Hoppin' Mad

[ednbarby]

So I come home from work last night, hit the play button on my answering machine, and the first thing I hear is this automated crap asking me to add my name to the petition to ban gay marriage in the state of Florida by pressing '1' or to press '2' if I "don't wish to participate."  Well, they nailed that one right there.

I pity the poor fool who tries to ask me to do that to my face in the Publix parking lot (people have been known to push such petitions there before, but always in the past, it was stuff that was actually defensible, like raising the minimum wage or decreasing the maximum class sizes in elementary schools).  I doubt if anyone would have the nerve in this case.  Nor is it even about that - it's just the Republicans playing their little power games again.

Still, it breaks my heart to think that my son will grow up in a state and a country that is becoming so consumed by fear and hate.

[David]

UGH!    My two worst pet peeves!

#1,   Recorded people talking to my answering maching.   Machines talking to        machines!   What has the world come to?

#2,   Other people worrying about Gays getting married.   As if two guys getting married threatens their own marriage somehow.    With more than half of all heterosexual marriages ending in divorce, should these same people worry about their own marriage first?   

   Here is a statistic I just read.   Two guys in a "Civil Union" who earn a combined $130,000 a year will pay $100,000 more in taxes over 10 years than a Heterosexual "Married" couple who earn the same combined salary.   Yeah, that's fair.

[ednbarby]

Yeah.  And here I thought living in America (at least since the 50s) was supposed to be about everyone having equal rights under the law - not about denying some of those rights to some people because they're a little "different" and they scare us.

[Front-Ranger]

I heard that Massachusetts will allow same-sex marriages to go forward if there is not a ban on them in the couple's home state. So that's why all these state initiatives. Plus the total failure of the Constitutional Amendment bill. You see all these garbage initiatives (flag burning, gay bashing) when an Administration has reached rock bottom. We should not allow ourselves or others to be distracted from what's really happening by these ludicrous straw-graspinations!!

[dmmb_Mandy]

Wow! I've never heard of that before; petitions over an answering machine like that. Press 1 to ban gay marriage!?! It's as easy as that, huh? That angers me to no end! I wish pressing 3 told them to go f*ck themselves.

[starboardlight]

it's a mid-term election strategy. get the petition so that the issue goes on the ballot, which then will get more of right wing crazies to come to the polls and while they're voting to ban gay marriage, they'll be voting for which ever Republican candidate is up for election. I've said it in another tread, and I'll say it again. My rights is being used as a chess piece for these political games. These people don't really believe they can get the ban passed. They just want to get enough signatures on their petition to make it an issue during the elections. A small distraction from the fact that Republicans are losing ground because of Iraq and they know it.

Being that as it may, these people are getting really bold. My brother works for a landscape architecture firm in Woodland Hills, and one of these people called their office. It's work place for goodness sakes. Totally inappropriate.

[JennyC]

That angers me to no end! I wish pressing 3 told them to go f*ck themselves.

Mandy,
Bluntly put, but how appropriate.    Someone should hack into their system to add the option 3.

it's a mid-term election strategy. get the petition so that the issue goes on the ballot, which then will get more of right wing crazies to come to the polls and while they're voting to ban gay marriage, they'll be voting for which ever Republican candidate is up for election. I've said it in another tread, and I'll say it again. My rights is being used as a chess piece for these political games. These people don't really believe they can get the ban passed. They just want to get enough signatures on their petition to make it an issue during the elections. A small distraction from the fact that Republicans are losing ground because of Iraq and they know it.

Nipith
You are right about getting the issue on the ballot to draw more right wingers to vote.  That's what happened in Ohio in 2004.  Republican really mobilized their based.  They did a very good job to organize the voters to come out to vote according to my democratic friend who volunteered for the democratic voters' drive.  The sad thing is the initiative probably will not get passed in CA, but may have a chance in other states like FL.

I have to say that to my surprise (thought I should not really be that surprised after 8 some years here), US is a quite conservative country.  The majorities in the country are more conservative than I thought.  The blue states are just some isolated islands in the red sea.  What particularly puzzles me is why those southern states always go red in the recent years.  It seems the poorer the states is, the redder they get.

[Midnight24]

Wow! I've never heard of that before; petitions over an answering machine like that. Press 1 to ban gay marriage!?! It's as easy as that, huh? That angers me to no end! I wish pressing 3 told them to go f*ck themselves.

You took the words right out of my mouth. It's so disrespectful how someone can put that on an answering machine!! It's like they haven't a care in the world if the person they are calling are gay or not! They shouldn't even being doing this in the first place!!! It's so stupid and aggrovating and...arrghh. Ok, I'm sorry, just ranting, but it's pitiful and stupid to me. And I agree, they need a button to be told to go f*ck themselves!!!

[David In Indy]

I'm going to keep my mouth shut with this one. 

I think it is pretty obvious how I feel about it. I'm a gay man living in the midwest.

I will say this: our country certainly has a way to go before it can  truly call itself "The Land of the Free" and proudly and honestly proclaim things like  "With Liberty and Justice For All".

I'll stop now. If I continue, I'll probably start cussing.

And they had the nerve to do this over an answering machine? Oh God.

[Sheyne]

Wow! I've never heard of that before; petitions over an answering machine like that. Press 1 to ban gay marriage!?! It's as easy as that, huh? That angers me to no end! I wish pressing 3 told them to go f*ck themselves.

I love where your head's at, Mandy.. 

Can you imagine something this ridiculous?