BlatherWatch

President Obama says LGBT should be able to marry

Today, President Obama completely wiped out Romney's primary news cycle. Again.

In a historic and gutsy move, he announced that his personal opinion is that same sex couples should be allowed to get married. 

In a sit-down interview with ABC's Robin Roberts, Obama completed what has been a markedly long and oft-mocked evolution on the matter.

"I've always been adamant that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally," Obama told Roberts, in an interview that will air in full on ABC's "Good Morning America" Thursday.

"I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married."

“It’s interesting, some of this is also generational,” the president said. “You know when I go to college campuses, sometimes I talk to college Republicans who think that I have terrible policies on the economy, on foreign policy, but are very clear that when it comes to same sex equality or, you know, believe in equality. They are much more comfortable with it. You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them and frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.”

The reaction from the right has been predictable.  From Fox News : "OBAMA FLIP FLOPS, DECLARES WAR ON MARRIAGE!!" says one Twitter post.  "GAY ALINKSY ACORN MARRIAGE #FoxNationHeadlines" says another.

Self appointed stand up comics weighed in with, "If only Mitt Romney had a gay surrogate who was experienced in talking to the press who could handle this issue..." and, " More US states allow sex with animals than allow gay marriage!" and our personal favorite, "Rick Santorum just divorced his wife and married his dog. Are you happy, Mr. President?"

From some of his Democratic colleagues from the Northwest :

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.: @repblumenauer Obama support for marriage equality huge step forward for America…. the tide is turning and the current running deeper and faster.

Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash.: @JayInslee I am proud to stand with President @BarackObama in our support for marriage equality.

 The people who are angry about this are people who would not have voted for the President in November anyway. Conversely, he has energized Democrats and Independents and, of course, his base.

We will be watching to see how Mitt Romney reacts.

How not to attract women voters to your party #1

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a Fox News contributor, tea party activist and personal friend of Sean Hannity’s said in a sermon recently published to YouTube that America’s greatest mistake was allowing women the right to vote, adding that back in “the good old days, men knew that women are crazy and they knew how to deal with them.”

In the video, published to YouTube in March, Peterson explains that he believes women simply can’t handle “anything,” and that in his experience, “You walk up to them with a issue, they freak out right away. They go nuts. They get mad. They get upset, just like that. They have no patience because it’s not in their nature. They don’t have love. They don’t have love.”

Despite his statements being online for more than a month, Hannity welcomed Peterson on his show last weekto castigate the Obama administration over “taking credit” for the Osama bin Laden assassination — but the segment didn’t exactly go as planned.

In his March sermon, Peterson adds that Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown Law student who recently spoke to a House Democratic hearing on contraception coverage, was actually revealing “all the sex” college students are having. “It’s really all about maintaining the freedom to kill babies in the womb,” he says. “Women are now degraded. Women have no shame.”

At roughly 8:30 into his 12-minute sermon, he doubles down, amazingly, saying that he believes America went wrong when it gave women the right to vote.

“I think that one of the greatest mistakes America made was to allow women the opportunity to vote,” Peterson says. “We should’ve never turned this over to women. And these women are voting in the wrong people. They’re voting in people who are evil who agrees with them who’re gonna take us down this pathway of destruction.”

“And this probably was the reason they didn’t allow women to vote when men were men. Because men in the good old days understood the nature of the woman,” he adds. “They were not afraid to deal with it. And they understood that, you let them take over, this is what would happen.”

Peterson, founder of the conservative religious group Brotherhood of a New Order of Destiny (BOND), appeared on the Fox News Channel on May 1, more than a month after giving his controversial sermon. Fox News host Kirsten Powers even confronted Peterson about his “mysogynistic” speech and challenged Hannity to repudiate it, but the Republican opinion host did not, and instead gave Peterson a platform to denounce “liberal, women policies.”

That may not be a surprise, however: Hannity has hosted Peterson numerous times and even serves on the BOND board. “BOND continues to fight the good fight standing for the values of God, family, and country, and are deserving of our support,” he said, according to the group.

Speaking to Peterson on May 1, Powers protested his appearance on Hannity’s show, explaining that she was “hijacking” it because “I didn’t know I was going to be on with him.” She then accused him of “using God’s word to teach misogyny.”

“I don’t know if you noticed or not, but the liberal Democrat womens are calling themselves whores,” Peterson replied. “They came out with their so called group of women who are within the Democrat party, and they are admitting that they’re whores and they are saying that they are proud of it. I’m okay with that, I just don’t want to pay for it.”

“I have a responsibility to tell the truth,” he added “You’re on the side of lies. Why shouldn’t I be on the side of truth? And it’s the truth that’s gonna make us free. Somebody gotta tell the truth, so I’m going to tell the truth.”

That “truth,” it would seem, isn’t just about liberal women, or even women in general. Peterson made headlines in January after  telling a Huffington Post reporter that he would like to see black people put “back on the plantation so they would understand the ethic of working… They need a good hard education on what it is to work.”

Peterson has also been on the leading edge of racially-motivated Republican attacks on Planned Parenthood, alleging at a press conference in 2008 that the group is responsible for killing “over 1,500 black babies” every day.

Neither Peterson nor a Fox News spokesperson responded to requests for comment.

