The lawsuit (.pdf) claims the president of KK Office Solutions’ pre-election e-mail criticizing Obama to company employees was no joke and instead resulted in the firing of a pro-Obama salesman, Elliot Snell, who openly made it known he supported and voted for Obama.

According to the lawsuit, “Mr. Snell was terminated for voting for his presidential candidate of choice. Voting for a president is acting in a manner that public policy would encourage as it is similar to civic duties/opportunities such as performing jury duty, seeking public office or joining a labor union.”

Naturally the owner of the company has responded that Mr. Snell’s termination was for cause, that being that he wasn’t selling any copiers. If true, that will be pretty easy to establish, and if so, Mr. Snell and his attorney should have to reimburse the company.

Further, I think there’s a lesson here for Mr. Snell, and all of us, that our rights to free speech and association are a bit limited when on company time. It appears from the story that Snell made sure everyone knew who he was voting for. I think people have the right to support whoever they want in whatever way they want, but there is some test of reasonableness when you’re at the office. Your company owns you during those hours, so leave it at home, and pull the curtain on the voting booth.

At my company, our HR director is a staunch Republican, and is well aware that I’m a big liberal. He loves to have discussions about politics with me. In fact, I’m at our headquarters this week, and he saw me yesterday and told me to be sure to stop by so we can discuss Florida politics. Generally, I’m fine with that, but I do guard what I say, and how far I go.

What do you think about bringing electoral politics into the workplace?

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According to the story, Utah voting machine decision makers were told by a representative of Diebold that the company had approximately 20 offices in Utah, but refused to give the locations when pressed.

However, when calls were made to all of these offices, only one picked up the phone. And when the addresses of offices listed under Diebold in the White Pages were visited, the addresses turned out to belong to either a Wal-Mart, a Sam’s Club, or no building at all. In the end, 16 of the 18 Diebold offices in Utah listed in the White Pages were false listings. One is in Salt Lake, and the other is in Bountiful.

A blogger checked on some of the New York listed offices, and it seems the Diebold office in Buffalo is a Wal-Mart. Raw Story goes on to report that:

Out of 13 listings in Florida, 5 turned out to be Wal-Marts. Similar office listings have been uncovered in Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire. Since the office listings exist in each state and not just in Utah, it is probably unlikely that the corporate branch in every state is acting independently of each other.

Not only does this raise the specter that the state offices are not acting independently, but you have to wonder if Wal-Mart might have a little something to do with this. Why would Diebold so consistently pick Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club addresses?

Anyway, all this from the company that wants to be the trusted source for maintaining the democratic system in America. I t hink not, and I think you should call your local Supervisor of Elections, and if they are using Diebold machines, demand a change.

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Burroway reports they had 190,000 reasons to prevent the disclosure. Seems the LDS provided lots of official corporate support and in-kind services.

Mormon church officials, facing an ongoing investigation by the state Fair Political Practices Commission, Friday reported nearly $190,000 in previously unlisted assistance to the successful campaign for Prop. 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California.

The report, filed with the secretary of state’s office, listed a variety of California travel expenses for high-ranking members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and included $20,575 for use of facilities and equipment at the church’s Salt Lake City headquarters and a $96,849 charge for “compensated staff time” for church employees who worked on matters pertaining to Prop. 8.

Through yesterday, LDS leaders had insisted in strongest possible terms that the Church had no direct involvement in the Prop. 8 campaign. As Burroway notes, it appears their Prophets must have a little “Revelation” last night.

It so disgusts me when religious leaders seem to able to lead only in lies. How is that Christian? Why do we tolerate it? I hear no outcry from the members of the LDS Church for someone to be held accountable for the lies. If the Church felt it important to support Prop. 8, then why did they feel they had to hide and lie about that involvement. I’m all for people and organizations standing up for what they believe in, but do it in the daylight.

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Warren’s supporters are up in arms claiming that it’s “the gays” who are being intolerant and showing hatred. Even some politically naive gay activists keep saying to let it go, and keep our powder dry for the important issues. Of course, these would be the same activists who led the strategy that cost gay people their rights in ballot issue after ballot issue over the past several years.

