long and useless

While Proposition 8 failed to pass (so far) in California, in Arizona and Florida, constitutional amendments that recognize marriage as between one man and one woman, unfortunately succeded.

As of this morning, Arkansas is banning unmarried partners from adopting children (and thus targeting gay couples) and it's one of those things that I hate; they use what they believe is neutral language to present a bill that does nothing but discriminate against two different groups of people. They make it about the children, when it's so much more about their own bigotry and intolerance. Children my ASS.

Happily, both South Dakota and Colorado rejected the measures to ban abortion in most cases. South Dakota is probably the biggest relief because the same bill was introduced in 2006 (remember THAT?) but without the amendments they included this time around (it's now OKAY TO GET AN ABORTION IF YOU WERE RAPED AND/OR A PRODUCT OF INCEST. GEE. THANKS). Some people thought the measure might pass this time around because of the amendments, but logic apparently won out for once.

For my own state Washington, Democrat incumbent Gregoire has been projected to be the winner, which is a tremendous relief if you live in our state and have seen Dino Rossi campaigning. He skeeves me out and besides that, I'm in disagreement with him over most of the major social issues. Ho.

We now have:

- The right to die.
- Another small increase in our already-high sales tax (but since this is supporting our mass-transit plan, I'm okay with it).

So basically?

THIS HAS BEEN A REALLY GOOD YEAR FOR ME TO COME BACK TO AMERICA. XD

This is about vampires. This is set in the South. The main character's name is Sookie Stackwood. We have a vampire called Bill.

We also have Anna Paquin, who I have a weird love for.

So far?

( this is a weird story )

In other, real-life news, the VP debate last night was more boring than I thought it'd be. It's probably very petty of me to say this, but I watched with a kind of half-formed thought that maybe Palin would screw up on the podium. After watching the Couric interview, you'd think she owuld have a hard time dealing with an honest debate, but I guess that 'debate boot camp' kind of worked. Palin rambled a lot. I started tuning her out at points because it got so repetitive.

Mind, Biden wasn't much better. He's pretty repetitive too. I guess that's the point.

Palin still makes my noise muscles twitch. She irritates me so much. Having her as our first female VP candidate just... argh. argh. argh.argharghargharheaejahfkehajfhejkl.

KARL ROVE IS STEPPING DOWN.

I am seriously behind in the news; a quick glimpse of the headlines today didn't actually get me this. I was reading the news about the North Korean floods, and a random link brought me to a video that was talking about Rove's... resignation? Is that what it is?

I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it myself.

Huh.

Isn't this kind of, well, an inopportune moment?

And I keep thinking of him hunkering over a cell and whispering to George Bush behind the scenes.

I think I'll dig down with some ice cream and contemplate this.

South Dakota and the official WTF of the week.

A few random facts:
It is a midwestern state, located north of Nebraska and east of Montana and Wyoming. It is also, coincidentally, the site of Mount Rushmore. (yes, the irony rather burns) The population is around 775,000 people. It is a predominantly white state with a predominantly Republican base. They are largely Christian and Protestant.

And there are some spectacular idiots there. But I digress.

I somehow get the feeling that the legislators might have bitten off a wee bit more than they should have.

Admittedly, Samuel Alito looks like he has the touch of pro-life in him. But it's not for sure. The law they passed is so ridiculously stringent that most moderate Republicans would probably find it repulsive. Believe it or not, moderate conservatives do exist and they'd find this fairly dumb. I know there are hopes that this will eventually land in the Supreme Court, thus pushing Roe vs. Wade to the forefront and finally, finally deciding whether it was 'right' or 'wrong'. What will this result in?

Scenario - states that were fairly liberal to begin with would pass laws that allow choice. States that are not so liberal would ban abortion, thus either forcing a pregnant woman to cross state lines to access abortion or... worst scenario, their movement would be restricted.

I think that was what made me go cold. The idea that a pregnant woman would be literally trapped where she couldn't get any help, where she would be forced to have a baby she didn't want, where she'd be...

Basically, this news makes me sick to my stomach. And South Dakota suddenly moved north on my list of States I Will Never Visit.

(on a side note, the state of Dakota has fewer people than Toyama. That's a little scary, considering how much sometimes think think this is the bumfuck of nowhere.)