the attacks in London this morning will change that.

As you have likely heard by now, there has been a coordinated terrorist attack in London today. Several bombs went off in the London Underground (their subway system). A bomb has also exploded on at least one bus. It appears that an al Qaeda inspired group has claimed responsibility.

Reports are varying as to how many people have been killed and injured, but as of this posting AP reports had the number of dead at 45 with at least 1000 injured. Of those injured, an estimated 150 were serious. More information can be found at the BBC web site.

“It is important that those engaged in terrorism realise that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism on the world. Whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilised nations throughout the world.” – British Prime Minister Tony Blair

Greg and I are deeply saddened and angered by this vicious attack and our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and their families. We stand in solidarity with our British friends.

There are those that say there is no global war on terror. Today is a clear reminder of just how wrong they are.

“CAUGHT ON TAPE: DEM CHAIR DEAN CALLS GOP ‘WHITE CHRISTIAN PARTY” blares the red alert on Drudge!

“They all behave the same. They all look the same. It’s pretty much a white Christian party…”

Audio here.

Here is your new Democratic Party, lead by one Howard Dean.

**UPDATE**

Some of the more choice quotes (AS SF GATE HAS REMOVED THE FILE):

“The Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people…”

“They are a pretty monolithc party…”

“They all behave the same and they all look the same…”

“It’s pretty much a white, Christian party…”

Here is the text story. I hope the audio turns up again – this was incredible. Howard Dean, raw and off the cuff saying some of the most outrageous things I have ever heard. His explanation?

“This is one of those flaps that comes up once in awhile when I get tough,” Dean said. “We have to be rough on the Republicans. Republicans don’t represent ordinary Americans and they don’t have any understanding of what it is to go out and try and make ends meet.”

The GOP here in California (where Dean made these remarks) is responding.

Simi Valley Councilman Glenn Becerra – “I’m living proof that the (GOP) isn’t what Howard Dean is trying to describe,” Becerra said during a telephone interview. “It’s a sad day when Democrats don’t have any ideas to put forward, and they have to resort to race politics. President Bush didn’t get 40 percent of the Hispanic vote (in 2004) because we’re a monolithic, white Christian party.”

[...]

“I’m thrilled he’s the DNC chair,” says Tom Del Becarro, chairman of the Contra Costa County Republican Party. “Howard Dean is scaring away the middle. People don’t like angry people. They like hopeful people.”

[...]

“Where do I sign up on a committee to keep Howard Dean?” crowed GOP operative Jon Fleischmann, publisher of the FlashReport, a daily roundup of California political news and commentary. “He’s the best thing to happen to the GOP in ages.”

Howard Dean’s days at the DNC are numbered. In fact, I will be very suprised if he makes it through the 2006 election cycle. In fact, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if we hear at least one prominent Democrat calling for his resignation before the week is out. My money is on Barney Frank.

**UPDATE**

Read all the way to the end of the article – at least check out the “In His Own Words” section for goodies like these:

On Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: “Gov. Schwarzenegger has been a big disappointment to a lot of Californians … Americans are tired of politicians that break their promise, especially in an area like education … so I think there’s going to be a lot of questions about whether the governor really cares about average Californians.”

On Schwarzenegger’s endorsement of the Minutemen: “This is why I don’t agree that there’s no difference between Republicans and Democrat … you would never have heard a Democrats talk like that … I think the Republicans are always like this. I remember (former Republican Gov.) Pete Wilson … got elected by victimizing immigrants. Republicans always divide people.”

On illegal immigration: “(Democrats) understand we have a border problem. But we think that if you enforce the laws you already have, the people who are already here …they haven’t broken any laws [ed. note: Well, except for coming here illegally in the first place], they paid their taxes, a lot of them are paying into the Social Security system and getting nothing. Those people ought to be on a reasonable track toward citizenship.”

On San Francisco politics: “It’s always a pleasure to come to San Francisco because I don’t look so liberal when I come to San Francisco.”

Stick a fork in this guy.

**UPDATE**

Audio is back!

I am so incensed right now I can barely type. To think that George Soros and his terrorist-appeasing, anti-American cronies, the MoveOn.org types, are going to stand there and piss all over the hallowed ground where 2752 people were SLAUGHTERED by terrorists – the site of the worst attack on our nation’s homeland – to try to EXCUSE it by “understanding why they did it” – it makes me want to throw-up.

THIS ATROCITY MUST BE STOPPED!

I am republishing the entire piece. This is simply too important not to.

Excerpts from The Great Ground Zero Heist by DEBRA BURLINGAME from the Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2005.
Ms. Burlingame’s full commentary can be found here here.

