Blogs Oct 8, 2010 at 4:01 pm

Comments

2
God you guys are boring.
3
But Sofia Vergara and Mo'nique are in the program too!
4
So let's just turn the government over to the TeaBaggers. Things will be so much better!!!
5
@1
sorry girls.
Danny pussy asshole Can't Handle Critisism has cancelled Barack Obama's account....
6
I love how everyone just whines all the time here, while the rest of the world takes to the streets, sets a few fires, and changes stuff.

Such pussies.

No, I don't mean Seattle. I mean America.

Your idea of hard core is sitting on your hands right before an election, and then wondering why you get shat on all the time.
7
I think the Dan Savage strategy is to attack attack attack Obama all year so that more and more progressives are discouraged to vote for his reelection (or in the congressional elections), and then produce a limp, ineffectual endorsement for Obama and the Democrats when election time rolls around. Hey guys, I know every other thing I said through 2010 has been a negative comment on Obama, but now you should totally get out there and vote. Progressives basically have no winning instinct at all.
8
well, Dan is/was a registered Republican, @7.
9
It is simply unconscionable that we would deny gay men and women the same opportunity to commit state-sanctioned murder that heterosexual people currently enjoy.
10
It's the Obama administration turning the government over to the Tea Baggers.

Every aspect of the Democratic base has been lied to by this administration and/or seen this Administration work against the very needs, goals, or values of that base.

Ask the teachers, the unions, the Dems who don't support torture, environmentalists, the pro-choice Dems, those who believe in economic parity, the anti-war, those who fear the destruction of the safety net of Social Security ...I could go on and on and on.

No less those who are still out of work nearly two years in, who have lost their homes, their careers, their businesses, their healthcare, their hope that the economy will turn around.

I talk to those people every week, and if their despair is heartbreaking.

So there's an enthusiasm gap about voting for Democrats -- what a fucking surprise.

I'm voting Democratic, as I have for 40 years, because the Republicans have always been insane, but I'm not the problem.

Although I must say, the Obama administration seems to have gone out of it's way to alienate even this life-long Democrat.

11
10: Spare me your psychodrama. Obama passed legislation no one on the left could ever have hoped to pass in any form. You need to get over yourself. He hasn't betrayed anything. I'd like to see what you could accomplish with the level of hostility Obama as faced from "moderate" Dems and Republicans from day one, with the legislative hurdles involved. Stop pretending that if only Obama had been super progressive on all issues, everything would have been rainbows and sunshine. He did more in two years than any limp-dicked progressive could have ever hoped to accomplish.
12
Fiercy did say he'd be happy with being a one term president.

My money's on him turning hard right like good ole Billy to replace enough of the base that will abandon him in 2012.
13
12: Yeah, he's totally going to go hard right, dumbass. Don't you have a LaRouche booth to tend to?
14
@10 I don't know where your getting your info but Obama has a 85% approval ratings among Dems I think there are a few Dems at the left end of the party who like to bitch and moan who are upset but I think overall the party is pleased with Obama. I have been a strong Dem now my 17 of 25 years of my life and continue to be proud of the party. Also the Dems are closing the enthusiasm gap and the generic poll lead for the GOP is vanishing.
15
Hey Dan you ever consider that maybe the HRC thinks Obama is working towards gay right equality and the problem is right now too many blue dogs in congress?
16
Barack Obummer.
17
With the swipe of his pen, Obama could have stopped the recissions of gay and lesbian military through DADT any day since his inaugeration. No legislation required.

A policy over 70% of Americans want finished.

His signature to an executive order is all that's still required, and yet Obama doesn't sign.

The Administration's Department of Justice still defends the disgusting DOMA.

The so-called Deficit Commission? Obama appointed almost exclusively those who have been fighting for decades to privatize, cut or destroy the Social Security safety net.

As so on and so forth for issue after issue that negatively affects the very lives of the Democratic base.

Limp dicked? No, the President and his men have acted truly dickish on issue after issue (which should please you), and it is they who will lose the House, if it is lost.

