Erection day

[Faeelin]

The people of Maine have successfully defeated the butt pirate agenda. 

Still too early to call.

Nah, God hates fags too much.

On the upside, old people will die, and irrational bigotry will lose.

[citizen k]

How unfortunate for Washington.

As long as it's not called marriage it's ok. 

[citizen k]

Dejection fills Maine ballroom after marriage vote
By JOHN CURRAN, Associated Press

PORTLAND, Maine – Cecelia Burnett and Ann Swanson had already set their wedding date. When they joined about 1,000 other gay marriage supporters for an election night party in a Holiday Inn ballroom, they hoped to celebrate the vote that would make it possible.

Instead, they went home at midnight, dejected and near tears after a failed bid to make Maine the first state to approve same-sex marriage at the ballot box.

"I'm ready to start crying," said Burnett, a 58-year-old massage therapist, walking out of the ballroom with Swanson at her side. "I don't understand what the fear is, why people are so afraid of this change.

"It hurts. It hurts personally," she said. "It's a personal rejection of us and our relationship, and I don't understand what the fear is."

With 87 percent of precincts reporting, gay-marriage foes had 53 percent of the vote in a referendum that asked Maine voters whether they wanted to repeal a law allowing same-sex marriage that had passed the Legislature and was signed by Democratic Gov. John Baldacci.

"The institution of marriage has been preserved in Maine and across the nation," said Frank Schubert, the chief organizer for Stand for Marriage Maine, which lobbied for the repeal.

For the gay rights movement, which has gained a foothold in New England, it was a stinging defeat. Gay marriage has now lost in every state — 31 in all — in which it has been put to a popular vote. Gay-rights activists had hoped to buck that trend in Maine, framing same-sex marriage as a matter of equality for all families in a campaign that used 8,000 volunteers to get out the message.

Five states have legalized gay marriage — Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut — but all did so through legislation or court rulings, not by popular vote.

Portland resident Sarah Holman said she was torn, but decided — despite her conservative upbringing — to vote in favor of letting gays marry.

"They love and they have the right to love. And we can't tell somebody how to love," said Holman, 26.

While the gay marriage opponents claimed victory, Jesse Connolly, campaign manager for No on 1/Protect Maine Equality, held off conceding until early Wednesday, when he issued a statement vowing to continue to press the issue.

The fight for marriage equality will continue, he told supporters at the Holiday Inn ballroom, where a buffet table included a three-tiered wedding cake — with two grooms standing side by side, two brides standing side by side and the inscription: "We all do!"

"We're not short-timers. We're here for the long haul and whether it's just all night and into the morning, or it's next week or next month or next year. We will be here. We'll be here fighting. We'll be working. We will regroup."

For Burnett and Swanson, the July 10 wedding date — and a reception cruise on Casco Bay — is off.

Friends console one another after learning about the unofficial defeat on Question 1 at election night headquarters in Portland, Maine, early Wednesday morning, Nov. 4, 2009. Maine voters decided decide to rescind the Legislature's approval of same-sex marriage.                                          (AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach)

[Ed Anger]

All 3 issues passed in Ohio, meaning vets can spend their bonus money in ohio casinos in the future.

[Caliga]

Nah, God hates fags too much.

On the upside, old people will die, and irrational bigotry will lose.

All of this is laying the groundwork for sweeping changes in a generation.  Young people just don't care about hating gays.  I guess the hope is that they won't get bored and become hateful busybodies as they age.

[Caliga]

On a related note, heres' an amusing Letter to the Editor re: our country's recent vote to repeal prohibition:

LETTER: Saddened by vote

I was saddened when I went to bed on the night Spencer County went from a dry county to a wet county.

I grew up in Spencer County from the time I was four to about 19 when I graduated, left home and got married. At that time, it was a much different from now. I grew up in a christian home were values were taught. They were taught not only by words, but by example. I was raised in a church and taught to love God and live my life accordingly.

As the years have progressed, the world has chosen to take God out of everything. Schools have taken out prayer. There is no longer any respect or honor for the American flag and the Pledge of the Allegiance. Some are even trying to take "In God We Trust" off everything. God no longer has a place in most people's lives unless a loved one is dying or problems are so overwhelming that people do not know where else to go.

