Commentary (and rants) on national and local politics.
1. The Machiavellian Chronicles continue over coffee with my old boss this afternoon [Starbucks. She paid. I still feel guilty!] to discuss the current situation and the interesting direction it took earlier today. She's the only one I actually trust and things could get very interesting as early as next week so I'm trying to place my pieces on the right squares and minimize the collateral damage. Drama! 2. On a related note, I got some well-timed rave reviews for the series of ads I did for our new Accounting books. I love it when a plan comes together! 3.…
Let's ignore the undemocratic idiocy of the fact that on the one day of the primary season that the most delegates are up for grabs, there's only four of the ten original candidates actively running, one of whom has been routinely referred to as "the presumptive nominee" for the past few weeks. Let's ignore the hypocrisy of the fact that the networks pledged to stop projecting the winner of individual states until after the polls were closed during the Presidential election, but tonight were projecting John Kerry victories in some states a full three hours before the polls in California…
This whole gay marriage controversy is simply ridiculous. Sedalina has one of the better takes on the topic (as well as some particularly ignorant feedback from readers), and also led me to do to a little Googling to find the following:
An Act to Preserve Racial Integrity
5. It shall hereafter be unlawful for any white person in this State to marry any save a white person, or a person with no other admixture of blood than white and American Indian. For the purpose of this act, the term “white person” shall apply only to the person who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian; but persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the blood of the American Indian and have no other non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed to be white persons. All laws heretofore passed and now in effect regarding the intermarriage of white and colored persons shall apply to marriages prohibited by this act.
from the Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924
Eugenic Laws Against Race Mixing
Paul Lombardo, University of Virginia
By 1915, twenty-eight states made marriages between “Negroes and white persons” invalid; six states included this prohibition in their constitutions…
The 1958 case of Loving v. Commonwealth of Virginia initiated a challenge that would eventually overturn the law… By unanimous decision, in 1967 the [United States Supreme] Court struck down the Racial Integrity Act and similar laws of fifteen other states, saying: “[T]here can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause… Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the state.”
from the Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement
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Initial reactions to tonight's debate (which will be repeated tonight on CNN at Midnight EST, 9pm PST): 1. Ted Koppell, you may step down from the #1 Jackass platform. Larry King, please take Mr. Koppell's place. Self-important moron! 2. Edwards came as close to getting the one-on-one he said he wanted as the panelists treated Kucinich and Sharpton like nerds at a frat party, focusing most of their attention on the two front-runners. And he blew it. Mostly. The nice guy schtick needs to stop if he really wants to be President as he was handed several greased softballs to…
If you've read this journal at any point during the past eight months or so, you know I love debating politics. If you know me personally, you also know I despise blind, unquestioning devotion to anyone or anything. This weekend, I responded to a mass email from a Kucinich supporter offering their take on Johns Kerry & Edwards and cc'd DK's local Meetup group for the hell of it. It was a repost of my February 17th entry announcing/explaining my switch of support from Kucinich to Edwards, with a short preface for context. Not surprisingly, I received a reply questioning…
It's official. Ralph Nader's running for President. Again. While my initial reaction was predictably negative, after I put my personal dislike of the guy aside and took a look at where he was coming from this time around, I came to the surprising conclusion that I agreed with his decision! I believe the fact that John Kerry is the current Democratic "front-runner" and scarily close to wrapping up the nomination this early in the process is one of the main reasons he's decided to junp back in the race. A lot of the "I like Kucinich but Dean can win"…
For anyone still on the fence about John Kerry, here's a couple of articles to check out, courtesy of the muckrakers at Counterpunch. Kerry: He's Peaking, Already By ALEXANDER COCKBURN and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR As yet Karl Rove has yet to launch the Shock and Awe barrage that will explode over Kerry's head some time in the late summer, after the Democrats have got their boost in Boston. Rove's targeting plans will obviously include such easy, but telling hits as Kerry's support for Bush's tax cuts for the rich. (If elected President, according to the bean counters at Forbes', Kerry…