John McNicotine is now for the tobacco lobby after years of working against it.  He not only opposes the cigarette taxes he used to support but also opposes FDA regulation of the tobacco industry after years of supporting it.  McNicotine is an ex-smoker and should understand just how addictive nicotine is, and he even acknowledged the exceptionally high death rate for tobacco users when he joked that cigarette exports to Iran were part of his plot to kill Iranian citizens.  For McNicotine to cave in to the tobacco cartel is the ultimate flip-flop:
http://www.boston.com/...

Why has McNicotine caved in to the interests of the tobacco drug cartel?  It couldn't possibly have anything to do with hiring tobacco lobbyist Charlie Black as his senior adviser.  Move along folks.  There's nothing to see here:
http://firedoglake.com/...

Now let's use the traditional Rethug "moral values" and "sanctity of life" frames against McNicotine!  There's more in the flip.

John McCain may want to deride the power of celebrity, but, in the fight for marriage equality, nothing probably helps more than the example of celebrities we love getting hitched. In the forefront of this fight has been Ellen Degeneres, who announced her intention to marry her girlfriend Portia de Rossi the day after California's Supreme Court handed down their ruling:

This is what I learned from tonight's Faith Forum.

I think it's pretty simple but extremely telling... and it should be repeated by the talking heads for weeks to come because it's news and it poses serious problems for McCain with both the Evangelical community and American women.

Well, we just had a very interesting visit that fired me up a bit.  We're a gay couple who are about to get married soon, so the two visitors that knocked on our door this morning were more than a little caught off guard when I opened the door with my Obama shirt on & things got interesting...  

In 2007, the Oregon legislature passed two laws: The domestic partnership law (the Oregon Family Fairness Act) and the Oregon Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

A group of "concerned Oregonians" started gathering signatures because they wanted to place a referendum on this November's ballot requiring a statewide vote on the two laws.

They've now officially failed. H/t to Marshall Collins over at BlueOregon...

I was sitting there watching Big Brother and this sixty-second commercial aired. During primetime.

I had the pleasure to attend a block party yesterday in Santa Cruz.  A friend of my wife and mine lives on a cul-de-sac in Santa Cruz and each year they throw a great block party (bands, face-painting, lady on stilts :-)  ) and we somehow get invited.  This year, for the first time, they also used the occasion to raise money for Haven of Hope -- a non-profit residential treatment facilities for homeless girls.

I'm old enough to have seen the shifts in racial prejudices that occurred from the late 1950's on, but I don't recall the kind of seismic shift in prejudices that seems to be going on wrt gay marriage right now.

Perhaps people realize how universally despised the bigots from that era are now viewed.  Or perhaps gay marriage is not as fundamentally deep an issue for them.  Or perhaps modern communication just makes things happen faster.

For whatever reason, we seem to be turning a corner here.  Check out the poll over the fold...

Portions XPosted 8/3/2008 11:23 AM PDT on MyDesert.com

According to one of my activist friends, a former deacon of a religious extremist church in Utah, who attends an evangelical megachurch in the Coachella Valley in order to monitor its adherence to the tax code as it applies to its tax exempt status, churches across America today began '100 Days of Prayer' against Marriage Equality and cajolled their members and attendees to vote in favor of Proposition 8 and defeat gay marriage at the polls in November.

More below the flip...

(cross posted at Calitics)

This report of a national conference call to fight Prop. 8 and marriage equality sounds more like a battle plan than a political strategy session.  All the leading figures of the religious right were there, and the language is undeniably militaristic.  I believe that the best way to counteract the theocratic right is to display them in all their radicalism, so the whole country understands the goals of their movement.  So here ya go:

The primary focus of the call was Proposition 8 in California, described by (Chuck) Colson as “the Armageddon of the culture war.” Many speakers invoked the language of warfare, raising up an army of believers, putting soldiers in the streets, being on the front lines of a battle. Lou Engle actually described a massive rally planned in Qualcomm stadium on November 1 as a “blitzkrieg moment.”

Last Sunday, my synagogue held a group wedding for seven gay and lesbian couples, now officially recognized as married in the state of California. This was the first such ceremony held since the California Supreme Court decision which became final on June 16.

Kehilla Community Synagogue (in Piedmont, CA, but most accurately described as a Berkeley congregation) is easily one of the most progressive synagogues in the country, both politically and religiously. But this was a landmark event even for a congregation which had been recognizing same-gender weddings for 24 years.

The seven couples--six female and one male--had each been together for many years, raising children and even grandchildren. Most of them had had several ceremonies before: as domestic partners in 1999, in the 2004 "Winter of Love" in SF while that lasted, and other ceremonies religious and nonreligious besides. (More after the jump, as they say.)

It is.

Attorney General Jerry Brown is trying to stack the deck against a November ballot measure barring same-sex marriage by declaring in his formal ballot description that it "eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry," sponsors of the initiative charged in a lawsuit Tuesday.

