Day: August 4, 2010

The Advocate:

In a highly anticipated decision with potentially far-reaching implications in the national battle over gay marriage, a federal judge has struck down California’s Proposition 8.

U.S. district judge Vaughn R. Walker struck down the ballot measure in a 136-page opinion without a hearing in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, nearly seven months after an unprecedented trial over gay marriage began in his San Francisco courtroom. It’s not yet clear whether Walker’s decision will immediately nullify the ballot measure — and therefore restore the right of same-sex couples to marry in California.

But:

[…]

Pres. Obama turns 49 today. On this auspicious occasion,we’re mindful of an article published on the front page of the Los Angeles Times last week titled, “Obama the Velcro President,” that said, in part:

If Ronald Reagan was the classic Teflon president, Barack Obama is made of Velcro.

Through two terms, Reagan eluded much of the responsibility for recession and foreign policy scandal. In less than two years, Obama has become ensnared in blame…

But Obama remains the colossus of his administration — to a point where trouble anywhere in the world is often his to solve.

[…]

This is great news. Sen. Richard Burr, a Republican from North Carolina, my old home state, is without a doubt one of the biggest dumbasses in the Senate — a body that includes mental paramecia like Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Bob Corker of Tennessee.

A new poll shows N.C. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, his Democratic opponent, has pulled up within range of Burr.

Public Policy Polling:

The North Carolina Senate race continues to look very competitive, with Richard Burr’s approval numbers hitting a record low and Elaine Marshall pulling within 2 points. Burr’s at 39 percent to 37 percent for Marshall and 7 percent for Libertarian Michael Beitler.

The main thing that’s changed since the last poll, when Burr led by 5, is that Marshall is shoring up her support from within the party. 65 percent of Democrats say they’ll vote for her, up from 57 percent a month ago. Burr continues to lead because of a 44-25 advantage with independents and because with 73 percent Republican support his party is more unified around him than Marshall’s is around her.

There’s not much doubt the closeness of this race is more an indictment of Burr than a reflection of Marshall’s popularity. The Democratic challenger continues to be largely an unknown to North Carolina voters with 58 percent saying they have no opinion of her. Among those who do 23 percent see her favorably and 19 percent unfavorably. But what’s really changed since February when Burr held a ten point lead is perceptions of the incumbent. At that time voters split evenly on his job performance with 35 percent approving of him and 35 percent disapproving. Now just 32 percent approve with 44 percent disapproving.

As I said last week, the Breitbart rules of war are simple: If you’re on defense, you are losing — and over the past few weeks, the GOP-tea party has found itself on defense time after time. The litany of abuses that has right wingers on defense includes the Mark Williams “Colored People” letter, which led to the expulsion from the National Tea Party Federation of his GOP-backed astroturf group Tea Party Express; the revelation that Breitbart published deceptively edited videos of Shirley Sherrod’s speech and the ACORN “undercover investigation”; Fox News’ race-baiting in its promotion of the New Black Panthers Party non-story and its coverage of ACORN and Shirley Sherrod, the latter of which elicited a rare admission by a Fox exec that mistakes were made.

Now, via Newshounds, comes another apology from Fox — this one from Greta Van Susteren, the network’s resident Scientologist host, who rushed to her blog to apologize because an obviously racist producer on her show couldn’t tell the difference between Shirley Sherrod and Maxine Waters, a 10-term congresswoman from Los Angeles:

[…]