In any case, they have thrown away with two hands what should have been a comfortable Democratic majority, if they had lead for the change they promised.

Or at the least, not governed as though they were faux Republicans.

Remember when the country voted for Democrats? That's what they wanted.
18
Obama has been easily the best president on LGBT rights in our nation's history, and John Aravosis is still an idiot who doesn't understand how government works.

It's republican filibuster abuse that has made it difficult to make the benchmark legislative goals on ENDA and DOMA. http://www.grist.org/article/2010-07-29-…

This is not to say LGBT activists shouldn't keep pressuring the administration.

(BTW, Obama's position on marriage equality is unchanged from before the election--he thinks civil unions are easier to win. His biggest contribution to this issue will be his progressive supreme court picks--if we get marriage nationally, they'll be the reason and we'll have Obama to thank.)
19
This all reads like a bad Bjorn Lomburg novel.
20
Any Democrat who is pleased with Obama is a fucking hypocritical moron. If McCain was in office and carrying on with the exact same polices Obama is right now, the vast majority of Democrats would be united against him, yet just because Obama puts a "D" in front of his name, he can sell you out right before your fucking eyes. Clueless idiots. It's called politics people, Obama can say things and not actually mean them.
21
I love that, for different reasons, Dan Savage and Lamar Smith (R-Texas) are on the same side in regards to criticizing Obama's handling of DOMA and DADT.
22
@8: What are you talking about? Voter registrations in WA have no party affiliation.
23
Obama might be popular with Democrats, but leftist independents are not impressed. If we don't show up, the Democrats are sunk.
24
@20,

Except McCain wouldn't be carrying out the same policies. Remember his determination to start a war with Iran? Remember his saber rattling against Russia? If he were in office, he would be hell bent on killing any and all support for ending DADT. And don't give me any shit about Obama being the same. His worst crime is doing nothing, which is not even remotely the same thing as actively working against repeal.
25
Danny, did you see Grayson's TV ad?
It was on all the news.
Anderson Cooper had Grayson on a few nights ago to discuss it.
Anderson ripped your girl Grayson a new one.
Grayson pouted and squealed like the new kid on the prison block.

Did you see it?
Why have you been totally silent about it?

Does the truth sting?
Is it a new itchy red rash for you?

It must really suck being a homoliberal.
26
"Boring?" Only to a bigot. Some issues transcend the absurd. The treatment perpetrated by so-called "straights" on LGBT-Others in this world is disgusting. When the former finally become human beings, the latter can breath a sigh of relief.

Jesus Christ befriended everyone... except moneychangers like the ones who are Republicans and tea-party geeks.
27
@17: Yes, the policy would be gone (that is, not enforced) with a stroke of Obama's pen. But you know what? It would still be on the books, and the next Republican president would have it enforced again as easily as Obama had nullified it. Better to have Congress grind it into the dirt.

@25: U MAD? U JELLY?
28
And now it looks like the Obama administration has also screwed us out of the Senate, too.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/10/8/…
29
@18 -- When are you thinking Obama's going to appoint a progressive to the Supreme Court? I mean, should I be holding my breath or something? Because he sure hasn't done that so far, and if his record so far is any indication, he'll appoint another barely left-leaning centrist, or two, given the chance. Which doesn't exactly lead us to marriage equality, does it? Or repeal of DOMA or DADT . . .
30
Oh, the Republicans might continue throwing gays out of the military, so that's the reason "fierce advocate" Obama should continue dumping LGBT out of the service?

Oh, that makes sense (actually it does, since Obama does seem determined to continue Republican polices.)

And come November Obama will apparently get what he's worked so hard for: a Republican majority.

He'll have at least another two years of excuses for not working toward campaign promises.

Again, he and Congress were voted in because the voters wanted Democrats.

Not faux Democrats that suppress enthusiasm in the base, and among Independents foolish enough to believe what Obama and company ran on.

They won't make that mistake again, trusting Democrats. Why should they?
31
@30: Read my comment again and get back to me.

