First of all, before we get any further, I would like to point out the unrivaled awesomeness of the LGBT flag. They may be a ruthlessly discriminated against group in this world, but at least they have the best flag. Which, granted, is not a great consolation prize for civil rights, but still. The Best. I dare you to prove me wrong.
More significantly, President Obama and his crew of ne'er-do-wells announced that they are going to stop pretending that DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act, dummies) is constitutional, because it is not. My first thought is: That is great! It's about time! It was really weird that he was defending it before. Which leads me to my second thought: Why did he decide that it was okay to tell the truth now? Obama is obviously not against gay marriage. That is obvious. Much like his official position on many other so-called social issues, he was pretending to "struggle" with gay marriage due to his persistent, always infuriating attempt to get Republicans to like him on Facebook, or something like that. This interview with a law professor who knows things and teaches at some school on the East Coast answers some questions about this. The argument that they were waiting until after the midterms makes some sense, but I can't imagine that people who would consider voting Democrat would change their minds because Obama showed a modicum of support for same-sex marriage.
Regardless, what I found interesting about what this scholar of law had to say was this:
"Eric Holder has proven an extremely political attorney general, much in the same way as the Bush attorneys general. His position not to prosecute torture, his decision to defend DOMA, and his prior decisions on DOMA were all driven by political considerations in the view of his critics."
Truth. Another truth: as long as our legal system takes it's queues from politicians (instead of, you know, laws), all will not be well.
Update: Glenn Greenwald was on Last Word tonight talking about Obama's reversal on DOMA and why it is something that we should celebrate without qualifications. Here's that:
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