Remember when Barack Obama bravely came out in favor of same-sex marriage before North Carolina voted on the issue? After all, Obama carried the state in 2008. The Democratic National Convention will be held there this summer. His strongest voting bloc, black Americans, was projected to vote for the pro-traditional marriage Amendment One by a 2-1 margin . There’s good reason not to remember: there was no such profile in courage moment. North Carolina passed Amendment One with 61 percent of the vote, with the president tut-tutting about his disappointment , while aides tried furiously to walk back Vice President Joe Biden’s expressions of comfort with redefining marriage. Only the next day did Obama carefully and cautiously proclaim that he had found the missing link in his marriage evolution. Indeed, the president’s position was as subjective as possible: “At a certain point, I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.” As George Will has quipped , “If you struck from Barack Obama’s vocabulary the first-person singular pronoun, he would fall silent.” Although he has opposed defense-of-marriage ballot initiatives throughout his presidency, even while nominally against same-sex marriage, Obama left the door open to them last week. He said that the definition of marriage should be left up to the states. Where Mario Cuomo once took a stand on abortion frequently described as “personally opposed, but,” Obama has pioneered the gay marriage stance “personally support, but.” “Given the impotence of his endorsement, it really comes down to one man sharing his personal opinion about a moral matter with the rest of nation,” writes author and commentator Timothy Stanley. “And then making a lot of money out of it.” Follow the money. The Washington Post has reported that one in six of Obama’s top campaign bundlers — the people who raise money hand over fist from the “1 percent” for the president’s reelection — is gay. The Hollywood Reporter noted that Obama’s diffidence on marriage left many rich celebrities and West Coast donors reluctant to open their wallets. Hollywood has long led on the issue of gay marriage, putting the president at odds with them on the matter. During THR and Google’s Pre-White House Correspondents’ Dinner Party, nearly every celebrity surveyed listed the legalization of gay marriage on a national level among the issues about which they care most , if not number one. In a recent op-ed for THR , Dustin Lance Black came down hard on both Democrats and Republicans for their refusal to move forward on the issue. Needless to say, that doesn’t track with the priorities of most ordinary voters on either side of the issue. But ordinary voters do not attend $40,000 per person Obama fundraising dinners at George Clooney’s house. Obama flew to join Clooney the day after he unburdened himself on gay marriage. The event was expected to bring in $15 million. Within hours of Obama’s announcement, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) unveiled a new fundraiser asking donors to “stand with the president on marriage equality.” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi signed a DCCC fundraising email announcing, “Breaking: President Obama supports marriage equality.” According to one report , Obama raised $1 million within 90 minutes of announcing his support for gay marriage. An Obama bundler told BuzzFeed, “There are more LGBT co-chairs across the country are raising more money than we’ve ever raised. And you’ll see a lot more of that now.” What we are also likely to see is an election that resembles 2004. George W. Bush was a wobbly, not-terribly popular incumbent; John Kerry was the not-especially beloved challenger from Massachusetts. The two campaigns worked very hard to win the presidency by maximizing their base voters. By coming out for gay marriage, Obama has boosted the enthusiasm of core supporters — young people, liberals, gays and lesbians — in addition to his fundraising totals. (He may have some minor concerns with black churches getting out the vote at the margins.) But he has created an equal and opposite reaction, helping Mitt Romney look more appealing to evangelical voters who haven’t been enthusiastic about the likely Republican nominee. And the HHS contraception mandate controversy may make it harder for evangelicals to believe that the government will allow them to stick to the traditional definition of marriage in their churches. In 2004, Obama chided the pundits who “like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue.” But that mishmash of red and blue, divided along social, cultural, and religious lines, may be more representative national colors come November than the rainbow.