(hat tip to Stephen Webster at Raw Story)

Weekend open thread

As you sip your Margarita or Corona you might want to ponder the breaking news for this Open Thread weekend:

NEW YORK - A man who impersonated his dead mother as part of a real estate scam - using lipstick, manicured nails and even an oxygen tank at a meeting - was convicted of fraud on Thursday and faces up to 83 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Salmonella in dog food sickens 14 people in U.S.: At least five people were hospitalized because of the dog food, which was made by Diamond Pet Foods at its plant in Gaston, S.C., the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. No pets were sickened, according to the Meta, Mo.-based company.

Gingrich "suspends" his campaign, keeps citizenship!

Today, Newt Gingrich took 26 minutes to tell the world he is suspending his campaign for President of the United States.

He thanked his speech writers, Herman Cain, Todd Palin and his thousands of supporters, including Sheldon Adelman...in that order. Calista received his thanks after he thanked her mother for watching all the debates and campain ads on television.

He went on to assure the American public he was not giving up his citizenship, something he has had since 1958. (No, we are not making this up.)  Then he announced that al Qaeda is in Yemen and hoped that the White House would get the memo about that soon.

As Newt once again launched into his "Moon initiative" talk, Marvin the Martian was heard to heave a sigh of relief that Mars, as of yet, is not in those plans.  After several minutes of sharing his thanks and outlining all those policies he will never get to implement, Newt finally announced he was throwing in the towel.

Rumors are swirling on and off The Hill that Romney will assume Newt's substantial campaign debt, in return for a hearty endorsement for his own campaign. While Gingrish didn't come right out in today's speech and endorse Romney, he hinted around enough that he will do it, that Shepard Smith at Fox News stopped in the middle of his reporting to share a few personal thoughts on this development.

School janitors everywhere are weeping tonight.

Bob Throndsen retiring after 34 years at KOMO

We are honored to report that longtime reporter, anchor and managing editor of KOMO News is retiring after 34 years in the business. Most recently he served as news director of KOMO radio.

You can watch an interview and retrospective at TV SPY courtesy of our friends at Media Bistro at the link.

Sunday night potpourri

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -- A syndicated radio talk show host who broadcasts from Spokane County is trying to parlay her strong conservatism, an unusual tax plan and the story of her near-death experience into a long-shot bid for the presidency.

Laurie Roth says she was called by God about a year ago to seek the White House from her double-wide trailer in Elk, Wash., and to turn the nation around.

The Spokesman Review reports the self-described Annie Oakley of the Airwaves will find out on Saturday if the Constitution Party, one of the nation's largest third-party organizations, will put her atop its ticket in the fall election.

The 51-year-old mother of two is one of three main candidates seeking the conservative party nomination at its national convention in Nashville.

 

Former radio host Bill Wippel, also a faithful reader and commenter here at Blatherwatch, recently attended the annual Broadcasters' Luncheon at the 125th St Grill on April 23. He writes, "There were 20+ broadcasters attending. Among them: Tom Henning (KING) Warren Severance (KOMO) Dave Langley (KIXI-KAYO) Jim Wilke (KPLU) Vic Bremer (KIRO) Don Riggs and Patti Par (KMPS) Felix Banel (NPR-KUOW)) Gary Engard (KIRO) Frosty Fowler (KING) George Toles (KIRO-KJR) Vic Stredicke (Seattle Times radio columnist) Bob Adkins (KREM, KOMO) Cliff Murphy (KVI) Duane Smart (KIRO) Paul Bishop (KIRO)  and yours truly, Bill Wippel (KIXI-KIRO)."  Next year, the BW Crew hopes to make the luncheon and get some pictures. 

From MyNorthwest.com: One of the candidates to take on Seattle Public Schools has already had second thoughts. Steven Enoch withdrew his candidacy over the weekend, sending an email to board members saying, "I have concluded that what Seattle needs is a younger person, potentially able to provide longer stability and direction for the district. I believe you have two very viable candidates that will better meet the long-term needs of the district."

Enoch turns 63 next month. He's currently the superintendent of San Ramon Valley Unified School District near San Francisco.

The Seattle School Board is considering the remaining finalists and was expected to have a decision this week.

Previously heard on radio...

This time we go back to 1993 when KIRO TV was the "newsroom out of the box", along with KIRO Newsradio as seen on KTZZ 22 as the "KIRO News Network".

 

 

  Some past hosts including those who have passed away: Wayne Cody, Bill Gallant along with Bill Yend now at KOMO and Gregg Hersholt, now afternoons at News Talk 750 KXL in Portland.

The idea was innovative, groundbreaking, exciting – and a complete disaster.

The $3 million overhaul of anchors walking around in an wide open broadcast arena including radio, only lasted a few months as ratings began to plummet.

 

 

The most out of touch man in America.

 

 

We usually reserve this for the likes of Dori Monson, but since Herr Dori has been on his best behavior promoting driver's ed videos on his show, we thought we'd scan around the dial and see what the other dullards were opining about.

It seems the poor and underfed according to Sean Hannity are doing just fine, thank you if they would only cut out "the soda and drink more water".  Never mind the fact that soda consumption among teens has been falling.   "Good wholesome" food is readily available too if the poor would just look at the myriad of choices. 

A report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on food insecurity in America released in September 2011 found that "in 2010, 17.2 million households in America had difficulty providing enough food due to a lack of resources."

Food insecurity rates were substantially higher than the national average for households with incomes near or below the current federal poverty line ($22,350 for a family of four), households with children headed by single women or single men, and black and Hispanic households.  

 

 

Herr Hannity blames the fact that most of the poor he has dined with have too many of the things he has too like 2 color tv's (do they make any other TV besides a color tv?) and "other things" which obviously has led to their nutritional decline.