Thursday Open Thread

Filed in National by on August 12, 2010

Welcome to the Thursday edition of your open thread. The floor is yours…try not to leave a mess.

Former Vice President Dan Quayle’s son Ben is running for Congress in Arizona. He’s looked like a sure thing until lately. First he got caught using other people’s children in his campaign literature (the children were his nieces). Now’s he’s been outed as a former writer for a gossip rag called Dirty Scottsdale.

But Quayle, 33, has had to confront a much bigger credibility issue this week after a blogger revealed that he had once been a contributing writer for Dirty Scottsdale, a raunchy, sex-themed website that covered the club scene in his adopted home town before morphing into the national gossip site TheDirty.com.

At first, Quayle denied the claim, telling POLITICO Tuesday that he “was not involved in the site.” But hours later, after blogs, news websites and other media picked up the story, Quayle told several Phoenix TV stations that he had posted on the site “to try to drive some traffic.”

He continued to maintain, however, that he did not post under the pseudonym “Brock Landers,” a reference to the name of a porn star in the 1997 flick “Boogie Nights.”

Most of us don’t care if he wrote naughty pieces in Scottsdale. However he’s running on “family values” and is just another GOP family values hypocrite.

Today we’re waiting to hear whether Judge Walker will lift the stay on his Prop 8 ruling, allowing same sex marriages to begin again in California. Already the ruling has had huge consequences. A new CNN poll found a majority of Americans support the right of same sex couples to marry. Now the American Bar Association has issued a resolution supporting same sex marriage.

Gays and lesbians should have the right to marry in civil ceremonies, the ABA’s policy-making House of Delegates declared on Tuesday. The measure passed on a voice vote.

A lineup of ABA leaders, both past and present, spoke in favor of the resolution. Incoming ABA President Stephen Zack asked “Why would anyone in this country not want two people who love each other to enjoy the blessings of marriage and the protections of law?”

Former ABA President Tommy Wells told the House that “our citizens of the same sex who are being denied the right to a civil marriage are only seeking to participate in an equal basis in a foundational institution of our civil life. They simply want to share in the legal blessings that we give to married couples. It can only strengthen marriage.”

Resolution 111 (PDF) had been gaining momentum in the House since a U.S. district court judge ruled last week in Perry v. Schwarzenegger that California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage violated the U.S. Constitution. On Saturday, Laurence Tribe, the U.S. Justice Department’s senior counselor for access to justice, speculated during a program at the annual meeting that there is a good chance the U.S. Supreme Court would uphold the district court ruling, with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy likely providing the swing vote.

Good for the ABA. The Prop 8 ruling is turning out to be quite a watershed and the opponents of same sex marriage are being left behind.

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Opinionated chemist, troublemaker, blogger on national and Delaware politics.

Comments (19)

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  1. Wow. Ta-Nehisi Coates on last year’s Henry Louis Gates incident (remember the beer summit?):

    Read Crowley’s report and stop on page two when he admits seeing Gates’s Harvard photo ID. I don’t care what Gates had said to him up until then, Crowley was obligated to leave. He had identified Gates. Any further investigation of Gates’ right to be present in the house could have been done elsewhere. His decision to call HUPD seems disproportionate, but we could give him points for thoroughness if he had made that call from his car while keeping an eye on the house. Had a citizen refused to leave Gates’ home after being told to, the cops could have made an arrest for trespass.

    But for the sake of education, let’s watch while Crowley makes it worse. Read on. He’s staying put in Gates’ home, having been asked to leave, and Gates is demanding his identification. What does Crowley do? He suggests that if Gates wants his name and badge number, he’ll have to come outside to get it. What? Crowley may be forgiven for the initial approach and questioning, but surely he should understand that a citizen will be miffed at being questioned about his right to be in his own home. Perhaps Crowley could commit the following sentences to memory: “I’m sorry for disturbing you,” and “I’m glad you’re all right.”

    By telling Gates to come outside, Crowley establishes that he has lost all semblance of professionalism. It has now become personal and he wants to create a violation of 272/53. He gets Gates out onto the porch because a crowd has gathered providing onlookers who could experience alarm. Note his careful recitation (tumultuous behavior outside the residence in view of the public). And please do not overlook Crowley’s final act of provocation. He tells an angry citizen to calm down while producing handcuffs. The only plausible question for the chief to ask about that little detail is: “Are you stupid, or do you think I’m stupid?” Crowley produced those handcuffs to provoke Gates and then arrested him. The decision to arrest is telling. If Crowley believed the charge was valid, he could have issued a summons. An arrest under these circumstances shows his true intent: to humiliate Gates.

  2. Seeing on Twitter that the Blagojevich jurors say they’re deadlocked on 22 out of 24 charges.

  3. Not Brock Landers says:

    Why is Joe Blanton pitching every time I go to a Phillies game?

  4. a. price says:

    plan your next phillies game, then go to the next day. you’ll get halladay. btw, saw Oswalt pitch last night… awesome.

  5. MJ says:

    Actually, the kids in the Ben Quayle lit belonged to campaign staffers.

  6. Has a lawyer/blogger from DL called in to a Delaware talk radio show?
    The caller made impenetrable points, the host sucked eggs.

  7. My Twitter stream says that Judge Walker has lifted the stay on his Prop 8 ruling in California. That means that same sex marriages can continue immediatedly in California. No link yet…

  8. MJ says:

    CNN is reporting the same, UI.

  9. Here’s a link to today’s Prop 8 ruling.

    Same sex marriages in California can begin again on August 18.

  10. OK, I understand better. The stay on the ruling is lifted on August 18. The 9th Circuit has a week to decide to issue its own stay of the ruling. However it’s still not clear if there’s actually someone with legal standing to appeal the ruling.

  11. From my quick read, most of the decision deals with arguing that the proponents of the stay do not have standing to file an appeal.

  12. MJ says:

    UI – Page 5 is the important part. Since Arnold and Jerry have said they are not going to appeal the decision, it appears that the Prop 8 folks are SOL.

    Now to talk to my partner about booking a flight to LAX or SFO.

  13. delacrat says:

    MJ,

    Spare us.

    When a tiny unknown group “christian” group burns a muslim holy book, you get sooo indignant.

    I recall when the IDF was burning muslim people in Gaza with white phosphorous. you were an IDF cheerleader.

  14. MJ says:

    Typical delacrap – hijacking a thread. Get over yourself. So, by your comments, you’re supporting this group?

    And please show me where, on this blog or anywhere else, I endorsed the burning of anyone. You can’t can you, you douchebag.

  15. anonone says:

    MJ, why don’t you go to Boston?

  16. a.price says:

    go screw yourself delcrat. I dare you to go to Gaza, explain to Hamas that you “understand their plight” and see how fast they chop your head off, take a video of it and send it to your family.
    ignorant jerk wad.

  17. MJ says:

    A1 – I have family out in CA and CO – it would be easier for them to make the ceremony.

  18. anonone says:

    I see. I hope it happens for you and your fiancé sooner than later.