Argh

[brigdh]

Committee votes to send constitutional amendment — which would prohibit states from recognizing same-sex marriages — to the full Senate

Okay, there's really no chance this is going to pass through Congress, much less get enough states to ratify it, but what the fuck? Seriously, how the hell has it even gotten this far, because it's certainly not like we don't have enough crazy governmental scandals at the moment. And why have I not heard anything about it before today? It is incredibly disturbing to glance over the Yahoo headlines and see one proclaiming "Senate committee approves constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage", let me tell you.

Comments

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I love how there are apparently so many problems with this government that none of them are responded to, because as soon as we find out about one, along comes something else even worse, and then yet another after that. It's like a rollercoaster, except with incompetence and secret prisons instead of fun.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I'm not really happy with anyone in power at this point, though I tend to vote Democrat because they have a better chance of getting elected than a third party. If I was less worried about the imminent total destruction of, you know, everything, I wouldn't be voting for them either.

I'd be interested in reading your manifesto, by the way.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

But Canada is cold! And has no beaches. I say we send Bush and all his friends to Canada, and we stay here.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

God, that's right, I'd forgotten. We are running out of places that aren't controlled by crazy people.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, yes, that looks nice. I like hammocks.

[fadagaski.livejournal.com]

It's annoying, but I think having it go to the Senate will be a good idea, because the Democrats (and those Republicans with a conscience) will hopefully filibuster it. And even if it gets forced through after that, they're not going to get the 3/4 State vote they need. And then the issue will lie dormant. And then, maybe, the next time it comes around they'll have a Constitutional amendment saying that marriage is a free for all, and the 50 year partnership of Fred and Phil is just as holy and valid as Britney Spears' 5-hour Vegas marriage. ;)

[fadagaski.livejournal.com]

I guess from this side of the pond things seem much more clear-cut. Democrats are human rights, Republicans are free market. Or something. I didn't do the politics module this year. ^_^

[fadagaski.livejournal.com]

All hope for a third party victory? It would be interesting to have an independent president with Congress and Senate as it is. Kind of, almost like Clinton in his second 4 years.

[fadagaski.livejournal.com]

Your phone's probably already tapped. ;P

[weirdquark]

Oh, it is. I saw a figure somewhere that gave the number of phones that were being monitered, and if you compare that to the population of Americans and subtract the number of people who are children, it's pretty much the same.

[fadagaski.livejournal.com]

Yeesh! For real? That's scary.

I know that all text messages in the UK are streamed through this program that picks out key words like 'bomb' and stuff. Some guy sent lyrics via text to his friend and had the guys in black suits turn up on his doorstep that evening.

[weirdquark]

I remember seeing someone else say so anyway, although I can't find it anymore.

But USA Today says that the NSA is looking at the phone calls of tens of millions of Americans. Basically, they asked AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth to give them info, and they said okay. The NSA also asked Qwest, and they said no. So it depends on who your phone company is.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Jesus. I hadn't seen that; last I heard, they were just looking at international calls. Thanks for the link.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I don't there's any chance of it actually passing, I'm just annoyed that it's even gotten this far. It's just an excuse for the Republicans to appeal to Evangelicals, but it pisses me off that they can use this issue like a show, a play, and ignore it's real, human consequences.

[fadagaski.livejournal.com]

Good point.

*feels ridiculous for rattling on about stuff you already know*

Was just proud to show that I have actually LEARNT stuff at uni this year!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Heh, no worries. Though good on you for being able to talk compentely about another country's politics; there's enough people who don't even know their own country's.

[fadagaski.livejournal.com]

That would be me. British politics is just ...

Tories: We're right wing, but not as much as we were.
Labour: But we're taking up that space! Budge over!
Tories: Fine, we'll go a little left.
LibDems: WTF? That's our patch. Shove off.
Tories: WTF?

[weirdquark]

Isn't it nice to know that high gas prices, the economy, the war in Iraq, wiretapping, and all those things aren't important, so our government can waste time focus on what really matters and argue about those evil queers getting legal recognition of their relationship?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

God, yes. I'd say it was just to distract our attention from the real problems, but there's so many real problems that they're doing a fairly good job of distracting attention from each other by themselves.

[weirdquark]

I think it's more that the religious right has been all "we own your ass" lately and the Republicans have been freaking out because they've already alienated most of the moderates in their party, so if they lose all the extremists too, they're totally screwed.

[aoyagi.livejournal.com]

Oh, for the love of God! This is fucking American prudence for you. It's okay that the economy is bad, that people are dying all over the world because of hunger and war, there's a shitload of diseases that could wipe half the population on Earth. No, all that is trivial compared to same-sex marriages. Because we all know that once homosexuals start getting married, the whole country will break apart and America will not be free anymore.

BULLSHIT, DAMNIT!

::fumes:: Sorry, this topic is a little bit of a peeve to me so I get high-strung immediately ::glares in the governments general direction:: I sure hope this will never get passed.

[weirdquark]

About a hundred years ago people were going on about how marriage was doomed because women were going to college. And then they said marriage was doomed if women were allowed to vote.

So nothing has changed. The people who can't deal with change are always going to be on about something.

[aoyagi.livejournal.com]

I sure hope that is the case, because seriously, restricting such thing is plain dumb -.-;

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

No worries. I'd be surprised if this issue isn't an important one for anyone on my flist; it certainly is for me.

[sl-rogue.livejournal.com]

Sigh, it's petty things like this that just makes me question humanity. Honestly, what's mettling and trying to ban same-sex marriage going to do to help the Country?

All just BS. -___-;;

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I just wish people would leave the issue alone. It's illegal in most of the country, it's not likely to change any time soon, so stop making a huge production out of it to remind us all how much you hate the gays. We get it.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to think of this in the same way that I thought of Pat Buchanan's win in the New Hampshire primary in 1996: when this shit shows up on the radar, the bad guys are in trouble. As in, Mr. 29%-and-sinking is running out of ways to appeal to his last few hardcore voters. But you still hate to see it, because who wants to share a country with even a few people who can be appealed to effectively this way?

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Oh, and Russ Feingold's statement on how it got out of committee is here (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/5/18/16392/8661). It explains neatly why you hadn't heard anything about it before today.

(I knew about it, vaguely, because politics is my other fandom. But I didn't expect it out of committee today either.)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I knew about it, vaguely, because politics is my other fandom.

Ah. Well, that makes me feel better. I like to think that I pay at least a little attention to politics, and was worried that if I'd slacked off enough to miss this, what else might have escaped my attention?

And thanks for the link as well. It'll be interesting to see what happens once the issue goes up before the whole Senate for debate.