State Of The Union Speech 2011

In a few hours all of us political junkies will be tuned in to our favorite news channel or C-SPAN to watch President Obama's second State of the Union address.

This one not only comes at the midpoint of his first term, it comes during a time when his poll numbers have rebounded after a bruising fight to enact health care reform legislation and a disastrous midterm election in which the Democrats lost control of the House

So it will be interesting to see what the president has to say about more than a few issues and his thoughts as to how this legislative year should play out..

All US Politics Are Identity Politics

One of the terms I see with regularity in the liberal progressive blogosphere is someone writing a comment decrying 'identity politics'. 

After slamming the term, they will then make the case that if identity politics didn't exist, our country would be a better place or whatever point they are trying to make at that time..

News flash, people.  All politics in the United States are identity politics, and that reality of American life ain't going away any time soon.   When you have one ethnic group which has dominated American life since before the founding of the United States, is grudgingly reluctant to share power and engages in the same identity politics decried to keep their hold on the top rungs of society despite their declining population numbers, you can guarantee that identity politics will be hanging around for a while.

So since we know that identity politics are an integral part of the American political landscape, why aren't we factoring that into the way we conduct our civil rights business in the TBLG community?

The Congressional Black, Hispanic and Asian-Pacific caucuses in Congress exist for a reason.  Those caucuses advocate for their ethnic groups interests as public policy is formulated .


We are still acting in the GLBT community as if the country is already 'post racial' and 'colorblind' when it most certainly isn't, and our organizations are not configured to deal with that reality.    They are also not dealing well with the reality that our rainbow community is multicultural, just like the country is.

It's past time that the organizations that claim to represent this diverse rainbow community represent and reflect that diversity.

You need Latino, African American and Asian Pacific islander GLBT people in your orgs to eloquently speak not only for the entire community, but articulate the concerns and policy needs of their specific communities in order to make overall GLBT policy better and more inclusive.

It should be obvious by now that you are not going to get broad based support for BTLG policies that are formulated of, by and for the benefit of predominately upper middle class white GLBT people.


The point is that you can either continue to misfire on gaining LGBT rights by ignoring reality and continuing business as usual or step into the 21st century, realize that we are a multiethnic country that engages in identity politics and calibrate your policies to not only be cognizant of that fact, but calibrate your politics to account for the identity politics that said polices will have to negotiate to become codified into the law of the land.

GOP House Majority Already Breaking Their Promises

The GOP hasn't been back in control of the House for a week and they are already violating their promises they made in the Pledge To (White) America  and the Tea Klux Klan.

They campaigned on cutting $100 billion in spending, and they're backpedaling away from that faster than you can say  Citizens United.    They promised to read the Constitution, but conveniently forgot to read the sections that dealt with my ancestors.        

The first one,  the "three-fifths compromise," counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for purposes of counting population for apportioning congressional districts.   The second one they skipped dealt with runaway slaves - if they escaped to a free state, the Constitution required that they not be freed but rather "delivered up" to their owners.

Then there was the embarrassing revelation that two Republican congressmen skipped out on their swearing in ceremony to be at an event in the Capitol Visitors Center and all the tapdancing they tried to do around the Constitution in order to claim that Pete Sessions (R-TX) and  Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA) were legally sworn in.

The Constitution says you have to in the chamber and sworn in by the Speaker of the House to be a congressmember.      Way to bring honor to and follow the Constitution GOP.


Then there was the action the GOP majority undertook that just disenfranchised people in DC, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and other US territories.   It just stripped their delegates who represent these territories of their committee voting rights.

Can we get to November 6, 2012 and the presidential election year as soon a s possible?   I'd rather have Speaker of the House Pelosi back.

Rep. Alan Grayson, We're Gonna Miss You!

One of the people I was hoping and praying would win reelection in these midterms was Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL).

Next to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), he was one of the GOP's major targets in this election cycle because he is the living embodiment of what we want all I-495 Democrats to become.  

We want and desperately need liberals who not only ain't 'scurred' to say the word, but have the cojones to back it up with progressive action and call out Republican stupidity on a regular basis.

We need the Democrats to go back to being the Party of FDR, Truman, JFK and LBJ  and be no quarter pugnacious warriors for working class people.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about and what will be needed from the remaining Democrats in DC for the next two years as Rep Grayson explains from the US House floor how the superrich can spend their Paris Hilton Tax Cuts.

 

Thank You Again Rep. Weiner!

This people, is what I mean when I say Democrats need to show some backbone and start calling out the GOP right wing bullies on aregular basis.

Thank you Rep. Weiner!

House On Track To Repeal DADT

The House of Representatives voted 234-194 on an amendment that paves the way for a House vote to repeal the controversial 17 year old 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' military policy aimed at gays in the military.

It followed an 16-12 Senate Armed Services Committee vote that paves the way for the Senate to vote to repeal the policy as well.

The House amendment to repeal the controversial policy was offered by Iraq war veteran Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) in the House's version of the defense authorization bill.

"When I served in Baghdad, my team did not care whether a fellow soldier was straight or gay," Murphy said. "Could they do their job so that everybody in our unit could come home safely. With our military fighting two wars, why on earth would we tell over13,500 able-bodied Americans that their services are not needed."

President Obama said in a statement that he was "pleased" by the House vote.

"This legislation will help make our Armed Forces even stronger and more inclusive by allowing gay and lesbian soldiers to serve honestly and with integrity,"

And I'm happy to see an odious unjust law going down.

Senators Franken And Gillibrand Introduce Anti-TBLG Bullying Act

I mentioned that one of the three openly gay members of the House, Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) introduced HR 4530, the Student Non-Discrimination Act of 2010 back in January.

Senators Al Franken (D-MN) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) have introduced the Senate version of the legislation aimed at combating anti-LGBT bullying in public schools.

The bill, known as the Student Non-Discrimination Act, currently has 21 Senate cosponsors and "would establish a comprehensive federal prohibition against discrimination in public schools based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity," according to a press release from Sen. Gillibrand's office. "It would forbid schools from discriminating against LGBT students or ignoring harassing behavior."

Penalties for public schools that fail to address anti-gay bullying could include loss of federal funding and legal recourse for students who have suffered discrimination.

Sen. Franken indicated last month that he would introduce an anti-bullying bill when he criticized current laws during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing.

“There’s something very specific that has been on my mind ... LGBT youth being bullied,” Franken told a panel of education experts in the April hearing. “Right now we have laws that prohibit bullying based on pretty much everything, but not on gender identity and gay and lesbian kids. And the evidence is that gay kids are bullied a lot and that their achievement goes down. There’s a lot of absenteeism and even suicide.”

13-6

Sonia Sotomayor is one step closer to joining the Supreme Court on the first Monday in October after yesterday's 13-6 affirmative vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee to send it to a full Senate vote next week.

Surprisingly, Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was the only Republican vote in favor of the nominee. The rest of the Republicans cast NO votes, including Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) who have previously never failed to vote for a Supreme Court nominee.

Despite the GOP Hateraid for Sotomayor, the nomination now goes to the full Senate next week for the up or down vote she's expected to handily win for her historic confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Justice Sotomayor will sure look good in that group photo this October.