THE LAST LAUGH: President Obama is succeeding in spite of the fact that he’s been up against a Republican Party willing to destroy the economy in order to destroy him.

President Obama Will Be Vindicated

As Ryan Lizza writes in the NEW YORKER:

“Obama didn’t remake Washington. But his first two years stand as one of the most successful legislative periods in modern history. Among other achievements, he has saved the economy from depression, passed universal health care, and reformed Wall Street.”

Mitt Romney, ¨a vapid twit paid for by corporate interests¨

¨So when are President Obama’s critics, people like Paul Krugman and Mitt Romney, going to offer President Obama an apology? Both have often loudly predicted that he made the economy worse and was putting America on the wrong economic path. Both are being proved wrong by the economic comeback we are in. I mention them not to pick on Krugman, who I respect or even on Romney (who I regard as a vapid twit bought and paid for by corporate interests) but to make a point: President Obama is going to have the last laugh on his critics, no matter what ideological spectrum they hail from...¨  read it all, by Frank Schaeffer,  HERE

·  Thanks to The New Yorker
·  Thanks to Ryan Lissa 
·  Thanks to Frank Schaeffer, sidebar
·  Thanks to President Barack Obama

LATINOBAROMETRO´S BEST ´LEADER´ IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE: BARACK OBAMA HAS HIGHEST APPROVAL RATING!

Barack Obama, President of the United States of North America

SANTIAGO, Chile — ¨Latin Americans give U.S. President Barack Obama the highest approval rating for any leader in the region.

Obama is rated 6.3 on a scale of one to 10 in the survey conducted by the Chile-based Latinobarometro polling organization. He is closely followed by Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff at 6.

Latinobarometro polled 20,000 people in 18 Latin American countries. The leader with the worst mark is former Cuban President Fidel Castro at 4.1. Next lowest are Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, who tied at 4.4.

Bolivian President Evo Morales has 4.9 and Chilean leader Sebastian Pinera got 5.1. HERE

·  Thanks to Towleroad, sidebar
·  Thanks to Latin America´s Latinobarometro

¨The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave¨: Obama Declares June Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Pride Month

Barack Obama, President of the United States of America

President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed a proclamation recognizing June as Gay Pride month.

“The story of America's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community is the story of our fathers and sons, our mothers and daughters, and our friends and neighbors who continue the task of making our country a more perfect union,” the proclamation said.

June is widely recognized throughout the world as Gay Pride month.

The president touts his own record supporting the gay community and advancing gay rights in his proclamation, including repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell,” the 1993 law that bars gay and bisexual troops from serving openly, efforts to wipe out discrimination in federal housing programs, and passage of a gay-inclusive hate crimes law.

The president also called attention to the 30th anniversary of the emergence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, saying he's committed to eradicating the disease...¨ HERE

¨Land of Lincoln¨ The Great State of Illinois

Illinois becomes the sixth state with legalized civil unions.·

¨Long lines are expected to form early Wednesday at the Cook County Clerk's downtown office of vital records as couples from across Chicago gather to be part of a historic moment — the issuing of the state's first civil union licenses. The doors will open at 7:30 a.m. and the clerk's office will celebrate what it calls "the momentous occasion" by awarding a special gift package to the first couple to get a license. Adding to the festive atmosphere, about 20 local businesses will be supplying gifts that will be raffled off to other couples in line. As with marriage licenses, couples will have to pay a $35 fee and wait one day before they can hold a civil union ceremony. Couples who are already registered as domestic partners in Cook County but want to enter into a civil union will get a $20 discount and their domestic partnership will be automatically dissolved.

New/approved civil unions laws in Hawaii and Delaware have not yet gone into effect...¨ HERE
 
· Thanks to On Top Magazine, sidebar
· Thanks to U.S. President Barack Obama
· Thanks to Gay Pride Month, June
· Thanks to The Great State of Illinois
· Thanks to Joe.My.God., sidebar

President Barack Obama/Tucson: "We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another, that's entirely up to us."

Nonviolence and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice

By Walter Naegle

¨Nine days after the shocking gun violence in Tucson, our nation pauses to reflect on the life of a leader in the African-American struggle for civil rights, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. An apostle of nonviolence, Dr. King lived under the constant threat of violence from those who sought to keep America from expanding its commitment to equal opportunity and justice. While not a politician, he shared with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords a commitment to educating people about the democratic process, whether through a table at a shopping mall, the ballot box or through nonviolent direct action in the streets.

Veterans of the struggle served as counselors to the younger Dr. King, among them my late partner Bayard Rustin. An activist since his teenage years, Bayard was pivotal in helping to translate nonviolent philosophy into concrete direct action -- the marches, sit-ins, and boycotts that forced this country to abolish racial segregation laws.
...

Bayard's extraordinary intelligence and abilities enabled him to overcome the racism and homophobia so prevalent during his lifetime, and despite setbacks he never abandoned his faith in the possibilities for human redemption and growth... That faith in the power of one person to be an agent of change was recalled in President Obama's remarks in Tucson when he said, "We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another, that's entirely up to us." HERE

· Thanks to DOT 429
· Thanks to Walter Naegle
· Thanks to Monroe Frederick, photo
· Thanks to The Bilerico Project, sidebar
· Thanks to Bil Browning   HERE

FRANK SCHAEFFER: ¨2011 will see the USA rebounding, the Democratic Party doing well in 2012, the country in boom times by 2013 and the President having a great second term.¨

¨Obama's Critics Owe Him a New Years (Fact-Based) Apology¨

¨The left of the left -- at least as represented by some of its commentators hovering around the Democratic Party -- has a choice: make a New Years' resolution to rejoin the reality-based community, or head for its own version of Tea Party la-la Land negativity.


