The Progressive Puppy

Gay Marriage in Maine: Final ads released.

Voters will be going to the polls on November 3rd to support or reject Proposition One, which would overturn same-sex marriage in Maine.  This groundbreaking legislation was passed by fair-minded state representatives and signed into law by Governor John Baldacci. 

Below are the final two Prop 1 television spots, representing each side of the marriage equality question.  The first ad is heartwarming and sincere, the second is shrill and desperate.  (The anti-gay group "Stand for Marriage Maine"  has disabled comments on its Youtube Channel.  That says a lot about the organization that wants to take away rights from gay and lesbian couples.)  Watch them both, and then decide which group of people you'd invite into your home. 

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Virginia Attorney General hopeful: Gay love is "intrinsically wrong."

Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for attorney general in Virginia, is a religious conservative with a special loathing for LGBT Americans.  If elected, he will be the commonwealth's premier crime fighter, a position of trust that should be awarded to a person who's prepared to protect all citizens, not just those he finds morally acceptable.  Joe Sudbay writes:  Ken Cuccinelli wants to be the top law enforcement official in Virginia. Apparently, he's unaware of the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas.  Or, worse yet, Cuccinelli thinks his version of "natural law" trumps the U.S. Supreme Court.  You can't get much more theocratic than that.

Cuccinelli flouts his anti-gay street creds: "My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong."  (Love the sinner hate the sin.  This is the Halloween mask of Bigotry.)  "And I think in a natural law based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that.  They don’t comport with natural law."  (I suppose the many animal species that engage in same-sex relationships and pair bonding don't fall under Cuccinelli's definition of "natural law.")  "I happen to think that it represents - to put it politely; I need my thesaurus to be polite - behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society."

From the Washington Post:  Putting aside what Mr. Cuccinelli has to say about homosexuals when he's not trying so hard to be polite, let's call his comments what they are: bigotry.  Appeals to "natural law" and "intrinsic" rights and wrongs were the usual clichés deployed to justify the old-time religion of hatred then directed at African Americans, Jews, Italians, Irish and other immigrants.  It is especially alarming that this ugly nonsense is coming from Mr. Cuccinelli, who, if he becomes the attorney general of Virginia - a job that combines aspects of chief government lawyer and top cop - would be in a position to act on it. 

The Virginia-Pilot has just endorsed Ken Cuccinelli's opponent, Democrat Steve Shannon, for attorney general.  In an editorial published this week, the paper listed several reasons why Cuccinelli is such a poor choice for the state:   As a Republican state senator, his limited-government philosophy led him to oppose common-sense safety measures and some crime bills... (He) even argued against stricter laws for cockfighting... Cuccinelli’s views on reproductive rights don’t align with those of most Virginians.  He favors legislation that would grant legal rights to fetuses at conception.  He has sponsored bills requiring strict regulations that would put most abortion clinics out of business.  He voted against a bill stating that contraception is not abortion.  (Taking the pill = killing babies.  No wonder the wingnuts love him.)  To put it politely, Cuccinelli’s election would bring embarrassment to Virginia, instability to the state’s law firm and untold harm to the long list of people who don’t fit his personal definition of morality.

If Cuccinelli beats Shannon at the polls, district attorneys in Virginia will be taking their lead from a man who views the LGBT community as evildoers and women's reproductive rights as nonexistent.  It will be a dark day in Old Dominion. 

The Ten Scariest Faces Of All Time

Happy Halloween from Progressive Puppy - and be sure and check under your bed tonight!

Woman Supports Marriage Equality, Loses Post at Catholic Church

Pamella Starbird Beliveau of Lewiston, Maine, wrote an opinion piece for the local newspaper in which she voiced her support for same-sex marriage.  The mother of two is a graduate student at Boston College's School of Ministry of Theology.  She is also a practicing Catholic who serves as Eucharistic Minister in her parish.   Or rather, she did serve in that capacity.  Shortly after the article was published, Beliveau's priest informed her that she would no longer be allowed to handle the Body of Christ.  Wrote the "devout" pastor:  The Lewiston Sun Journal published a guest editorial by you which expressed views contrary to the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on the nature of marriage.  I regret that you will not be eligible to exercise a public ministry in Prince of Peace Parish.  More specifically, that means that I have decided that you are NOT to serve as a reader or minister of Holy Communion, effective today. 

Beliveau defended her position on National Public Radio:  "At every juncture of this debate, we have to remind ourselves that we are dealing with heart, soul, and flesh human beings who are in love called and wired for relationship, including intimate relationships.  When anyone finds that other person in his or her life, then we aspire to marriage, a noble and honorable way to live our lives."  (Anathema!  Sacrilege!  Heretic!) 

