"Wait. I don't see what you did there."It almost looks, for a moment, that a shred of wisdom was going to escape that perpetual Vortex of Stupid that is Washington, D.C. The Obama Administration has decided that the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, specifically the part about the fed.gov not recognizing gay marriage, will no longer be defended. His Obamaness instructed US Attorney General Eric Holder to stop defending the constitutionality of the law in court.
Sounds like a win for gay rights, right? If you said no, giveth thee one cookie.
From the CBSNews.com article:
Holder said that despite the decision, his department will "remain parties to the cases and continue to represent the interests of the United States throughout the litigation." He added that members of Congress can still elect to defend the statute and that Justice will "work closely with the courts to ensure that Congress has a full and fair opportunity to participate in pending litigation."
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that enforcement of the policy will -- at least for now -- continue.
See that? Yeah, right there. They're paying lip service to the Constitution of the United States of America in the headline, then turning right the fuck around with plans to continue the defense and enforcement of the law in question.
They're not saying that the law is flat unconstitutional (edit: why is that word so hard to type? You'd think as a libertarian, I'd be used to it by now:). They're just saying they won't defend the constitutionality of the law. They're still going to defend the law itself, and in fact still enforce it. Why? Well, if they flat out admit that the law is unconstitutional, then there's no way in all nine circles of hell they could defend it.
Looks to me like they got tired of hearing all the gays bitching and moaning about DOMA - which Obama promised in his campaign to repeal - so they thought of something that would appear to make good on the campaign promise while not totally alienating the Religious Right who would, in turn, show up with torches and pitchforks if the administration moved toward actually tossing DOMA out on its ass.
"Hi! We're from the GOP. Can we have a moment of your time?"Someone please explain to me how homosexual men and women aren't all rabid, heartless libertarians. I just don't get it.
tweaker
Reading the story, it seems as though it's only one section of DOMA that the administration is conceding is unconstitutional. Section three. I don't know how many other sections there are, but I'm forced to assume that the powers that be are a-okay with them.
ReplyDeleteWell, if they flat out admit that the law is unconstitutional, then there's no way in all nine circles of hell they could defend it.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the BS they're pushing on us is flat out unconstitutional hasn't stopped them before.
Until folks like Obama are held personally accountable for violating the Constitution they will continue to treat it (and the law in general) with contempt.
Someone please explain to me how homosexual men and women aren't all rabid, heartless libertarians.
ReplyDeleteBecause as opposed to the libertarian-vs-authoritarian they go by the traditional right-vs-left way of thinking. You know, the kind of thinking that gets folks like me branded raving lefties for thinking we should be able to go buy weed at HEB and branded as raving right-wing lunatics for thinking we should be able to buy machine guns at Amazon.com (and delivered to our doors via UPS).