Motley Moose – Archive

And First Lady Obama has the right to bare arms!

I’ve never watched Sesame Street.  Growing up we were booted out of the house if the weather was nice.  I don’t have children so I’ve never had to watch it with them.  (The cats like Animal Planet, especially the dog shows).

Anyway, Michelle went on Sesame Street to promote healthy eating and exercise.

The Democratic Party has found it’s effective voice, the Republican Party has lost it’s own.  There is joy and celebration among Democrats, there is angst und strum among Republicans.  For those who are truly non-partisan, however, there is at best transient satisfaction at this change in political climate.

While some among the Grand Old Party faithful call for more of the same (yes, we’re looking at you, Mr.s Cheney and Limbaugh) others like Republican Strategist Todd Harris and former Secretary of State Colin Powell are talking about the need for a new focus for their party.  I have some thoughts as to what a workable and respectable GOP would look like.

(This is the start of my multi-part series on emerging Western Congressional races in 2010. Also posted at C4O Democrats and OC Progressive.)

If we’re to believe the local news reports, Democrats may actually lose a Congressional seat in Southern California. Central Orange County Assembly Member/Local GOP Power Broker Van Tran has announced he will challenge seven-term Democratic incumbent Loretta Sanchez next year. Already, Republicans are cheering victory and preparing to dance on Loretta’s political grave… But are they celebrating too early?

This is disheartening, although to be honest not surprising.

A new national poll indicates that most Americans don’t want to see an investigation of Bush administration officials who authorized harsh interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists, even though most people think such procedures were forms of torture.

Six in ten people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday believe that some of the procedures, such as water boarding, were a form of torture, with 36 percent disagreeing.

But half the public approves of the Bush administration’s decision to use of those techniques during the questioning of suspected terrorists, with 50 percent in approval and 46 percent opposed.

“Roughly one in five Americans believe those techniques were torture but nonetheless approve of the decision to use those procedures against suspected terrorists,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “That goes a long way toward explaining why a majority don’t want to see former Bush officials investigated.”

Fifty-seven percent of those questioned don’t want Congress to investigate Bush officials who authorized those harsh interrogation procedures, with 42 percent calling for action by lawmakers. Fifty-five percent also don’t want a similar investigation by an independent panel.

Help me with my OUTRAGE!!!

Rear Adm. Michelle Howard took command of the Navy’s counterpiracy task force with incredible timing: Within three days of her April 5 turnover with outgoing Rear Adm. Terry McKnight, Somali pirates attacked the U.S.-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama and took its captain hostage.

Howard said she expected to be handed a full plate.

The Navy Times Headline:

Task force commander has busy first week

For those of us who lived in Bangor, Maine in 1984 when a 23 year old man named Charlie Howard was murdered and thrown into Kenduskeag Stream for the crime of being gay, today’s 89-57 vote by the Maine Legislature to legalize gay marriage has special meaning. Here is a photo of Charlie not long before he was killed. He was just a normal 23-year-old New England kid.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Charles Howard. As Jake Chambers said in Stephen King’s The Waste Lands, “Go on, there are other worlds than this.” Charlie, I hope you are well in the world you now live in.

(Charles O Howard memorial slab, now installed on the bridge he was thrown from.)

In the fall of 1977 the US Government sent two ships – Voyagers One and Two – into space, where they are eventually destined to reach the edge of our galaxy.  In the hope that someone, somewhere would intercept these craft a variety of messages were placed on board that would be capable of communicating the existence of an intelligent creature, living on a planet called earth.  Among these was included a short prelude by Johann Sebastian Bach, as performed by Glenn Gould.  Voyagers One and Two left our solar system, respectively, in 1987 and 1989.

Glenn Gould’s short life has me pondering how everything we are and do is a matter of voyaging, and how none of it really has anything to do with arriving.  We are Progressing in our politics and our lives.  Where to?  

That is not the point.

Consider this an open thread.

(Proudly cross-posted at C4O Democrats)

Just in the last six months, Connecticut, Iowa, and Vermont have moved to enact marriage equality. Just today, The District of Columbia moved one step closer to full marriage equality with the city council passing 12-1 an ordinance to recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages. And just today, Maine is on the verge of making history as the second state to legalize marriage equality by way of legislation as the House just passed the marriage bill that recently passed the Senate. Meanwhile, Kate Kendell has changed her mind and now feels hopeful about the California Supreme Court’s upcoming Prop H8 verdict as New Hampshire inches even closer to becoming the second/third state (depending on what happens in Maine) to enact marriage equality by legislation.

And wait, there’s more! Marriage equality may actually come to New York some day soon. Washington state and Nevada are moving closer to establishing “everything but ‘the m word'” domestic partnerships (DPs). Colorado is finally taking baby steps toward equality by allowing for domestic partner rights and benefits. And now, we’re even starting to see progress on the federal level.

Wait, progress? You mean we’re seeing progress on LGBT civil rights? Yes, now may finally be our time for progress.

One of the names heading the list for possible replacements for retiring SCOTUS Souter is Sonia Sotomayor’s.

On April 9, 2009, New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand wrote a joint letter to President Obama urging him to appoint Sotomayor, or alternatively Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, to the Supreme Court if a vacancy should arise on the Court during his term.

On May 4th, The New Republic published  Jeffrey Rosen’s The Case Against Sotomayor