So let me be clear in my response. In the case of claims by the Warren supporters (including you Obama), they are correct. I am being intolerant and am applying the standard applied by Warren and his supporters to love the sinner and hate the sin. I believe that the sin of hate and bigotry, most especially when used for monetary gain, should never ever be tolerated. I guess that fits the definition of intolerance, so I am guilty as charged.

Jesus gave us the two most important commandments, and one was to love your neighbor as yourself. Rick Warren has not done that, and has worked aggressively to deny equal rights to gay people, and been dishonest in how he’s gone about it. Warren has compared homosexuality to incests and beastiality to be sure to arouse the gay sex “ick” factor. He has lied about the tradition of marriage in a video he taped in support of California’s Prop 8. Warren said, “We should not let 2 percent of the population determine to change a definition of marriage” — that definition being one man and one woman for life, of course, as he states moments earlier in the video — “that has been supported by every single culture and every single religion for 5,000 years.”

Of course, none of that is true. The fact is that different cultures have supported different definitions of marriage which have included polygamy (see Mormons for the most recent example of this one), marriages involving children, forced/arranged marriages (still practiced widely today), and marriages for dowry. To even hint that Warren’s definition of the “Ozzie and Harriet” norm to which is referring has obtained, only and everwhere, for five millenia is a bold-faced lie, and Warren knows it to be a lie.

Sure, Warren invited Obama to visit his church, but even then he was less than honest. Warren spent an inordinate amount of time on the social hot buttons of abortion and gay rights instead of the promised attendtion on poverty and social justice. Oh, and let’s not forget he promised that McCain would not hear the questions in advance. We now know that too was a lie.

The day after Obama’s appearance, Warren compared abortion to the Holocaust when he said to Beliefnet that an antiabortion voter backing a pro-choice candidate would be like a Holocaust survivor voting for a Holocaust denier.

He’s in favor of the Iraq war, and believes the Syrian government is moderate. In a report in “The New Republic,” Alan Wolfe writes about an experience he had while on a panel discussion with Warren:

When it came time for questions, a woman stood up, proclaimed her Judaism, and asked Warren if she was going to burn in hell. He paused before responding–and then answered her question the only way it could be answered. Yes, he said to audible gasps.

Warren claims he’s not a homophobe, but he basis that judgement on two facts:

1. He’s had dinner in gay homes. (I’m still trying to figure what a gay home is, but I do know he and his staffed lied about hosting a group of gay families on Father’s Day, so it does seem he’s a bit scared of gay people…maybe he’s just a little too afraid of what may come out of it...I’m just saying.)
2. He and his wife have helped people with AIDS in Africa. (I’ve yet to figure this one out. I’m sure there are gay people in Africa infected with AIDS, but in Africa AIDS is primarily a heterosexual disease. Warren always makes it a point to qualify this BS about helping people with AIDS with the “in Africa” qualifier. You see, that’s safe with the other wingnuts because we all know the poor unsuspecting savages over there are all straight, and don’t know enough to avoid it, so it’s OK to help them.)

Warren, a creationist, believes that homosexuality disproves evolution; he told CNN’s Larry King in 2005, “If Darwin was right, which is survival of the fittest then homosexuality would be a recessive gene because it doesn’t reproduce and you would think that over thousands of years that homosexuality would work itself out of the gene pool.”

According to a story in The Nation:

Warren protests that he’s not a homophobe; it’s just that two dudes marrying, in his mind, is indistinguishable from an adult marrying a child, a brother marrying his sister, or polygamy. He thinks his AIDS relief efforts represent an elevated form of Christianity over those non-evangelical do-gooders whom he compares to “Marxists” because they’re more interested in good works than salvation.

This guy is a fraud among frauds. During an interview in response to the invitation Warren, trying to sound the conciliatory, Holier-than-thou, friendly old-time pastor, said, “You don’t have to see eye to eye to walk hand in hand.” Well, the problem with that is you have be allowed in the door to even walk hand in hand. You see Warren’s church, according to a recent version of his website, does not allow gay people to join Saddleback. Interesting that this page was scrubbed from the website after the MSM started picking up on it. Which just furthers my argument that the guy is a fraud. His beliefs last when they make him money, but when they bite him in the ass, he has no problem deleting them.

