Warning to Obama And The Democrats

Blogger John Aravosis warns Obama and the Democrats:

...come November, and come many more Novembers in the future, a lot of gays and lesbians, are going to realize that we're talking about our lives, rather than our right to attend a cocktail party. And when it comes to our lives, and voting for someone who treats us with the same kind of shame every single one of us grew up with, I think you're going to see an increasing number of gay Americans distancing themselves from the Democratic party with their donations and their votes. They may not vote Republican, nor should they - they simply may not vote at all.

Obama Will Increase Military Spending in 2011

Economist Jeffrey Sachs at Huffington:

Ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, slashing pay to overpriced contractors and eliminating unnecessary weapons systems could perhaps save between 2% and 3% of GDP each year. These are areas where the U.S. is squandering its income and blood, yet the President's proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 would actually increase military spending to more than $750 billion from around $720 billion this year. Military spending dwarfs almost everything else. In the White House's proposed budget, military spending would be nearly six times the federal outlays on education and 26 times the outlays on development assistance and humanitarian aid -- despite the fact that the Administration often promotes development as a central pillar of our national-security strategy.

What kind of man was elected president?

The Barbaric United States

We have military bases in something like 160 countries, while at home we refuse to pass legislation that would insure that some 50 million of our own citizens have health care insurance. There is talk of cutting Medicare, yet the military/defense budget is virtually untouchable. What kind of country is this?

Obama Missing In Action On Health Care

From the New York Times:

...a senior Senate Democratic aide expressed doubts.

“It has been three weeks since the Massachusetts election, and we have not received a path forward from the White House on health care substance and process that can clear the House and Senate,” the aide said.

No leadership from Obama...on health care or on gay rights, two of his key campaign promises.

Who does Obama think is going to vote from him next time?

My Message To HRC On DADT

To The Human Rights Campaign...

It is past time for HRC to demand that President Obama take immediate action to end dismissals under DADT, and take a leadsership role in getting Congress to repeal DADT. With Mullen and Gates on board, we need Obama to lead on this issue now. HRC must insist that Obama get full aquare behind the repeal effort and issue a stop loss order ending DADT dismissals immediately.

Psychology Of The Closet

Sadly, far too many gay men and lesbians do not consider their sexual orientation to be a crucial part of who they are. This is probably due our ability to pass for straight. Closeted people compartmentalize and minimize their gayness. Unfortunately, that leaves it up to a small minority of our community (do we rerally have a community?) to do the heavy lifting required in the fight for equality. This doesn't mean that those of us who are activists should not take the fight to those who oppose us, or stop trying to convince apathetic gays and lesbians to join us. It just means that we have our work cut out for us with an additional challenge that the Afrifcan-American community did not have to deal with in their struggle for equality.

Two Last Blizzardpix

Happy Valentine's Day!

Obama and Labor: A Fraying Relationship

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Obama's latest sellout - a deal with the Republicans on presidential appointments that they have been holding up:

A big win for the Republicans. A big win for corporations that want to file down the teeth of the NLRB. A big loss for working people.

Marriage Equality Direct Action In New York

Queer Rising marriage equality protest in New York City on Friday. Four activists were arrested after they chained themnselves to a railing outside of the city clerk's office. Non-violent civil disobedience is what the gay movement has lacked for too long. It is an effective tool in the fight for social justice. Below: actor Randy Harrison at the protest.

So THAT'S It!

Huffington blogger and thinktanker Michael Brenner knows why we progressives are so disappointed in President Barak:

We have in Obama a president who is what we used to call a moderate Republican before the species became extinct. That means suspicions of government programs, a strong belief that we should always give private interests the benefit of the doubt, an assumption that the rich deserve their riches, and an insensitivity to the plight of salaried Americans. Abroad, Obama is ready to deploy military might in dubious causes defined by the country's hawkish defense establishment.

No wonder I'm upset with Obama...he's actually a moderate Republican!

More Blizzardpix!

Obama And His Wall Street Friends

Robert Reich takes Obama to task:

Rather than defending the outsized paychecks of Dimon, Blankfein, and the rest of Wall Street as part of the free market system, the President needs to demand that Wall Street help homeowners on Main Street. The Obama White House should have made this a condition of getting the giant bailouts in the first place. The least it can do now is to is to make the free market system work for everyone.

Blizzardpix!

We're Doomed!

Obama now says it's just fine for the big bankers who almost ruined the world economy, to get seven figure bonuses because they are like highly paid professional baseball players. Yea, right. Here's what Paul Krugman thinks:

The point is that these bank executives are not free agents who are earning big bucks in fair competition; they run companies that are essentially wards of the state. There’s good reason to feel outraged at the growing appearance that we’re running a system of lemon socialism, in which losses are public but gains are private. And at the very least, you would think that Obama would understand the importance of acknowledging public anger over what’s happening.

But no. If the Bloomberg story is to be believed, Obama thinks his key to electoral success is to trumpet “the influence corporate leaders have had on his economic policies.”

We’re doomed.

The Great Blizzard Of 2010

We got another 15.8 inches of heavy, wet snow yesterday, on top of the 28 plus inches we got last Saturday...whew!!! We broke all the records and now we're at 70.3 inches for the season, the most sinces records have been kept. The city closed down. SEPTA stopped running buses by 5 PM. Schools and businesses closed not only for Wednesday, but for Thursday also. Now the dig out begins. But for a few days we'll have a winter wonderland to enjoy. Here are photos I took yesterday afternoon in the 'hood...

Nice Now That It's Done

I procrastinated about doing this job for a couple of years. Finally in January I bit the bullet and installed tiles in the kitchen backsplash above the sink. It looks great but it was a tough job that took me several days.

More Snow!

Sitting here this morning watching TV and waiting for the blizzard that is supposed to come this afternoon. How much more snow will we get/ Who knows. Pictures to follow.

Obama Failing

Steve Clemons at Huffington:

Any serious survey of the Obama administration's accomplishments and setbacks over the last year has to conclude that the administration is deeply in the red.

If current trends continue, this once mesmerizing Camelot-ish operation will be be seen in the history books as the presidential administration that -- to distort slightly and inversely paraphrase Churchill -- never have so many talented people managed to achieve so little with so much.

Clemons wants Obama to read an article by Ed Luce at the Financial Times. Luce blames Obama's reliance on his close team of advisors...the Chicago gang including Emmanuel, Axelrod, Gibbs and Jarrett...who were great on the campaign trail but have failed as a governing team.

Will Obama change course - change advisors? Probably not.

The Great Snowstorm Of February 6, 2010

The Pusher

Great then and still great!

DADT: The Underpinnings Are Gone!

Art Leonard:

Perhaps it is time for a new motion for summary judgment in the Witt case out in the 9th Circuit, attaching copies of this sworn testimony to show that the Defense Department has now abandoned its official rationale for the policy. Perhaps it is time for a federal district judge to order the Defense Department to cease processing gay troups for discharge.