Ticket to the Zeitgeist: 08/06/10

God Bless the Queen

Queen Latifah uses overturning of Prop 8 to come out.

Take That, Bigotry

From Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post:

The 14th Amendment is a mighty sword, and U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker used it Wednesday to slice and shred all the specious arguments -- and I mean all of them -- that are used to deny full marriage rights to gay and lesbian Americans. Bigotry has suffered a grievous blow.

C-Span Fail

You just have to read the description of Al Franken presiding over the Senate yesterday to wonder - HOW DID C-SPAN NOT GET THIS ON CAMERA? From The Hill:

Franken, who was presiding over the chamber from the dais, gesticulated and made faces while McConnell explained his opposition to Kagan, according to witnesses.

The television cameras broadcasting the speech on C-SPAN remained fixed on McConnell, missing Franken’s antics from the Senate president’s chair.

The Electoral Politics of Prop 8

Nate Silver on the politics of Prop 8 in the 2010 and 2012 elections:

My best guess is that the Tea Party will largely continue to shirk the issue, but that the Republican Establishment will be fairly happy to engage it. The real battle, however, may come in 2012, when the Supreme Court could be about ready to take up the case. The leading indicator may be the reactions of the major Presidential hopefuls. For instance, will Sarah Palin produce a tweet or Facebook post containing the the phrases "activist judge" or "judicial activism" within the next 24 hours? It may depend on which type of conservatives -- the tea-partiers, or the movement conservatives of the Republican Establishment -- that she ultimately wants to affiliate herself with.

And in the LA Times, an analysis of the role Prop 8 will play in 2010 California politics.