Or put it this way: commentators like Paul Krugman owe President Obama an apology, an "I was wrong" about the economy, the direction of our country, the success of President Obama's methods of "compromise" (as opposed to their's of "bold" ideological intransigence...)


Why? Because 2011 will see the USA rebounding, the Democratic Party doing well in 2012, the country in boom times by 2013 and the President having a great second term.


I happen to be a white fifty-eight-year-old former Republican. I explain about why I left the far right movement my family helped found in my forthcoming book Sex, Mom and God: How the Bible's Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics--and How I Learned to Love Women (and Jesus) Anyway


President Obama is the first Democratic Party presidential candidate I ever voted for. I am hoping that others will join me in committing to a new level of support for our president.


We find ourselves in the position of survivors of a shipwreck clinging to a life raft. President Obama is that "life raft." Our young president is leading us at a time of extraordinary peril. He and we face overwhelming challenges including two wars and a financial crisis he had dumped into his lap by fools.


When we hear that jobless numbers are going down faster than expected, that shoppers spent money over the holidays, that economic forecasts are being revised upward and so on, it's time for a reassessment of the President's critic's claims of impending doom because of his many alleged "mistakes." (These include such "facts" as the accusations that Obama "sold out" to Wall Street, is "too ready to compromise" etc., etc.)

A reassessment should come from what might be called the Krugamites. They could do what Rachel Maddow did when she said "I was wrong" while speaking of how she'd given up hope that the President could pull out his year end list of remarkable victories.


Then again Maddow hasn't staked her reputation on our president's failure, as have people like Krugman, who has never warmed to our first black president...¨ read it all, HERE

· Thanks to President Barack Obama, at his website HERE
· Thanks to Frank Schaeffer, sidebar
· Thanks to The Huffington Post, sidebar

FATHER GEOFF FARROW:...we have reached a significant ´tipping point´ in American society...¨

¨After President Obama signed the Repeal of DADT this last week, there have been a slew of comments from both ends of the political spectrum. Regardless of how a person “feels” about this, the conclusion that we have reached a significant “tipping point” in American society is evident. When President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order in 1948 desegregating the U.S. Armed Forces and Civil Service, it sounded the death toll for segregation in American society. The Courts took notice and in 1954, the landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education took the President’s lead one step further. The signing of the Civil Rights Act in July of 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson drove a stake through legalized bigotry. Social racial bigotry has been slowly eroding ever since.

The U.S. Armed forces form American youth. Every year countless High School graduates leave their hometown and go to boot camp. Those young men and women acculturate to military standards. Years later I still find it disquieting to see a man wearing a hat indoors. I find myself writing the date/month/year and not the month/date/year. I still think of 4 PM as 1600 hour, the end of the workday at Edwards AFB. These are small things; however, acceptable and unacceptable attitudes about women and minorities are unmistakably articulated and enforced in boot camp. After years of living in this military culture, veterans return to civilian society along with these engrained attitudes.This is the real reason that social conservatives so rabidly oppose the repeal of DADT. HERE

On Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported the following:

In a news conference Wednesday and in recent interviews, Obama signaled that his position favoring civil unions is not fixed and that he may one day conclude that, a committed gay couple should have the same right to marry as anyone else.


Obama's views seem to be tracking those of the broader American public. Polls show support for gay marriage is growing. A Gallup study showed that while in 1996 only 27% of the population believed gay marriage should be legalized, the figure had jumped to 44% in May of this year.

Many social conservatives, such as Eagle Forum president Phyllis Schlafly, refuse to believe that a majority of Americans would support gay marriage.

Gays, she said, are already free to live together. "Nobody's stopping them from shacking up," she said. "The problem is they are trying to make us respect them, and that's an interference with what we believe."

· Thanks to Father Geoff Farrow, sidebar
· Thanks to President Barack Obama
· Thanks to DADT Repeal
· Thanks to The Los Angeles TimesCivil Rights Act in July of 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson
· Thanks to The 1964 Civil Rights Act
· Thanks to President Lydon B. Johnson
· Thanks to Brown vs. The Board of Education

URGENT MESSAGE: President Obama, please telephone UGANDA--ring up President Museveni--First Lady Janet and ¨Morals Minister¨ James Nasba Buturo too!

Member of Parliament/First Lady Janet Museveni, President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni

·The Senate of The State of California Calls upon the U.S. Federal Government to Help Stop Uganda’s Bill Criminalizing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender People·

The Right Reverend Christopher Ssenyonjo, Anglican Bishop from Uganda, Bishop V. Gene Robinson, TEC diocese of New Hampshire, Senator Mark Leno and others at the Senate Chambers, Sacramento, California.

BREAKING:This just in from the California Legislature in support of Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo of Uganda and formally validates Californias solidarity with him.

Sacramento – The California State Senate today passed a resolution (SR 51) condemning Uganda’s bill criminalizing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in 21-14 vote. Introduced by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and sponsored by Equality California, the resolution urges the

U.S. government to intensify its efforts to eliminate the criminalization of homosexuality worldwide as well as to take more caution when funding faith-based organizations to ensure that U.S. government funds and resources are accessible to women, minorities, and the LGBT community. HERE


· Thanks to Integrity, TEC, U.S.A.
· Thanks to Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo, UGANDA
· Thanks to President Barak Obama, U.S.A.
· Thanks to President Yoweri Museveni, UGANDA
· Thanks to MP Janet Museveni, UGANDA
· Thanks to Bishop V.Gene Robinson, TEC, New Hampshire
· Thanks to Senator Mark Leno, San Francisco
· Thanks to The Legislature of California