HuffPo on CheneyHad 2 interesting stories: this one on Holder considering torture investigations and this one regarding what exactly this uber secret program was in the first place.

Sotomayor hearingis going to knock so many stories that should be covered off the MSM table, so glad to hear there will be a Wednesday open thread, too! Good idea; I like a “mid-week” edition as well.  

WA state senator Swecker turns back on former “values” colleagueIn the “something old something new” vein…WA state senator Dan Swecker, co-chair of Gary Randall’s Faith & Freedom PAC, has endorsed David Castillo over Jon Russell in the Washington 3rd congressional race.  Jon Russell is the former executive director of Gary Randall’s Faith & Freedom Network.
Russell famously said in opposition to marriage equality:

Things that cannot reproduce or things that cannot provide that generational heritage are not a progressive value. Those are backwards values.

Interestingly, Russell sometimes leaves his F&F history off of his resume.
Here‘s a transcript of the CBN video Russell is quoted from,  It also features Swecker, Larry Stickney, Rep. Jamie Pedersen and Sen. Ed Murray

CA, WA Push for Gay Rights
Homosexual legislators in the two largest West Coast states are pushing hard for the gay agenda. Watch Video
Full Transcript
Homosexual legislators in the two largest West Coast states are pushing hard for the gay agenda. In Washington, they’re aiming to make it the first state after Massachusetts to legalize same sex marriage.
Protecting Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgenders
In California, they’ve passed SB777, a law they say will protect gays, bisexuals and transgenders from discrimination in the public schools – but opponents say it’s an attempt to force-feed those lifestyles to students.
“There’s going to be a mandate implicit within this to bring in pro-homosexual propaganda throughout the curriculum materials, the textbooks, the instruction, the programs. That’s what the law’s requiring,” Brad Dacus, a lobbyist in Sacramento for the pro-family Pacific Justice Institute said.
And California is so big and influential that its textbooks – altered to present positive images of gays, bisexuals, and transgenders – will soon become the entire nation’s textbooks.
For many upset California parents, SB777 may be one law too many pushing the homosexual agenda. They may decide their public school students aren’t going to be in these public schools much longer.
San Bernadino’s Karen Milam has already made that decision, and pulled her 16-year-old son out.
“I’ve just become more and more concerned with the public high schools as they become more and more of a vehicle for propaganda and social engineering as opposed to education,” she said.
“We’re in the middle of a big culture war and what’s at stake right now is the traditional family,” said Jose Gonzalez, a concerned Orange County parent.
If a male teacher dresses as a woman, which does happen sometimes in California, and a student expresses an opinion against that, Gonzalez said, “That teacher as I understand it can sue or file against that child for some kind of harassment.”
‘The Bill Goes too Far’
Robert and Kathy Stoody, raising six kids out in rural Ramona, believe SB777 goes too far. They’re worried about language that says a child may decide what gender he is, meaning if a boy says he’s a girl, such things as stopping him from using the girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms would be illegal.
Kathy Stoody said, “Guys may come in and use the women’s bathroom and who knows what they may be thinking.
The potential effects of the new law could be staggering.
“If the children read a novel, for example, like ‘Gone with the Wind’ where you have a heterosexual romance, then they also have to, based on this language, read a homosexual novel,” Dacus said.
Not only are these Californians worried about homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism being pushed on their kids. They’re also concerned about their children’s rights being trampled.
For instance, Dacus said Christian kids could end up in serious trouble for holding to their biblical beliefs against homosexuality. It’s already happened in three California schools where Christian students were, as Dacus described.
“Reprimanded and suspended because they were wearing t-shirts during the pro-homosexual Day of Silence and their t-shirts, though, didn’t have the pro-homosexual message,” Dacus said. “Theirs simply had some Bible verses on it, saying very clearly ‘these are sins,’ and it had a whole list of sins and one of them was homosexuality.”
Dacus went on to say, “We’re going to see that kind of a mindset of open hostility to Christians magnified all throughout the state partly because of this legislation.”
As Karen Milam, the mom who’s pulled her son out of his public high school, said, “The parents are actually being robbed of the right to instruct their own children in their own values. These are our children; they do not belong to the state.”