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Green Is a Color in the Rainbow
By all accounts, it’s been a bumpy week in the news. The question of gay marriage clearly topped the charts with the president fighting his post hoc war of words against voters in the Tar Heel state. The CIA mobilized its double-agents to sniff out the next generation in underwear bombs. Meanwhile, in Damascus, Syria witnessed a steep uptick in violence, while a Russian commercial jetliner slammed into the side of an Indonesian volcano. At the polls, France broke left , and Greece broke bad . On the bright side, however, I’m very much looking forward to spending some old drachmas on my next trip ’round the Aegean, because there’s no chance the Eurozone survives this latest mess. Until then, I’ll have to lean on something a little closer to home to pass these troubled times. Although native to the Philadelphia ‘burbs, I’m a lifelong fan of Kentucky bluegrass and the commonwealth’s homegrown blends of corn-mashed bourbon. Sipping a dram of that charred-oak cocktail, smashed with mint and simple-syrup, is an annual treat when the three-year-olds Run for the Roses . This year, I’ll happily admit I didn’t lose any money, but a couple juleps cost me my cares. So it was with great pleasure that I read this morning that the owners of Maker’s Mark, my go-to brand when it comes to the brown stuff (“On the rocks, splash of water, thank you.”), won a major victory at the Sixth Circuit US Court of Appeals. Judge Boyce Martin ruled that the iconic red wax seal, dripped on the Marker’s Mark bottle, is protected “trade dress,” and, as such, it’s shielded from imitation, duplication, copycats and clones. As the Wall Street Journal ‘s Joe Palazzolo ( big h/t ) notes, Judge Martin clearly reveled in his historic defense of our native spirits and, frankly, the American way. His opinion opens: Justice Hugo Black once wrote, “I was brought up to believe that Scotch whisky would need a tax preference to survive in competition with Kentucky bourbon.” While there may be some truth to Justice Black’s statement that paints Kentucky bourbon as such an economic force that its competitors need government protection or preference to compete with it, it does not mean a Kentucky bourbon distiller may not also avail itself of our laws to protect its assets. This brings us to the question before us today: whether the bourbon producer Maker’s Mark Distillery, Inc.’s registered trademark consisting of its signature trade dress element — a red dripping wax seal — is due protection, in the form of an injunction, from a similar trade dress element on Casa Cuervo, S.A. de C.V.’s Reserva de la Familiatequila bottles. We hold that it is. The judgments of the district court in this trademark infringement case are AFFIRMED.
[Posted by Karl] The right has had a lot of fun watching Pres. Obama, his administration, and his campaign contorting over the issue of same sex marriage. But there is a serious message beneath the laughter. The most powerful man in the world does not knowingly make a fool of himself (esp. against his presumed ideological leaning on the issue) without reason. He does not pass up big campaign donations by refusing to sign an executive order barring same sex discrimination by federal contractors without reason. Yesterday , I opined in passing that Obama was backing off in hopes of keeping North Carolina in the mix of battleground states where the GOP has to spend money. Others have suggested Obama’s concerns are bigger than that. The Hotline’s Josh Kraushaar suggested Obama’s gay rights kabuki is more about the Rust Belt than North Carolina and Virginia, asserting that Obama has a much better shot at winning white votes in the former region than the latter. Kraushaar tweeted this shows Obama is still playing for Ohio and Pennsylvania , casting doubt on the VA/NC model. He believes it shows that Obama’s path to reelection remains challenging , because it relies on getting votes from working-class whites who oppose same sex marriage. If Kraushaar is correct, he was understating Obama’s plight. That is the lesson of the otherwise funny candidacy of federal inmate Keith Judd , who racked up an impressive 41 percent of the vote against Obama in the West Virginia Democratic primary. The sort of Jacksonian, bitter clingers voting ABO in that state are also found in southwest Virginia, Western Pennsylvania and southern Ohio. Moreover, Sean Trende suspects Obama’s reluctance to back SSM relates to the African-American vote and the importance of black churches in getting to his 2008 turnout numbers. Trende suggests that if Blacks voted in composition and number at pre-2008 levels, Obama has little room for error. Given that Black voters overwhelmingly backed the SSM ban on the ballot in North Carolina , despite Obama’s token opposition and a vigorous campaign against it by the NAACP, Trende is likely on target here. Obama likely needs very strong Black turnout in the urban centers of states like Pennsylvania and Ohio (and perhaps Virginia and North Carolina) to balance projected losses among rural and working-class white voters in these states. In one sense , this is not news. But it gives needed perspective to the propaganda establishment outlets like TIME churn out about the confidence of Team Obama supposedly has in facing Mitt Romney. The media can write for months about how many paths to victory Obama has, and how few Romney has. But Team Obama is not campaigning that way. They are projecting confidence, while campaigning as though November will be a nail-biter. Team Romney would do well to follow that example. –Karl
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Why Team Obama dodges gay rights issues
Today is May 7th. On this date in 1965, Keith Richards woke up in the early morning, recorded the hook for what would eventually become “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”, and went back to sleep. Coincidentally, I wrote part of a sentence when I wo. On this date in 1789, the first Presidential Inaugural Ball was held in New York City. The ball was in honor of Washington’s inauguration, but the first “official” ball wasn’t held until ten years later. Presidential balls remained relatively uncontroversial all the way up until to the Clinton administration. Today is also the birthday of both Johannes Brahms and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, in 1833 and 1840, respectively. Keith Richards assisted at both deliveries, then went back to sleep. And finally today is Accounting Day 2012 , when we celebrate the exciting world of accouzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Consider this an Open Thread . Paul Ryan on Recalls: ‘Courage is on the Ballot’ | Mount Pleasant Patch “When it comes the Wisconsin recall elections, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan says it’s really all about courage.” Epic smack down! Anderson Cooper exposes MoveOn.org | Right Scoop “Oh this you gotta see. This MoveOn.org guy never had a chance as Anderson Cooper just lets him bury himself under the rhetoric of his partisan agenda and then exposes him for everyone to see.” Admin Drafted Memo To Shield Obama If OBL Raid Failed | Free Beacon “The Obama Administration drafted a ‘highly lawyered’ memo to shield the president from blame if the mission to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden failed, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey told Sean Hannity of Fox News Monday.” UN: Give Mt. Rushmore To Native Americans | Big Government “James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on indigenous peoples, has recommended that the US government give the Black Hills region of the South Dakota back to Native American populations.” The Middle Class Under Barack Obama [Infographic] | Mitt Romney campaign “Too many Americans are either struggling for work or working harder for less. Under President Obama, America’s middle class has been pushed to the brink.” Dozens of Occuppiers Show Up to Support Bridge Bomb Suspects | Mental Recession “In all, about 50 members of the Occupy Cleveland group went into courthouse. After the arrests were made, Occupy Cleveland said the five suspects were associated with the group” Today’s Word of the Day comes via Dictionary.com. sudorific (soo-duh-RIF-ik): adjective 1. Causing sweat. 2. Sudoriparous. noun A sudorific agent.
