USA Today's puff piece on Jon Huntsman includes this sentence:
"He draws respectable turnout from New Hampshire voters and a huge entourage of reporters and photographers for his opening campaign tour, which ends today."
We have no idea, because USA Today doesn't tell us, what "respectable" means about actual voters, but the more important question here is: why are so many reporters turning out for a candidate at 2 percent in the polls?
Last Friday Paul Clement filed a motion on behalf of the U.S. House of Representatives to intervene in a lawsuit against DOMA currently pending in Massachusetts (Gill v. Office of Personnel Management and Massachusetts v. United States). The motion argues that the House of Representatives has standing in the case and is entitled to intervene to defend DOMA on Equal Protection grounds.
The high quality of this motion is a good sign of what we have to expect from Paul Clement’s representation of Congress in the case.
So do Gillibrand and Frank believe Obama is lying about his position on marriage now? Both of these via WonkRoom:
HARMON: So I’d have to pose the same question for President Obama. Do you think it’s possible that he could come out in support of marriage equality …
GILLIBRAND: Yes.
HARMON:…before the 2012 election?
GILLIBRAND: Definitely.
And:
During a separate event in Seattle on Tuesday, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) seemed to agree, telling a small group of activists, “This is just my intuition, but I think the President will be supportive of marriage in the states that offer it before the 2012 election.”
We can expect a lot more of this from the MSM. Let's note first of all that the behavior of the "waitress" in this setup up is outrageous.
No boss, and no customers would tolerate it. Not even in the "conservative" towns of Texas. Good news for American common sense.
The insidious propaganda point from ABC News is the suggestion that millions of good Americans who believe marriage means a man and a woman because children ought to have moms and dads, would or are behaving like this. Shame on ABC.
Be prepared for lot more prejudiced stereotyping of decent and honorable Americans down the road by powerful elites.
Last week we reported on a UK court ruling against the last Catholic adoption agency. Now we read in This Is London:
About 2,000 more foster carers are desperately needed in London as the number of children in care continues to rise, figures reveal today.
The shortage is particularly severe among those caring for teenagers, with every fostering service in the capital reporting a lack of people willing to take them in.
Nationwide, there is a shortfall of at least 10,000 foster families.
Mayor Boris Johnson called on Londoners to come forward and fill the shortage. He said: "It is an appalling situation, and a sad one, that London's teenagers are missing out on the foster homes they need. Childhood and our teenage years should be about making friends, learning, exploration and discovery, not worrying about our home life.
We already know that there are still gay people entering opposite sex marriages, at least sometimes even after identifying as gay (for example, here).
A 2008 study found that the inverse is also true: not all gay marriages are gay.
In fact about one in 10 women who entered a same-sex domestic partnership in California self-identified as bisexual or heterosexual (as did 8% of women in Vermont civil unions and 5% of women in Massachussetts same-sex marriages).
See Table 2 on page 60 [PDF] in Esther D. Rothblum, Kimberly F. Balsam and Sondra E. Solomon
“Comparison of Same-Sex Couples Who Were Married in Massachusetts, Had Domestic Partnerships in California, or Had Civil Union in Vermont,” Journal of Family Issues 2008.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo released a video today (embedded below) as part of his push to redefine marriage.
Problem is, he gets most of his facts wrong, such as when he says same-sex couples are "denied over one thousands federal and seven hundred state rights" because they cannot legally marry.
That's an old, discredited talking point. Back in April we noted that Poltificat-RI rated this claim about denied rights as "barely true" when it was floated by a pro-SSM spokesman in Rhode Island. And back in 2004, Josh Baker wrote a policy brief for the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy that came to the same conclusion about federal rights.
More importantly, Gov. Cuomo is wrong that New York is "falling behind" when it comes to marriage: just this spring Maryland and Rhode Island both rejected same-sex marriage, and in Minnesota the legislature just passed a marriage amendment defining marriage as the union of husband and wife. A vote for gay marriage would put New York out of the mainstream at this point.
In follow-up to our earlier story ("In Australia, Christian Group Says Pro-SSM Rally Attacked Them"), this:
On the Facebook wall for the organising group following the event, one of their own, Remulus Remegius said, "[I] was caught behind trying to get a friend to leave the christian chaps up the back alone. Although I don't agree with their message... It was sad to see so many launching an attack on them after a peaceful rally based around the idea of love and marriage. I understand the homophobia and bigotry those protesters must have represented to many of the people there... but surely we can conduct ourselves better. Hmmmm..."
NOM Chairman Maggie Gallagher quoted in the Wall Street Journal on the fight to protect marriage in New York:
A counter-campaign against gay marriage has started to heat up, while the most recent polls indicate that state voters are more evenly divided on the issue than previously thought. Previous polls showed a stronger majority support for a bill.
Opponents [of redefining marriage] say they're winning the battle in New York. "We're not taking anything for granted, but we feel more confident," said Maggie Gallagher, chairwoman for the National Organization for Marriage, a national opposition group that has pledged to pump $1 million into state legislative races next year.
