Good for you, Florida! From the Miami Herald:
For same-sex couples waiting, some of them for years, to wed in Florida, the big day came Monday.
The ban that had kept them from marrying met its end, perhaps permanently, in Miami-Dade County on Monday afternoon — and overnight elsewhere in the state — after a years-long battle over what advocates have called a fundamental civil right.
Crying tears of joy and relief, men and women who had challenged the ban leaped to their feet and shrieked with joy inside downtown Miami’s historic courthouse Monday morning when a judge ruled with little fanfare that the couples could marry right away. They would have otherwise had to wait until after midnight Tuesday, when another judge’s ruling took effect statewide…
[Judge] Zabel declared Florida’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional in July. But she stayed her decision, pending appeal.In August, U.S. District Judge Robert N. Hinkle of Tallahassee also overturned the ban. But Hinkle, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, stayed his decision till the end of the day Monday to provide time for legal appeals. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Republican who vigorously defended the ban, sought extensions of the stay from the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. Both turned her down.
Bondi’s office appeared to concede defeat Monday afternoon…
Much more at the link.
In more partisan reactions, this electoral cycle’s Bush Clan candidate attempted, as he has for the past twenty years, to have it both ways. Per NYMag:
… Jeb Bush marked the occasion by tweaking his non-committal stance on the issue. When asked about the issue while exiting a golf course on Sunday, Bush appeared to be opposed to the state judge’s ruling. “It ought be a local decision. I mean, a state decision,” he said, “The state decided. The people of the state decided. But it’s been overturned by the courts, I guess.” However, when asked today if supports challenging the ruling, Bush told the New York Times, “regardless of our disagreements, we have to respect the rule of law.”…
Like many politicians, Bush’s tone on gay rights used to be much more harsh. On Monday BuzzFeed unearthed a editorial Bush wrote in 1994, during an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign, in which he responded to a Miami Herald piece that called him a bigot for his views on homosexuality. While Bush argues against discriminating against homosexuals, he concludes, “should sodomy be elevated to the same constitutional status as race and religion? My answer is No. We have enough special categories, enough victims, without creating even more.”…
.@jebbush in his 1995 book Profiles in Character on "modern victim movements" pic.twitter.com/ODo8UZqpKM
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 5, 2015
**********
Apart from evolving as it becomes politically expedient congratulating the happy couples, what’s on the agenda for the day?
ThresherK
But 1994 was sooooo looooong agoooooo.
Schlemazel
We lived in Florida in 1994 and I never saw a dumber candidate or a more incompetent campaign than litle Jebbie’s. To solidify his base he chose a moron from the State legislature who was on record with anti-hispanic and anti-Jewish comments. There was a televised debate between him and Lawton Chiles that showed Jebbie to be a lost and confused idiot. There were some great “deer in the headlight” moments.
At the time I had some friends active in the Florida GOP and they assured me that Jebbie was known as the stupid Bush. I reminded them of that in the early 2000’s & they won’t talk to me now.
satby
Horrible road conditions again today, and I miss working from home more than ever.
I’ve never appreciated pandering for any reason, but the reality that most of the Repubs who oppose marriage equality really don’t care personally and are publicly opposed only to satisfy their troglodyte base especially annoys me. It’s such a clear example of their lack of any core principles, though they think it demonstrates principle.
Sherparick
And no group has learned better the art of “playing” the victim then Movement Conservatives
OzarkHillbilly
The front page at the Guardian was depressing except for the article on gay marriage in FL, so I read that first. Even that was depressing with the same old justifications. Tho I do appreciate the chutzpah of a group calling themselves the Liberty Counsel trying to deny people the liberty of marrying whomever they choose.
Karen in GA
@satby: To be fair, the lack of any core principles is a principle in its own special way.
Open thread? Iggy found his calling.
Mustang Bobby
One of my co-workers and his partner were second or third in line to get their license at the Miami-Dade County Clerk’s office yesterday. His partner’s whole family was there to celebrate, and my colleague was interviewed on for the local TV station. I am delighted for them and live ever hopeful that when I find my guy, we’ll follow them.