In polite society today is not acceptable to say racists things. Sure, racism exists and people have racists thoughts. People even make racists comments in private, but it is simply not tolerated in the public square. It’s Constitutional to say racists things, but most people just don’t as they realize there will be a penalty extracted by society. It remains not only acceptable, but in some quarters even fashionable, today to attack gay people, make all sorts of outlandish and dishonest claims about gay people, the “gay lifestyle” and the “gay agenda.” Until we demand that every indignation visited on us by people like Rick Warren is punished in the public square, right-wing nut jobs will continue to build their empires around hating “the gay.” So, NO, I won’t shut up, and YES, I am over the Obama people for this selection. He didn’t invite a racists to give the benediction.

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Let’s take a look at some of what happened on election day. There are a number of factors that lead to the passage of these amendments. None of it should have come as a surprise, and some of it ain’t pretty.

The Mormon Church
The Mormon Church has become very much a focal point for the anger of the gay community, and they don’t like it. It’s been estimated that nearly $20m in funding for the Yes on 8 campaign in California came from people affiliated with the Mormon Church. It also appears the Church itself, in violation of a number of election laws, may have provided in-kind services such as phone banks and material support. Make no mistake, the LDS Church was a big part of the campaign to pass Proposition 8.

They have previously been active in campaigns to institutionalize the same kind of hate in Hawaii. I find it intriguing that a Church which used to (and to some extent still does) condone Polygamy, used to exclude African-Americans from membership, and were themselves persecuted, have now taken it on themselves to support bigotry and hatred around marriage rites.

“Everyone in the United States has a legal right to protest, which we support fully,” said Waterford Clayton, president of the Newport Beach stake LDS. “This is not about sexual preference. This is about the moral standing of marriage.” (Get it, the Mormons, of all people, are lecturing the rest of us on the “moral standing of marriage.”)

Something went wrong this time though. In an internal church document (LDS Church Anti-Gay Marriage Memo (PDF) (48)), the church made it clear they were pleased that the leaders of the Hawaii initiative were not being associated with the Church. This time though, the word of their unprecedented sponsorship did not go unnoticed, and now the LDS has the gall to whine and complain about being called out for it. Sorry guys, but that’s how that messy old thing called Free Speech works. I may not like your message, but I defend your right to say it, but it also means you have to make room for my speech as well, even if you don’t like the content. The Mormon Church has every right to take a stand against Gay Marriage, but Gay people then have a right to take a stand against any institution that supports hatred.

When people are angry, they need a focal point for their anger. There are lots of reasons and people and groups responsible for the outcomes on election day, but the Mormon Church is serving as a good focal point for the anger, and I’m OK with that for now, but at some point we will need to move beyond blame. 

The Voters
A great deal is being made of a surge of black and Latino voters in this election having an impact on the outcome of the Amendment in California, and I would expect to find similar numbers here in Florida and Arizona. According to a report in the Sacramento Bee, “70 percent of African Americans also voted for Proposition 8, as did 53 percent of Latino voters.” According to the report:

Last week, however, 10 percent of voters were African American while 18 percent were Latino, and applying exit poll data to that extra turnout reveals that the pro-Obama surge among those two groups gave Proposition 8 an extra 500,000-plus votes, slightly more than the measure’s margin of victory.

To put it another way, had Obama not been so popular and had voter turnout been more traditional – meaning the proportion of white voters had been higher – chances are fairly strong that Proposition 8 would have failed.

However, it was also helped along by older voters. Nate Silver at Five Thirty Eight writes:

Exit polls suggest that first-time voters — the vast majority of whom were driven to turn out by Obama (he won 83 percent [!] of their votes) — voted against Prop 8 by a 62-38 margin. More experienced voters voted for the measure 56-44, however, providing for its passage.

