politics (hilarious)

Why is it in America that you cannot simultaneously find both a President and a Vice-President that are capable of coherent speech?

Curiously in the UK it is the right wing Tory Prime Minister David Cameron that is bringing in legislation to allow same sex marriage.

Although they have just taken such a heck of a drubbing at the local elections that all bets are off as to what policies they will actually put into the queen's speech tomorrow.

Well ...

What sort of lunatic country do you live in where same-sex marriage is controversial?

Same-sex couples have been living together since the beginning of recorded history. Interfering busybodies get excited about it from time to time, but nobody in their right mind takes them seriously.

Far-right minds are different can of worms ...

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

Growing up under the regime of the first Mayor Daley, I learned that coherent speech in politicians is highly overrated.

Marriage is sanctioned at the state level in the US -- the feds should have to just accept whatever individual states do, except that the right-wingers in Congress shoved through the so-called "Defense of Marriage" Act. (As usual, conservatives disfavor more powerful federal government except when it serves their aims.)

Acceptance of SSM is growing, but slowly. As an example of progress, a decade ago, same-sex sex could still be a criminal act in the US. Pretty hard to have SSM without SSS.

There's no need to piss off the opponents of SSM, because there is fuckall the President can do about it anyways.

The state's sanctioning SSM is what's new and different. The notion instilled in earliest childhood that a marriage consists of a mommy and a daddy takes some adjustment to encompass SSM. What was the acceptance process in Nederland, considering that it was the pioneer in recognizing SSMs, at least in modern times?

Who signed DOMA into law? Hint: the same guy is now making speeches in favor of gay marriage. I suppose he "evolved" too.

Somewhat different. He was coherent but just unguarded about how he described his encounter with what was supposed to have been a hand picked helpful Labour supporter. He was a very effective Chancellor but an absolutely lousy Prime Minister - he could have won a full term mandate if he had gone to the polls soon after taking office.

His initial baptism of fire included an Al Qaeda attack on Glasgow airport where he came out of it pretty well and looked in control.

By comparison with the present government of clueless rich kids he still looks like quite a good player. Camerons fortune in part comes from the "gerritdownyourneck" vertical drinking establishments which provide the UKs binge drinkers with alcohol until they fall over.

..

Nothing dramatic. The Dutch are pragmatic and deeply into compromise. The fundamentalist Christian parties didn't like it much, and tried to get an exemption for registry office clerks who didn't approve of SSM and didn't want to register such marriages, but that ended up being decided on a local basis.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

He sure must have:

Statement by President Bill Clinton On Friday, September 20, prior to signing the Defense of Marriage Act, President Clinton released the following statement:

Throughout my life I have strenuously opposed discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans. I am signing into law H.R. 3396, a bill relating to same-gender marriage, but it is important to note what this legislation does and does not do.

I have long opposed governmental recognition of same-gender marriages and this legislation is consistent with that position.

Look at the map:

The US is ahead of most of the world on this.

SS couples can marry in 10 countries worldwide and in six US states, with registered domestic partnership in some other states, like here in California.

Why are you ranting about "Far-right minds" ? It was Bill Clinton who signed the Defense of Marriage Act. It's Obama who is "evolving"... but not much before the next election.

"Ahead of"? "Not quite as retarded as" describes the situation more accurately.

Wow. How incredibly liberal.

Bill Clinton was rather too good a politician to have much in the way of principles.

He's not going to risk evolving faster than US public opinion, as formed by your famously "conservative" media.

Apparently Billy Graham has recently been exhumed to state that SSM is a non-Christian activity, as if that had any relevance.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

Clinton shipped good manufacturing jobs to Mexico. At his wife's behest, he signed a bill to wrest children from their poverty stricken mothers. He signed both Gramm-authored bills that crippled regulation of banks and credit default swaps. I'd say Billy Jeff was somewhere to the right of Schwarzenegger.

Moron, the DOMA *leaves* the issue up to the states. That's its whole purpose.

Wrong.

Its purpose is to deny SS married people the Federal rights and benefits of straight married couples. States can marry them, but they can't file joint Federal tax returns or share Social Security benefits, or get any Federal recognition.

No, its purpose is to short circuit the "Full Faith and Credit" clause, such that the states *could* decide for themselves. Giving gays full tax and SS "benefits" is likely something Obummer will do on November 7.

He sure must have:

Statement by President Bill Clinton On Friday, September 20, prior to signing the Defense of Marriage Act, President Clinton released the following statement:

Throughout my life I have strenuously opposed discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans. I am signing into law H.R. 3396, a bill relating to same-gender marriage, but it is important to note what this legislation does and does not do.

I have long opposed governmental recognition of same-gender marriages and this legislation is consistent with that position.

Along with whatever attributes it might have, it's a good diversionary tactic for governments. Eyes wide when it's rolled out.

"He was a very effective Chancellor" If by that you mean he managed to convert a good economic position into a bad one more comprehensively than has ever been done before ! After Gordon we are left with government spending at a staggering 48% of GDP (it was 37% in 1999)

MK

Followup, or maybe collateral damage:

You're probably right -- of would-be supporters, few are likely to be unhappy if he does so, and many will the thrilled because the whole "I'm evolving my beliefs" statement Obama has taken for years now is pretty darned poor, regardless of what your beliefs on the matter are.