So will the Unicorn or Head of State er, Hair, be headed over to the Knob Creek Range while on a campaign swing through Kentucky?
 
 
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=knob+creek+video&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS242US242&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wv&oi=property_suggestions&resnum=0&ct=property-revision&cd=1

RML: Thanks. Now I’m craving bourbon.

@RML: For some reason that video upset me. I don’t know why.

This is great news. Now all my Barbies, slack and morose since Ken dropped out of the race, can ride their Unicorn!

What the eff is up with the Swift Boat Truth ads? Is anyone else getting them?

@mellbell: not me, thank god

More Knob Creek - a Manhattan, this time:
http://www.knobcreek.com/recipes/detail/10

RML, Knob Creek manhattans, my passion, perfect, mostly red vermouth, a splash of white, with plenty of bitters, I cut a lemon in half and rub around the rim of the glass then freeze the glass,  then add a twist.  Shake till there are tiny shards of ice in the brown fluid that flows slowly from the frozen shaker.  Ummmm.  Booze porn.  Give me one of them around a campfire and I will follow you to the ends of the earth.

The last drink of the night, a courvoiser and Marie Brizard stinger.  Icy and cool with mint but heavy with brandy.  The most perfect experience I have ever had of one, floating in Barnegat Bay at midnight, skinny dipping, sitting in a tube  in the warm water, with a stinger and a Cohiba in my hands, carefully held above the waves, on fourth of July watching the fireworks over the water.  Nirvana.

Snark off, what do youse guys think about an Obama/Edwards ticket? Could Edwards as VP suck in some of those white, hard-working, white voters so beholden to the Hillsbot? Or is he still perceived as too elite/effete?

Pedo, I am sympatico with the pigfuckers, I spent too much time going mudding in four wheel drive pickups and sitting around in the woods spitting Skoal into a cup and getting drunk on Miller High Life when I was in high school in the south.  The trick to understanding their mind is to think of the dumbest thing you can, then dumb it down, and then get blind drunk and then think of something even dumber.  Yes, much as I love Edwards, who at least talks like the only Roosevelt democrat I have ever seen in my adult life, he is way to effete and intellectual, the combo would give rise to all kinds of gay innuendo about the two pretty boys.  Trust me, bad news, that ticket.  If you want the pigfucker vote, and do we need that?  Sad to say, we need to get back the middle of the roaders who have always had a fond notion of that maverick McCain.  I lean towards that little general guy.

Some fucking nerd on Democratic Underground, home of the demtards, actually managed to find and track Edwards’ private jet on this website that tracks all commercial flights in the us, this afternoon, and posted as it approached minneapolis.  Fucking nerd scooped everyone.  Oh, but I am not a nerd for seeing it, of course, I just moniter what the tards are up to. 

@ prom - noodling catfish IS one of their greatest cultural achievements.

@prom: Yeah, even in ‘04 there was all the gay innuendo about Kerry & Edwards, two effete demrats kissing in a tree. But I do think we need the pigfucker vote, they are the ones who claim the middle of the road, grab the wheel and steer right. I’m not sure which little general guy you’re talking about…Wesley Clark? He only got traction with, I think, Madonna…

And how’s this for a nightmare scenario: Psychogeezer appoints Joe Liebchen to head his VP selection committee…

Edwards wants AG. He really wants Supreme Court but there’s no way he has the intellectual chops for SCOTUS. He’d be an awesome AG if he modeled it on the Spitzer AG model (w/o the hookers, natch).
After West Virginia, I think that Jim Webb’s VP chances just went up through the roof. The wimmin voters have nowhere else to go but stick w/ Unicorn and whoever he picks, so the pressure for Hillbot or a woman is off, but Hillbot thanks to the hateful race card comments of the past month has just painted the party into the corner of having to pander to the pigfucker vote. The pigfuckers weren’t going to vote for her in a general against McCain anyhow, so now we need some dick-swinging white man from the south who is a veteran/military man to go w/ Unicorn.
Though wouldn’t Max Cleland be a delicious Veep choice instead of Webb? I’m sure Rptrcub has opinion on that idea, but after he was slimed by Rove, I’ve always pulled for Max to be able to pull off a giant fuck you to the GOP.

