Douglas Kmeic agrees with me

Conservative professor (and former Reagan and G.H.W. Bush Justice Department appointee) Douglas Kmeic suggests that California should move swiftly to resolve the Prop. 8 issue by eliminating California state "marriages" and instead implementing "civil unions" for all and sundry:

The governor told CNN that he hoped the state Supreme Court would overturn the people and Prop. 8. While there are some respectable legal arguments that the initiative does not meet the requirements of Article 18 of the state constitution, asking the court to invalidate Prop. 8 is a tall order. Properly, judges look for ways to avoid holding laws unconstitutional, and that is especially so when the law comes directly from the people.

All that said, the case is too close to call because Prop. 8 did not directly address the portion of the state Supreme Court decision that declared sexual orientation to be a suspect classification requiring compelling justification and because there is federal precedent that decries singling out any vulnerable group for legal disadvantage. In short, neither side can be confident of victory, and that is the best kind of case for settlement.

The governor should break the tie and free the judges from having to either set aside democracy or to uphold the decision of the people in a way that the governor and others would perceive as unequal treatment among his fellow Californians.

The governor has administrative authority to have regulations issued interpreting family law, and nothing in Prop. 8 precludes him from ensuring that homosexual and heterosexual couples are treated equally under state law so long as he stays clear of "marriage." This could be accomplished by limiting the state of California prospectively to the issuance of civil unions for all couples, rather than marriage licenses, leaving marriage, which in origin is predominantly a religious concept and not the real business of the state, to religion.

I have been saying this ever since the election results came in.  

But I go further.  I think the California courts, presented with a challenge to Prop. 8, if they find that Prop. 8 was lawfully enacted, are required to remove "marriage" as a valid state classification.  The California Supreme Court was non-committal on whether "marriages" had to be offered, but simply said that if  "marriage" was offered, it must be offered to all on a non-discriminatory basis.  And as Prof. Kmeic points out, Prop. 8 did not amend -- nor did it purport to amend by its language -- California non-discrimination protections, it simply said that "[o]nly marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."   It did not say that such "marriages" must be recognised. To resolve the conflict of laws, if Prop. 8 is valid, and California may not discriminate on the basis of gender or sexual orientation, the only permissible solution is to remove "marriage" from California law.

Yet to be determined is whether the same-sex marriages performed before the passage of Prop. 8 are still valid as "marriages".  But then, if they are no longer valid, then every other "marriage" in California must also be legally dissolved.  ;-)

They're like robots hit by lightning...

... or a pithed frog.

They're completely stopped even trying to make sense:

Reeling from Tuesday’s widespread losses, yesterday “about 20 political strategists and social and fiscal conservative leaders met” to discuss the future of the movement at the home of Brent Bozell, head of the right-wing Media Research Center. Describing the meeting on Fox News this morning, Bozell insisted America remained a “center-right country” and that the election had not been the death knell for conservatism because “conservatism played no role in the election.” Seconds later, however, Bozell claimed that Barack Obama had won the election “as a conservative”:

BOZELL: Conservatives didn’t play a role in this campaign. This was a moderate Republican against a liberal, left-wing Democrat. And the left-wing Democrat beat the moderate Republican. … If you look at the exit polls this year, you’ll find two fascinating results. Number one: This country remains every bit as center-right as it has for a generation.

HEMMER: You don’t think that’s changed at all?

BOZELL: No it hasn’t. … Number one is that the public is conservative; number two: Barack Obama won as a conservative. That means Barack Obama does not have the mandate to enact the progressive agenda he wants to enact.

And then there's this exemplar of Godwin's Law:

Yesterday evening, James Dobson’s Focus on the Family Action sent out a fundraising e-mail lamenting the victory of Barack Obama. (Dobson had personally endorsed the McCain-Palin ticket.) The author of the e-mail, Focus on the Family Action senior vice president Tom Minnery, told his readers not to despair, saying that the right wing would overcome this situation just as Britons overcame Hitler’s bombing in World War II:

The spirit of Winston Churchill was alive and well on Tuesday night at Focus on the Family Action headquarters.

You may recall that in the most desperate days of World War II – when Great Britain was being pounded daily by Hitler’s Luftwaffe – that Winston Churchill called on his countrymen not to despair from danger but to rise to the challenge. […]

As our incredible team of staff members watched the election results pour in on Election Night, an amazing thing happened that Churchill might have recognized. Despite some sobering disappointments, there was no mood of despair and no “bunker mentality.”

Yeah, with numbnutz and RW foamers thus reduced to incoherence and insanity, there will be need for the Secret Service to stay on their toes. But the good news is this:

In a new Rasmussen poll out today, Republicans overwhelmingly say that they want Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as their presidential nominee in 2012. Sixty-four percent of GOP respondents said that Palin would be their top choice in 2012....

(h/t to ThinkProgress for documenting this non-stop hit list of RW lunacy)

Life is good. :-)

While we await the change of administrations....

.... can we please, pretty please also get some turnover in the extremely stoopid TV "talking heads"?!?!? You know, term limits or sump'tin to get the dead wood out of there, onto a bonfire, and properly and thoroughly torched?!?!?:

Campbell Brown: For those people who have been worried about the possibility of one party controlling Congress and the White House, the last president to do that, of course, was....?

John King: Ah, that was Bill Clinton, and...

Brown: Jimmy Carter! Jimmy Carter had... Bill Clinton had Democrats in the House and in the Senate?

King: Very briefly.

Brown: Very briefly. [Crinkles her nose] Didn't go so well.

King: No it didn't.

