Arnold To Terminate Gay Marriage

California Legislature Votes to Approve Gay Marriage. This story appears in today's Washington Post:

SACRAMENTO, Sept. 6 -- The California Assembly voted Tuesday to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry, making the state's legislature the first in the nation to deliberately approve same-sex marriages and handing a political hot potato to an already beleaguered Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R).

After a vehement floor debate in which legislators quoted the Pledge of Allegiance and accused each other of abusing moral principles, the state Assembly passed the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, which recasts the definition of marriage as between "two persons," not between a man and a woman. The state Senate passed the bill last week.

The legislature's move goes further than other states, such as Vermont and Connecticut, which have passed legislation allowing more strictly defined "civil unions." And it differs from Massachusetts, the only state to grant full marriage rights to same-sex couples, because the Massachusetts regulations were passed by order of the state's courts, which ruled that a ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.

Too bad.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to VETO the bill.

Re-Elect This Man!

Kanye The Super Salesman

The Latest according to SOHH.com:

Kanye West's first week sales are expected to reach the 900,000 mark following the super producer's off-the-cuff rant about the president during MSNBC's recent Concert for Hurricane Relief.

Last Thursday, early reports indicated that West's Late Registration was poised to scan between 800,000 to 850,000 units in its first week. But today, reports show that Late Registration is headed towards 900,000 units sold, after Kanye's scathing remarks about the president were broadcasted to millions during the MSNBC telethon and later re-broadcasted across the internet and news media.

And yet the Left and most of the news media continue to treat Kanye's rant as if it came from a long time political activist, instead of a man who just happens to be putting out a new album. I'm a fan of Kanye's music, so yes I will be buying his album. And that decision was made waaay before "George Bush Doesn't Like Black people"--a ridiculous, untrue comment if there ever was one if last year's "Anybody But Bush" faction were able to look beyond their own hatred for the man and the party he represents.

Unfortunately, West's comment and the huge amount of support given to it will only contribute to our downfall. The notion that so many people would naively buy into the rant of a man with a product to sell, a man who has never displayed any sort of political bent, a man who didn't (and still hasn't) use ONE SINGLE FACT to back up his statements, can only serve to show just how desperate we are.

And at the end of the day that's the saddest part of all of this.

Venus Williams' Apathy

Not that we should expect much from the mostly apolitical, far-too-removed-from-reality, million-dollar salaries, lavish lifestyles that define today's pro athlete. But when you read stories about a Deion Sanders, a Shaquille O'Neal or a Peyton Manning stepping up, literally pitching in or demanding that fellow pro athletes give money to help the situation in New Orleans, one can't help but admire the care and compassion some of our sport icons have shown. Indeed, a whole gang of pro athletes have stepped up and contributed to the relief efforts going on down in New Orleans. More reason to find it pathetic that Venus Williams, tennis superstar and Black woman would be so ignorant to the point of not having any idea what was taking place in N.O.

From SIcom:

While a concerned nation sits spellbound through wall-to-wall coverage of Hurricane Katrina, desperate for anything resembling good news to come out of the Gulf region, Williams turns the channel. Breezily, she admits she's never had much of a stomach for hard news and generally tries to steer clear of it.

"I kind of leave it like that because it's better not to know," she said Wednesday after waxing Maria Kirilenko in 74 minutes in the second round of the U.S. Open. Overall, the disruption to her life has been slight, the lone casualty just a delayed charter from South Florida to LaGuardia.

"I was barely able to get out of the storm [and to the U.S. Open on time]," Williams said. "I didn't know it was coming till someone started talking about it from my office."

A day later, before the PR time bomb had a chance to blow up, in came the clarification from publicist Lisa Sorensen.

"Before I left Florida for the U.S. Open, I didn't know about the hurricane," Williams explained through Sorensen. "But during Wednesday's press conference, I was very much aware of it and the impact it had on Louisiana."

Yeah, nothing like backtracking and taking advantage of your publicist when you put your big foot in your mouth.

Ignorance is bliss.

Rehnquist Dies: Time For George W. Bush To Step Up

Chief Justice William Rehnquist has passed on. God bless his family in their time of grief.

FoxNews.com reports:

After battling cancer for the better part of the past year, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist (search) died late Saturday evening, bringing to an end his lengthy time on the bench and opening another vacancy on the Supreme Court.

Rehnquist, 80, was surrounded by his three children when he died at his home in suburban Arlington.

"The Chief Justice battled thyroid cancer since being diagnosed last October and continued to perform his duties on the court until a precipitous decline in his health the last couple of days," said court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg.

Rehnquist was appointed to the Supreme Court (search) as an associate justice in 1971 by President Nixon and took his seat on Jan. 7, 1972. He was elevated to chief justice by President Reagan in 1986.

His death ends a career during which Rehnquist oversaw the court's conservative shift, presided over an impeachment trial and helped decide a presidential election.

The death leaves President Bush with his second court opening within four months and sets up what's expected to be an even more bruising Senate confirmation battle than that of John Roberts.

Now it's time for George W. Bush to make or break his legacy.

Under the rarest of circumstances, 2 Supreme Court seats for up for grabs at the same time. I'm not into poll watching, but we all know that the President's ratings have been on a steady decline for awhile now. There is a war going on in Iraq that not too many people are a fan of. A war that at times even has me questioning its strategy and rationale. The greatest national disaster to take place on U.S. soil has America reeling to the point that an idiot like Kanye West can get away with claiming that the President doesn't care about Blacks, when he's really just using a national tragedy to help sell his new record. Leftists everywhere are clamoring to take away what's left of Bush's political capital and make him out to be no more then a lame duck commander-in-chief.

But George W. Bush can stand up to the face of increasing criticism and fiery propaganda by nominating a justice that fulfills the legacy left by William Rehnquist: a proud and hardcore conservative who played fair by becoming one of the most rigid interpreters of the Constitution. George W. Bush can take a stand by refusing to wilt under the firestorm Democrats and the Left will surely throw at him no matter who he picks. George W. Bush can make conservatives proud by picking a man or woman with integrity and a conscious that doesn't allow him/her to legislate from the bench.

This will be the most important decision of George W. Bush's life.