@rml: I’m so hopelessly urb-tard, deprogrammed from my 2-1/2 years of Okie trailer-dwelling indoctrination, I don’t even know what noodling catfish means. Is that a redneck udon preparation?

@prom: …I just monitor what the tards are up to… ‘Tis a dirty thankless job, but somebody’s gotta do it. Thank you brother.

Switching to analog now…doggy is urging me to bed, he knows if I have another drink I’ll be up until 3am posting incoherent atrocities. Tonight, I heed his advice. Sleep well, beloved Cynics.

@ ped - to noodle a catfish, one wades into a body of water, locates a fish in an undercut, and catches the fish by hand, often by shoving an arm into the mouth of the catfish (up to the elbow if it’s big enough).    The hardcore practitioners have deeply scarred forearms from doing it and probably have been bitten by cottonmouths at least once.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=noodling+catfish&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS242US242&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wv&oi=property_suggestions&resnum=0&ct=property-revision&cd=2&start=10
These guys are probably qualified electors in the state in which they live.

@SFL: Max would be a wonderful Veep and the “fuck-you” would be totally awesome, but I think that Webb would probably do better in that position from a tactical perspective. That, and the pigfuckers can still see his head being morphed into Osama (btw, Saxby Chambliss is up for re-elex, please send your cash monies to the Georgia Dem. Party so we can get rid of him); I’d wish Max was running against him this year, but unfortunately, we have a teevee news reporter (Dale Cardwell, who tied himself to a chimney recently in a publicity stunt — covered here on the CP), an old Ga. Dem party stalwart, some Blue Dog douche and the CEO-pimp daddy of DeKalb County running in the Dem primaries for the quest to be the sacrificial lamb. They’ll undoubtedly be defeated by people who think like the Marietta Obama=Monkey T-shirt douchebag, who insist they’re not racist (sorry, this libtard can’t let this go).

‘Noodling catfish’. Dear God. If only Lincoln had let the South secede. Then the North could have funded a black insurrection, Texas could be an outpost of Guatemala, and they’d all be living in sod houses where they belong.
But didn’t Johnny Earl look fine and didn’t he just talk up a storm! That was one of the best speeches I’ve heard any politician give anywhere. If only… if only…! *sigh*. And wasn’t he canny about She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed? When the crowd booed her he made them stop and then chastised them. He got all stern and then boyish again with that really cute grin he does, then stern, then boyish. And he talked about real problems and real policy. I loved it. He can chastise me any time.
Personally I’m sick to death of having to listen to any kind of story about the South or southerners. I’m sick of having to listen to what any of them think. I don’t care what any of them think. I don’t care if they think I’m effete. Because I am. I’m fucking proud of it. Given my family background it took a great deal of time and effort to become effete. And I intend to get effeter.
@SFL: Wait now. Johnny Earl not smart enough for S Court??? Where he would share a changing room with justices Thomas, Scalia, Alito and Roberts??? He’s not smart enough? Or do you mean because he’s a trial lawyer? Johnny must be a brilliant lawyer. Do you think he might re-do my will?
 
And the whole ‘fixing-the hair’ deal. I wish I had such hair. I’d play with it too. But. People. Anyone who is going to be on teevee ever anywhere will fix his/hair hair and makeup. Mahatma Gandhi fixed his makeup. Paul Wolfowitz fixed his hair with spit *shuddering*. It’s what you do to control your nerves. You primp. If you don’t there is something wrong with you. For some reason when one works in front of a camera they slather you in make-up. In the theatre it’s hardly used any more unless it’s ‘Cats’ or ‘Lion King’ or some other ghastly Disney crap . But every time they call ‘cut’ on a set someone rushes over to freshen your base and powder your forehead. There is nothing effete or faggy about fixing your hair so you look cute on teevee. And if he didn’t fix his hair he’d be criticized for that. Just like Sen Unicorn got lip for always the big meetings so he gave small meetings and the ‘pundits’ said they were boring.
+praying* I will not internalize the stupid fucking attitudes of the stupid fucking right and their pansy ‘pundits’.I will not internalize the stupid…
I’m glad to see that everyone got some sleep last night. I’m drinking coffee. Can you tell?