Elizabeth Hanna In Crisis Magazine:
With my 21st birthday just a few weeks away, it is expected that I plan a blowout party with copious amounts of alcohol, as my friends compile a list of 21 dares for me to complete while downtown — you know, kiss 21 guys, dance on a table, take a birthday shot, etc. Instead, I’m planning my wedding.
[Pause for disapproval.]
Yes, I’m getting married in a year. And no, I’m not pregnant or at risk of that. I have no ulterior motives. I’m taking this step because I’ve found the man I want — and ought — to spend the rest of my life with, and I’m ready.
Washington – The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) praised the Minnesota Legislature for voting in a bi-partisan fashion to put an amendment on the ballot in 2012 that would preserve marriage as the union of a man and a woman, and committed that it would support the amendment next year.
The following statement can be attributed to Brian Brown, president of NOM:
“We commend the bi-partisan majority in the Minnesota House of Representatives that voted Saturday night to put an amendment on the ballot preserving marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The House joins a bi-partisan majority in the state Senate, and the amendment will now go before voters in November 2012. NOM looks forward to supporting the campaign and lending our expertise and resources to those of allies in the state. We will have a thorough, respectful, discussion with the voters of Minnesota on all the reasons why the definition of marriage should be preserved as the union of a man and a woman, and to explain the risks to Minnesotans if they allow an activist judge or liberal legislators to redefine marriage in the future without public approval.
“The vote Saturday night represents another in a string of stinging defeats for the gay-marriage group Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and their state allies, and is further concrete evidence that the widely-reported claim that same-sex marriage is inevitable is a lie. No state in this nation has embraced same-sex marriage since 2009, and many have explicitly rejected it. In 2009, New York, New Jersey and Maine turned down gay marriage, and in 2010 voters in Iowa threw three judges off their Supreme Court who had imposed same-sex marriage. Earlier this year, Maryland and Rhode Island – two deep blue states who were said by the HRC to be likely to adopt gay marriage this year – explicitly rejected it. Now Minnesota, another liberal state, is on the path to enact a marriage amendment. We hope that the media will start to pay attention at what the American people are doing through their actions – they are rejecting same-sex marriage in droves.
“We are confident that voters in Minnesota will vote to adopt the marriage amendment preserving traditional marriage against judicial and legislative activism, just as voters in 30 other states have done. We look forward to being part of the campaign.”
UPDATE: "Pro-SSM Rally Attendee Acknowledges Attack Against Marriage Supporters"
From the Christian Post in Australia:
Violence broke out at a same-sex marriage rally this weekend in Brisbane, Australia, as a Christian group preached near the march.
... The Christian organization ... explained that the pro-gay marriage supporters then began ripping up the group’s placards. “Quite a number of the members of the gay rights rally then all started attacking me, assaulting me and strangling me…All of this was filmed on our video cameras….On my neck I had very clear signs of injury where I had been punched and strangled.”
The statement concluded: “The gay rights rally was supposedly about achieving equal love, but it was clear that the people part of the rally did not show any sort of love to those who had a difference in opinion on gay marriage. A difference in opinion can be and should be discussed, but at no point is violence acceptable.”
In the Washington Post:
LOSER - The Truce: Daniels got himself crosswise with a not-insignificant element of the Republican base when he called for a “truce” on social issues in order to focus full attention on the debt and spending issues the country faces. Daniels had made clear he would double-down on that approach had he run for president. But with him out of the race, you won’t hear any top-tier candidate talk about the truce — except in pejorative terms — any time soon.
In City Hall News (emphasis added):
Gay marriage advocates hope to regain their momentum in Albany this week after a series of hard knocks, but some of their allies have begun to wonder whether the string of bad news was more than just coincidence.
They are looking for signs of a coordinated effort behind their recent setbacks, which have seemingly trimmed the chances that any Republican senators might break ranks and join with Democrats to pass a same-sex marriage bill before the session ends June 20.
Mark Grisanti and Andrew Lanza — Republican senators considered potential swing votes — said last week they remain opposed. Brooklyn GOP Senator Marty Golden introduced an anti-gay-marriage bill just two days after his ally, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, trekked to Albany to lobby for Republican support for marriage. And Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long said opposing gay marriage will be a litmus test for the party’s endorsement in 2012. . .
Still, some allies see little prospect that any mayor, movie star or athlete will be enough to counter the effect the Conservative Party line has on Republicans in swing districts.
“There doesn’t need to be a whole coordinated effort when the numbers just aren’t there,” said one. “If Mike Bloomberg can guarantee 9,000 extra votes on the Republican line to make up for the 9,000 votes on the Conservative line, well, okay, then.
Via Steven Ertelt:
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels surprised the political world with a weekend announcement that he will not run for the Republican nomination for president after approximately a year of speculation he would run.
