Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Come Back to the Five & Dime, Barack Obama, Barack Obama

I want to begin tonight with Bill Moyers.  A sane voice.  A rational voice.  A gentle voice.  A strong voice.  One of the growing number of reasons I get my television news only from PBS.  He seems to be wondering where Obama the leader is. 
Also "losing patience" with the president is former campaign advisor Steve Hildebrand, who publicly criticized the president today for not being bold enough with regards to health care reform.
I'm increasingly convinced that our president's need to be liked outweighs his need to lead.  I hope that tomorrow night he gives one hell of a speech.  I hope he takes control of this health care wildfire, where people with guns seem to be starting blazes while he runs around with a rather small bucket of water.  I hope that this school speech controversy has shown him, once and for all, that to his detractors he can do no right.  Even telling our children to stay in school and work hard is suspect.  I hope the revelation that some people will hate him no matter what he says or does frees him to come out swinging.  If they're not going to meet you halfway - or partway - or anyway - why not go for it?  Where's Obama the leader?  The leader I voted for?  I hope he shows up tomorrow.  I hope.  We'll see. 
The trial of a Turkish man is underway in Istanbul.  He is charged with killing his son, who was gay.  The murder has been called an "honour killing."  
In Maine, Bishop Richard Malone is asking his followers to take up a second collection to support Stand for Marriage Maine, one of the groups responsible for getting Maine's brand spankin' new same-sex marriage law on ballot in November.  Is it just me?  Isn't there some pesky rule about separation of church and state?  Isn't their tax free status jeopardized in the slightest by preaching politics?  And does anyone else wonder how, in the country which prides itself on the separation of church and state, the churches keep trying, relatively successfully, to take away my rights?  If one person can come up with a reason that I shouldn't be legally allowed to get married that doesn't have to do with the bible or their God, I might listen.  I might.  But I've yet to hear one.
The defenders of inequality are predictably foaming at the mouth about the possibility that there might be a Harvey Milk Day.  Once again, they're trying to protect the children.  And once again I'm wishing that all of these people would wind up with their very own gay child.  And once again, I have to rescind that hope with the understanding that the child would be far more tortured than the parents.
When Janet Napolitano was nominated for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, I heard rumblings that with her no longer in Arizona (she was the Governor), there would be not one liberal voice in the state.  Well, it seems those fears may have been well founded.  On Friday, Arizona decided, under the guise of cost cutting, to strip domestic partner benefits from state employees.  Just last year Janet Napolitano extended benefits to same-sex couples in domestic partnerships.  Just last week current Governor Jan Brewer took them away.  I think it's fun that my life can be something people toy with at will.  I wish I wish I wish with every fiber of my being I could get every gay employee in Arizona to go on strike.  Actually my wish is to get every gay person in this country to go on strike.  But I don't think enough people are reading my blog for me to wield power on a national level.  Yet.
And finally, the six finalists for the Man Booker Prize were announced today.
More tomorrow.

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