I can’t quite get my mind around Nate’s math. However I do agree that this can’t be blamed just on Black and Latino voters. If all white voters had voted against these initiatives, they would have failed. So it is clearly a combination of Black, Latino and Older voters.

In Florida, I think the ads and rhetoric put out by the Yes On 2 campaign was able to frighten easily confused older voters. I think that combined with a large evangelical community throughout the state, and, let’s be real, a good smattering of red necks (especially in northern parts of the state), gave the bigots the votes they needed.

The Professional Activist Organizations
There is no doubt that the professional activists organizations, the HRC nationally, and Equality Florida in my state, did not do an adequate job. Clearly the outreach to Blacks and Latinos came up short.

Here in Florida, I saw almost no TV ads, no rallies, no outreach beyond a bunch of debates at Tiger Bay clubs, and my yard sign was the only No On 2 sign in the whole neighborhood, and I know of a number of other gay households around here. Another problem was two competing organizations, and I visited both websites and could find little in the way of on-going information, just a lot of requests for money. They had blogs which hadn’t been updated since July. They were attempting to arrange for volunteers at polling places, but I’m just now sure that wasn’t too little too late.

On a more grand scale, the HRC has become a joke in my opinion. I called them to get information on implementing domestic partner benefits in my company about a year ago. It took me two phone calls and three emails to finally get a response three weeks after the final contact, and the information provided was virtually useless. They have experienced legislative failure after failure, and the outcome of this election shows their inability to have influence.

I grew up in the South in the 1960s where there were still plenty of vestiges of discrimination. I remember hearing comments about “good blacks” who “knew their place.” I now realize that both phrases were code for African-Americans who said “yes sir” and “no sir” to while folks, and didn’t make trouble demanding equal treatment. Well, I think the problem with the HRC is that they place too much emphasis on being “good gays,” and showing we “know our place.” Well, that strategy hasn’t worked so well, and the HRC’s response to the defeats?…they are going to hold a “Spa Night.” That’s right…after the hard work of losing rights already won, they need a nice evening of being pampered.

What’s Next?
The whole set of hastily organized nationwide rallies held Saturday was not organized by HRC or any of the other major activist organizations. It is truly grass-roots and came about as a result of a single person and a blog post. Some of the major organizations are upset they aren’t included, and I’m sure they will be inserting themselves, but while HRC was out having their spa night, other people were just out making stuff happen.

There were several hundred rallies across the country, and both Tampa and St. Petersburg held events. Lay and I attended the one here in Tampa. The crowd was disappointingly small, but I keep telling myself there was also one in St. Pete, and they were all being organized on very short notice.

 My prayer is that the crowds will grow, but it seems hard anymore to get gay people out and into the streets. I think we have a false sense of security and a smugness we need to get over. Many gay people have domestic partner benefits or don’t care because both partners work and have insurance. Many younger gay people don’t have the experiences we older folks have with blatant discrimination, and people seem to get in their mind that if they’re doing OK, don’t rock the boat. That’s being a “good gay,” and it’s not getting you anywhere honey. Come on out.

The Mormon Church and others keep saying that they’re not opposed to equal rights for gays (civil unions, benefits, hospital visitation, etc.), but don’t want us to have marriage. Step one is the call their bluff on civil unions. I agree completely with those who say that separate is not equal, but that will have to come from the courts. The legislative bodies don’t have the wherewithal, but it will come if all the other benefits are implemented.

We need to call out the people who claim they don’t hate gay people, but support these initiatives. The Mormon Church is a start. There’s a big story about a restaurant in LA called El Coyote that has/had a large gay clientel. Apparently the owner is a Mormon, and pulled out her checkbook and made a large donation to the Yes on 8 campaign. Apparently there’s now been a tearful where she didn’t understand why everyone was so upset. How can anyone be so stupid as to not understand. For the first time in the history of this country a Constitution was amended to TAKE AWAY rights from a group of people, and this lady doesn’t understand why members of that group would be mad at her for supporting that effort.