This “conciliatory” shrug from Jeb isn’t going to cut it with the True Believers in the Republican base. He’ll be seen as caving in to the Sodomites on South Beach to pander for their votes, and no self-respecting homophobe would vote for anyone who says we have to respect the rule of law.
But if they had any sense, they would realize that same-sex marriage will be great for the economy; I can’t imagine any gay couple I know throwing anything but a fabulous wedding.
Sherparick
Chris Hedges has great story on the rise of prison industries and privatization in the U.S. and its malicious and inhuman influence. By the way, this is the model of the “School Privatization” movement as well where the ultimate trick will be to turn children into an unpaid child labor force (a/k/a slaves), something Newt Gingrich proposed to much conservative applause back in 2011-12. See https://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_prison_state_of_america_20141228
Baud
@ThresherK:
Actually, 1994 was a long time ago. The problem is he won’t say what his personal view is now.
Kay
@satby:
Democrats should hammer them on it. The Bush campaign used same sex marriage relentlessly in Ohio in 2004 to drive religious turnout. It was no secret. Ohio Republicans crowed about it in the NYTimes after they won. Nasty, vicious targeting of a certain segment of ordinary people to drag a Bush over the finish line in Ohio. If this stuttering, incoherent response is any indication they’re now planning on downplaying that or hoping no one remembers.
There should be some accountability. They didn’t just “oppose” same sex marriage. They exploited it as much as they could to drive religious voter turnout.
Baud
Jeb is more likely than not hoping that the Supreme Court resolves this issue for him, so he can rail against activist judges while saying we must respect the rule of law. It avoids him ever having to take a real position on the issue.
Steeplejack
I was up earlier than usual this morning to enjoy the snowy scene here on Threadkill Lane in NoVA. Looks like we’ve had about an inch so far, and it’s supposed to continue snowing through the rush hour. But it’s supposed to be powdery snow that won’t stick around. Can’t tell from up here on the second floor. It’s bitter cold, 22°, so I’m glad I don’t have to get out in it.
Coffee with the housecat, who is beside me at her workstation—microfleece throw folded around a heating pad—and soon the crosswords.
Iowa Old Lady
@Schlemazel: So you think Jeb Bush would be like Rick Perry? I feared Perry as a candidate until he opened his mouth. It feels like I know these pols because I hear their names so much, but when I think of it, I’ve never heard Jeb speak.
Steeplejack
These advances in civil rights have so many ramifications beyond the specific recognition of same-sex marriage that will spread into all areas of society. I am thinking of end-of-life issues and who is allowed in the patient’s room depending on whether or not they are “related.” Also family law.
My brother—not the RWNJ but the doctor/squire of Sighthound Hall here in Arlington—and his husband recently adopted a baby girl from Florida, and they have been jumping through a lot of hoops that hopefully will now get easier. Currently they have guardianship of their girl, but because Florida didn’t recognize same-sex marriage my brother was going to have to do a solo adoption in Florida and then go through a lot of red tape up here to get his partner added as a legal adoptive parent. Now, depending on how soon the bureaucracy adapts, he and his partner will be able to do a “normal” adoption in Florida. Progress!
Iowa Old Lady
@Steeplejack: Congrats to your brother and his husband on the baby!
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: Yes. Enjoy looking out and seeing a snowscape, even though ours does not yet fully cover the ragged brown leaves still left on the front yard. (Never got around to the third major raking. Yet.)
Love a snowy winter day, since they’re relatively rare in NoVA.
Bystander
Samantha Guthrie is “interviewing” Palin about the dog incident. Looks like a warm up for the lovemaking scenes in Klondykes in Love.
Mike J
Interesting how he tries to imply that “victims” are are merely whiners who want special rights nobody else gets, and simultaneously that religions are owed that status.