Californians have until January 4 to gather enough signatures to get an initiative on the ballot next year that would wipe out SB777. But at least one pro-family group there says that’s not enough.
The Campaign for California Families says the state’s public school system has become so pro-homosexual and so hostile to Christians, all Christian parents should remove their children from the public schools and put them in private schools or home-school them.
Domestic Partnership – A Gateway to Marriage?
Meanwhile, gay lawmakers in Washington State are planning to use momentum raised by their getting legalized domestic partnerships this year to push for full-fledged same sex marriage.
“This is about marriage,” State Senator Ed Murray, the openly-gay majority caucus vice chair, told CBN News. “We’re not pursuing domestic partnership for domestic partnership. We’re pursuing it to get to marriage. It is absolutely a plot.”
Murray and his male partner were one of the first couples to get the new licenses formalizing their domestic partnership. He said married couples have hundreds of rights non-married couples don’t, “probably about 1,400. We’re just asking the state to give us equal protection.”
Another leader of the gay lawmakers, assistant majority whip State Rep. Jamie Pedersen said straights should stop thinking homosexual marriage is a threat.
“There’s no shortage of civil marriage licenses,” Pedersen said. “They won’t run out if all of the gay people suddenly descend on the county and seek the right to marry.”
There are reasons Washington could be the first western state ready to accept gay marriage. As Democrat Pedersen said, “Washington tends to be one of the more progressive states.”
Murray added much of the state has a libertarian, “live and let live” bent.
But the main reason is that about half the state’s population is crammed into the ultra-liberal Seattle metro area.
Wagging the Dog
“Seattle wags the dog politically, at least at this current time,” said Larry Stickney of the Family Policy Institute of Washington,a group allied with Focus on the Family.
He pointed out most of what Washingtonians read or see is controlled by media based in Seattle, “our notoriously liberal, left-leaning media: major newspapers and TV stations.”
But pro-family groups in the Northwest insist – even if they’re outgunned – it’s crucial for society that they fight same sex marriage. As Jon Russell of the Faith and Freedom Network explained, “Things that cannot reproduce or things that cannot provide that generational heritage are not a progressive value. Those are backwards values.”
Gary Randall of the Faith and Freedom Foundation told CBN News why he opposes same sex marriage.
“Whether the people are Christian or not, if they adhere to biblical principles, they’ll be blessed. If they don’t, they won’t be blessed. So that’s the problem as I see it. It’s sin, it’s a blight on our society, it affects our kids,” he said.
Russell added, “The best situation for a child is to have a mother and a father; to have a balance; that they get both the masculine and the feminine.”
But Senator Murray, leader of the fight for same sex marriage, isn’t that worried about opponents like Randall and Russell, what he calls “the Christian right.”
He said many liberal Christian groups now support more equal rights for homosexual couples. “I think it’s important Christians are coming out in support of our efforts, and that the Christian community is somewhat divided on this.”
Murray added, “While a lot of people in this state may not be pro-marriage equality for gay and lesbian people, they certainly are not hostile and don’t like the negative stereotypes.”
Indeed, conservative State Sen. Dan Swecker, the Republican caucus vice chair in the capitol at Olympia, is worried opponents of homosexual marriage aren’t united or strong enough to win and Washington could well legalize same sex marriage.
Swecker said, “Christians in Washington and Christians around the country need to be aware that we’re very close here, and unless we fight it, it’s going to happen.”

This video and transcript are undated, but it is evident from the text that it was from 2007.  Even back then, when anti-equality forces were strongest nationally, Senator Swecker envisioned defeat in Washington.  As I’ve been saying all along, I think anti-equality Washingtonians (and their puppet master in Oregon, Gary Randall) have seen the equality writing on the wall for some time and are merely going through the motions because a) they scorn equality, and b) it’s good for their coffers and good for building their core voter lists.

Swecker linkforgot to include this informative link on Swecker.

Having enough ASL American Sign LanguageI can swear my hands off with never having to merely flip off another driver.
Of course learning to swear in ASL was the first signs I picked up, I dated a cute deaf man for awhile.

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