Thanks. I too had thought Franco had been pretty much outed on several gossip sites.

Normally, wouldn't have thought twice, except the author made a point of naming him as heterosexual and said he was "playing gay."

FDR tried numerous things during his first term. Some worked. Some did not. Others were struck down by the Supreme Court. Some we still see today (WPA, etc). He did more in 100 days than I expect Obama to do in his first 4 years.

Obama tried 1 thing, the stimulus bill. He has shown himself again and again to be a very timid leader. He does not use his bully pulpit to champion ideas or give hope. He's been a great disappointment.

Do you have any support for the claims you're making that LGBT issues have no support?

ENDA is supported by over 2/3 of the American public. I can provide links to that or you can Google polls ENDA 2009.

DADT is supported by 7 of 10 Americans in a recent Gallop poll as well.

DOMA, I couldn't find information on polls for that, but with the first two so roundly supported by viable majorities, I don't know where you're getting the data to support your statements.

If they are supported by over 65% of the US, shouldn't they then be enacted?

I believe Jim Carrey was sent to earth to star in truly dreadful remakes of some of the best loved classics. A 2 hour version of the 24 minute version of the Grinch was more than I could take. This looked just as painful.

Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival....

This statement is from Loving vs. Virginia, settled by the Supreme Court. Hence, our legal system recognizes marriage as a civil right and not a civil contract.

Expat, if you want to discuss this further, go talk to the 9 in SCOTUS.

There doesn't seem to be any difference between the Bush and Obama DOJs. I know that there were several Bush holdovers kept in the current DOJ.

If this was one issue, I might be able to better understand but combine this with the rabid advocacy of the same DOJ on the issue of DOMA and it gives you pause. Either the DOJ is not listening to the Executive (which I doubt) or Obama is saying one thing and doing another.

Given the likelihood of not acting as he is speaking, I have to agree with the other posters who say that he is progressive in name only. I think we hired a shill.

That supports the comments of several of the posters here looked at which doctors generated the most malpractice suits. Just like any 80/20 situation, a small number of doctors generated the majority of the malpractice lawsuits. However, since the AMA is unwilling to police its own, then some sort of outside licensing bureau needs to implement a three strikes and you're out rule for doctors.

I can't believe that Crist's orientation is not a big factor in the decision to support a more right-wing challenger. This has happened in the past and the typical excuse is that the candidate is too "moderate".

Corzine has come out in favor of gay marriage and wants NJ to be the next state to legalize it. So his election does make a difference to some people.

If not now, then when? No one ever has an answer to that question.

Speaking of which, when is the Senate debating/voting on the defense reauthorization bill w/ the hate crimes amendment in it?

Well, Dynasty runs on Soapnet from time to time, so why should I believe her about anything else?

>>>>the "gay marriage" proposal in California failed because the gay agenda community is full of haters, perverts, and arrogant jerks. It is not enough to have equal rights under the law; they want equal thoughts and feelings under the skin. sorry, never gonna happen.<<<

Sorry -- don't know how I could have misread this and thought anything other than that you were a big supporter of GLBT rights.

Frankly, given civil rights in 1965 I don't think many blacks cared what went on under the skin. I believe the GLBT community will be the same way.

Refusing to fund existing programs happens all the time. Remember when in 2004/2005 when the Republicans talked about not funding NPR, National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. They weren't going to go back and rewrite the law to remove these organizations from existance. They would just not fund them and remove them from being through the attrition of no dollars.

But apparently the heads of the Democratic Party do not want this to happen.

Wow, didn't realize that a whole movement had to be angels in order to get equal rights.

According to your philosophy then, there should be no civil rights for blacks until the KKK has died from attrition. There will always be haters; I don't know why. But I fail to see how disgust at any other person means that you get to say that they are undeserving of the same rights as anyone else.

All men are created equal, not just the ones we like.

I would more likely believe that civil unions would be ok with everyone except for Washington state. They're trying to repeal domestic partner benefits. Not marriage, not religious ceremonies, but a DP benefit upgrade.

That belies the right's (and especially the Mormon church's ) statements that marriage is sacred but they would be in favor of the same thing under another name.

If DP benefits are fair game, then it's a lie to say that we could get everything except marriage.

In terms of results, what difference does it make what is said to a friendly group? I would be happy if Obama acted and implemented all of his campaign promises -- and never spoke of gay rights again.

Is personal feeling ever a good reason to deny basic civil rights?

I think Glenn's statistics put you in the minority on these issues.