Elizabelle
@Iowa Old Lady:
Second that. A little daughter for Sighthound Hall. Cheers all around.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mike J: At least he acknowledges the fact that societies play a role in creating victims. Oooopps, my bad, he means “victimhood”.
danielx
Have always loved the stillness that comes with falling snow, of which there’s about six inches on the ground with more coming down.
I’m sure I’ll get over it by March.
debbie
@Iowa Old Lady:
Even worse than Perry and Romney combined. Who else but an overentitled a**hole would state, “The surest way to get something in today’s society is to elevate one’s status to that of the oppressed.”?
ETA: And what’s the classification for those lower than the oppressed?
Baud
@debbie:
They believe it. That’s why they whine so much.
Elizabelle
@debbie:
The empathy that comes with being grandson of a Connecticut US Senator, son of a US VP and President, in time brother to the worst US president in history (re-elected in 2004, way to go USA).
The Bushes do not live in the real world, and they grift through politics to ensure they don’t have to descend to our level.
FWIW, I think GHW Bush was the best of the lot (served his country; seems modest enough personally to be called a “wimp”). GHWBush was a moderate Republican who switched spots to match his party, which was turning radically conservative. Bad move.
GHWBush saddled us with the amply unqualified Clarence Thomas, a finger in the eye when replacing Thurgood Marshall. Mean spirited. Bad legacy.
He did live to see what a clusterf*ck his oldest son was as President. I think GHWBush gets that, big time. He loves his son, but I bet he winces a lot in private.
Amir Khalid
@Schlemazel:
I remember commentary to the effect that Jeb was the brainiest of Poppy’s boys. That he, not George Walker, should have been the one to be President, but his brother stole a march on him. (An assessment which kind of contradicts itself, now that I think about it.)
Betty Cracker
One couple I know is in line at the clerk’s office in Tampa. They say the line is very long. They’ve waited for 18 years to get married, so they’re willing to stand in line as long as it takes.
bg
Jeb has no respect for the rule of law. He proved that with his treatment of poor Terri Schiavo and her family. He sent the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement to the hospice to forcibly take her into custody, in violation of a court order, but FDLE refused to get into a battle with local police who were enforcing the court order.
He can pretend to be moderate; he is a skilled politician, but there is hate in his heart.
Per the Seattle Times, 2002:
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told a delegation of lawmakers he had “some juicy details” about the sexual orientation of a missing Miami girl’s caretakers.
During a meeting Wednesday, Bush implied that the two women, who had just been charged with fraud stemming from the investigation into Rilya Wilson’s disappearance, were lesbians.
“As (Pamela Graham) was being arrested, she told her co-workers, ‘Tell my wife I’ve been arrested.’ The wife is the grandmother, and the aunt is the husband,” Bush explained, using his fingers to indicate quotation marks to emphasize the word grandmother.
“Bet you don’t get that in Pensacola,” Bush told his guests — three Republican Panhandle legislators, two GOP state House candidates and aides — during a meeting in the governor’s office.
The governor apparently did not realize a reporter with Gannett Regional Newspapers of Florida accompanied the group. His comments were reported yesterday in the Pensacola News-Journal.
Many of us have evolved on issues of gay rights, including me, but most of us weren’t having fun about the sexual orientation of the alleged murderers of a five year old.
Baud
For those keeping track, the U.S. Supreme Court could decide as early as Friday whether to determine the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans.
Amir Khalid
According to the BBC, this guy wants to be the next FIFA president:
debbie
@bg:
Don’t forget that even after her death, Jeb tried to go after Michael Schiavo for not having called 911 quickly enough.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
I can’t remember the specific circumstance (maybe giving the UN inspectors more time?), but there were a number of GHWB advisors speaking out against GW. More than a few people thought it was the father communicating through his pals to his son.
Matt McIrvin
Here’s an article I can only call “The NYPD revolt proves we should be afraid of the fascist Obama”:
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/03/the_nypds_mini_rebellion_and_the_true_face_of_american_fascism/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
He takes a while to reason his way around to it.
