Category Politics

Pursuit of Happiness

Greta Christina
makes a great point:
if conservatives want to argue that gay marriage goes against the
principles that America was founded on, remind them of that founding
principle explicitly spelled out in the declaration of independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit
of Happiness.

If marrying the person you love isn’t pursuit of happiness, I don’t
know what is.

But don’t take my word for it. In the
Loving v. Virginia
decision, SCOTUS chief justice Warren wrote:

The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of
the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of
happiness by free men.

What? Protests Change Minds?

When I
wrote
earlier about participating in the “No on Prop 8” demonstration at the
National Mall, I was rather dismissive of the notion that it might
affect anyone’s opinion.

However, SurveyUSA published a
poll
about Prop 8 with an interesting result. People who voted for Prop 8
were asked “Have the protesters changed your opinion on Prop 8?”. 8%
of them said yes.

Read More

Minimal Electoral Map

During a discussion on whether the electoral college is still a good idea, someone brought up the point that it’s possible to win the electoral vote but lose the popular vote, and pretty badly at that.

So I wrote a Perl script that used evolutionary computation to try to produce the most skewed electoral map possible. Here’s what it came up with:

Electoral Vote

(click to embiggen)

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A Gay Outing

It’s funny how you never see the sights and do the “local” stuff in your own town. I went to Paris once, and stayed with a friend who had lived there for sixteen years, and had never gone up the Eiffel Tower until I dragged him.

Me, I’ve lived in the Washington DC area for years and years and had never gone to a protest. Which seems a shame: people come from all over the country to march and protest here. For me, it’s just a Metro ride downtown.


So when I found out that there was going to be a
series of coordinated protests
against California’s Proposition 8 across the country, I figured I
should go. I’m neither gay nor Californian, but I figured I could
raise the body count. Especially since the “coordinated” part meant
that the ones in Maryland and DC were going to start at 1:30. I pity
the poor Hawaiians, who had to be out on the streets by 8:30.

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MD to Abolish the Death Penalty?

The Post
reports
that

A high-profile panel appointed by Gov. Martin O’Malley recommended last night abolishing Maryland’s death penalty, concluding that the state’s system of capital punishment is too costly and vulnerable to wrongful convictions and fails as a deterrent to crime to be sustainable.

From here, the report goes to the governor, and then to the legislature — which is a whole separate quicksand pit of committees and deliberation — before a bill abolishing the death penalty lands on the governor’s desk.

But it’s a step in the right direction. W00t!

BillDo Misrepresents Prop 8

Once more, BillDo
forgot to keep his noise-hole closed:

[In an anti-Proposition 8 TV ad] Two young men, who identify themselves as being from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, knock on the door of two lesbian women announcing that “We are here to take away your rights.”
…

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded as follows:

“Radical homosexuals have a long history of anti-religious bigotry, so it is not surprising that with a pro-marriage initiative on the ballot in California (Proposition 8 would secure marriage as a right between a man and a woman only), they would resort to gutter tactics.

Unfortunately, Shrill Bill missed the big difference between Prop 8
and anti-gay-marriage laws passed in other states these past few
elections. Those other laws were preemptive: they were intended to
shore up the “one man, one woman” side in advance of possible court
challenges.

In California, on the other hand, gays did have the right to
marry (until Prop 8 passed, at least), and many took advantage of
that, gaining all the rights, privileges, and obligations that come
with it. Now Prop 8 is taking away those rights, rights that people
already have.

Choke on a bag of cocks, Bill.

Reaction from Wingnuttia

Free Republic provided my morning chuckle with
this post:

The President of the United States is the most powerful political figure in the world, but as national executives go his powers are actually quite restricted. Obama will become President, but he won’t be dictator or king, let alone deity. He still has to work with the House and the Senate, and he still has to live within Constitutional restrictions

Does the phrase “unitary executive” mean anything to this person? How
about suspending Habeas Corpus? Signing statements?