The Catholic Church cannot allow ungodly radicals like Beliveau to touch the Sacred Host.  It sends out a bad message to hard-working clergy members.  After all, these priests have their reputations to consider.  (Snort.)

Family values pol found in graveyard with young hooker, sex toys.

Roland Corning, deputy assistant Attorney General for South Carolina and former state legislator, sure knows how to make the most of a lunch break.  Officer Michael D. Wines noticed Corning's Ford Explorer as it turned into a secluded area at Elmwood Cemetery, a reputed hotbed of illicit sex and drugs.  When the South Carolina Republican saw Wines's patrol car, he panicked and sped off.  But he was stopped by another cop just a few blocks away.  Wines caught up with the former lawmaker and conducted a search of the vehicle.  Inside Corning's SUV, Wines found an 18-year-old prostitute, a bottle of Viagra, and enough sex toys to keep Peter LaBarbera occupied for a month.  The conservative Corning informed the officer that he likes to have sex paraphernalia in his SUV "just in case."  (I wonder if he drives to church in that vehicle.)   

From The State:  Wines then interviewed Corning and the woman, and said they gave "conflicting statements as to why they were at the location, and to their relationship."  Because of that, Wines wrote, he asked Corning some more questions, which is when Corning identified himself as an attorney and showed Wines his state attorney general's badge.  "At that point I asked if there was anything illegal in the vehicle, which he stated no and gave consent to search," Wines wrote.  The search revealed a sex enhancement drug and the sex toys.  According to the report, Corning told Wines he had a prescription for the medication and the other items were always in the car "just in case."  That's when Wines decided to release the woman, who "stated that her vehicle was around the corner where Mr. Corning met her."  Moments later, Wines released Corning.  (Presumably returning his dildos, titty clamps, leather restraints, and Jessica Simpson blow-up doll.)

Corning must have breathed a sigh of relief after the cops let him go.  But alas, it would turn out to be a premature ejaculation of air.  As luck would have it (bad luck, for the horndog prosecutor), Wines' wife Megan also works at the Attorney General's office, and the police officer had called her to check out Cornings' credentials.  Josh Marshall writes on TPM:  Wines' wife didn't leave it there.  She contacted her supervisor, Deputy Attorney General John McIntosh, who passed on the word to Attorney General Henry McMaster.  McMaster apparently found out early Wednesday.  And by the end of the day Corning's employment at the AG's office had come to an abrupt end.

Maybe Corning can get a job as groundskeeper at the cemetery.

Sex Offenders Keep Girl Scouts Moving

When the Silver Sage Girl Scouts of Twin Falls discovered that 50 sex offenders currently reside within a one mile radius of its downtown headquarters, group leaders immediately discontinued meetings.  More than six hundred girl scouts and an additional 230 mentors were being served through the city's center.  Shelli Rambo Robertson, president of SSGS, said, "Do we feel this is the safest environment for girls being served in the area?  We did not."  After the group had made plans to move to a new location near the College of Southern Idaho, they were informed by the County Sheriff's Department that its future base of operations is home to at least twenty-three sex offenders.

The American Family Association took a break from bashing same-sex couples in order to issue the following Action Alert:  "We clearly must do something more permanent with sex offenders - either lock them up for life or put them to death ...  If either sex offenders or the Girl Scouts have to be inconvenienced, I vote for sex offenders."  (Well, yes.  Execution would certainly be an inconvenience.  But this sort of play-to-the-rafters rhetoric is hardly productive.)

Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars brings some sanity to the situation:  There are about 700,000 people on state sex offender lists at the moment.  But in five states, that includes someone who is arrested soliciting a prostitute. In 13 states, that includes someone arrested for urinating in public.  In 29 states, it includes teenagers who had sex with other teenagers.  In 32 states, it includes someone arrested for streaking or flashing, something every frat boy has done from time to time during rush week.  In one study of the Georgia sex offender list, the review board that oversees that list determined that 65% of the more than 17,000 people on the list were not a threat to anyone at all.  Only about 100 of them were actually classified as predators. That's just over one half of one percent of the people on the list.  We are manufacturing sex offenders ...

When folks hear the phrase "sex offender," they inevitably (and rightly) think of rapists and child molesters.  But as Ed points out, that definition is no longer the standard in many states.  When authorities lump together dangerous sexual predators with a seventeen-year-old who has sex with his girlfriend, or a homeless man who pees behind a dumpster, or teenagers who send nude photos of themselves to their friends, it muddies the waters and inflates local sex offender databases to enormous proportions.  Because of the sheer size of these lists, the worst felons occasionally slip through the cracks.  It also takes focus away from the more abhorrent sex crimes.  I'd rather see a concise Child Predator/Rapist Registry with greater oversight and less room for error.