I have totally cleaned this e-mail from all other names, sending it to you in hopes you will keep it going and keep it clean. This is something I will fight for and I hope you all read it all the way through. You will be glad you did.
The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.
Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.
I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.
In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.
Congressional Reform Act of 2011
1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
7. All contracts with past and present Congress are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congress. Congress made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!
If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete.
You are one of my 20+. Please keep it going.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Via JMG: The Changing Face Of AIDS
Via JMG: MINNESOTA: Gay Barbarians Glitter-Bomb Ladybird Bachmann's "Ex-Gay" Clinic
reposted from Joe
Via AmericablogGay: Anti-gay leader in Iowa is a birther
Big shock that an anti-gay religious right leader is also a fan of racist theories about African-Americans (they were all born in Kenya, you know). I am intrigued, however, that this family values leader looks all about 12. I know lots of gay men who come off far younger than their age, but not a lot of straight men. I'm sure it's just a coincidence.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Today in WTFland: American Family Association: The First Amendment Only Applies To Christians
"The First Amendment was written neither to guarantee freedom of religion to Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus nor to prohibit their free exercise of religion. It wasn’t written about them one way or another. It was written for one specific purpose: to protect the free exercise of the Christian religion. We must be clear: the First Amendment does not prohibit the free exercise of alternative religions, but neither does it guarantee it. It simply does not address the issue at all." - American Family Association spokesman and national radio host Bryan Fischer.Labels: AFA, Bryan Fischer, Christianists, dominionists, First Amendment, hate groups, liars, theocracy
Via JMG: New York Episcopal Bishop Orders Gay Clergy To Marry Their Partners
That's a headline you probably didn't expect. Long Island Episcopal Bishop Lawrence Provenzano has put his foot down against gay clergy who residing in homosexual relationships, and has given a nine month deadline for them to either get married or stop living together, according to the News Observer. “I need to be mindful that the church has always asked people to live in committed monogamous, faithful relationships. I won’t allow heterosexual clergy to live in a rectory or church housing without the benefit of marriage. When one puts it in that context, then you see how it all begins to make sense,” said Provenzano. Reverend Christopher Hofer, pastor of the Episcopal Church of St. Jude agrees with Provenzano, “I think his statement was not only fair, but beyond generous. It gives people time, acknowledging that there’s a financial component involved and recognizing that some may not choose to live together.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Via Bilerico: Worst. Yard Sale. Ever
After posting an ad on Craigslist for a yard sale in northern Virginia, 
a woman sent an e-mail to people inquiring about some of the items for sale. Instead of answering each one separately, she put a bunch of photos on Facebook and sent a mass e-mail to respondents telling them they could see the second hand goods there.
One slight problem - no gays, Muslims or "illegal immigrants" need show up; she won't sell her stuff to you.
Make the jump here to see the woman's e-mail and her response to a pissed off potential customer
a woman sent an e-mail to people inquiring about some of the items for sale. Instead of answering each one separately, she put a bunch of photos on Facebook and sent a mass e-mail to respondents telling them they could see the second hand goods there.One slight problem - no gays, Muslims or "illegal immigrants" need show up; she won't sell her stuff to you.
Make the jump here to see the woman's e-mail and her response to a pissed off potential customer
Via Gay Politics Report:
- Fight against marriage equality propelled Bachmann's career, some say
Rep. Michele Bachmann's time in the Minnesota Senate was marked by a near-obsession over the consequences of allowing gays and lesbians to marry, her former colleagues recall. Bachmann was able to thrust herself into the political limelight by making herself the focal point of a crusade that was dubbed the "Bachmann marriage wars" by one Minnesota state senator. "That's her recipe: Find the issue, then use it politically to mobilize previously marginalized or disconnected groups," said Lawrence Jacobs, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota. The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (7/16)
- LGBT groups strategize against Bachmann: LGBT organizations say they are going to counter efforts by presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., to distance herself from her long record of taking divisive, anti-LGBT stances. "We're going to be looking for opportunities to get her record and her rhetoric out there," said Michael Cole-Schwartz of the Human Rights Campaign. Politico (Washington, D.C.) (7/18)
- Giuliani urges Republicans to drop anti-gay rhetoric: Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani advised his fellow Republicans this week to stop talking about trying to prevent same-sex couples from legally marrying. "I think the Republican Party would be well advised to get the heck out of people's bedrooms and let these things get decided by states. We'd be a much more successful political party if we stuck to our economic, conservative roots," Giuliani told CNN's Candy Crowley. CNN (7/17)
- U.S. troops' same-sex spouses won't get benefits
Legally married gay and lesbian service members will not be offered the same spousal benefits as heterosexual troops after the "don't ask, don't tell" policy ends, according to this article. The military must adhere to current federal law, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (7/16)
Via JMG: HomoQuotable - Andrew Sullivan
"For a long time, gays and lesbians braver than I was were effectively married and lived together, risking violence and opprobrium and isolation. For decades these bonds existed, and we knew of them even if we never spoke of them. I saw them up close as a young man in the darkest years of the AIDS plague. I saw spouses holding their dying husbands, cradling them at the hour of their death, inserting catheters, cleaning broken bodies, tending to terrified souls."This proved beyond any doubt for me that gay couples were as capable of as much love and tenacity and tenderness and fidelity as heterosexual couples. And when I heard their bonds denigrated or demonized, dismissed or belittled, the sadness became a kind of spur. For so long, so much pain. For so many, so much grief compounded by stigma. But we did not just survive the plague. We used it to forge a new future. And in the years of struggle, as more and more heterosexuals joined us, we all began finally to see that this was not really about being gay. It was about being human." - Andrew Sullivan, writing for Newsweek.
