I *heart* NY!

Equal marriage passes in New York.

About Bloody Time

New York State has a proud history of civil rights legislation, but it has fallen badly behind in equal marriage rights.

That may be about to change.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has introduced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage.

Marriage-equality legislation has passed numerous times in the State Assembly, but has been repeatedly blocked in the State Senate. In December 2009, when Democrats still controlled the Senate, the bill failed 38 to 24.

Hoping to avoid a repeat of 2009, Cuomo has repeatedly said he would not introduce a bill until enough “yes” votes are secured.

Assured of support in the Democrat-controlled Assembly, the Marriage Equality Act needs 32 votes in the 62-seat Senate to pass.

At this hour, 31 senators have promised support, and six remain undecided.

But the New York Post reported on Monday that privately, Cuomo has the votes needed, and that “far more of the [GOP] members are in play than anyone realizes, including some surprising names from conservative upstate areas.”

This should be interesting. Maybe even ReThuglicans are waking up to the fact that younger Merkins are cool with gay people and don't see any reason to discriminate against them.

Expect ReThuglican caterwauling if this passes.

You'll never guess. . .

. . . who's profiting from the abortion industry (as fetus fetishists like to style abortion providers).

Whackadoodle Rupublican teabagger, New York gubernatorial candidate, and staunch fetus fetishist Carl Paladino.

Turns out he is landlord to an abortuary Planned Parenthood clinic.

And that's not the end of his galloping hypocrisy.

Last week he got into hot water for his views on the gay agenda.

"I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don't want them to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option. It isn't," said Paladino.

The remarks came right after Paladino said it was time to stop pandering to "pornographers and perverts."

Paladino, whose nephew is gay, outlined his views on gay issues at two separate events with religious leaders, saying he would veto any legislation that granted gays the right to marry.

"I oppose the homosexual agenda, whether they call it marriage, civil union or domestic partnership," said the Republican candidate.

And now we find that he's an enabler of said agenda. He was landlord to gay bars.

Go read more about this charming character, including his years-long history of sending racist and pornographic emails to his pals.

He allegedly sent:
- A video, send round ahead of president Barack Obama's signing in, entitled 'Obama Inauguration Rehearsal' showing an African tribesman dancing, and is apparently popular among white supremacists
- An e-mail with the subject line 'Proof the Irish discovered Africa' containing a video of monkeys that appear to be doing a Riverdance-style jig
- A bestiality video involving a horse and a woman

.
In other words -- he's a pervert and pornographer-enabler too.

Unless the good people of New York state have completely mislaid their collective wits, meet new Governor Andrew Cuomo, a real friend of gays and pro-choice too.

Carpetbagging Teabaggers, Part the Second

More on the carpetbagging teabaggers story, or as JJ styles it, the successful ratfuck in NY-23.

The local paper, which had originally endorsed the moderate Republican, Scozzafava, is now backing the local Democratic candidate, Bill Owens. Even better, they're saying narsty things about the carpetbagger.

The Watertown Daily Times initially endorsed Ms. Scozzafava as the best-qualified candidate in the race. We still think she is. However, in suspending her campaign she released her supporters' commitment to her. That left voters to choose between Mr. Owens and Mr. Hoffman.

Of the two, Bill Owens is by far the superior and only choice.

The Democratic candidate has demonstrated a willingness to listen to people about ways in which he could help the district as their representative in Washington. Mr. Owens has remained focused on the economy and job creation throughout his campaign. At the same time, he has shown an understanding of the military, a keen desire to help dairy farmers, an ability to work with labor unions and an eagerness to learn more about the vast, 11-county district that he hopes to represent.

Mr. Owens seems to approach politics and challenges with an open mind, a generous spirit and a can-do attitude. He has conducted a dignified campaign in comparison to Doug Hoffman.

