So as you know yesterday the Supreme Court threw up its hands and said "no mas" allowing the lower court standings in favor of same sex marriage to stand.
This has caused the Right Wing to lose what is left of their collective minds.
And leading the charge is Ted Cruz. Here was his response according to Salon:
“The Supreme Court’s decision to let rulings by lower court judges stand that redefine marriage is both tragic and indefensible,” Cruz charged. Cruz proceeded to state that citizens should be able to vote on whether same-sex couples can get married.
“This is judicial activism at its worst. The Constitution entrusts state legislatures, elected by the People, to define marriage consistent with the values and mores of their citizens,” Cruz’s statement read. “Unelected judges should not be imposing their policy preferences to subvert the considered judgments of democratically elected legislatures.”
Accordingly, Cruz’s statement noted, he has introduced legislation that would allow states to ban same-sex marriage and to refuse to recognize same-sex unions performed elsewhere. Gay rights advocates have dubbed the bill the “’You’re Not Married Anymore’ Bill,” noting that it would sanction a patchwork of state laws pertaining to same-sex marriage and jeopardize couples’ rights as they travel from state to state.
That is in sharp contrast to another other potential 2016 presidential hopeful Scott Walker, who said this:
"For us, it's over in Wisconsin," Walker said, according to the Associated Press. "The federal courts have ruled that this decision by this court of appeals decision is the law of the land and we will be upholding it."
I don't often agree with Scott Walker on anything, but he is making the smart play here.
However this morning I watched Reince "Twice and" Prebus on MSNBC and he was essentially reiterating that the Republican position on marriage equality had not changed at that they were in support of fighting to keep it between one man and one woman.
I cannot begin to tell you how happy I would be if the Republicans started to bring this up for 2016, or even right now in 2014 for that matter.
Just ten years ago George Bush used his endorsement of a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage to win a second term in office, but today that same position would have a dramatically different effect.
If the Republicans decide to double down on this it will energize the liberal base like they cannot imagine and their chances of being elected even to a school board will be reduced to almost nothing.
So I for one REALLY hope that the Republicans are so myopic that they continue arguing against every citizen's right love who they want and to enjoy the same privileges enjoyed by every other American in this country. Becasue possibly the only thing more joyous than attending a gay wedding is defeating a homophobic asshole in an election.
That picture of Ted Cruz makes me shudder. He is very destructive but he's also, too, silly and egotistical and gives me the creeps.
ReplyDeleteCruz viscerally creeps me out in a hair stand up on my neck kind of way. Something very, very physically repellent about him. And no, he doesn't remind me of someone who was mean or nasty to me in childhood. I have no idea what it is. I feel the same way about Gingrich and Perry, but not to the same extent as Cruz.
DeleteI loathe everything about Rand Paul, for example, but I don't have that same reaction to him, or Santorum, or Walker, or Bush, etc.
Like the weasel of a kid back in school, the one nobody actually likes but who can keep others wary because he's got the adults bamboozled and parents with sufficient clout to cover up his petty crimes. Typically too, he's got at least a small enabling entourage of little future yes-men.
DeleteHe always has me too, Nefer, and you can add Jindal and D'Souza to your list. They're all skeevy.
DeleteHe reminds me of Uriah Heep. A disgusting little man who wheedles his way into power.
DeleteNefer, Same here. The gaydar also comes into play. I really can't stand to look at photos of him and move on quickly when one comes up. The only person worse or maybe just his equal is his asinine father.
DeleteAnother one I cannot abide is Rick Scott. He is really creepy looking as well as acting. I do so hope Charlie Crist wins the election. Scott is a proven crook.
Cruz's megalomania isn't subtle. His daddy thinks his son will someday be some type of 'king' or priest in a dominionistic theocracy. This is an additional and major 'creepiness factor' for me.
DeleteLike nefer and anonymous1:28, Cruz also makes my gaydar go off, and in a major way. Every. single. time. I look at him, I see Mrs. Doubtfire (or perhaps a nazi cabaret drag-star), except that in Cruz's case, there is meanness, and not kindness, underneath, and no sense of humor whatsoever. He is surely a would-be theocrat, and apparently can't wait to impose his agenda on the rest of us – all the while decrying how he is against 'big government'.
DeleteTed Cruz, ignorant and hateful to the end. Yes, Gryphen, it sure is a shocker, when Scott Walker takes the reasonable and long view.
ReplyDeleteTed must be worried this means he has to come out of the closet, get a divorce and find a friend. That finding a friend part could be a real stumper for him.
The court is playing it smart.
ReplyDelete" “There is something called the ‘normative power of the actual,’” said Walter Dellinger, a solicitor general in the Clinton White House. “People get used to an idea over time, and they come to think it’s right.” That is what will happen as more Americans see same-sex marriage as positive or, perhaps, simply inconsequential, Dellinger said. "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-declines-to-review-same-sex-marriage-cases/2014/10/06/ee822848-4d5e-11e4-babe-e91da079cb8a_story.html
What a shame that bigoted views on race have not faded away nearly as fast. We are still far behind when it comes to issues of racial and economic equality and justice. Let's hope we can make as much progress on those issues as has been made on the gay marriage issue, and that eventually people will view minorities and the poor – the 'other' – as no different from themselves.
