No more Texas governors for president
![quickhits:
Anti-gay Virginia Republican both hateful and wrong.
ThinkProgress:
Earlier this week, the Virginia House of Delegates rejected Tracy Thorne-Begland, a former Navy pilot and top Virginia prosecutor, for a seat on Virginia’s lowest ranking trial court because, in the words of Del. Bob Marshall (R-VA), Thorne-Begland’s gay “lifestyle is exactly contrary to” his obligation to uphold the state constitution. On CNN this morning, Marshall doubled-down on this view, explaining that he blocked Thorne-Begland because the judicial candidate had the audacity to serve his country while gay:
MARSHALL: [Thorne-Begland] had to misstate his background in order to be received into the military in the late 1980s. There was a specific question, “are you a homosexual?” He had to say no. He took an oath of office which he had to defy… . Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks never took an oath of office that they broke. Sodomy is not a civil right. It’s not the same as the Civil Rights Movement. You have to look at the past, and, in fact, look, in late 2011 he was critical of the, you know, Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. He criticized our attorney general simply for explaining what the law of Virginia is with respect to certain protected classes.
Here’s the thing, Marshall’s not right about that civil right thing — at all. As Ian Millhiser points out, “‘Sodomy,” as Marshall so quaintly puts it, is a civil right. That was the holding of Lawrence v. Texas, which established that consenting adults have a right to be free from government interference in their ‘private sexual conduct.’”
And is he saying that, had MLK or Rosa Parks broken with an oath of office, it would make them unfit for the bench? Really?
As is so often the case, some rightwing hater has to rationalize himself out of the hole he’s dug for himself. And, as is just as often the case, he’s failing very, very badly.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m46d0i0uz51qfengno1_500.jpg)
Anti-gay Virginia Republican both hateful and wrong.
Earlier this week, the Virginia House of Delegates rejected Tracy Thorne-Begland, a former Navy pilot and top Virginia prosecutor, for a seat on Virginia’s lowest ranking trial court because, in the words of Del. Bob Marshall (R-VA), Thorne-Begland’s gay “lifestyle is exactly contrary to” his obligation to uphold the state constitution. On CNN this morning, Marshall doubled-down on this view, explaining that he blocked Thorne-Begland because the judicial candidate had the audacity to serve his country while gay:
MARSHALL: [Thorne-Begland] had to misstate his background in order to be received into the military in the late 1980s. There was a specific question, “are you a homosexual?” He had to say no. He took an oath of office which he had to defy… . Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks never took an oath of office that they broke. Sodomy is not a civil right. It’s not the same as the Civil Rights Movement. You have to look at the past, and, in fact, look, in late 2011 he was critical of the, you know, Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. He criticized our attorney general simply for explaining what the law of Virginia is with respect to certain protected classes.
Here’s the thing, Marshall’s not right about that civil right thing — at all. As Ian Millhiser points out, “‘Sodomy,” as Marshall so quaintly puts it, is a civil right. That was the holding of Lawrence v. Texas, which established that consenting adults have a right to be free from government interference in their ‘private sexual conduct.’”
And is he saying that, had MLK or Rosa Parks broken with an oath of office, it would make them unfit for the bench? Really?
As is so often the case, some rightwing hater has to rationalize himself out of the hole he’s dug for himself. And, as is just as often the case, he’s failing very, very badly.
FEB. 21, 1965: MALCOLM X ASSASSINATED
On Feb. 21 1965, one of America’s most influential revolutionary leaders was assassinated.
His memory lives on as one of the most prominent and controversial individuals in the Civil Rights Movement. Reflect on Malcolm X’s legacy and words with a rare interview from the PBS Archives.Image: This is the only photo of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm. In 1964 both men went to watch the Senate filibuster of the Civil Rights Act.
(via npr)
howblackhistoryshouldbetaught:
Brothers gonna work it out.
I’ll tell you right now…
I am a little tired of foreclosure signs;
I am a little tired of seeing so many of our neighbors stuck in job lines;
Tired of racial profiling;
Tired of our students being under educated, over indebted, and over incarcerated;
Tired of seeing immigrants used as whipping boys and scapegoats;
Tired of seeing the world’s greediest financiers get away with reaping extreme profits off the poor;
Tired of politicians attacking our neighbors’ right to vote;
AND…
Tired of seeing THAT FLAG whenever we come to THIS CAPITOL. (Governor Haley knows what it stands for, why it was hoisted up here 58 years ago, and that it needs to come down today.)
In short, I am tired of dealing with so-called leaders who have been all too quick to talk out of one side of their mouth about celebrating Dr. King’s legacy, while doing all they can out of the other side of their mouth to block his dream from becoming a reality.
But just because we are tired, don’t let anyone think we have grown weary in well doing.
We are on fire for justice.
We will keep fighting until all who want to work can find a job and all who have a job can afford a decent home.
We will keep fighting until all our nation’s children can get the education they deserve.
And when it comes to our right to vote we will not let any unjust law—or any person for that matter— turn us around.
In the last two weeks, as protesters have gathered from New York to Los Angeles to protest corporate domination over American politics, a true Tea Party movement may be brewing.