Backers of Proposition 8 argued that they are not trying to eliminate anyone's rights but are simply seeking to restore the definition of marriage that existed in California before May 15, when the state Supreme Court struck down the law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Brown, whose office prepares the title and summary of each measure on the state ballot, chose wording for both that is "inherently argumentative and highly likely to create prejudice" against Prop. 8, attorney Andrew Pugno said in the suit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court.

The suit asks a judge to order a different title, such as "Limit on Marriage," the wording in the initiative petitions that 1.2 million registered voters signed to place the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot. Pugno said the judge could also delete Brown's heading and use the measure's brief text as its title: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

The California Supreme Court sensibly ruled that the state Constitution grants the right for same-sex couples to marry. The bigots are now attempting to amend that Constitution via ballot initiative, overturning the high court's decision. So it makes perfect sense to call the initiative what it is: that it "eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry".

The right currently exists. The bigots want to eliminate it.

Of course, no one likes to take away rights, which is why the bigots are freaking out. They're claiming that describing the hate initiative accurately will prejudice voters against it. Of course it will. That's sort of the point -- that their public position on same sex marriage is patently ridiculous, and will go down to defeat if people understand clearly what they're voting for. And that's what Jerry Brown's language does -- describe the intent of the initiative.

"What has happened is the Supreme Court found that the right to marriage includes same-sex couples," the attorney general said in an interview. "This happened after the original title was approved. ... Now same-sex couples have a right that's recognized and supporters of the proposition want to eliminate that right."

Prop. 8 supporters, Brown said, "can't say with a straight face that this isn't about eliminating the right to gay marriage, so what's their problem with this? This is a political lawsuit, not one about serious legal issues."

Any decision must be made by August 11, when ballots head to the printers. Either way, the ballot initiative is already losing, never a good thing for the "yes" side on an initiative this early in the process (they inevitably lose ground heading into Election Day). The latest Field Poll has the initiative losing 42-51. If the courts reject the bigots (as logic would dictate), it might be the death blow for this ridiculous effort.

I wrote my first letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle today.  I have had it with Feinstein.  If we could establish a recall I would devote all of my free time to making this a reality.  I don't know if this letter will be published but I wanted to share my concerns with you.  I hope there are others who are terrified of this possibility as well.  

From the SF Chronicle's Matier & Ross column:
The Feinstein factor: Dianne Feinstein insists she hasn't made any calls about running for governor - but all the same, it's becoming a hot topic among Democratic insiders.
That's because of the recent poll by JMM Research that had the senator the first choice of a whopping 50 percent of the Democrats surveyed for the 2010 race.

California voters will be voting on Proposition 8, a Constitutional Amendment to ban marriage equality, in November.  So far, polls have shown more opposition to this ballot initiative than support, indicating that Californians are ready to uphold the right of every loving couple to marry.  Good for us.

But the proponents of discrimination are mad.  They are pissed.  As hell.  And they are taking California's Attorney General, Jerry Brown, to court.  Why?  Because the Attorney General of our state, Jerry Brown, has set the title and summary of the ballot initiative to read that it would:

eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry.

(Correction added in bold; thanks to kaleidoscope for the correction) The title and summary of Proposition 8, which I've heard referred to as "Proposition Hate," has been edited by the California State Attorney General's office to more accurately reflect the effects it would have if approved by the voters.

I'm pretty sure this is going to make it even harder for it to pass, which is great. I can see lawsuits going on either way, though, so we're not out of the woods yet. Come with me after the jump for the former and current wording, and a bit of analysis.

I got this email, cause I'm on some strange lists:
-----------

This is a Message Alert for all Republican pundits and emplaced "reporters",  Note the recent news itemfrom (of course!) California:

LOS ANGELES — California, a national trendsetter in all matters edible, became the first state to ban trans fats in restaurants when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Friday to phase out their use.

Under the new law, trans fats, long linked to health problems, must be excised from restaurant products beginning in 2010, and from all retail baked goods by 2011. Packaged foods will be exempt.

We believe this is the golden opportunity those fools in California have given us to steal this election for its rightful owners!

It is a great thing that we are finally (slowly, in a few areas of the country) starting to recognize that all citizens should have the right to marry if they choose to do so, but we should not think that just granting these rights is the end of the issue. One of the possible outcomes of any marriage is a divorce. Unfortunately, gay citizens can go to CA or MA to get married, there is a real problem when they try to get divorced. The LA Times has an interesting article about divorce for gay citizens. Here is the link.

Field (PDF). 7/8-14. Likely voters. MoE 3.9% (5/17-26)

There is no more accurate poll in California than Field, so these are good numbers. The fact that the "no" vote (always an advantage in these initiatives) is already over 50 percent virtually ensures that as long as the "no" camp runs a vigorous campaign, this hateful ballot initiative will be defeated. Fact is, same-sex marriages are taking place up and down the Golden State, and there has been one large collective shrug from the broader public. It's just not as scary as the haters would have us believe. Rather, it's kind of inspiring.

Update: Got the right link up there now.