@Lyndon - Personally I’m sick to death of having to listen to any kind of story about the South or southerners. I’m sick of having to listen to what any of them think. I don’t care what any of them think.
see http://fuckthesouth.com

@LL: Remember that not all of us are morons.

@Lyndon: Rptrcub raises a good point. Somebody’s got to fight the good fight for reason and humanity, and he’s doing it for us against the Obama=monkey morans.
Re: Johnny E and SCOTUS - As much as they make me hurl, Scalia and Roberts do have the intellectual chops. Thomas and Alito not so much. So Johny would probably be in the middle of the pack. OTOH, appointing him would create such a shitstorm of howls from the Republicans that the Unicorn is politicizing the court by appointing a “politician” (yes I know it wouldn’t be the first time, jus’ saying that’s what they’d say) that I don’t know if confirmation is worth the energy or capital. Better to appoint a 40-or-50-something academic or sitting federal judge. I will refrain from speculating on that front because that would be beyond wonky and into the realm of Above the Law blog.
@Rptrcub: Max would be awesome. Nobody outside of Georgia really saw the ads of his face morphing into Osama, except on news stories where the tone was “Isn’t this outrageous” and we know that numbnuts in ‘merika don’t watch the news.

@rptrcub: Present company excepted. I was thinking more of the South as a cultural emblem of all that is good and true and manly. I was recently in Georgia and enjoyed it very much, and enjoyed the people very much. I did not talk politics with them or refer to my husband. I do think that southern politics have poisoned the country and held the rest of us back. And still holds us back. I dream of a North Eastern Confederation: New England with New York and New Jersey added. Manhattan operating as an off-shore banking/insurance/mafia independent state like Hong Kong.

I find myself agreeing more and more often with Lefty. It wasn’t so much the outcome in WV as it is the media spin about the white, trailer trash vote that will put pressure on BHO to choose someone Webb-ish. Johnny E is total AG material, but sadly does nothing for the “electability” of the ticket as a Veep.

And I won’t be surprised at all if Joe Liebersturm is Psychogeezer’s choice.

/breaking news jack:
SF Chronicle is reporting that the California Supreme Court will announce its gay marriage decision today at 10 am Pacific. Frothing GOPers in 5…4…3…
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/15/BAMH10MC8M.DTL&tsp=1
stay tuned….
/return to discussion of the hair of Johnny Millworker
 

@SFL: However, EssEff has warped my mind a bit and I hear the sirens calling me back. Max would be teh Awesome—and one you should watch out for is our former Secretary of State, Cathy Cox (the Dem — Kathy with a K Cox is the GOP Superintendent of Education in Georgia). She’s now president of a junior college in north Georgia, but I think she’s going to return to state politics. She’d also be a GILF along the lines of Sarah Palin for the hetero set.

@LL: Thanks. I’m hoping for an independent city-state of Atlanta, like Singapore without the caning or socially conservative repression. The rest of Georgia would turn into Mississippi without the ATL.

@SFL: Oh crap.

@SFL:  Is the reason why Mayor Gavin is pro-gay marriage because he discovered Kimberly Guilfoyle was a tranny?

Imagine a world where FlyingChainSaw was Obama’s veep….

@rptrcub: I’ve often fantasized about the same thing with Louisville — just kick off into the Ohio and let Lexington deal with the yahoos — and then I remember how much I like Henderson and Owensboro and Bowling Green and Murray and the Land Between the Lakes and Bernheim Forest and… well, you get the idea.

@ mellbell: I’d of course include Savannah and a strategic isthmus to its port, as well as an isthmus toward Athens G-A.