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Daily Links – May 7, 2012
Well, well, well. Didn’t the pot just call the kettle darkly-hued. It’s okay. I get it. 52% of our nation’s electorate was foolish enough to vote for a detestable hypocrite. On issue after issue, across all the political boundaries, the man’s ability to hold diametrically opposed views when his tactical needs changed astounds the rational observer. In 2006, it was Senator Obama who piously announced that he was tired of politicians using terrorism as a wedge issue. In 2012, It’s President Gutsy-Call spiking the ball and performing the Ickey Shuffle instead of the slow jam. Thus, when the topic addressed is interracial relationships, the son of an African Man and a Caucasian Woman is no less despicably disingenuous. First, like his dad, he had interracial sex with a white woman.* Second, he became conflicted and confused about where things were going.** Third, he reached for the projection and started blaming other black men who did exactly what he did. Ann Althouse has read enough of Dreams of My Father to articulate just the extent to which Barack Obama should be put away in a toolbox somewhere and not let back out in public. By the way, in his book “Dreams From My Father,” Obama writes of being openly critical of a black man with a white girlfriend: Tim was not a conscious brother. Tim wore argyle sweaters and pressed jeans and talked like Beaver Cleaver. He planned to major in business. His white girlfriend was probably waiting for him up in his room, listening to country music. He was happy as a clam, and I wanted nothing more than for him to go away. I got up, walked with him down the hall to my room, gave him the assignment he needed. As soon as I got back to Reggie’s room, I somehow felt obliged to explain. “Tim’s a trip, ain’t he,” I said, shaking my head. “Should change his name from Tim to Tom.” My heart goes out to Genevieve Cook (pictured below). She, like 52% of the US electorate, made an utterly bad decision. Barack Obama's First Victim The Young Barack Obama (pictured below) was just as much of a manipulative player as the more mature, perfected model. Slick, Isn't He? So what is it about the Modern Left that allows them to run ethical pygmies like Quota-hontus and President Duplicity off their leadership assembly line? How do they use issues of race and ethnicity to cheat people and hurt our nation without the slightest twinge of regret? How can they *not* feel like the jerks that they truly are? I think this gets to how leftist beliefs effect the internal coherence and value system of a functional human being. Andy Nowicki describes the final Leftist cynicism below. To put it plainly, and vulgarly, no one really believes any of that “diversity” (expletive) anymore. No one believes much of anything anymore, in fact. We have entered an age of “anti-ideologies,” a time in which the most anger, energy, and focus seems driven in an exclusively negative direction, dedicated and determined less to prove anything than to disprove everything. The iniquitous and anti-humanist Leftist views diversity and racial equality the same way Vladamir Lenin viewed art. It’s a weapon. Thus, Barack Obama could coldly and viciously screw a white woman, but love and marriage were out of the question. Elizabeth Warren could manipulate the tragic history of a people who’s culture was displaced by the settlement of North America to gain tenure at a law school and then remark that her Granddad had high cheekbones. You know, like all those people do. I hope the Left is proud of our Post-Modern President. Otherwise, they probably sit there with their hangovers as disappointed and sickened by this man as the rest of us. It’s The Morning After in America and he doesn’t really seem to be that in to us anymore….. * My wife was born in Seoul, Korea and we have two beautiful kids. By my standards, the Prez. wasn’t a screwed up mess of a man for step number one in isolation. ** I’ve known guys like that. They always seem to bust the nut first – THEN they feel deep emotional confusion and fear of commitment. Oops, oh well!
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Off To The Races
