Great New Japanese/Korean Restaurant In Philly!

This is "Doma" located in the Logan Square section of Philadelphia, not too far from where we live. Although not brand new (it apparently ope4ned last Spring) the food was great when we made our first visit Sunday evening. Who is up for joining us?

James Carville Jokes About Wimpy Obama

Photo: Taormina, Sicily

James Carville on Obama:

"If Hillary gave up one of her balls and gave it to Obama, he'd have two," Carville said at a "Christian Science Monitor" breakfast discussion.

It would be funnier if it wasn't so sad and true.

Seniors, The Middle Class and The Poor Are About to Be Raped

Photo: Taormina, Sicily

The President's Commission on deficit reduction will have a lot of gifts for the wealthy in its report. The recommendations on tax reform, e.g., lowering the top marginal rate on the wealthiest Americans, will, if enacted, complete the return of this country (started by Saint Ronald Reagan) to the Age of the Robber Barons, before progressive taxation was first enacted. The gap between the wealthy and the rest of us will get bigger. I doubt that we can depend on Barak to reject the backward recommendations of his own commission.

Meanwhile, another commission, chaired by former Republican fat cat senator Pete Domenici, will recommend, among other things, cutting Medicare benefits and making seniors pay more out of pocket for medical care. So the wealthy will see their taxes cut and those least able to afford it will have to pay more for medical benefits. This country is sure headed down the shit tubes.

Ricky Nelson - Travelin' Man 1961

Beautiful man...great song.

Holidays Fast Approaching!

Photo: Taormina, Siscily

It's less than two weeks to Thanksgiving already! The holidays are about upon us.

Obama Is Doing Nothing To Get DADT Repealed

Obama talks a good game on gay rights, then does nothing, or worse yet, defends DOMA and DADT.

R. Clarke Cooper, Executive Director of the Log Cabin Republicans:

"It is unfortunate the Obama Justice Department has forced the Log Cabin Republicans to go to the Supreme Court to halt this failed policy. At the same time, President Obama remains far from the front lines of the fight for legislative repeal while commanding his lawyers to zealously defend 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' in court. This week Log Cabin Republicans have conducted meetings with numerous Republican senators potentially in favor of repeal, all of whom are waiting for the President's call. The White House has been missing in action on Capitol Hill, undermining efforts to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' in the final session of this Congress, potentially leaving the judiciary as the only solution for our brave men and women in uniform."

Gay Anger At The Dems And Obama

Photo: The Roman Theater at Taormina, Sicily

There is a lot of bazz currently to the effect that Obama and the Democrats are ready to drop the effort to repeal DADT through the defense authorization bill. This would kill repeal for years. Here is a sample of the comments I am seeing in the blogosphere:

I'm now 45 and I'm GODDAMNED SICK AND TIRED of being "patient." I'm an American citizen and all I want are the same rights that straight people take for granted from the day they are born. And until the Democrats demonstrate through actions that they believe all that sanctimonious bullshit they always spout during election season, I don't care whether they win or not. When I get equality, they can have my vote again.

To See Obama on TV Is To Change The Channel

Photo: Taormina, Sicily


Drew Westin at Huffington sums up the way I feel about Obama:

Like most Americans I talk to, when I see the president on television, I now change the channel the same way I did with Bush. With Bush, I couldn't stand his speeches because I knew he meant what he said. I knew he was going to follow through with one ignorant, dangerous, or misguided policy after another. With Obama, I can't stand them because I realize he doesn't mean what he says -- or if he does, he just doesn't have the fire in his belly to follow through. He can't seem to muster the passion to fight for any of what he believes in, whatever that is. He'd make a great queen -- his ceremonial addresses are magnificent -- but he prefers to fly Air Force One at 60,000 feet and "stay above the fray."

...and he wrote this amost a year ago!