I’m sure sites like Free Republic and Liberty News Forum will prove bountiful reservoirs of
schadenfreude
in the coming days. I lost the links in yesterday’s celebratory haze,
but I’ve seen people saying that McCain lost because he’s not a True
Conservative™, or because he was dragged down by Bush, who’s not
a True Conservative™. It’s all very reminiscent of the
argument
that “if you deconverted, that means you were never a True
Christian™ to begin with”. Evidently conservatism can never
fail, it can only be failed (I think put it
that way).

Also,
impeach-barack-obama.com
has already been set up.

In other election news, Sean Tevis has apparently
lost
by 4%.

Michelle Bachmann, the McCarthyite from Minnesota, has been reelected.
Boo.

Elizabeth Dole lost, apparently in part because of backlash against
her “godless” ad.

And the California amendment banning gay marriages has also passed,
also by a 4% margin. I wonder what this means for
existing gay marriages.
Will they now be retroactively annulled?

And Alaskans have elected a felon to the Senate. The speculation du
jour is that when Stevens is sent to prison, the governor will appoint
a replacement. That governor is, of course, Caribou Barbie herself,
Sarah Palin. and if she’s entertaining presidential ambitions, she
might appoint herself to the Senate. The obvious question that this
raises is, will she be able to provide Jon Stewart with
fodder
for The Daily Show?

Based on her interview with Katie Couric and her general performance
during the campaign, I think we can safely say yes.

Election Night Update

W00t!

More later.

More Election Blather

I plan on updating this post throughout the day with whichever inane tidbits I run across. This is what would be called liveblogging if it were more coherent. I’m putting this all in one post so you don’t have to delete a whole bunch of posts today.

Yeah, I voted. Got in line at 9:55. Got out around 10:45. The lines were shorter than I remember them being last time. I think there were more machines this time, and I saw them wheel another one in while I was waiting in line.

Places allegedly giving away free stuff to voters: Starbucks (“Coffee for people who don’t like coffee”). Krispy Kreme. Chick-Fil-A (but not the one where I just had lunch. Bastards.)

And toys in Babeland is offering a choice of either a Maverick sheath or a Silver Bullet vibrator, for free, to people who have voted. You have to get it today in either New York or Seattle, though.

The Comedy Central webmasters have set up www.{thedailyshow,colbertnation,indecision2008}.com with JavaScript links instead of ordinary ones. Why do they hate tabbed browsers?

It’s raining here right now. Don’t let it stop you frokm voting: remember, if you catch pneumonia while voting, Obama’s health care plan will pay for your treatment.

More free food: California Tortilla.

Now I remember the other reason I don’t listen to AM talk radio, aside from the prevalence of insane wingnuts: the ads.

Right now, the Sean Hannity show played four minutes of commercials, cut back to Sean long enough for him to say that the evil libruls are intimidating voters and his show was the best source of election coverage, then cut back to commercial.

The Dow is up 3.24% so far today. This means the economy is recovering. Since voters trust the Democrats more to fix the economy, this is good news for McCain. Expect California and Hawaii to vote overwhelmingly Republican once the implications sink in.

Daily Kos’s Electoral Scoreboard is showing an Obama landslide in New Hampshire. Presumably this represents the twelve and a half residents of Funny Name, NH who make a point of voting at midnight on election day, the better to harvest attention from the quadrennial media swarms.

I think I’m having the political-news equivalent of a sugar crash, so instead here’s a hardware project that Randall Munroe certainly won’t endorse.

Hey, Florida, can I ask a favor?

Election Day Playlist
  1. They’re Right I Am Wrong, Klute (because of the bit that quotes my favorite political slogan in recent memory)
  2. WWIII, KMFDM (because it quotes George Bush about the war in Iraq)
  3. Voting for President, Schoolhouse Rock
  4. Elected, Alice Cooper
  5. Winners & Losers, Iggy Pop
  6. Changes, David Bowie
  7. All Night Party, Anne Clark
  8. Won’t Get Fooled Again, The Who

And just in case the election goes the wrong way:

  1. What the Fuck Is Wrong With You People?, Combichrist

(Update, Tue Nov 4 09:23: Added Won’t Get Fooled Again.)