[Technicolor Musings] Obama Supports MARRIAGE (and so should YOU!)

As I had celebrated over on our Baduy Pride blog, President Obama surprised everyone (although for different reasons) when we (finally) publicly came out in support of equal marriage rights for members of the LGBT community. And as much as we could gripe how he had to time this for yet another election year, this landmark occasion is still something worth celebrating. I mean come on, this is still the first time that a sitting US president has made a public statement in support of same-sex marriage and not just wobble with things like civil unions and all that fun stuff.

But while we all ponder over his motivations, laugh at Republicans calling this Obama declaring war on marriage or even dream about local politicians someday making similar statements in support of LGBT rights, I'd like to go back to a core thought at the heart of this debate.

We often use the term "gay marriage" a lot to easily explain what we're talking about in terms of the rights we're fighting for. However the term in itself assumes that the marriage rights of the LGBT community are still distinct and separate from the rest of the heterosexual world since we need to clearly label it as "gay".

The image above (and variants thereof) has gone around on various social networks and has garnered loads and loads of Likes, Re-Tweets and re-blogging on platforms like Tumblr. The quote is attributed to the actress / comedian / writer / producer Liz Feldman, as part of a longer statement that can still be found online. Coincidentally enough, the statement was in support of President Obama's initial presidential run, and here we are 4 years later with him starting his re-election campaign.

At the end of the day, we need to remember that all these discussions are about the fundamental rights we should all be entitled to and our freedom to love whomever we chose to. Beyond that love, the law needs to respect us and recognize who we are and the decisions we make in terms of wanting to marry the men and women that we love so dearly and to be protected by those same laws.

This is not about creating a new type of marriage that should be tagged as "gay marriage" but instead we should just be allowed the right to marry - period. And allowing people to celebrate their love for one another will not take away or somehow taste the love and unions of others. This is not about some perverse effects men marrying other men is going to have on (theoretically) straight families.

So STOP SAYING WE'RE DESTROYING YOUR MARRIAGES YOU CRAZY PEOPLE!


Quite frankly - you're doing a fine enough job of ruining your own marriages given the statistics related to divorces, separations and other such break-ups on the web.

We just want the free to love. Is that too much to ask for?

[US Elections] Obama Won!

Image via WikipediaBarrack Hussein Obama is officially the 44th President of the United States of America after CNN and the other networks called it and John McCain conceded defeat.

We have a Democrat back in control of the White House! We finally have a member of an ethnic minority as President of the US! Man, if only he were gay, then we'd have it all!

What else is there to say? Hip hip, hurrah!

And thank god they didn't let Palin into the White House!

[Viral Video Chart] Tensions Flare Between Obama and Clinton at SC Debate

There's nothing quite like political mudslinging on national television.

Cat fight!


#9 - Tensions Flare Between Obama and Clinton at SC Debate

[US Politics] Clinton on the Defensive

Obama and Hillary by nata2.

It seems to be that time of the month for Hillary Clinton. Or perhaps the past few months. Maybe she's stuck in one of the worst PMS surges in some time - something has to explain her increasingly vicious, bitchy and vindictive approach towards her campaign and how she handles her competitors in this long road to the November elections.

Sure, the victory of Barack Obama in Iowa, and perhaps more importantly her third-place performance in that particular caucus. With the clock ticking towards the New Hampshire caucus, you have to admit that Hillary is definitely getting a little feisty. Heck, everyone seems to be talking about how rattled her campaign group is over the recent turn in events.

Take the recently conlcuded NH Democratic debates as an example - with Obama and Edwards engagining in what's quickly becoming every candidates favorite game show, "Let's Gang Up on that Bitch Hillary" they clearly put the pressure on resulting in this rather nasty response from the former First Lady:

#3 - Hillary Clinton's Heated Response

I mean, wow, right?

I don't see how she expects this kind of approach to win over more votes from NH residents at a time like this. Everyone else is doing the warm and fuzzy routine with Obama leading the charge with this Hope for Change message of sorts. And she goes back to cite what was done before? Perhaps it's a logical argument but voters were trying to associate with her as a woman and not as the one who wears the pants in the Clinton household.