Gays Need To Stop Depending On Democrats

Photo: Taormina, Sicily, August 2010

David Mixner:

The LGBT struggle for civil rights is not an appendage of any political party. Freedom has no Party. Our national organizations must remember that they do not work for the President or the Democratic Party. Our LGBT leaders work for and are accountable to us and no one else.

I've been saying this for years. Unfortunately, our major gay rights group the Human Rights Campaign, is little more than a Democrat Party appendage. The inaction on gay rights issues over the past two years should finally shine a bright light on the waste of gay money that goes to HRC.

Landings at St. Barthelemy (SBH/TFFJ) Part 1

This is where we will be landing on our next (maybe final) vacation next March!

How Obama Blew It

Photo: Another photo of the Fire Island Pines in Autumn


Harvard lecturer Marshall Ganz in the Los Angeles Times:

Obama and his team made three crucial choices that undermined the president's transformational mission. First, he abandoned the bully pulpit of moral argument and public education. Next, he chose to lead with a politics of compromise rather than advocacy. And finally, he chose to demobilize the movement that elected him president. By shifting focus from a public ready to drive change — as in "yes we can" — he shifted the focus to himself and attempted to negotiate change from the inside, as in "yes I can."

Basically, what we have here is a total failure of leadership. As I have noted on this blog previously, Obama actually does not have the temperament to be president. He is total;ly deferential to his adversaries, while neglecting his base. We're lucky the senate didn't go Republican.

Obama Is To Blame For The Wave

Photo: Autumn in the Fire Island Pines


The New York Times gets it right: the blame for the massive Republican gains yesterday rests squarely with Barak Obama and his lack of leadership:

Mr. Obama, and his party, have to do a far better job of explaining their vision and their policies. Mr. Obama needs to break his habits of neglecting his base voters and of sitting on the sidelines and allowing others to shape the debate. He needs to do a much better job of stiffening the spines of his own party’s leaders.

He has made it far too easy for his opponents to spin and distort what Americans should see as genuine progress in very tough times: a historic health care reform, a stimulus that headed off an even deeper recession, financial reform to avoid another meltdown.

Mr. Obama has a lot of difficult work ahead of him. The politics in Washington will likely get even nastier. Before he can hope to build the minimal bipartisan consensus needed to move ahead, Mr. Obama will have to rally more Americans to the logic of his policies.

No Voting For Me Today

Photo: Bradley enjoys an Autumn walk on Fire Island.

It's pretty simple, really. All I require is a president, a political party, and candidates to be clear and unequivocal in their support for equality. Is that so much to ask? Apparently so. Well then, what will have to happen in this country is that the fanatics will have to get in and destroy what is left of America. Maybe then we can rebuild something out of the rubble.

The Trouble With Democrats

Photo: Fall on Fire Island


If the Democrats get their collective rear ends kicked tomorrow, part of the reason will be that too many of them are emmulating their leader Obama in trying to have it both ways on gay issues.

This is from PA. senatorial candidate Joe Sestak's web site:

SUPPORTS REPEAL OF THE DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT (DOMA)

DOMA prevented interstate and federal recognition of same sex marriage by mandating that no state be required to acknowledge same sex marriages that are officiated in other states and that the federal government may not recognize or officiate same sex marriages. Joe supports civil unions and believes that they are the providence of the states. He believes that marriage is a church issue. If states decide to allow same sex marriages, he believes that to be the right of that state. He opposes federal and state constitutional amendments against same sex marriage because he does not believe the decision should be forced upon any religious institution -- as it is a church’s right to exercise beliefs.

Huh?

Joe supports "civil unions"...that is not marriage equality. Marriage is a church issue? That is exactly backwards. Civil marriage is a basic civil right. Since when is marriage a church issue? Does that mean that marriage in front of a Justice of the Peace is invalid or less valid than a church marriage?

I am disappointed in Sestak, and not likely to vote on Tuesday or perhaps not until I can vote for a candidate that has the courage to stand up squarely for what is right.