Another battle won in what will still be a long, long war

Just had to add my voice to the chorus of cheers from my f-list that San Francisco's progressive Mayor Gavin Newsome (D) has been vindicated by his state's Supreme Court, which today went and overturned the state's constitutional ban on same-gender marriage. BBC News' webpage is just one of many reporting on the story.

Naturally, the Religious Reich is not going to let this stand; expect an appeal to the US Supremes shortly. Or at the minimum, another try at drafting a new amendment to CA's constitution that can get enacted and survive court challenge. And similar battles in most of the other states are still being fought. But slowly, surely, inevitably, equality for LGBTQ persons and their relationships will be a reality in this country.

"Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." —Sir Winston Churchill, former UK Prime Minister, in a 1942 speech

UPDATE, Sun. 5/18, 3:45p: The anti-equality forces have proven me right even more quickly than I expected, sad to say; this Washington Post article reports that Californian religious-moralist groups opposed to same-gender marriage have already gathered more than the legally required number of signatures to put a new constitutional ban on this November's ballot, and asked the state Supreme Court to extend its normal delay period before their ruling takes effect until then to give the Peepul a chance to be heard.

Primary fight harms Dems? One guy says maybe not so much

As we watch the ongoing clusterfuck that is the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination process, many of us out here in rank-and-file-Democrat land have feared that Little Miss Entitlement's Senator Hillary Clinton's refusal to concede her ever-more-obvious defeat is practically handing the White House back to the Repugnants this fall.

Comes now one Rob Richie, exec-director of the (allegedly) nonpartisan voters' watchdog group FairVote, to say he doesn't see the drawn-out debacle being so deadly to the Dems' chances of winning back the Presidency. My local paper published his opinion column on the subject today, but they won't put it on their website (possibly due to not having online rights for it), so you have to read it here instead.

Is he right or just whistling past that old proverbial graveyard? I'd like to think he's got something, of course...but I am well aware that my party has only won five of the past dozen Presidential contests. And knowing that slimy bastard Karl Rove is still around and advising John McCain's campaign, on top of the discord on our side, doesn't do wonders for my ability to sleep at night in the meantime.