Another person being trotted out now by the fundies was the director California Musical Theater. He made a contribution to the Yes on 8 campaign. When people started learning about his support, they began to withdraw their support of his organization, so he resigned. Funny how this whole free speech thing works. Now Eckern, along with Frank Schubert, the campaign manager for Protect Marriage, the leading group behind the ballot measure, are defending their bigotry as a constitutional right and complaining that those who protest their actions are being intolerant. Per Schubert: “No matter your opinion on Prop. 8, we should all agree that it is wrong to intimidate or harass anyone for exercising their constitutional rights.” This coming from the group that sent a letter to contributors to the No on 8 campaign threatening them with boycotts and other actions. Oh, I get an email almost everyday with a missive from the American Family Association launching a boycott on someone. Pepsi is their latest target. This is what I was talking about earlier, they just don’t understand how that whole free speech thing cuts both ways. Man-up and face the consequences of what you did.

Next up seems to be a No Gay Day on December 10. Gay people are asked to not cosume (no shopping) and to skip work for the day. I think that is a great idea.

What am I Going to Do?
I’m not completely sure just yet what part I’ll play in this, but I am fed up. I’m tired of my life being a proposition. As I noted previously, this is new low for America as a Constitution was amended to take away rights from a group of people. I don’t expect to be leading any parades, but I’ll certainly be in a few. I can carry a sign with the best of them, and I can certainly write letters to the editors, to the hateful activists on the religious right, and to my representatives. No more being a good gay and knowing my place.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I plan to put a little weight behind to help with the bending.

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The Big Picture

Obama was clearly the winner, and it seems he did it with a tightly run and disciplined campaign. One of the heartening parts of his campaign was that it was funded to a record-breaking level by millions of smaller donations from everyday people. They relied on thousands of volunteers, and brought an untold number of new and younger people into the political system. And I don’t mean just newly registered voters, but more important, people who made an investment of themselves into the campaign. I think that is critical in trying to restore democracy to this country. However, it means those millions have a vested interest in his success. That cuts both ways. It means he should get support, but people will expect results.

Certainly both sides ran attack ads. That is to be expected, but I found Obama’s to be a lot fewer and a lot less nasty. The McCain just went out of their way to be disrespectful to Obama, and hateful in the messages they were putting out. I saw nothing but negative ads from the McCain campaign. At various times throughout the campaign, especially from the end of September during the economic collapse and through the election, McCain gave off a very real attitude of panic and foundering. It was clear that he and his campaign were struggling to find a voice. Obama seemed to remain calm, decisive and above it all…in short, he came off as more Presidential, and I think the voters perceived that.

What Was Different

I believe there was also something of a perfect storm of events and changes in the world that made this election different. Many of these were things the Republicans could not, or didn’t, account for. In the end, I think they make our democracy stronger. 

In previous election years, Republicans have made harsh and hateful statements, but then just denied them later on, and the “liberal media” just dropped it. This time around people were at these events carrying cell phones capable of recording the event, and many did. Then these things hit YouTube and blogosphere picks it up, and the main stream media finally has to acknowledge what was said. I wrote about a great example here where Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC) said, “Folks, there’s a real America. Liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.” When called on it, he simply issued a statement saying he never made these comments. Unfortunately, some of these old gray hairs just don’t understand these modern conveniences and the viral nature of things.

And we can only hope that this election seemed to be a repudiation of the politics of personal destruction. Like it or not, McCain ran a far more negative campaign, and Caribou Barbie was just plain mean. Certainly there was a segment of the population that loved it, but clearly those messages not only fall on deaf ears, but seem to have a reverse effect. Elizabeth Dole was in a hotly contested race in North Carolina. She had done a poor job representing the state, but at the end ran one of the sleaziest campaign ads I’ve ever seen. It played out on the Internet, and her opponent, virtually overnight, received hundreds of thousands of dollars from across the country, and in the end Liddy Dole lost her seat.

Obviously, the economy had an impact, and the dissmal approval ratings of George Bush made it a bad year to be a Republican, but they counted on the same kind of dirty campaign tactics, and it just didn’t work as well this time. I sincerely hope it is a sign of things to come.