Kox?  There are people who spell it KOX?  Jesus god almight.

I caught a catfish noodling documentary on PBS a few years ago and was transfixed, I simply could not take my eyes off the screen until it ended.  I watched with a mixture of horror and awe. 

I am off to sea, my friends, life ashore has driven me to the brink of sanity so I am setting sail at noon today for a solitary weekend afloat, no news, no intertubes, no TV, a couple of books and classic movies, a fishing pole and bait for stripers and blues.  Me and my domo kun. And a bottle of Laphroaig.  If the weather holds out I may be gone as long as 48 hours. 

@RML (with a wink to rptrcub): Oh now I get it, catfish noodling is bear porn.

@SFL: One hour and counting! I set a reminder on my calendar with a link to sfgate.

@prom: If you get restless out at sea, compose a sea chanty the CP can use for the convention theme song and/or CP The Musical. Have a great time!

SFL, oh fuck, I just read the article in full, to discover Jerry Brown is defending the status quo? WTF? I haven’t been following his positions closely the last many years, but I assumed he’d be with us…does his role as AG require him to play defense for the existing law? My ignorance of how these things really work is embarrassing.

@Pedo: Yes his role as AG (the attorney for the state) means our ex-Gov. Moonbeam has to defend the state’s fucked up laws. From the coverage of the oral arguments in front of the court, and what I read of the state’s brief, they didn’t put up the strongest of defenses. That’s why all the “family values” groups intervened in the case - because they were afraid Jerry Brown was going to give a half-ass defense of the existing law.

@ ped - It’s catfish fisting.

Anyway . . . in a Bill Clintonian moment, Tha Uni takes on the Congressional Black Caucus on the Cherokee Freedmen issue.
http://indianz.com/News/2008/008753.asp

@mellbell - I’d like to trade southeastern New Mexico and its conservative shitheads to Texas for El Paso. 

@Pedo, anyone else interested: The gay marriage decision will be posted on this site:
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/supreme/
Hopefully they’ve got the space on their tubez to handle everyone hitting it for the decision.

LAWS BANNING GAY MARRIAGE IN CALIFORNIA ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/supreme/SF051508.PDF

LL et al: I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of the south, where I committed, from birth, the triple offenses of being smart, brunette, and mouthy. However, I have to point out that the south has produced some of US America’s greatest writers (most of whom got the hell out or took refuge in NOLA). Of course, they had the advantage of not having to come up with ideas. Southern Gothic is really just reporting. And where would American music be without jazz and blues, which got their start among southern blacks? Mr Fuckthesouth.com seems to have completely forgotten about the Commonwealth of Virginia, home of Jamestown and the authors of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Massholes always do, just like they forget the riots in Boston when their schools were integrated, years after public schools in the south were. That’s really all I have to say in defense of my birthplace. I’m certainly not defending people like the racist morons from WV Jon Stewart was mocking last night. My relationship with the south is like Joyce’s with Ireland - I like being from there, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

@SFL: Whoohoo!! Gay marriages for everybody! Wish I were in SF for the party.

Yay! I was worried I would have to read all 172 pages of the decision, but I got to this on page 12: “…we conclude that to the extent the current California statutory provisions limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, these statutes are unconstitutional.”

Gay marriage in an election year? Again?

Well, now we’ll see how quickly Psychogeezer panders to the Yahoos Swampsow overlooked.

@SFL: In one way, I’m happy.
 
In another way, I’m really, really worried for the DNC this fall. (See: “Winter of Love” in SF causing the fundies to come out to vote in 2004 and let Caligutard have another term.) Maybe people aren’t as stupid this time. Yes, I’m about as triangulating and calculating as the Hillbot 9000.

OK Cynics, should I propose to Mr. Pedo and try to get Gavin to gay-marry us on our upcoming trip to SF? Or would it just waste a day of our vacation to have to stand in line all day, and maybe we should take more time to consider all the pros and cons?  Would getting married after 6-1/2 years living in sin tempt disaster?