The World Trade Center Memorial will break ground this year. When those Marines return in 2010, the year it is scheduled to open, no doubt they will expect to see the artifacts that bring those memories to life. They’ll want a vantage point that allows them to take in the sheer scope of the destruction, to see the footage and the photographs and hear the personal stories of unbearable heartbreak and unimaginable courage. They will want the memorial to take them back to who they were on that brutal September morning.
Instead, they will get a memorial that stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the yearning to return to that day. Rather than a respectful tribute to our individual and collective loss, they will get a slanted history lesson, a didactic lecture on the meaning of liberty in a post-9/11 world. They will be served up a heaping foreign policy discussion over the greater meaning of Abu Ghraib and what it portends for the country and the rest of the world.”

[...]

…the IFC’s list of those who are shaping or influencing the content and programming for their Ground Zero exhibit includes a Who’s Who of the human rights, Guantanamo-obsessed world:

• Michael Posner, executive director at Human Rights First who is leading the world-wide “Stop Torture Now” campaign focused entirely on the U.S. military. He has stated that Mr. Rumsfeld’s refusal to resign in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal is “irresponsible and dishonorable.”
• Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, who is pushing IFC organizers for exhibits that showcase how civil liberties in this country have been curtailed since September 11.
• Eric Foner, radical-left history professor at Columbia University who, even as the bodies were being pulled out of a smoldering Ground Zero, wrote, “I’m not sure which is more frightening: the horror that engulfed New York City or the apocalyptic rhetoric emanating daily from the White House.” This is the same man who participated in a “teach-in” at Columbia to protest the Iraq war, during which a colleague exhorted students with, “The only true heroes are those who find ways to defeat the U.S. military,” and called for “a million Mogadishus.” The IFC website has posted Mr. Foner’s statement warning that future discussions should not be “overwhelmed” by the IFC’s location at the World Trade Center site itself.
• George Soros, billionaire founder of Open Society Institute, the nonprofit foundation that helps fund Human Rights First and is an early contributor to the IFC. Mr. Soros has stated that the pictures of Abu Ghraib “hit us the same way as the terrorist attack itself.”

[...]

The so-called lessons of September 11 should not be force-fed by ideologues hoping to use the memorial site as nothing more than a powerful visual aid to promote their agenda. Instead of exhibits and symposiums about Internationalism and Global Policy we should hear the story of the courageous young firefighter whose body, cut in half, was found with his legs entwined around the body of a woman. Recovery personnel concluded that because of their positions, the young firefighter was carrying her.

[...]

Ground Zero has been stolen, right from under our noses. How do we get it back?

Ms. Burlingame is a member of the board of directors of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines fight 77, which was crashed at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

How you can help get it back:

Write Your Congressman

Write Your Senator

Write Michael Bloomberg

This CANNOT stand. Do YOUR part. Use this contact information, NOW.

**UPDATE**

Michelle Malkin also encourages you to call the White House and includes some additional contact information.

You have to love the perfect logic and extreme simplicity that was Sam Kinnison.

With someone that actually gives a shit. One need look no further than this little boy to find a prime example of someone that thinks their being gay and deaf somehow offers them protection from having their childishness and emotional immaturity pointed out to them.

I don’t care that you are deaf, Ridor, and I will offer you no special consideration because you are. You could have perfect hearing and you would still be an emotionally-stunted individual. I mean, that IS what you want, right? To be treated like any other hearing, emotionally-stunted person?

For the record, he and his ilk are banned from making comments on this blog because they have the emotional maturity of 12 year-olds and this is an adults-only blog. They have nothing more to offer than “I’m not stupid, YOU’RE stupid!” and, frankly, I am not inclined to offer a forum to a child.

My blog, my rules. Get over it.

**UPDATE** 5/9/05 8:37 AM

I mean, really. Need I say more?

Well, I finally got my Powerbook back today after we got back from my b-day trip. All is restored and working fine so far. I did manage to wipe my iPod of about 600 songs and had to spend $50 bucks on PodSalvage, but it recovered everything and I was able to restore my music library.

I also had what is likely the best b-day and the best b-day present ever – brassguy is taking me on my first trip to DC in two weeks!!! I am so excited I can hardly contain myself! Now, is that a great b-day present or what? Sometimes I have to wonder what it was I did to deserve such a wonderful partner.

And last but not least, I had my interview today. I think I did pretty well. The company I work for does panel interviews and there were 7 people that interviewed me, so the setting can be somewhat intimidating. But I was among friends (I used to work at this particular facility), so it was a fairly comfortable setting for me – but I can’t speak for the other 3 candidates. I will likely find out on Monday – I hope. I don’t do “suspense” well.

I hope everyone had a great week and has a great weekend. I am going to spend mine catching up on sleep, housework and laundry.

Have you created your South Park persona yet? Have you added it to the gallery yet? Well, what are you waiting for?

Amen, brother.