Astonishingly, he appears to be a white guy.
deep
I still don’t get how the party that Officially Hates Gays is the party that has groups like the Log Cabin Republicans working for them. I mean… your party hates you. My only guess is that they’re colossal douchebags who stand to make a shitload of money if Republicans get elected and are willing to put up with the abuse in for political favors.
Betty Cracker
@bg: I doubt any of the Bushes really give a rat’s ass about abortion, gay rights, end-of-life issues, the death penalty, etc. But they have the casual cruelty of people who were raised to believe they are the star actors on the world stage and the billions around there are expendable extras in their family drama. The same mindset led GWB to mock Carla Faye Tucker’s pleas for mercy. They are sociopathic bullies.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
“Casual cruelty” — that’s exactly it.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
Linky no work. You fix.
Amir Khalid
@Matt McIrvin:
Bob in Portland cited this very piece the day Salon posted it. It has that “I see Fascists everywhere!!elebenty-one!!” thing that calls out to BiP’s soul.
buskertype
its enough to make you hope that some nefarious liberal billionaire will start funneling money to “traditional marriage” dead-enders in some of these states. just to stir the pot. unfortunately I’m not sure it wouldn’t backfire.
Brendan in NC
@debbie: my first thought was “the middle class”. My second thought – the 99(.9)%
Amir Khalid
@Steeplejack:
Sorry about that. Try this one.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Been up before 5 am, shoveling snow so that I could get to work today.
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: I can even sympathize with every one of the guy’s concerns! And when he’s talking about the historic strain of right-wing authoritarianism in the US, he’s right on. But to weight priorities and dangers that way, you have to downplay the stuff that affects the largest number of people in the real world.
rikyrah
@Steeplejack:
that’s good. glad the child has found a loving home.
kc
@Kay:
I won’t forget how the GOP deliberately made opposition to same sex marriage into a wedge issue in the ’04 campaign.
Redshift
“Profiles in Character” – nice to see a political book that actually has an apt title for once.
Probably not in the way he intended, though…
Kay
@kc:
It was truly repulsive, and it wasn’t their religious supporters who made it repulsive. It was the non-religious (male) Bush fans in the base. They thought they had a winner, and I think they did.
If religious people had any sense of what was going on they should have been insulted. It was so clearly engineered at the ground level to bring them out. You could just see the campaign consultants sitting in a room, knowing they needed something to carry Bush over the finish line. They found it.
MomSense
That whole last paragraph from his (18)94 book is offensive. Either he is really stupid or he is intentionally misrepresenting movements for equal rights.
It is pretty rich for a Bush to lecture anyone about entitlements and benefits from society.
debbie
@Brendan in NC:
Your “casual cruelty” reminded me of the book “Trials of the Diaspora.” It’s a history of anti-S*mitism in Britain. The book refers to the Brits’ attitude in the early 20th century as genteel anti-S*mitism. I read this book when it came out in 2010, but that still sticks with me.
It also reminds me of the attitude of indifference in regard to abuses now being dealt to minority communities. Sure there are many active haters, but there are even more passive “not my problem” types.
debbie
@debbie:
Crap. Meant to respond to Betty directly. Sorry.
Steeplejack
@Iowa Old Lady, @Elizabelle, @rikyrah:
Thanks! She is thriving now after being born underweight (≈ 5 pounds) in mid-October. Biggest current danger is being spoiled rotten by grandmas, uncles and family friends. Bro’ man has been on leave from his job since the adoption and has been the primary caregiver while the hubster finished business school. Bro’ man is going back to work at the end of the month, and I think the hubster is going to take over with a little nanny help.
Kay
Democrats could have made a lot of hay over Jeb Bush’s decade-long record of public education profiteering since he left “the public sector”, but they won’t be able to to because half of them are in it themselves.