And what happens if we get married and then the constitutional amendment initiative passes (sadly, there seem to be enough pigfuckers in CA to get it on the ballot)?

@Pedo: Yes, do it! Propose! I’ll be your witness/bridesmaid at City Hall. Or if you want I’ll conduct the ceremony for you, California law will let anyone do it if you pay an extra 20 bucks or so.
The Jeebus freaks were sloppy in writing the ballot initiative. It’s not retroactive to marriages conducted prior to November (if it passes). So get yo’ ass to the courthouse, sister!

@SFL: If you do, could you please say “we are gathered here in the sight of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to united these two in happy, gay matrimony”?

This news is actually helping me stay calm as everything goes terribly, terribly wrong at work.

@SFL: http://youtube.com/watch?v=SLY7yI1xV-M

Wow, I’m gonna have to talk this over with Mr. Pedo. I guess if we want to do it, we could maybe get some of the paperwork taken care of in San Diego…or do you have to get a license in the same county you get it recorded in?

Hmmm, my Mom will be pissed if we do it out of town and she can’t be there. I guess we’d also have to have some kind of ceremony for the local family and friends.  Oh no, I don’t have a tux. Do I know a good photographer? Are we going to write our own vows, or can we just download something off the intertubez? Who can we get to cater the reception? How much is all this going to cost? Do we have to count the SF/Napa trip as the honeymoon, or can we use this as an excuse to take another fabulous trip this summer, perhaps to Santa Fe?

OMG CAN’T WE JUST ELOPE TO LAS VEGAS?

I’m starting to get an inkling of why teh straights tend to go batshit crazy over weddings and such.

Thus saith the atheist, BTW…

SInce the hamsters have not yet spit out my message, I just want to say “yay, Liberty and Justice for ALL.”

@ ped - I’ll get you a catfish noodling video with shirtless, sweaty guys for a present (as to whether they’ll be fit ot not . . . ) Welcome to the special hell of wedding planning.  Every weekend for six months dude, and yr hubby won’t let you register for anything cool like beer making kits.  It’s all dishes and tablebloths and shit.  OK, CHINA, not dishes. 

If you hold the wedding in Sandy Eggo, I can make the dramatic entrance when it’s time to object to the holy matrimony.

@ redmanlaw: Or Chinet, depending on how fancy you want to be.

/THREADJACK (again, we’ve had several on this one)/
I TOTES wanna gay marry Joe Biden in California now, thanks to some choice words to SeeEnnEnn:
 
“This is bullshit. This is malarkey. This is outrageous. Outrageous for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, sit in the Knesset…and make this kind of ridiculous statement,” Biden said angrily in a brief interview just off the Senate floor.
 
 

@ rcub - I do agree that this issue will result in a shitstorm by the bad guys.

@ pedo: Elope. We did. To Canada City. Where we got married in a farcical ceremony in some couple’s back yard. I say elope. The hell with the caterers. Just because we get married doesn’t make us straight. But you will find that there is a difference between being married and living in sin. For one thing, you won’t have to go to such ridiculous lengths to try to protect whatever assets you have. For another… well, you’ll be married. We wrote our own vows. Mr-Mr. LaDouche got so unnerved he lost my ring. But then he found it. Then we bought booze in the customs at Niagara Falls. I wanted to see the falls but the nearest parking spot was in Detroit so we bagged it.
I think you do have to get the license in the same county/municipality? in which you intend to marry. But it’s an easy thing to do. You don’t need to be resident to get a license you just need some proof of identity. But they’ll tell you all that.

Gawdammit, the hamsters ate my comments.  Here’s the synopsis.
@Pedo - you can book everything on line w/ the SF County Clerk’s office for the certificate. You can get the license in any county in CA and have the ceremony done within 30 days (might be 60 days).  But SF County is hustling to have the new forms out ASAP whereas Sandy Eggo county may take the full 30 days from now. When are you coming up here with Mr. Pedo? We need to make plans to drink.  Unlike Massachusetts, you don’t have to be a resident of California to get gay-married, so all our friends of Dorothy should come on out!
Maybe the CP Convention could be a Moonie-esque mass wedding in SF of teh geyz?!

this is one of the times i’m really proud to be a californian.