Mr. Hoffman is running as an ideologue. If he carries out his pledges on earmarks, taxation, labor law reform and other inflexible positions, Northern New York will suffer. This rural district depends on the federal government for an investment in Fort Drum and its soldiers, environmental protection of our international waterway and the Adirondack Park, and the livelihood of all our dairy farmers across the district, among other support. Our representative cannot be locked into rigid promises and policies that would jeopardize these critical sectors of our economy.
. . .
It is frightening that Mr. Hoffman is so beholden to right-wing ideologues who dismiss Northern New Yorkers as parochial when people here simply want to know how Mr. Hoffman will protect their interests in Washington.
. . .
The Times endorses Bill Owens for Congress.

Let's find out a little more about the Democrat, shall we?

Owens is a 1971 summa cum laude graduate of Manhattan College with a degree in business administration and a 1974 top-half graduate of Fordham University School of Law.

Owens is a managing partner at Stafford, Owens, Piller, Murnane & Trombley, where he specializes in business, estate and tax law. The firm is an offshoot of one founded by Ron Stafford, a prominent Republican state senator.

He is also an adjunct professor in business law at State University of New York at Plattsburgh and in 2004, he was appointed by Republican Governor George Pataki to the College Council at that university. He has made regular appearances as a business analyst on WCFE-TV, a PBS television station in Plattsburgh.

When the Plattsburgh Air Force Base closed in 1995, he help create and worked for the Plattsburgh Airbase Redevelopment Corp. (formerly the Plattsburgh Inter-municipal Development Council), which recruited private companies to reuse the space. The base is now home to companies such as Bombardier Inc., a passenger railway car maker. Plattsburgh Airbase Redevelopment Corp. attests that more than 500 jobs were created at the site since the military left.

Now, if your stomach is feeling steady go watch the hilarious/nauseating teevee ad claiming that Nancy Pelosi owns Bill Owens, but that nobody owns the carpetbagger. Well, if you don't count the out-of-staters that funded and organized his dirty-trick laden campaign, that is.

ADDED: I just found the blog for the local public radio outlet. Interesting reading and comments.

UPDATE: Scozzafava is now openly endorsing Bill Owens.

Carpetbagging Teabaggers

The teabaggers have won the battle in a special congressional election in upstate New York. Just three days before the election, the Rethuglican candidate drops out, leaving the field to a local Democrat and a carpetbagging, teabagging nutbar (emphasis lovingitly added by moi).

Ms. Scozzafava had been under siege from conservative leaders because she supported gay rights and abortion rights and was considered too liberal on various fiscal issues.

The Republican National Committee, which had strongly backed Ms. Scozzafava’s candidacy, issued a statement applauding her decision and announcing it was now supporting Mr. Hoffman.

“Effective immediately, the R.N.C. will endorse and support the Conservative candidate in the race, Doug Hoffman,” the party’s national chairman, Michael Steele, said. “Doug’s campaign will receive the financial backing of the R.N.C. and get-out-the-vote efforts to defeat Bill Owens on Tuesday.”

Yet other prominent Republicans expressed concern that Ms. Scozzafava’s decision seemed likely to encourage conservatives going into next year’s midterm elections, raising the prospect of more primaries against Republican candidates that they deem too moderate. Party leaders — including Mr. Steele and Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker — had argued that local parties should be permitted to pick candidates that most closely mirror the sentiments of the district, even if those candidates vary from Republican orthodoxy on some issues.

“This makes life more complicated from the standpoint of this: If we get into a cycle where every time one side loses, they run a third-party candidate, we’ll make Pelosi speaker for life and guarantee Obama’s re-election,” said Mr. Gingrich, who had endorsed Ms. Scozzafava.

“I felt very deeply that when you have all 11 county chairman voting for someone, that it wasn’t appropriate for me to come in and render my judgment,” he said. “I think we are going to get into a very difficult environment around the country if suddenly conservative leaders decide they are going to anoint people without regard to local primaries and local choices.”