I’m glad Obama had a significant margin of victory, as I am literally not sure the Republic would have survived having the Supreme Court appoint another President. I think early voting made a huge difference, as it made it a lot harder for Republicans to cage voters, and frankly, I give some credit to the blogosphere for getting out information ignored by the main stream media. Certainly much of it was trivial, but in a lot of cases, it was important information the voters should be able to access.

What’s Next

Democrats had better be prepared to govern. The people are now expecting results, and neither branch of government will have the opportunity to blame it on the other, as Democrats are clearly in control.

The Democrats seem to be making overtones of reconciliation to scumbag, Joe Lieberman. I don’t know who he pictures of doing what to whom, but they’d better be good. I don’t care if Lieberman continues to be allowed to caucus with the Democrats, but he’d better not hold a committee chairmanship. However, it appears Reid is prepared to give him one.

Pundits are now running around screaming that Democrats had better not “overreach,” or make changes too fast. I’m sorry. I have a problem with that, and believe this electorate won’t have patience for creeping change. The pundits are basically trying to tell Democrats to not do exactly what they were hired TO do. The electorate has clearly moved toward the progressive side of the spectrum on most issues, and they clearly voted on “Change.” That sounds to me like a clarion call for bold steps. That’s what America is known for.

The Republicans are lining up in the traditional circular firing squad blaming everyone but themselves. They are great at throwing their own under the bus, and this is no exception. Sarah Palin is their favorite target for scapegoating now. Caribou Barbie certainly did nothing to help the ticket. Oh, she excited the base, but were they going to vote for Obama without her on the ticket….NOT! She was a bad choice, she was unprepared and showed it, and she hurt the McCain/Palin ticket, but I think she probably helped down-ticket Republican candidates by getting out larger numbers of the base.

Frankly, she showed herself to be a vindictive and hateful person, but it seems lots of people in Alaska knew that already. She’s as corrupt, if not more so, than most Republicans, and this country would have been ill-served with her as a Vice-President, and I would have predicted the collapse of the Republic if she’d ever become President.

All that said, the campaign operatives need to shut up. It was a bad choice by John McCain, and he, above everyone else, gets to live with the consequences. His hopes of being President are forever over. Going around now making up stupid shit about her is unprofessional and just plain mean. I no longer want to hear it. I don’t care now, and never cared how much was spent on clothes and makeup. She was in the public eye, and of course the campaign needs her to make a perfect impression. I do care that she tried to circumvent public records laws in Alaska by using yahoo email accounts for state business. I care that she misused the power of her office to carry out personal vendettas, but that’s Alaska business. Leave that to them now.

Is Sarah going to be a force in Republican politics, and will she run in 2012? We can only hope, as it will dramatically improve the chances of continuing to expand the Democratic margin. Republicans have traditionally been a very disciplined bunch (a little less so this election, but servile to the party nonetheless), and I suspect this scorched earth policy regarding Palin is an effort by the Republican hierarchy to ensure that Palin can never re-emerge on the national political scene. 

As for the Republican party in general…I suspect we’ll see the religious right try to pull them even further to the right. In an article at Raw Story, David Edwards and Andrew McLemore write about a Fox News interview with Rep. Mike Pence:

When asked by Chris Wallace what “conservative solutions” the GOP would bring to their current minority-party status, Pence said social issues like “the sanctity of marriage” will remain the backbone of the Republican platform.

“You build those conservative solutions, Chris, on the same time-honored principles of limited government, a belief in free markets, in the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage,” Pence said.

I’ll never quite get it with these Republicans. The dirty little secret of conservatism is that they really don’t want limited government. They want to limit the scope of government to carry out programs they don’t like, but they can be counted on to expand the scope of government to carry out programs they do like. They want little government when it comes to social programs like Medicare, but plenty of government when it comes to warrant-less surveillance. They don’t want government to enforce equal rights protections, but loads of government enforcement of immigration laws. They want little government to rebuild New Orleans, but big government to wage war against whichever foreign dictator has pissed them off.

So, the truth is, they aren’t really against having big government, against government doing anything that might smack of progressivness. And whatever government is doing, whether they approve or not, they don’t think they should pay for it. Tax revenues are supposed to somehow magically appear. 

Republicans just don’t get it anymore. David Frum argues (in effect) that the Republican base is shrinking, and if the GOP doesn’t adjust to demographic realities it will go the way of the dodo.

The base is almost entirely white, almost entirely resident in the middle of the country, moderately affluent, middle-aged and older, more male than female, with some college education but not a college degree. Think of Joe the Plumber and you see the core of the Republican party.

 Obama captured nearly 60% of voters under 30. Republicans have painted themselves into a corner with wedge issues. Most Americans want to keep abortion legal, and, especially among young people, hard attitudes on homosexuality are softening. People don’t trust Republicans with their futures and their money. Republicans have been great at campaigning and sloganeering, but horrible at governing. And, it seems they just can’t help themselves. The minions are still in campaign smear mode, holding up every single thing Barack Obama does as evidence that he’s the bad guy. Now they’re complaining about Obama’s transition web site, for pity’s sake.

So I just see more of the same from Republicans. There won’t be any working across the aisle. They will treat Obama worse than they ever treated Bill Clinton. I just hope the Democrats in Congress grow a spine over the next two months.

Ballot Initiatives and Local Issues

I’m obviously not happy with the way votes went on the three anti-marriage amendments, but will save that for a story of its own. Here in Hillsborough County the biggest and dumbest jerk on the County Commission was replaced with a gay man. One small step in the right direction.

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What an incredibly sad note that Obama’s Grandmother died yesterday. Having lost my grandmothers, I know how much that can hurt, but the timing could not have been worse.

I voted by absentee about two weeks ago. I started this in 2004 when the Florida touch screen machines were being used. I thought my paper ballot might have a better chance of being accurately counted. We requested an absentee ballot for Lay’s mother, which came and went without a hitch. Lay’s father didn’t get naturalized until just after the 2004 election, so this was his first time voting, and it was clear this was very important to him.

We went Saturday to early vote, and the line was over two blocks long in downtown St. Pete. I found out that you could go by the election office Monday and pickup an absentee ballot, complete it at home, and then drop it back at the elections office Tuesday, so Lay took him to do that yesterday. The wait was only about 40 minutes. Like Lay, his dad is not a patient guy, but had no problem waiting the 40 minutes.

When I took him Saturday, his 11 year old grandson went along, and asked who he was voting for. When he said McCain, Vincient launched into a rather lengthy discourse talking about taxes and the war trying to convince his granddad to vote for Obama. I was quite surprised.

I had seperate discussions with two friends yesterday about the election outcome. The specter of Court involvement in the election came up in both conversation. My main wish is for Obama to win with large enough margin so as to make court challenges a moot point. But Democrats have a knack for finding the most creative ways to lose elections, and the Republicans have turned election theft into an art. The cynical part of me sees this before the Supreme Court again. The practical part of me prays the court would not be so stupid as to decide another election. I could seriously see armed insurrection if that happened. I can’t imagine how the public might respond to having another election stolen from them, but I put nothing past the Republicans.

Speaking of dirty Republican politics, here in North Carolina, Washington, D.C. resident and North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Doyle is in a hot contest with a Democrat. Seems she got so desperate, she put out an ad trying to tie her opponent to some “godless fundraisers.” At the end of the ad, she had a photo of her challenger, with a female voice similar to her opponent’s scream “There is no God.” It was maybe the most ridiculous ad I think I’ve ever seen. As bad as some of the McCain ads have been, this ad by Liddy Dole took the election down to a whole new level. I hope she’s kicked out.

Polls which opened early this morning reported lines of people waiting at the doors for them to open. North Carolina had more early voteras than the total vote in 04, so it’s going to be a big turnout. Let’s hope that all goes well.

Well, I’m back on the road, so hang on…it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

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John Stemberger

Failing to ban gay marriage in the state constitution could result in the indoctrination of schoolchildren into a gay lifestyle. Florida schools might have to teach that gay weddings are the same as traditional unions if the proposal fails at the polls.

