Gilbert doesn't want me to vote NO on Prop 8

Today I got a handwritten letter from Gilbert Torgason in Glendale.

What Gilbert is worried about is that I might vote No on Proposition 8, which means voting against stripping people of their constitutional rights. (Not being a conservative but rather a progressive, I am interested in preserving our constitutional rights as well as the environment and a bunch of other stuff)...

Gilbert is afraid that a vote against proposition 8 (a vote against stripping gays and lesbians of the constitutional rights that only straight folks should have) is a vote against things like freedom of speech (since hate speech directed at gays is hate speech, not free speech, as long as we are deprived of our freedom to deny people their freedom), and a vote against freedom of religion when the foundation of that religion is God hates fags. Of course he phrases it all a bit more delicately than I am phrasing it.

I'm touched that Gilbert took the time to write me this handwritten note, even though I have no idea who he is or how he got my address.

But he can shove it up his ass.

I'm voting NO on prop 8.

Hate or Hope. Past or Future. Your Choice.

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Super Tuesday: Yes We Can

Tomorrow we've got a chance to help elect the first African American President, which would make history, or to select the first female Presidential Candidate (and another old white guy for President), which would make history on a much smaller scale.

Tomorrow we've got a chance to put a Democrat in the White House, or not.

Now it's time to make a pragmatic decision as much as an emotional one.

I'm lazy, it's late, Brad Listi says it nicely in his blog and so I'll save myself some trouble and just quote him:

"Do you want the Dems to win in November?

If so, vote Obama.

Think about it for a second:

Hillary polarizes. Big time.

Obama does not.

Hillary wins the nomination, and what happens? She pulls the Democrats, the dyed-in-the-wool Dems, but who else?

Independents? Maybe some.

But McCain does very well with Independents. Indies are his bread and butter.

Republicans are fractured right now, and about the only thing that can unify them is the prospect of another eight years of Clinton. A Hillary candidacy will send the Republicans rallying around McCain, and McCain will defeat Hillary in the battle for Independent voters.

Obama is a true phenomenon, and the Dems would be foolish to miss the opportunity to nominate him. You can't manufacture this kind of thing. He is a once-in-a-generation candidate, and he is hugely, hugely popular among Democrats, Independents, and, yes, some Republicans.

Obama is the only candidate----the only candidate----with the chance of winning a landslide in the general election.

He can do it. We just need to believe it, and vote for him, and turn the page."

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Remember the last time a bunch of ya'll voted with your hearts and picked Ralph Nader instead of Al Gore? Gore won the popular election by a tiny enough margin that Bush was able to fudge it in Florida and take the electoral college. If 1/10 of those folks who voted for Nader in Florida had voted for Gore, we wouldn't have war in Iraq. We wouldn't have a mortgage crisis and the largest deficit IN HISTORY. We wouldn't have the right wing supreme court we now have, itchin' to take away a woman's right to choose. We wouldn't be torturing a bunch of people in Guantanemo.

If you wanna have a woman lose to McCain just so you can say "finally, we nominated a woman", like nominating a woman at the expense of Roe vs Wade is a worthwhile trade off...maybe ya'll should think again.

I'd be happy to see either Hillary or Barack in the White House. I also believe the only one who stands a chance in the general election is Barack. I would vote for the homeless guy on the corner over McCain. At least if you give him a beer he'll stay out of trouble.