Ms. Scozzafava, a state assemblywoman and former small-town mayor, was nominated this summer by Republican county leaders who quickly found their choice second-guessed by the party’s conservative wing. Many officials in the district, a vast expanse from the Vermont border through the Adirondacks to Lake Ontario, were deeply resentful of the outside involvement.

Woowee. Newt Gingrich supported a candidate that the whackjobs called a 'radical liberal'. I think I just saw a formation of porkers overhead.

Here's some information on the carpetbagger and on the Democrat, who sounds like a good, smart guy. Law professor, even.

And here's the scoop on the dirty tricks the teabaggers employed, including fake websites and astroturfing.

The Teabaggers pulled out their really big guns. Sawah Palin not only endorsed the carpetbagging teabagger, but also 'trashed' the Rethuglican.

Hoffman [the carpetbagger] couldn’t answer the simplest questions on local economic and transportation issues posed by the editorial board of the Watertown Daily Times, whining that they were “parochial” and should have been given to him in advance. In my parochial school that was called cheating.

Palin, who resigned as Alaska governor in July, didn’t have to leave home to toss her grenade. She did it from the privacy of her laptop. I guess she also can see upstate New York from her front porch.

Yeah, well, they've won the battle but according to many pundits, they've likely handed the Dems a district held by Rethuglicans for nearly a century.

The wait won't be long. Election is Tuesday.

BONUS: Go read Frank Rich.

Two Good Moves

Good Move 1
In New York an assemblymember (that's apparently what they call them) is calling for enhanced penalties for crimes against the reproductive health care community. He is joined in this effort by Lynne Slepian, widow of the last doctor assassinated before Dr Tiller, Dr Barnett Slepian.

"Abortion is safe and legal, and no one providing, seeking or supporting abortion services should be in the line of fire," said FPA [Family Planning Associates, another supporter of the legislation] President and CEO M. Tracey Brooks. "This law will be a strong deterrent to these extremists, and we are so appreciative to Assemblymember Hoyt for spearheading this effort."

The reproductive health care community in New York and nationwide reports an increase in the number of protestors who engage in threatening behavior or violent rhetoric. "Violent protestors should stand up and take notice," Brooks warned. "If you injure a reproductive health care professional, staff, volunteer or patient in New York, you're going to face strong, felony penalties."

Lynne Slepian said:

"I had hoped my husband's killing would be the last over the issue of reproductive choice, but I now see this fight continues," she said. "Violent offenders need to know they will go to jail for a long time if they target the reproductive health care community in New York State."

Dr Slepian's murderer, James Kopp, has been in the news recently, once when his appeal was rejected and again when the Ontario Provincial Police inexplicably announced it would not be pursuing the case against Kopp for the attempted murder of Dr Hugh Short.

Good Move 2.
We move back home for the second good move.


The Supreme Court of Canada will not listen to a fetus fetishist's 'free speech' argument.

Donald David Spratt had hoped to convince the top court that a law restricting protests in front of abortion clinics is unconstitutional. The high court offered no reasons for dismissing the challenge - the usual practice for the many cases it is asked to consider.

Its decision upholds the Access to Abortion Services Act which makes it a crime to protest or interfere with a patient or doctor within a clinic’s so-called "bubble zone."

Spratt was convicted after standing in front of a Vancouver clinic in 1998 with a large wooden cross and a sign that said "You shall not murder."

The BC law that created the bubble zone restriction was put into place after Dr Garson Romalis was shot by a sniper, as were both Drs. Slepian and Short. Kopp is suspected in this crime also.

There is much more to be done to stop the anti-abortion terrorists and their enablers. But this is a pretty good day.

MORE: Those prowoman women note the Supreme Court's decision in a post titled 'Silent Sneer'. Then they engage in a little less-than-silent sneering by saying that by not giving a reason for dismissing the Christer's whinging the Court 'does not look very smart'. My turn to :sneer: