Cindy McCain Supports Gay Marriage

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From The Guardian:

John McCain’s staunch opposition to gay marriage was one of the key parts of his presidential campaign. But it has become clear this was not supported in his own household. His daughter, Meghan, is a vocal advocate of gay rights. Now his wife, Cindy, has appeared in a poster campaign against California’s proposition 8 – a law banning same-sex marriage.

[…]

Cindy McCain appears in the poster with silver duct tape across her mouth and the campaign slogan, “NOH8”, marked on her cheek.

[…]

“Aligning yourself with the platform of gay marriage as a Republican still tends to be very stigmatic, but Cindy McCain wanted to participate in the campaign to show people that party doesn’t matter.”

John McCain’s office said in a statement that he respected the views of his family but remained opposed to gay marriage. “Senator McCain believes the sanctity of marriage is only defined as between one man and one woman,” it said. In 2008 McCain backed a measure in his home state of Arizona to ban same-sex marriage.

Meghan McCain also appears in the poster campaign. “I couldn’t be more proud of my mother for posing for the NOH8 campaign,” she wrote on Twitter. “I think more Republicans need to start taking a stand for equality.

“I was there when she did it and I almost started crying during the photo shoot.”

Totally uncalled for cheap shot:

Pam Spaulding, who blogs on gay issues, was reminded of an infamous and foul-mouthed bust up between John and Cindy during a campaign in 1992. “Given the Senator’s hot temper, and the fact that he called his wife a trollop and ‘you c*nt’ … this was a nice ‘screw you’ for picking that dimwit Palin and derailing the campaign,” Spaulding wrote.

Kudos, props and thumbs up for Cindy and Meghan McCain. Shame on John McCain and Pam Spaulding.

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It’s Thursday & we’ve got the news!

Finally. Our long national nightmare is over.

From the New York Times:

Justices Block Key Part of Campaign Law

By a 5-4 vote, the court on Thursday overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for their own campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.

It leaves in place a prohibition on direct contributions to candidates from corporations and unions.

I’m sure we’ll be having a lot more to say about this one.

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Krugman’s counting to 3….

He Wasn’t The One We’ve Been Waiting For
Maybe House Democrats can pull this out, even with a gaping hole in White House leadership. Barney Frank seems to have thought better of his initial defeatism. But I have to say, I’m pretty close to giving up on Mr. Obama, who seems determined to confirm every doubt I and others ever had about whether he was ready to fight for what his supporters believed in.

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My most embarrassing political commitment ever.:

John Edwards admits paternity
“I am Quinn’s father,” Edwards said in the statement. “I will do everything in my power to provide her with the love and support she deserves…. It was wrong for me ever to deny she was my daughter.”

He also apologized to his daughter, now nearly two, saying he hoped she could forgive him one day, and to the public. “To all those I have have disappointed and hurt, these words will never be enough. But I am truly sorry,” he said.

“I know it’s not possible,” Edwards previously said over the question of whether Frances Quinn Hunter was his child.

[UPDATE] How did I forget about the creepy way he fired Melissa McEwan?

To quote Deeky, “this is the same douchenozzle who had the temerity to lecture Liss on ethics.” When I recall that phone call, in which Edwards explained to me how my Big Girl Language about religious misogyny and homophobia (used totally before I was in his employ and totally unrelated to the campaign) wasn’t the sort of thing that he would say and wasn’t appropriate and blah blah blah, my teeth clench together so hard I feel like I may spontaneously generate a new universe between my molars.

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Largest US health insurer’s profits rise 30 percent

UnitedHealth, the largest US health insurer by market capitalization, posted earnings of $944 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, up from $726 million in 2008.

The profit totals topped analyst estimates.

And, as if to add salt to the wound, an analyst for Goldman Sachs — itself the target of post-bailout ire — added that he thought the insurer’s profits were “very solid” in a research note and said “they bode well for other managed care companies.”

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Cruise ships still find a Haitian berth

“I just can’t see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water,” one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum.

“It was hard enough to sit and eat a picnic lunch at Labadee before the quake, knowing how many Haitians were starving,” said another. “I can’t imagine having to choke down a burger there now.”

This is just a brief sampling of the news today. What stories are YOU thinking about?

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