@pedo, sfl:  actually, the license is valid for 90 days, and LA is supposed to have the forms ready tomorrow as well.  so you have even more time to worry about the propriety of wearing white.

@SFL: Just like the Moonies, will we have our partners selected for us?

@pedo: eloping robs the rest of your circle of friends, family and admirers the chance to get silly ass drunk at a fantastic party. And to give you tons of swag.

Pretend you’re Greek (maybe you are) and make it an ethnic gig, with lots of stepping of glasses, and men dancing with other men. Well, that’ll happen any way. Skoal!

@SFL, Thanks for the info and the offer to preside! I just started the discussion w/Mr. Pedo at lunch (no, I did not exactly propose over the phone, but he hadn’t heard about the ruling and we got the conversation started). He also wants to talk with our tax guy, and this may prompt us to finally visit a lawyer and review our situation regarding the few assets we have (thanks Lyndon). I just told my love that if we’re going to do it, we need to do it before November. (I understand how romantic this all sounds…)

I just realized we’re only in SF on a Friday night through Monday morning, so I’m not sure about the logistics of this, but I’ll be checking out the county clerk web site.

SFL, can you be emailed at sanfranlefty at gmail?

@RML: Such a thoughtful wedding present. I will suggest to Mr. Pedo that instead of registering anywhere, we ask for donations to some anti-admendment-initiative groups — wouldn’t it be great if we could outspend the pigfuckers 10-1 with funds generated from gay wedding gifts?

@rptrcub, nojo: If we do the civil part in SF, I’m thinking maybe the local “commitment” ceremony can be a parody of the religious rite, consecrating our marriage to FSM. Nojo, you can make your entrance at the appropriate time, screaming “Abomination! Abomination!” before the burly Amazons we hire for security taze you and carry you off to their secret re-education camp in Balboa Park.

@Ped, @Everybody:  I still have my ministerial credentials valid from an earlier life if anybody needs a licensed and ordained minister from a genuine legitimate denomination to perform the ceremony.  As long as the groom isn’t Cthulhu or Dick Cheney, I’d probably give it my blessing.

@Pedo: Yep, that’s my gmail. And I love your wedding registry idea.
There’s some fantastic groups leading the fight against the ballot initiative; Equality California, National Center for Lesbian Rights,  Lambda Legal, ACLU….and the huge national law firm Heller Ehrman.

@Mellbell:  Hey, what’s wrong at work?  Not pink slips or anything like that?

Reading through the opinion, I noticed that one of the attorneys for the losing Plaintiffs was none other than Kenneth W. Starr, he of the infamous Starr Report that tried to bring down Bill Clinton.  LOL, Kenny Boy, you Republican tool and fascist lawyer, keep up the good (losing) work!

@monk: Oh yes, victory just keeps getting sweeter!

I was reading comments on another blog on this topic, and there was a question about whether, if the initiative passes, it could still get tied up or struck down because it would go against the Equal Protection Clause, which is largely what this ruling is based on — and that would be a problem because the initiative doesn’t specifically amend or update the protection clause…? I don’t know anything about this, what happens when two pieces of a constitution collide?

@rage - Even better, I love it when right wing lawyers have to deliver big fat attorney’s fees checks as litigation sanctions against their clients to one’s own fine upstanding/lefty lib clients.

@ ped - I shall gladly respect your wishes.  /cancels order with Bass Pro Shops/.  I assume all of SLF’s commie friends can be found on the webz for donations.  

@ manchu - “Welcome to Equality California” lyrics forthcoming?

It was raining here this morning like Eugene in March, so of course I thought of the CSN tune “Cold Rain”, which triggered “Entangled” by Genesis from “Trick of the Tail”.  Similar harmonies, the guitar part or just brain slippage? 

“Entangled” (Hirsute Magenta Phil Mix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FFgpcYHQzg

How did Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jessica Simpson know how to find me here at this website?  They already have my phone number.

@RML: This March it snowed in Eugene. Which is why I’m in Sandy Eggo.

@ rage - Jessica and her Denise Richards-level intellectual glory is  available now, since Tony Romo is outta the pic.  You have to deal with her wierd-ass dad, however.

@ nojo - It snowed up in the mountains above town yesterday and the night before.  Too cloudy to see if the snow level dropped since then.

@RML, the song that popped my head was California, Here I Come, however, some of the naughtier of us could take that first lyric in a not-so-clean direction. Par for teh course here, though.

boys and girlz: This entire thread make me heart every one of you.
 
 

@RML: And this check-delivering right wing attorney was handed a defeat by a court where 6 of the 7 justices were appointed by Republicans!!
@Pedo: There’s lots of grounds for challenging the amendment if it were to pass. One significant thing is that court said that laws restricting rights based on sexual orientation should be evaluated with the same “strict scrutiny” as laws based on race.  Strict scrutiny means the state has to show a compelling state interest in the discriminatory laws. Courts across the country - including the US Supreme Court - have often said that anti-gay laws should be evaluated on a more relaxed basis of either “rational review” or “intermediate scrutiny” so today’s decision is huge on that point.  But remember we’re talking about the California Constitution, which has been read more expansively by our courts than the federal courts. On the other hand, California’s 1948 decision striking down anti-miscegenation laws was a big basis for the SCOTUS Loving v. Virginia decision two decades later.
That concludes today’s Constitutional Law lecture. Any other CP attorney here want to add something?

@ r-cub, or as the renowned poet Scott Wieland put it so well:

Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come

- Stone Temple Pilots, “Sex Type Thing”

@SFL, you give me Hope. Thanks for the legal lesson. You should challenge Feinstein for the Senate.

@pedo: the marriage is largely symbolic but worth doing, I think. Eliot Spitzer (remember him) when he was AG ruled that a marriage entered into legally in another place, time, dimension, so long as it was legal there was legal in NY State. However, they cautioned me not to file joint returns. A recent court ruling bolstered Spitzer’s dictum however, one can’t file joint tax returns or get any of the other benefits. BUT. It helps a lot with hospitals eben though we’ve done the living will, power-of-attorney thing it still helps to add another layer of legitimacy. I have no idea about inheritance rights or other stuff. We’ve already dealt with that in other ways. The stumbling block is the federal govmint. However, every couple that marries makes it harder for Ken Starr et al to deny our rights. I got the married rate for our car insurance. Woo hoo. I saved 6 bucks. This, it seems to me, is where real change will occur: when corporations work out that it’s in their interest to acknowledge homos.
I still say elope. But then, I find it embarrassing to do kissy stuff in front of my family. Too many years of shame etching deep scars of hurt. Or something. Besides I knew we’d never be able to keep a straight face doing all that vowing stuff in public. If I’m going to make a fool of myself I expect to be paid for it.
Kisses. Many happy returns. Buy a bottle of champagne. The first 25 years are the hardest. After that it’s drugs.

Hey, haven’t been on for a couple days.

Did I miss anything?

a recovering lawyer weighs in:
banning gay marriage is totally unconstitutional. the end.

pedo, congrats sweetheart, are you thinking of romantic proposal ideas? here’s my fave: you can actually purchase a star, yes your very own star that you can name after him. isn’t that celestially romantic? and it’s only about 200 dollars or something. i know someone that did this, let me know if you want more info….

if you saw jon and the pigfuckers last night, you know leiberman won’t make it to the ticket. in this case, being discriminated against for being jewish is a good thing.

Yeesh, now I have to propose to my partner too, I guess.  Or should he propose to me?  I am the top, after all…or is it wrong to equate the feminine role with the receptive partner?  Do we propose to each other?  Maybe I’ll just hide a ring under the pillow for him to find while I’m fucking him.  Or should dinner be involved somehow?

Wow, this is hard.