DeleteI thought this is what the repuglicans wanted, for the states to decide.
ReplyDeleteTed Cruz wears eye liner & possibly mascara on the bottom of his eye lids. Enlargement of this photo proves it. Look closely - a little clown makeup for the clown to make his eyes more "mesmerizing" for those who follow him. Typical for a demagogue.
ReplyDelete12:55 PM
DeleteYou're right, the eye liner is apparent and it looks to me like he's wearing mascara. hahaha What a creep.
I hope it's waterproof. If he gets too close to Sarah, his eyes will start to water. Or if he starts reading "Sam, I Am."
DeleteHe certainly has eye liner, not sure about the mascara but probably. What a crummy, creepy guy. (Gryph, I could use other words to describe him but trying to keep it clean.)
DeleteI enlarged the picture too.
DeleteHalloween material.
Ooooh, prove this one, please, then tweet it all over the universe. That reminds me of when I VERY BRIEFLY dated a repug back in college, and asked one day, could I use the bathroom in his apartment. I couldn't resist opening the medicine cabinet, and there, inside, was . . . . women's make-up!!!! His father was chairman of the Republican party for the entire state. I am an old woman now and I wonder: are there ANY repugs who are not outright perverts or who are not leading double lives? Such a high percentage of repug men just creep me out totally: I don't think this is just me over-reacting, because my radar is very good and my instincts quite reliable.
DeleteA younger version of Grandpa Munster. Wonder if Ted sleeps upside down in a closet as well?
Delete“This is judicial activism at its worst."?!? Activism by not doing anything? I don't follow. The court could have intervened and chose to do nothing--how can that be activism of any sort?
ReplyDelete"Unelected judges" are not imposing their preferences, they are upholding the Constitution regarding equal rights.
ReplyDeleteSo Ted, tell us "Does the Constitution count in your book? Or do you have "preferences"?
Either there is a First Amendment or there is not. Either marriage is an association or it is not. Either the marital agreement is a contract or it is not. When it comes to constitutional bars against gay marriage, I don't see any. Yes, I do believe in freedom of religion, and I believe that any religion has a right to condone or condemn what it chooses – as long as it does this within the confines of its own membership. But the church has no right to 'sit as the governor', or 'act as the state', directing in a public way the private rights of other citizens who do not belong to it. It's just preposterous. What's next? An adultery patrol, led by the churches and enforced by police departments? Can't they see how silly this is. As Yeshua/Jesus once said, 'let him who is without sin throw the first stone.' Clean up your own house, Cruz, et al. And then (meaning never, 'cuz we know you can/will never do that), we'll discuss it.
Delete"This has caused the Right Wing to lose what is left of their collective minds."
ReplyDeleteUh, Unca Gryph... you're imagining they have minds??
"...The Constitution entrusts state legislatures, elected by the People, to define marriage consistent with the values and mores of their citizens...”
ReplyDeleteWhere does the Constitution say that?
I see he wears contacts. Probably to cover up the yellow eyes with slits for pupils.
ReplyDeleteBwaaaaaaaaa!
DeleteAnonymous12:55 PM, it could be make-up to mesmerize the Domionist dummies, a failure to fully remove his clown cart war paint, or he's practicing for the inevitable when he will be forced to gay marry.
ReplyDelete"forced to gay marry" as much as the fright whites harp on that, seems it's somewhere between a dream and projection for them.
I hate to break it to you, Teddy, but your statement is completely fallacious!
ReplyDelete"The Constitution entrusts state legislatures, elected by the People, to define marriage consistent with the values and mores of their citizens,....”
The Constitution does NOT allow the states to define marriage! In fact, I'm not even sure the word marriage is IN the Constitution! That being the case, how can your statement be true?
The Constitution DOES, however, proclaim that there should be equal protection under the law and that discrimination is illegal. Did you miss that part?
No. Of course not. It's just that you prefer to rant in such a way as to make it SOUND legitimate.
Go HOME fool - and I ain't talking about Texas!
I don't think we even have to get to the equal protection part. Marriage is a contract: a contract involves nothing more than speech, and no law can be passed to prohibit that. No law can prohibit people from associating with those whom they choose to associate with. Can the law force us to not marry the handicapped? The insane or emotionally disturbed? People of other races? The elderly? The sterile? People of other religions? People who are incarcerated? (No offense, please, toward any person in any of these groups, or to any gay person: merely using 'the other' by way of example to show how absurd Cruz's idea is.) Of course not. Thus, how can it prohibit people from marrying someone from any other category – male or female? What right is more fundamental than the right who you associate with.
DeleteThese are all legal arguments: people are still free to make their own moral decisions – providing they make them for their own lives. If you are against adultery, divorce, etc, then please, keep your proposed 'laws' limited to your own life. I'm sure you'll have plenty of work to do there without rushing down the street to try to take care of everyone else's lives.