(h/t to Atrios)

<*SHEESH*> Teh stoopid. It burns.

Monday morning quarterbacking, GOP style

One of the best and brightest RW foamers:

The results are in and the recriminations have begun. Sure, it might not have made any difference, but the number of sins of omission and commission by the McCain campaign is breathtaking. Let’s get a head start on the finger-pointing and give you the top thirty mistakes John McCain and his team made:

• Not pursuing the Reverend Wright connection, as an issue of judgment and then credibility. Even Jerry Nadler knew it was a sign that Barack Obama lacked political courage, i.e., character.
  
• Waiting until September to raise Barack Obama’s other troubling connections (e.g., Bill Ayers, Rashid Khalidi).
  
• Failing to devise a comprehensive economic message until the final weeks of the campaign.
  
• Failure to explain the Democrats’ role in the financial meltdown.
  
• Not enough talk about “friends of Angelo” and Democratic corruption.
  
• Wasting his convention speech on “bipartisanship” and biography instead of pounding home a core economic message.
  
• Frittering away time and money in Iowa.
  
• Losing time in the spring when McCain had sewn up the nomination but Obama had not. An ideal time to begin defining the contrast in messages.
  
• Appallingly deficient “oppo” research and timing. Why didn’t the “bankrupt the coal industry” tape come out before the final weekend?
  
• Going to war with the MSM without an effective plan to use alternate media to get their message out.
  
• Cutting off McCain’s daily access to the traveling press corps.
  
• The frenetic response to the financial meltdown. (Fire Chris Cox! Cancel the debate — no, hold the debate!) All that was missing was juggling knives on a tightrope above a fire pit.
  
• The roll-out of Sarah Palin.
  
• The internal trashing of Sarah Palin.
  
• The failure to put Sarah Palin on every radio and TV outlet they could find in the final two weeks of the campaign.
  
• The failure to find a top-flight economic advisor.
  
• Shutting down McCain’s regular contact with new media outlets.
  
• An insufficiently tough attack on Joe Biden’s lobbying and earmark activities.
  
• An insufficiently tough attack on Obama’s coziness with the Daley machine.
  
• An insufficiently tough attack on Obama’s ties and subservience to Big Labor.
  
• Failure to use McCain’s position in the U.S. Senate to introduce legislation and force votes on the floor that would have defined the two candidates (e.g., a budget freeze).
  
• Permitting chaos and public fighting among campaign staff. Heads should have rolled.
  
• Waiting too long to introduce the specter of undivided government.
  
• Waiting until the final Saturday Night Live before the election to show self-deprecating humor.
  
• Not firing Palin’s entire staff when they publicly trashed her.
  
• Insufficient registration and party-building efforts in Colorado and Virginia.
  
• Too much whining about the MSM.
  
• Too much hostility toward conservatives offering smart strategy and policy ideas.
  
• Not enough explanation and focus on Tony Rezko.
  
• Not enough explanation of the Herbert Hoover analogy (higher taxes and protectionism made the Great Depression worse) to a voting population that doesn’t know who Hoover was.
  

Pretty funny.

The Nile ain't just a river in Egypt.  McInsane's problem was he wasn't nasty and slimy enough.....

Fine.  Let them 'evaluate' their mistakes.  We're under no obligation to clue them in....

Free at last, free at last....

... thank God Almighty, we're free at last!!!

Jon Stewart called it at 11:01PM EST.

We should have known....

From this unimpeachable source:

“By the way I have been here to Roswell before and I know about the alien landing,” McCain told about 1,000 supporters gathered at an airport hangar here during his fifth rally of the day. “And I am pleased to announce that I have received the alien endorsement….and I am proud!”

UPDATE—Apparently McCain was actually endorsed by “the alien” per the Weekly World News. The alien has allegedly accurately predicted every election in the last 28 years. So McCain’s got that going for him, which is nice.

'Nuff said....

InsHannity

Incurable.

PUMA's predict landslide victory for McCain:

MCCAIN/ PALIN 310

BIDEN 228

Buy stock in Ortho-McNeill Pharmaceuticals; there's going to be a run on Haldol.

BTW, they seem to be so unhinged that they can't even bring themselves to name "that one"....

A sign of things to come

We have this:

If Obama Steals It...Take Action! We March Jan 17, 2009
FreedomMarch.org ^ | 11-04-08 | FreedomMarch
Posted on November 4, 2008 11:35:44 AM PST by RaginApache

Marches will occur on January 17, 2009 to demonstrate to Obama and Congress that millions of American Patriots are now closely monitoring the actions of the Legislature, Executive branch, and the media. We will respond quickly and vigorously to any challenges to our existing liberties and freedoms. PLEASE SPREAD.

Yeah. These pussies will be agitating for the resumption of the Civil War. Good luck with that. Not that I don't expect a lot of unpleasantness, not to mention bone-headed RW foamers going around the bend and hurting others before they get themselves locked up or shot to death....

I note that the RW Mighty Wurlitzer is pumping the "vote fraud"/"Obama's a secret Marxist/Mooslim/he's gonna eatchour babies" meme full time. Limbaugh's pumping it today, and the RW blogs are putting out all kinds of rumours of "voter fraud", etc. They will not go quietly, and it's going to be a Conspiracy/Persecution/Civil War against them. Always the "victims". Pussies. But for them, a civil war is indeed preferable to having an African-Amercan president. Hell, thy've been thinking this for a century and a half.

The Gropinator talks

Schwarzenegger:

"He [Obama] needs to do something about those skinny legs."

What?  Take steroids like you?!?!?

Can we recall the eedjit?   Please?

Cheers,