In the first place, there remain four (one wasn’t good enough for the American Taliban) Florida statutes on the books which prohibit gay marriage, and they will still be on the books after this election. They have been challenged in court, and have, so far, stood a state constitutional examination.

In the second place, when the hell did any teaching of “marriage” enter the school curriculum anyway…straight or gay? I admit to forgetting a lot, and it’s been a long time since I was in school, but I just don’t remember ever being taught “marriage.” But hey, if you’re crazy and desperate, anything goes, right?

And on top of all that, despite being an attorney (or maybe because of it), Stemberger and Florida4Marriage.com are being accused of violations of campaign finance laws. It seems that political organizations must disclose from whence comes their funding. Well Stemberger, who incorporated Florida4Marriage, also incorporated Florida Family Action as a not-for-profit. As such Florida Family Action would not have to disclose their donors. Now it turns out that Ads being run in favor of Amendment 2 say they are paid for by Florida4Marriage, but it turns out they actually paid for by Florida Family Action.

In fact, Florida Red and Blue, who filed the complaints, has a memo written by Stemberger encouraging people to donate to Florida Family Action rather than Florida4Marriage. When he was asked about it, The Florida Times Union reported the following:

Stemberger said having donors contribute to the lobbying group is proper and understandable – especially considering past backlash against donors like Amway Corp. founder Richard DeVos, a major donor.

“Some people want to remain anonymous. It’s because of the intimidation of our opponents.”

This to me sounds like an admission of guilt. The law says you can’t hide contributions for this kind of activity, regardless of the reason. The GOP has often been a primary benefactor of these kinds of initiatives, and have been in Florida up to recently. People don’t take actions like this unless they have a good reason to hide something. So let’s make Mr. Stemberger disclose who contributes to both organizations.

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U.S. Representative Robin Hayes (R, NC) made the following statement at a rally a few days ago, “Folks, there’s a real America. Liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.” Then had temerity to blatantly lie and say he never said…the recording of his comments notwithstanding. Democrat or Republican, please join me in demanding a stop to this divisive hate speech. Demand that any politician making such statements relinquish their office.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s my letter to Mr. Hayes. If you’d like to join me, his Washington Office phone number is (202) 225-3715 and the fax number is (202) 225-4036. 

Representative Robin Hayes
United States House of Representatives
130 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressman Hayes:

While I no longer live in North Carolina I was born and raised there, and am proud of that heritage. My mother and siblings still live there, and I love returning home. However, the hatred I have heard you spew recently at a political rally has tarnished my home state, and is an insult to Tarheels everywhere.

You stated, “Folks, there’s a real America. Liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.” And then you made it all the worse by lying about making the comment. Do you not know that most political rallies get recorded?

Let me be clear about this. I am not ashamed to wear the designation of “liberal.” Quite frankly, most of the best things America has accomplished have been “liberal” programs. As a member of the Republican Party, you sir have no moral authority to question the patriotism, hard work and beliefs of any other American.

I have worked hard and accomplished much. While in North Carolina I served on two legislatively mandated committees and provided testimony on the public records law to the North Carolina Legislature. I have volunteered extensively for several AIDS support groups in North Carolina, and volunteered regularly at the homeless shelter in Winston-Salem. I have received the highest awards of my industry. I have a home, a job, friends and family. I am a life-long active Methodist who believes in God, and I believe in the New Testament message of loving all people…not spreading hate and fomenting divisiveness. I even teach Sunday School, but I’ll bet you rarely even attend church.

Mr. Hayes, you are in no position make a judgment about my character, and I resent the aspersions you have cast on over half the people in this country. I for one have had enough, and I demand that you issue a public apology and resign immediately from the United States House of Representatives. This great country can no longer survive if it continues to aid and abet people such as you.

If you so love God, then I call to your attention his words in Micah 6:8, “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” I call on you to live by these words. You, Mr. Hayes, have disparaged people you do not know, and then lied about it. You no longer have the moral authority to be a leader in this Country.

Let Mr. Hayes know that hate speech is not a North Carolina value.

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