When your roof leaks, do you just slap some duct tape on there, or do you wait for the roofer to get there?
32
Health care was an "if." Gay marriage is a "when." I don't blame him for selling out to focus on other issues.
33
I love when the Obama boosters come out. These are the same people who were pissing and moaning about Bush's indefinite detention, illegal warmongering, assassination of American citizens without due process away from a battlefield, spying on American citizens with impunity but won't say a damned thing when their guy does the same thing. It's transparently tribal. They hop on the supposed left-fringe naysayers who say Obama--the one who brought you mediocre, Nixon-endorsed healthcare reform insurance bailouts, expanded assassination programs, easier email surveillance, ineffective financial reform, the architects of financial collapse admin officials, keeping with the Bush Admin Iraq timetable, an open Guantanamo--is a liar and a corporate sell out. People who think he's going to get any better here on out are deluded. If he does take some miraculous swing to the left, I'll be supporting him. But it's funny to see left wingers called limp dicks when Obama's rope-a-dope seems to really just look like a hanging, useless appendage.
34
My prediction - Phase 1 was no red meat for the GOP when the party in power always loses seats in the first midterm.

Phase two: executive orders that bypass congress
35
@33 The difference between Obama and Bush is that one is spineless and the other is soulless ( your choice which is which).

The Government is not going to give up it's expanded power simple because it isn't right. Sheesh. Our government is broken, it doesn't give s shit about us and is only interested in feeding at the corporate trough.

How cynical and how true.
36
Dan is 100% correct here.

No more excuses folks. We need to unite more and say no more compromise. No more torture, no more robot drones that kill 50% civilians, not even 1%. - no more prisons without fair trials ( migrants and guantanamo ) and no more discrimination of gay people. Not on marriage, not on adoptions, nada.

If you start to bargain away civil rights it shows you have none.
37
Let's get one thing clear...

Poll after poll shows that a clear majority of Democrats (78% in one poll) pine for Obama to fulfill his campaign promises. Even more wish Obama would move to the left and fulfill his campaign promises (87%).

If Fox newsy has convinced these posters that Obama is a "Lefty"...we can't fix stupid. Period. They are going to parrot Foxy; so, let's not argue with Foxy. OK?

America is withering and dying before our eyes and we a forced to Beg a Democratic President to fulfill what a clear majority of Americans want!?!

Obama (and much of the "Democratic" Senators and Reps) is a Republican. Just because he talks sweetly, doesn't mean he isn't going to screw you later. The sooner we (Democrats) face reality, the sooner we stop farting out spooge.

Not that there is anything wrong with that (literally). ;')
38
Is there something about us gays that is incompatible with standing up for civil rights and having actual integrity and courage? Seriously, we are sucky bitches to eat what the Dems dish out and only get what we deserve. Gah.
39
To be honest, Dan, it's tiring just watching you work up an outrage over the HRC's continued policy of diverting money from organizations that actually fight for civil liberties and human rights. I mean, I agree with you, but it's like getting mad about gravity's role in pulling objects towards the ground; you should be so used to it by now that it doesn't even process.
40
Love the "ducktape" metaphor!

So stupid.

I doubt the gays and lesbians in the military would mind a little duck tape, if it saves their careers.

Especially while we're waiting God knows how long for the legislation that Obama wouldn't pick up a phone to fight for.

Legislation that the Obama administration proposed that wouldn't have stopped the recissions for God knows how long, either.

But with a swipe of the pen, Obama could have ended the witch hunt of gays and lesbians in the military any time since his inaugeration, could still end them at any moment.

"Fierce advocate" who can't find his pen to honor the gay and lesbian service members who fight for our liberty, while they're denied basic civil rights.

Can't find his pen, even when the House and Senate are about to be lost to Republicans.

There's a man dedicated to shitting on the base, at the worst possible moment.