I am glad God is very forgiving and loving even though he is so neglected, used and abused – unless he is needed. We live in a world where parents are no longer parents; sometimes because they do not want to be, and sometimes because society will not let them. When I was growing up, I was disciplined on the spot, with no fear of Child Protective Services taking me away and charging my parents with abuse.

I am not just saddened by the vote. I am saddened more because Christians do not stand up for what we believe. Out of a town of approximately 18,000, only 4,775 people even bothered to vote. There were 2,797 who voted "yes" and 1,978 who voted "no". The wet vote obviously won, but not by a landslide. Just think if all Christians in Spencer County had even bothered to vote. What a difference it could have made!

I know people I love who are affected by alcohol and drive to surrounding counties to obtain it. I shudder thinking about the effect on them now by being able to walk to get it.

We Christians need to start standing up and collectively fighting to take back our values and instill them not only in our families, but to everyone we meet. I am saddened by the fact that people do not really believe and love God unless something is wrong. We expect God to always be there whether we are for him or not.

Two scriptures come to mind that I would like to share:

• Romans 1:28 – "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind."

• 2 Timothy 3:8 – "Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth; men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith."

I want to share with you what reprobate means: "morally unprincipled, hardened, depraved, degenerate, bad, damned, corrupt, vile, immoral, wicked, shameless, sinful, incorrigible, wrongdoer, pervert." Do you relate to any of these descriptions?

I think we need to get back on our knees and faces before God and ask him to come back into our lives, our world and our community before it is too late. We must remember Sodom and Gomorrah. If we do not, well, only God knows – and is in control – of what is waiting for us. God will have his way and the last word in the end.

[derspiess]

@ Marty.

[The Larch]

So why do you live there exactly, Cal? Sounds like a terrible place.

[Faeelin]

@ Marty.

Three cheers for bigotry and religious intolerance!

[Ed Anger]

@ Marty.

While I laugh at Marty and his homo agenda histrionics, I'd like to see the fags able to marry.

I just want Marty's rights taken away.

[Caliga]

So why do you live there exactly, Cal? Sounds like a terrible place.

Oh, I don't associate with filth like this.  These people live on "the wrong side of the lake".  Anyway, that's a silly question... it's like me asking you why you live in a place where there are so many ignorant Muslims. 

[Weatherman]

Right wing radicals managed to cause the Republicans to lose NY-23, a House seat that hasn't been in Democratic hands for 100 years. 

Nope:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NY-23#1843_-_present:_one_seat

[Savonarola]

Bing returns!

Votes Vote %
  Bing , Dave (i)  70,060  58% 
Barrow , Tom  50,757  42%

42% voted for a man convicted of bank fraud; I still don't have high hopes for Detroit.

The city council is:

Name Votes Vote %
  Pugh , Charles  88,704  9% 
  Brown , Gary  80,698  9% 
  Jenkins , Saunteel  74,918  8% 
  Cockrel , Ken (i)  74,680  8% 
  Jones , Brenda (i)  61,294  7% 
  Spivey , Andre  60,382  6% 
  Tate , James  58,146  6% 
  Kenyatta , Kwame (i)  57,482  6% 
  Watson , Jo Ann (i)  54,602  6% 

Only one incumbent lost in the general; Alberta Tinsley-Tablai.  It's too bad Shrek Cockrel Jr. won't return as President of the council.  I can only hope this council will be better than the last.  It would be difficult to be worse, but neither the council president (a local news anchor) and the Mayor Pro-Tem (one of the whistle blowers on Kwame) have ever held elected office before.

Most importantly the D is going back to having council men elected by districts:

Proposal - D-Elect Council Districts - Ballot Issue 
Michigan - 629 of 629 Precincts Reporting - 100% 
Name Votes Vote %
  Yes  84,178  72% 
No  32,606  28% 

I hope they go back to calling them "Aldermen;" it just sounds so crooked.

[Neil]

@ Marty.

Three cheers for bigotry and religious intolerance!

Is homosexuality a religion now?

CRUSADE!

[Valmy]

I showed up and voted on an endless series of ridiculous Texas constitutional issues that should be legislative decisions...but we love voting on every damn thing in this State.

I neither know or care what the outcome of the vote was.  I just show up and do my duty as a citizen.  Democracy sucks.