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http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/26/735571/-Read-page-36.-They-just-cut-Prop-8-to-the-bone. (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/26/735571/-Read-page-36.-They-just-cut-Prop-8-to-the-bone.)

Read page 36.  They just cut Prop 8 to the bone.
by Seneca Doane

Tue May 26, 2009 at 11:51:14 AM PDT

Being an activist progressive blogging lawyer requires wearing four hats, one for each word.  My first response to Strauss, today's decision on Prop 8, was outrage and disdain.  That came from wearing my first three hats.  This diary comes from wearing my fourth one.  There is still cause for anger, no doubt, but I think that -- as with the "defeats" for progressives in Bakke (regarding affirmative action) and Casey (regarding abortion rights) people have so far missed the most critical aspect of today's decision.

It's on page 36.

I'm not going to say that this decision is a win for our side.  But in the most critical ways, it's a loss for the other side.

I've been trying to say this, nice to know someone else READS the damn court decision, BEFORE they write on it.

It would be great if this activist progressive blogging lawyer would educate the crowd and speakers in front of city hall.  "The supreme court voted away our marriage rights today."  Yeah... . actually they didn't.  The voters of California did in November.  The Supreme Court just said they filed their paperwork right.  If I were denied my rights by popular vote I'd probably be pretty pissed too, but I'd at least like to think I wouldn't be this dense.

I was amazed that so FEW people showed up to protest, I guess more got it than not. They had the big barricade stuff set up - or at least staged - in several places and it was not needed.

Quote from: tekla on May 26, 2009, 11:15:58 PM
I was amazed that so FEW people showed up to protest, I guess more got it than not. They had the big barricade stuff set up - or at least staged - in several places and it was not needed.

Are you talking about the one this morning?  Because there was a reassembly I could hear them 'til about a half hour ago.

You could get that many people to protest protests in SF, no big deal.  You obviously were not here in the 60s, or 30 years ago when the White verdict came down.  Or even when the Niners beat Dallas in the 1980 NFC championship game. 

Scratch that.  They're still going.

No, i wasn't here in the sixties....   but I live a block from city hall.  There's only a protest 3 days a week.  I get it.

Critical Mass is a bigger mess.

Quote from: tekla on May 26, 2009, 11:22:18 PM
Critical Mass is a bigger mess.

Truer words have never been spoken.  I used to ditch town an hour early for the East Bay when that disaster came rolling though.  "Woo hoo! We're cyclists, taking back the streets!  2 wheels good, 4 wheels bad! Zero gallons per mile!" Yeah, great, I get it.  Go you.  Now let me get home.

CA has majority rule for Const. Inits? You call them "Props." Thats ludicrus. A 52-48 vote has created all this mess.

At least in Florida we require 60% to pass a ballot initiative. I think marriage as definied as between a man and a woman passed 62-38. Thats the bad news, but at least we require a near super majority to inact long-term policy.

Quote from: michellesofl on May 26, 2009, 11:30:08 PM
CA has majority rule for Const. Inits? You call them "Props." Thats ludicrus. A 52-48 vote has created all this mess.

What's even more absurd is that a ballot measure in San Francisco to rename the sewer plant after George W. Bush didn't pass.  I thought that one was a sure thing.

I think a democratic vote is 50%+1.  We have a 60% rule for our budgets and that process is a mess, so is the new found Republican love of the filibuster rule in the Senate, something they will rue with great sorrow before all is said and done.

And I do Critical Mass.  I love it.  It's important, and its a reason why SF is such a bike friendly city, and doing more work on bike routes all the time.  Critical Mass is what real democracy smells like.

Quote from: tekla on May 26, 2009, 11:33:49 PM
And I do Critical Mass.  I love it.  It's important, and its a reason why SF is such a bike friendly city, and doing more work on bike routes all the time.  Critical Mass is what real democracy smells like.

Good for you.  Let pedestrians cross, please.  We, too, are fossil fuel free. 

I'm sure they could make rules, if anyone was in charge, but they are not.  But I see the pell stop for peds all the time.  Last year the trans march hit Critical Mass, it was pretty funny, ->-bleeped-<-s meet dykes on real bikes.

Yeah, I was there for that... standing around, freezing my ass off in late June.

Sounds like June in SF.  If you don't like all that stuff, the protests, Critical Mass, the Yuppies, the cold summer - exactly why do you live there?

I don't really find the weather to ever get all that cold...  i underdressed that day, got a sunburn from laying in the park and was dehydrated from drinking too much.  everything's fine in moderation, imho, which is probably why i love it here.  a little bit of everything within close reach or a lazy weekend drive away.