41
@40:
You don't seem to understand my metaphor. The point I'm making is that it's better to wait and get the job done right than hurry and have to do it again in a little while.
Are you familiar with the expression "sword of Damocles"?
If Obama simply orders the military to ignore DADT, all's well and good so long as there's a Democrat in the White House. But the first Republican POTUS would bring all of it back just as easily.
Waiting for actual legislation to repeal it (this is the purview of the legislative branch, after all) would make it almost impossible to bring back DADT. And before you ask, "why not do both", remember that most of America is a bit stupid, and will see a push to formally repeal a law that is no longer being enforced as obstruction from the Democrats.
What you want to do is sacrifice the future for the present. I advise you to think rationally a little, rather than let yourself get caught up in hysterics.
42
Will in Seattle: Boring? Whining? I thought you had the monopoly on boring whining with your "billionaires' tunnel" obsession.
43
Well, you know, they have to discuss how to implement a policy of no longer kicking out openly gay servicepersons. Oh, wait, I just figured it out: stop kicking out openly gay servicepersons.

@venomlash: So those stays on judicial orders while the intricacies of legal policy are worked out are just so much bullshit, eh? No one has any business issuing policy that isn't permanent: we should stop going back and forth on Federal birth control funding too, I presume, because that's handled with executive orders that flip-flop every time there's a party change in the White House. An opposing view might suggest that once people see that there's no reason to kick gay people out of the military, because we stop doing it and the world doesn't end, the repeal would pass in a heartbeat. But, no, you're right, we shouldn't use legally-available tools to do the right thing the expedient way, we should only do the right thing in the way in which we will apparently never do it.
44
@31

Why shouldn't I slap some duct tape on there to mitigate the leak while I wait for the roofer to get here?
45
@44: Remember, the voters as a whole are stupid. As soon as it's not raining indoors, they'll forget about calling the roofer.
At least that's how I see it. Remember how quickly they've forgotten about Bush?
46
No one's forgotten about Bush, but they don't understand why President Obama hasn't been able to do more to fix the economy.

Bottom line is that whining and fighting is not going to get any of us what we want. The only thing that is is fighting like hell to keep Congress in Democratic hands and then fighting like hell to get them to do what's right. Because we all know that a Republican Congress would be a huge step backwards for gay rights and any other progressive agenda. Sitting on one's hands out of anger with the Dems (however justified) is childish and counterproductive.
47
that's what you get with a two party system. Bad and Worse. People blindly voted for Obama on a propaganda campaign just to defeat the Republicans (Palin). Everyone really expected Change except a few of us to cynical to buy it, and now we're looking around at everyone going "huh"? and we're not laughing because it's not funny. Bush was the worst, and living through that I don't see how anyone of my generation can trust politicians not to lie and screw us and commit atrocities. Obama's not as bad as all that and is certainly closer to the politics of his critics than the leftists they fear but he sure isn't out to Change a damn thing. Next time we're just supposed to vote the bum back in I suppose, because the Right will probably run some nut. Wish we had a good third option (do we?).
48
@27 You mean like how a future GOP president could lift the presidential memorandums that the Obamabots are crowing about? In the case of DADT sure, a future Republican president could indeed try and reinstate the DADT policy. However, after 2-6 years of it not being in enforced it is very doubtful such would be successful nor that it would receive enough public support to do so. Such a move by Obama to stay enforcement of DADT could have also helped build up momentum towards full repeal. That's called "leadership", dontcha miss that especially since we were, I dunno, PROMISED it?!? Yet unfortunately this president lacked a spine to even try.
49
@48: They wouldn't need public support. Obama can suspend the law immediately, and a Republican president could revive it just as easily. The nation would be pissed, but their bible-thumper base would be enthused.
Are you an idiot?
50
#49 -- how about Obama suspends the law AND the Democrats in Congress fulfill their promise and end DADT once and for all? That way you don't have any more discharges NOW and the law is permanently ended! What's so freakin' hard to understand about that -- nobody is suggesting that we just get the Presidential order and then STOP THERE -- so stop suggesting it's an "Either/or" proposition -- because that's a flat out lie. Obama can end DADT now in an interim fashion while the Dems work out the legislation to "do it right". Both can happen. But right now? NEITHER is happening!
51
@44

But we already called the roofer and he said he can't get out here for a couple weeks yet. It's supposed to rain all week and if we don't do something to stop the water coming in NOW our comic collection will be ruined.

Please wait...

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