Month: October 2014

Candidate for Texas Governor is Arguing for a Ban on Marriage Among Older People

Trish

oldermarriageOne of the dearest moments during the wedding of my friends Cathy and Warren came when the minister accidentally stumbled into the part of the vows where he often asked those gathered to support the couple as they raised any children resulting from their union. A stunned silence was followed by Cathy saying, “Um, we can skip that.”

At the time, Cathy was 56 and Warren was 68. Both of them widows, their children from their previous marriages — all in their 20s and 30s, some with children of their own — led the laughter.

Abbott: ‘Same-sex marriage does not advance the state’s interest because same-sex unions do not result in pregnancy’

But according to the “traditional” marriage crowd, Cathy and Warren shouldn’t even have been allowed to marry. Instead, they claim marriage should be reserved for those who plan to conceive and raise children. So older folks, the infertile, and all who chose to remain childless should be barred from legal marriage. Being “partners,” “companions,” or as gay couples used to have to call themselves, “lifelong friends,” should be enough.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R), who is running against Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) to replace Rick Perry as governor, said exactly that in a brief filed before an appeals court to uphold the Texas ban on same-sex marriage.

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Is It an ‘Attack Ad’ When It’s True?

Jon Ponder

Pundits and pols on the left and right are expressing outrage over a new ad from Democratic candidate Wendy Davis in the Texas governor race. The ad points out that even though her opponent, Attorney General Greg Abbott, sued and won a settlement after an accident left him paralyzed from the waist down, he has spent his career fighting against personal-injury settlements for others who’ve found themselves in similar circumstances.

If everything in the ad is true, how can it be an “attack ad?”

Here’s the script and explication from the Davis campaign:

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Police Report Offers New Details on Palin’s Drunken White-on-White Brawl

Jon Ponder
Prior to the drunken brawl, the Palins rolled up to the party in white stretch Hummer similar to this one
Prior to the drunken brawl, the Palins rolled up to the party in white stretch Hummer similar to this one

As we noted earlier, we have an unwritten policy against taking the bait when Sarah Palin begs for attention by making stupid, inflammatory statements in public forums. Not that it matters much if we do. The writers and editors in what she calls the “lamestream” media apparently find her “pull my finger” tactics irresistible.

But now that she is embroiled in a scandal as a result of her family’s drunken brawling at a party on Sept. 6, coverage of the white-trash folks that Sen. John McCain sought to install in the Naval Observatory, the vice presidental residence in Washington, is fair game. As Talking Point Memo’s Josh Marshall put it:

The Violence, The Booze, The Out-of-Wedlock Births, the Snowmobiles: Pity the state of the white family in the 21st century. The official Anchorage PD report on the Palin Clan white on white violence incident is out.

TPM lists seven new revelations from the police report that suggest that the Palins were even more inebriated and white-trashy than we knew:

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Hannity Doesn’t Like Maher as a Person, but Does Like What He Says

Buck Banks

I don’t like Bill Maher as a person, but I think Bill Maher is good for America. He says all these outrageous things; he’s almost become an iconoclasm because he’s willing to speak the truth when so many others in the media are scared to death.

— FOX News talking wingnut Sean Hannity, to guests Greta Van Susteren and Bob Beckel on his show.

Huckabee Hugs the Right in Response to SCOTUS Gay Marriage Decision

Buck Banks

It is shocking that many elected officials, attorneys, and judges think that a court ruling is the ‘final word.’ It most certainly is not. The courts are one branch of government, and equal to the other two, but not superior to either and certainly not to both. Even if the other two branches agree with the ruling, the people’s representatives have to pass enabling legislation to authorize same sex marriage, and the President (or Governor in the case of the state) has to sign it. Otherwise, it remains the court’s opinion. It is NOT the ‘law of the land’ as is often heralded. The courts can’t make law. They can interpret it and even rule that a law is unconstitutional, but they have no power to create it or enforce it.

— Former Arkansas governor, former presidential candidate and former FOX News commentator Mike Huckabee, on his website, lamenting the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear same-sex marriage appeals cases.