I’m not gay. I did not serve in the military. Therefore, when the discussion focuses on the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy I defer to others more knowledgeable than myself. Rachel Maddow, a proud lesbian who has her own show on MSNBC, may be the most visible proponent of gay rights in our political culture. On her Wednesday night show, she took President Obama to task for foot-dragging...

Chicago Tribune: Blago jury deadlocked on some counts The jury in Rod Blagojevich’s trial has reached verdicts on two counts, is deadlocked on others and hasn’t begun discussing 11 wire fraud counts. U.S. District Judge James Zagel instructed jurors to continue working. MORE

A CNN/Opinion Research poll released yesterday shows, for the first time, that a majority of Americans now favor legally recognized gay marriage. While polling has been trending in this direction for years, this is the first poll to show a majority favoring marriage equity. The poll itself was produced by splitting the sample group roughly in two and employing two separate interview procedures, Version A and...

Here is the latest example (emphasis is in original):

There are few things that really annoy me in politics anymore. Congratulations, Senator Harry Reid you hit the jackpot! Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) made the following statement: “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, OK?” Reid said. “Do I need to say more?” Why is it that the race / ethnicity card is played by Democrats who...

Here is more grist for the Nevada Senate race between incumbent Democrat Harry Reid and Republican challenger Sharron Angle. Angle has completed a candidate questionaire for the conservative political action committee, Government Is Not God PAC. Here are some highlights from Angle’s questionaire. On abortion: believes an “unborn child” is a person under the 14th Amendment; would vote to prohibit...

While blasting Republicans for blocking immigration reform, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid laid out his perception of where Latino voters should stand, “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, OK. Do I need to say more?” It’s true that the Republican Party harbors the likes of Tom Tancredo, now running for Colorado Governor as an Independent, and Russell...

Straight up from me to you: I don’t know if this is true or a hoax or political gamesmanship, but it’s starting to get a lot of play. An article at GQ reports that as a college student at Baylor, Rand Paul was a member of a secret society known as the NoZe, a group officially banned by the university. The article goes on to report from an anonymous source (saying she doesn’t want her name disclosed for...

Update: 11.53 am Pacific: CBS: Spokesman confirms Stevens has died in crash In a world saturated with instant news, the fact that 16 hours after an airplane crash we still didn’t know whether or not former Sen. Ted Stevens had died is remarkable. When I noted this on Twitter, the responses were immediate and predictable: the area is remote, the weather is bad. True and true. However, if those two factors...

Do you know who Nicholas Merrill is? You should. He’s an American hero. Not the kind who died on a battlefield for his country. The kind who, as an average citizen, fought for his rights, and yours, against the full weight of the United States government, and won. Nicholas Merrill is an Internet entrepreneur who, in 2004 ran a startup company called Calyx. He is also the John Doe in John Doe v. Ashcroft...

Given the flap over Glenn Beck’s “Planet of the Apes” reference, here’s this from the Midwest. Is it the same? Similar? Why? Why not? “NOT the whiteman’s bitch” is the candidate’s phrase Ieshuh (eye-ee-sha) Griffin wants to use on the ballot in her Independent run for the Wisconsin State Assembly. In Wisconsin a candidate for public office can use a descriptive phrase of up to five words...

There is no way I can improve on Ted Olson’s responses to Chris Wallace here, so I will not even try (via Think Progress):

You cannot make this stuff up, and you cannot, ever, go wrong predicting that Israel will do something even more stupid and self-destructive than it did the last time it did something stupid and self-destructive:

Dan Froomkin (emphasis mine):

Elena Kagan has been confrmed as the fourth woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court. Until her confirmation to the Court, Kagan had served as U. S. Solicitor General and is the former Dean of Harvard Law School. She replaces the retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. The overall balance of the Court is not expected to change. The final vote count: 63 – 37.

He was born in 1944 near end of WWII right before men and women coming home from one of the most brutal wars that ever was. A ‘tween’ during Korean War. Twelve years old when Hungarian Uprising was broadcast on television for weeks on end in 1956. A teenager during Selma and slaying of civil rights workers, a young man eligible for VietNam War, which was also the first time a war had been broadcast...

Last Wednesday, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announced that he was considering offering a Constitutional Amendment to end birthright citizenship. Since then Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and John McCain (R-AZ) have said that they believe hearings should be held on the subject. Well, fine. If you believe that birthright citizenship is a problem worthy of your attention, a...

As an atheist I think all  organized religions are dangerous nonsense.  But some things are more dangerous than others and one of those things is the bru ha ha over the Islamic Community center near ground zero in New York.  Thanks to FOX – the black/brown people are coming to get you network – uninformed white people see all Muslims as evil. An unlikely source, Jefferey Goldberg,...

The mayor of Reading (RED-ing), Pennsylvania, (pop. 80,560 and falling) has issued a proclamation to slum landlords to clean up their property or be subject to a public flogging on his website Hall of Shame. At least 42 photographed properties, addresses and owners were listed Tuesday, most in the old sections of the town established in 1748. Mayor Tom McMahon’s efforts is part of a renovation campaign to...

Today’s 9-0 vote by New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission against granting historic landmark status to the building near Ground Zero where a Muslim group wants to build an Islamic cultural and community center is a victory for the First Amendment and a rejection of religious bigotry:

I’m not a chemist so forgive me for not swallowing hook, line and sinker the Environmental Protection Agency’s findings Monday that the dispersant used by BP in the Gulf of Mexico oil blowout is no more toxic when mixed with oil than the oil alone. The EPA tests were twofold. One was challenging BP’s assertion that the chemical Corexit was less toxic than other dispersants. It wasn’t. The second was...

You need not be a numbers cruncher to chew on this. Robert Rizzo was forced to resign as city manager of Bell, Calif., (pop. 36,900) when his salary was discovered the highest in the nation for that job position at $787,637. His pension is estimated $637,985 for the rest of his life. Rizzo is 55. The public employee worked for three cities for 30 years, the last for one year at Bell. He earns 2.7% of his final...

Moderates and the Wimp Factor by Lou Zickar Perception is often reality in politics. Just ask George H.W. Bush. Twenty-three years ago this October, when he was beginning his campaign to succeed Ronald Reagan as President, Newsweek ran a cover story on him bearing this headline: “Fighting the Wimp Factor.” The gist of the story was that Bush didn’t have the backbone of Reagan. Of course, it was nonsense....

I was wrong. It wasn’t the Environmental Protection Agency remiss in allowing BP to dump more than a million gallons of chemical dispersants on the oil floating above and below the Gulf of Mexico waters. It was the Coast Guard. The details are outlined in this statement released and contained in a Los Angeles Times news story Saturday by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House energy and environment...

For Afghan war watchers, the New York Times reports the U.S. is having more success in its counterterrorism strategy than nation building. By killing more Taliban insurgent leaders, the success may signal a quicker peace allowing the Taliban to take part in the Afghan government. For U.S. interests, this does not mean an Afghan government patterned after Jeffersonian democracy. The Karsai government already...