If things get serious with Cruz and the nomination, there will be classmates from Princeton and Harvard who will have no hesitation in telling a few stories about their days with Ted. Just by looking at him, he was a sleazy, smarmy fellow who left several tales behind.
ReplyDeleteTales or tails?
DeleteTed "Look at me Cruz" is trying to gin up the base for his future presidential run. Please someone remind him that he was born in Canada ....thus ineligible. Time to go to the barn Ted, the Obama "born in Kenya" brought to us by Fox news ruined it for you. (what irony) HaHaHaHa. What goes around comes around.
ReplyDeleteSorry, 1:35, but you are forgetting his MOTHER is American born. And guess what THAT means!
DeleteBut Cruz is an openly (and then became unopenly) gay man like Marcus Bachmann (sp??). I don't get it.
ReplyDelete"...Cruz is an openly (and then became unopenly) gay man..."
DeleteSource, please?
When I look at Teddy boy I can't stop thinking he reminds me of Liberace.
ReplyDeleteLiberace was NOT smarmy; Teddy is.
DeleteLiberace was fabulously talented.
DeleteCruz is nothing at all like Liberace.
He also reminds me of "Drunk Uncle" on SNL.
DeleteBut it's a slippery slope! Next ting you know... gay marriage is just all...just zomfg!!! Scott Walker's Lt Governor will be watching tables and clocks and dogs.
ReplyDelete"Republican candidate for Wisconsin Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch compared same-sex marriage to marrying a clock during a radio interview.
“This is a slippery slope,” Kleefisch said. “In addition to that at what point are we going to be okay marrying inanimate objects? Can I marry this table or this, you know, clock? Can we marry dogs?
“This is ridiculous,” continued Kleefisch. “And biblically, again, I’m going to go right back to my fundamental Christian beliefs marriage is between one man and one woman.”"
www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/gop-candidate-gay-marriage-marrying-table/
If the clock or table or dog is sentient, and of an age and mental ability to legally consent, why not?
DeleteBut that is not the case, you fucking dunce! The clock and table are inanimate, non-living objects incapable of giving informed consent to participate in a legally binding contract.
Nor can you marry a dog, because the dog, like a minor child or incapacitated adult, lacks the mental ability to give informed consent to participate in a legally binding contract.
God, these people are morons.
Hey Gryphen! You need to send this Koldfish your picture of the many forms of marriage listed in the bible!
DeleteToad married the wig!
DeleteEveryone should be free to live under the moral code of the religion of their choice: absolutely! But for those who are moralizing about gay marriage, why do we not hear a peep out of them when it comes to heterosexual incest, heterosexual divorce, and heterosexual adultery? I think I know why.
DeleteA Cruz Bill in Congress will get nowhere with elections coming up! I so hope as many as possible Republicans are voted out of every office they hold across our nation. They do not support the majority and are very anti women as has been well documented!
ReplyDeleteThat picture projects the sort of look I'd imagine just before he tells you you made him do this, it's your fault, and starts to cut off your fingers one by one.
ReplyDeleteYes, while telling you that because he is so much nicer than you, he will only cut off half your fingers NOW THANK HIM!
DeleteI always think of it as the look he gives his latest boy friend when he's been a bad boy.
Delete"This is judicial activism at its worst".
ReplyDeleteWhat is the best, Cruz
Oh yes, when the Supreme Court elected George W. Bush as president!
He just seems like some day his gay lover will write a tell all book.
ReplyDeleteWalker did make the smart play, and it terrifies me. This race is close. I wish he'd told the truth about how he felt about it, would have been better for Mary Burke.
ReplyDeleteWisconsinites need to remember this: Scott walker will not finish his term, he will run for president. if that is not terrifying enough, we will be left here with Rebecca Kleefisch...AKA Sarah Palin of 'Sconsin.
ReplyDeleteYou can bet that Walker and his stooges in the legislature are working on some kind of work around to this decision. So don't give him any credit just yet. If he wins the election he'll have something ready to shove down our throats. He don't operate in the open, only behind our backs.
ReplyDeleteHis wife, Heidi, looks like a normal woman, I wonder what she sees in him? Seriously, I can't imagine waking up next to this scaly reptile, and he fathered two kids with her. Either he's got a huge bank account, or love is deaf dumb AND blind.
ReplyDeleteBut God forbid two people of the same gender get the same rights as they do, it's an abomination and ruins straight marriages everywhere....... by showing them they've been doing it wrong all along. Time to shut down the government again, mr Cruz. Marriage Equality is here to stay.
Rumor has it that he has a nine-inch tongue and breathes through his ears.
DeleteAnybody else notice how dialated his eyes are in that picture? Why would that be? The only reason that I know of eyes dialating like that is if one is stoned, or fresh from the eye doctor, when they put drops in your eyes. It certainly isn't because it's dark, it's not dark in that picture. Stoned, or eye doctor appointment. hmmmmm.
ReplyDelete