As much as I consider the name "Fox News" to be an oxymoron in itself, I have to admit this particular video was rather interesting:

#20 - News: Undecided Voters in New Hampshire

Sure, most of the time Fox News doesn't look for new to report in an objective manner - they're more likely to think of a particular angle or slant they want to report on and look for common citizens who will support that particular message. This group may have been selected precisely because of their strong Obama leanings to prove a point, but they do express some genuine sentiments that are out there.

Take a chill pill, Hillary! If you want to win this thing, you really ought to change your tune. You can attract more bees with honey after all.

[Viral Video Chart] December 30, 2007 - January 5, 2008

Given we crossed over into the New Year this week, you'd expect more videos about fireworks and such topping the Viral Video Chart, but clearly that little event was overshadowed by the recently completed Iowa Caucus. Not many non-politically-inclined videos managed to eke out a spot for themselves although we did get an interesting Tetris video this time around.

And of course there's always Britney Spears to liven up anyone's day!


#1 - Obama's Victory Speech


#2 - The Original Human TETRIS Performance by Guillaume Reymond


#3 - Happy New Year (ABBA)


#4 - Scotch Mist - A Film With Radiohead In It


#12 - EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: BRITNEY SPEARS ON A STRETCHER

[US Politics] The Big Winners in Iowa

Barack, keeping hope alive in America... by Marilyn M.

Well that was certainly interesting.

The results are pretty much in and the Iowa caucuses have come out with some rather surprising results. On the Democratic side, Barack Obama managed an impressive lead of 8 points with 38% of all votes with Edwards following with 30% and Hillary Clinton thereafter with only 29%. For the Republicans, it was small-scale Mike Huckabee who managed to take a significant lead of 34% of the votes followed by Romney's 25% - a 9 point lead with 95 percent of the precincts reporting. Thompson and McCain had 13% while Paul only managed 10%.

It's interesting to note that Clinton didn't rank second (although some may argue it's only as matter of one percentage point) which somewhat says something about how people have been receiving her rather strong campaign thus far. Obama's victory wasn't about convincing long-time voters to support him but to get new young voters out of their homes and into the polls despite them previously being largely vocal but not very good in terms of the actual follow-through.

This year's Iowa caucuses saw an amazing turn-out largely driven by younger, newer participants and this is precisely the kind of support that may carry Obama throughout the rest of the campaign unless his competitors change tactics significantly.

Of course this is just one state and we still have a long road ahead of us before the actual presidential elections in November. Still, if Iowa is any indicator, this can be pretty much anyone's game and only the most dynamic and determined candidates are going to make it to the finish line.

[Videos] Chad Vader Chats with Obama Girl

I love Chad Vader, a quirky web series created by Blame Society Prodctions. While we're all eagerly awaiting their second season, they've been releasing a variety of unusual shorts like this next feature.

This time around, Chad Vader gets to meet the famous Obama Girl. Amber took some time out from her busy schedule to ask Chad a few questions about himself...


Chad Vader Chats with Obama Girl

[US Politics] Hillary Goes 2.0

Today it has been announced pretty much everywhere that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has officially announced her intent to make a bid for the US Presidency. While this information doesn't surprise anyone, the manner in which she made this announcement is what catches the interest of the Geeky Guide.



Instead of the usual press conference or some major campaign rally, Hillary chose to make her announcement through her website HillaryClinton.com, a definite first in this political arena. A series of videos and informative pages can now be found on her page for interested voters and supporters.

Why this medium? Is this her way of showing she's in touch with the younger crowd or some poppycock like that? It's hard to say at this point, but she's definitely trying to play up to the internet community. As part of her announcement to form a presidential exploratory committee, she has stated that starting Monday, January 22, 2007, she'll be participating in a series of web chats with anyone who's interested in order to touch base with the people and get their views and ideas on how to solve the problems plaguing their country today.

She definitely needs to do something to set her apart from the rest, given that this early in the race, her biggest opponent is not coming from the Republican party but from fellow Democrat presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who announced his intent to run earlier this week. Support for both candidates is fairly significant at this point but it remains to be soon which of the two will ultimately win the candidacy seat in order to represent the Democratic Party.

Now, does anyone feeling like chatting with Hillary next week? ü

Related Links:

• CNN.com - Hillary Clinton launches White House bid: 'I'm in'
  
• TIME Magazine - Hillary's Run: The Obstacles She Faces
  
• TIME Magazine: The Racing Form