Maine's Question 1

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

ME-2 is largely rural, friendlier to Conservatives and is more like upstate New York rather than the coastal ME-1. If The ME-2 middle Americans come out in force and the big city people in ME-1 either don't care or vote in favor of marriage, then its sunk.

No, the big city people in ME-1 will be voting for marriage in its current form. It's the conservatives who will be voting to redefine marriage, choosing to roll it back, presumably, to some manner of olde tyme state where blacks can't marry whites because they're worried that someday dogs will be marrying people.



First they marry each other, next they'll be marrying people.  It's a slippery slope.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Frankly, it's disappointing that marriage is proving to be such an uphill climb in Maine.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

This is a fun campaign to follow.

Nothing against you, of course, but I look at Question 1 as the exact opposite of fun.  Maybe it'd be more enjoyable to me if it was the other way around—an effort to right what was wrong.  Instead, it's an effort to return to an era of discrimination by public acclimation.

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but the simple fact that the vote has to happen makes me really sick to my stomach.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Would it be wrong to put out a robo-call to only registered Republican voters urging them to "Vote no on gay marriage.  Vote no on Question 1."?

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Occasionally you'll find the "all gays have AIDS" and "everyone and their mom will get sued for no reason" arguments.

oh cool so they're getting their talking points from my dad

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Ughh, these people are so annoying. Nothing in the law about education, over 400 state lawyers say there's nothing to do with schools, and the attorney-general and the education commissioner says that same-sex marriage won't be taught in school if no wins.

But their only argument for the last month and a half has been, "it might be taught." It must be like talking to a 3 year old child that sadly convinces a lot of voters.

unfortunately, plenty of people really do believe it.  Tolerance and acceptance is scary!  (Just like a lice and let live attitude.)

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I'm very much worried about this one.  Terrified, even.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

We can't win in referenda, for certain. The next moves are New York, legislatively post-2010, and possibly NJ in the lame duck session although I don't know what happens there. Then in the middle range, legislatively in Illinois and a repeal in CA on the ballot in 2012 or 2016.

Now that Corzine lost, I think you can look for a push for gay marriage as a real certainty.  They have the numbers in the Assembly, but the Senate may be tougher with only a 23-17 split, with two of those Democrats representing lean-Republican districts.

Anyway, I hope this means Obama starts feeling REAL pressure to do something about gay rights.  We're moving backwards, not forwards.  And I hope the Maine legislature has the cajones to pass gay marriage again.  Otherwise, I'm taking my torch and pitchfork and taking out 53% of the state.

I'm not getting the Maine bashing. I'm sure Mass. would have voted against gay marriage in 2006 if it had gone to the ballot as Romney and Finneran wanted. We don't win popularity contests. Minority rights rarely do. Meanwhile, No on 1 did an amazing job, and Maine's legislature and governor really led on this issue unlike any other state. I'm disappointed but not demoralized or surprised.

Honestly, I think Massachusetts would have narrowly supported gay marriage.  It's more than a few percentage points more liberal than Maine, after all.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

This is almost as good as last year's California: "Keep it straight...YES on 8!"

so, 47% of Maine is morally retrobate...sad news

Need I say that the pair of you are utter disgraces, a fact that cannot be overemphasised.

Rom 1:21-32
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

 24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

 28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.


Psa 1:1-3
 1 Blessed is the man
       who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
       or stand in the way of sinners
       or sit in the seat of mockers.

 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
       and on his law he meditates day and night.

 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
       which yields its fruit in season
       and whose leaf does not wither.
       Whatever he does prospers.

1 No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry
   whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods,
   nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

1 No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry
   whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods,
   nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief.

oh, I am not going to stop you from doing what you what.  go ahead and marry ten men...just don't ask me to recognize it

No one cares if YOU recognize it or not.  Or even LIKE it.

What's important is that the LAW recognizes it.  You know, the simple dignity of being able to pass on property without it being unfairly taxed by the government.  Or being able to visit someone in the hospital.

I don't understand why people are so fervently opposed to THAT, that they don't even care about pretending it's about the institution of marriage and instead fight against any sort of recognition, any sort of "favor."

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Unfortunate, though not terribly surprising. Gay marriage is definitely significantly to the left of most (if not all) state Democratic parties. The only states that could potentially legalize gay marriage with a referendum at this point, are: VT and MA with an outside shot at CT, RI, NY, and NJ.

Thankfully, NJ is a state without I&R, and a constitutional amendment can't make the ballot without the consent of the legislature.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Unfortunate, though not terribly surprising. Gay marriage is definitely significantly to the left of most (if not all) state Democratic parties. The only states that could potentially legalize gay marriage with a referendum at this point, are: VT and MA with an outside shot at CT, RI, NY, and NJ.

Thankfully, NJ is a state without I&R, and a constitutional amendment can't make the ballot without the consent of the legislature.

So Corzine and the Dems in the Legislature could just shove it through during the next two months and there's nothing anyone could do until perhaps the Republicans somehow retook the Legislature?

That's precisely the plan.