Via JMG: Obama Endorses DOMA Repeal Bill
As you doubtlessly know, Senate Democrats are spearheading a bill to repeal DOMA. The bill should get its first Senate hearing tomorrow. Today the president endorsed the bill, which is titled the Respect For Marriage Act. Reactions below.
Human Rights Campaign
We thank the President for his support of the Respect for Marriage Act. He has repeatedly expressed his desire to see the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act repealed and his Justice Department has taken the historic step of ending its defense of that odious law in court. By supporting this legislation, the President continues to demonstrate his commitment to ending federal discrimination against tens of thousands of lawfully married same-sex couples.Courage Campaign
We are delighted that today, on the eve of a historic Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, President Obama endorsed the Respect for Marriage Act. It is rare that a White House endorses a bill that has yet to pass first in either the Senate or the House. President Obama’s decision to do so underscores the urgency with which the Defense of Marriage Act must be repealed. His support makes clear to all Americans that the Defense of Marriage Act has no place in our society.
Via AmericaBlogGay: Andrew Sullivan and Cynthia Nixon on what marriage means
At Newsweek, two relatively famous people write about marriage.
Andrew Sullivan has a column on what marriage means to him -- and to America. It's getting a lot of attention today:
Andrew Sullivan has a column on what marriage means to him -- and to America. It's getting a lot of attention today:
I still didn’t think it would ever happen to me. I thought I was too emotionally damaged, my emotions and sexuality severed by all those years of loneliness and arrested emotional development. I thought my heart had too much scar tissue, and I could live my life well enough with just friendship and occasional sexual encounters or dates. But when I first set eyes on my husband, I knew I had lucked out. Some things you simply know. And when we finally got married, a few years later, and our mothers walked us down the makeshift garden aisle, and my sister gave the reading through tears, and one of our beagles howled through the vows, and my father put his arms around me and hugged, I did not hear civilization crumble. I felt a wound being healed. It is a rare privilege to spend your adult life fighting for a right that was first dismissed as a joke, only finally to achieve it in six states and Washington, D.C. But how much rarer to actually stumble upon someone who could make it a reality. And to have it happen to me in my own lifetime! This joy is compounded, deepened, solidified by the knowledge that somewhere, someone just like I was as a kid will be able to look to the future now and not see darkness—but the possibility of love and home. That, I realized, was really what I had been fighting for for two decades: to heal the child I had once been—and the countless children in the present and future whose future deserved, needed, begged for a model of commitment and responsibility and love.Worth a read.
But, I have to say, I really enjoyed reading Cynthia Nixon's post on marriage. She was on the front lines in NY, helping Fight Back New York, then lobbying in Albany:
We need more politicians to get out there and lead as they did in New York—whether that means being a driving force like Gov. Andrew Cuomo or sticking your neck out like four GOP senators here. State Sen. James Alesi was the first to come forward publicly with a yes vote. I think it was scary to go out on a limb and break with his party, but when I talked to him in Albany last month before the vote, he was elated. He said, “Ninety-five percent of the comments on my Facebook page are positive! I’m hearing from all these people that I never heard from before, and I feel like I have thousands of new friends.”
There are always going to be people who are against same-sex marriage, and our efforts to convince them otherwise will be wasted breath. But then there are people like Senator Alesi who are on the fence, who are really tortured because they want so much to do the right thing. They want to vote with their conscience. And when they do, it’s important that we remember that these people put their political futures on the line to support us. We need to be there for them in the next election, and the one after that. And we need to be there in larger numbers than the people who may want retribution against these brave allies of ours.
The fight for gay marriage is often portrayed in political terms—Democrat versus Republican, liberal versus conservative. But for couples like us, this is about something simpler and more personal. I want to be married to my girlfriend. And I want us to have a ceremony. I want all our friends and family to come, and I want our kids to be there. Just like that historic night last month on the subway platform, I want it to be a moment I will always remember. Till death do us part.
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