Shame, that. We won’t hear a word about it, and it’s a great story. He’s dumping the connections as fast as he can, but there’s an incredibly rich and documented trail in lots and lots of states he’ll be campaigning in.
cmorenc
@Karen in GA:
One of the best Groucho Marx quips is: “THOSE ARE MY PRINCIPLES! AND IF YOU DON’T LIKE THEM…well, I have others.”.
Elizabelle
Sentencing this morning for former Virginia governor, Transvaginal Bob McDonnell. He’s arrived at court.
Richmond NBC affiliate was planning to cover the sentencing live. Seeing if our local DC area stations will do so too, since they’ve got expanded coverage due to the one inch of snow emergency.
(DC area might get 2-4 inches. Laugh track from New Yorkers and midwesterners permitted.)
Elizabelle
Some local George Mason U law profs punditing on what kind of sentence Transvag Bob might get.
The host congratulated them for making it to the studio through the snow.
One inch, people.
No One of Consequence
http://twitchy.com/2015/01/05/man-of-the-people-jeb-bush-kicks-off-2016-exploration-in-greenwich-conn/
Wow.
Just, wow.
I sincerely hope that the folks posting to that page are reflective of the larger GOP base. ‘…they would vote for Sarah Palin in a heartbeat, but think that she can get more done behind the scenes…’
That right there just boggles my tiny little mind. Snowbilly Snookie is getting it done behind the scenes. What with donating something like 0.007% of her fundraising to actual political campaigns? Oh… The Grift is sooooo goooooood…
‘…would prefer Ted Cruz because he has more charisma than Scott Walker…’
Heh. Sure. Probably can chuck a cow-pattie further too… Both of those clowns are imminently electable. Sure. Trust me…
There will not be another Civil War in this country. There will be a self-selection and mass movement, and then I think that the United States of Canada will happily lose the real estate (just keep the nukes) contained in Jesusland.
Willfully ignorant and militantly, defensively proud of that fact.
***Fuggin’ Boggle***
– NOoC
Shalimar
People like David Duke don’t scare me. His time of being electable even by white supremacists has passed. People like Steve Scalise and Jeb Bush terrify me, because they believe the exact same things but with a much nicer tone. What difference does Jeb having a nicer tone than he had 20 years ago make? Elect him and he will enact the same policies. The W years and states like Wisconsin under Walker and Florida under Luthor have shown that they don’t talk about what they will do anymore, they just implement very unpopular policies as soon as they have the votes and then wait out the outrage because people will forget within a year and it won’t hurt them next election.
Matt McIrvin
@No One of Consequence: Nope. Black people are moving into the South.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
Which is kind of like being the prettiest of the Gorgon sisters.
lol
@Baud:
I’m guessing his beliefs about victims (ie: anyone not a straight white male) feeling entitled to free stuff (ie: civil rights, equality, etc) haven’t changed a single bit.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Mustang Bobby:
My brother-in-law is now dating someone, but I kept threatening G that I was going to sit him down and say, “You know, E, you’re not getting any younger — when are you going to find a nice boy and settle down? I bet you meet some cute doctors through your job.”
(We are hoping to meet the new BF this summer when we go back to Chicago to visit — IIRC, he’s an architect. He will need to be vetted by ME to make sure he’s worthy of my BIL.)
Gex
It seems to me that gay people being asked to become integral parts of society isn’t all that different than gay people asking to join integral institutions of society, like marriage. And if you want to tell people that they can’t participate in fundamental aspects of our society, you can just fuck right off when you bitch that those people set themselves apart as victims. You can’t victimize people and then complain that they claim victimhood, asshole.
Shalimar
@Amir Khalid: There were 4 male Bush siblings, W, Jeb, Neil and that one who has never gotten publicity for doing something incredibly stupid. I’m going to go with whatever the 4th one’s name is for least dumb.
Marvin. Wikipedia informs me that the youngest son is named Marvin.
John M. Burt
And a 38th star on our flag comes alight: http://alternateflags.tumblr.com/post/107339818120/https-www-youtube-com-watch-v-x6t2vb6jtpc-goof