Henry Bunting, a former procurement specialist for the giant, White House-connected company, charges that it failed to seek out competitive bids — enriching itself and costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars extra.
Rosie married her partner of six years, Kelli Carpenter, in a private ceremony in the city hall rotunda in San Francisco.
Bush calls for amendment to bar gay marriage
WASHINGTON – President Bush called yesterday for a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, pushing an explosive cultural issue to the forefront of the 2004 presidential campaign.In a brief announcement, Bush urged Congress to pass an amendment to the Constitution “defining and protecting marriage as a union of a man and a woman as husband and wife.”
The move followed actions in Massachusetts and San Francisco, where the mayor recently began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Massachusetts’ highest court ruled in November that same-sex couples have the same right as heterosexuals to marry and ordered the state to begin issuing marriage licenses to them in May.
This week’s recap is up. And the first quote that made me laugh out loud is:
‘Bette is packing (well, packing a suitcase; I can’t say for sure whether she’s packing in the other sense too).’
I must be psychic, because Bush is on TV announcing his support for the Constitutional Amendment to Ban Equal Marriage Rights right now.
If you vote Republican this election, you will no longer be a part of my life. I’m not kidding; if you truly don’t believe I should be able to get married, then you’re a toxic person, and my life is difficult enough without you contributing such a hostile and vicious belief into it.
I’ve never been a single issue voter. I’ve always been a democrat, but I don’t pick candidates based on particular issues; rather on their whole record on a variety of subjects, from the environment, to taxes, to foreign policy, to education, to gay civil rights, to corporate responsibility.
That’s changing with this election. Because the Equal Marriage Rights issue is becoming a defining issue of this campaign, and it’s becoming a defining issue for me. It’s becoming clear that a constitutional amendment banning me from getting married is a serious possibility, and frankly, something that directly affects me so directly, personally, and deeply is something that gets priority.
I never imagined that I would be able to get legally married in my lifetime. That’s always been a pipe dream for me; something I thought I should fight for for the sake of my children, but something I never thought I’d have the opportunity to achieve. Strangely, that seems to be something within reach now. And something in serious danger.
Quite simply, voting for Bush and for Republicans who will push through an amendment is a vote against me being able to get married. To my family and friends — of course it’s your decision who you vote for. But your vote will directly affect me in a way it will probably never affect you. And if you love me, you’ll think about that when you vote this fall. Because I will certainly be thinking about that, and about our relationship, when you go in to vote.
I have “mmmBop” stuck in my head. Where the hell did I put the skate punk music? Grrrr.
Date on Friday night. News about it later. Saturday night I went to a very fun party at Troy’s (beautiful) house and had a great time, and got complimented on how good I looked, which made me feel great. I had some great conversations, and also meet Troy’s foreign exchange student Frederick, a German kid who really seems to dislike America and won’t hesitate to tell you about it. Which is entertaining in and of itself. I left with spirits lifted.
Dyeing my hair — it will be bleaching obviously, rather than dyeing (that’s Stacy’s department) and instead of grabbing a box in drug store, I’m getting an appointment at a Salon. Let the professionals do it.
My library is finally moved, and for the first time ever, all my books are in the same room, on the same bookcase, and organized well. Strangely, I have way more non-fiction than fiction. That really surprised me. I like the organization I did, but not how I have them sitting on the shelves. That will require some creative thinking on my part, but I’ll have to let it stew for a while. I’m also surprised that I don’t have more empty space on the bookcases. I thought I’d have more room for knick-knacks and decor than I do. I think I need to do some more thinning out of books I don’t need. That’s much easier to do when I can stand back and look at all the books in context.
I went furniture shopping, but didn’t come up with anything good. I need to replace both the couch and the chair, and I’m debating the best way to do it. I’d rather have both pieces match, but I’m nervous about spending that kind of money all at once. Replacing the chair is the priority, really, because that’s where I’m going to sit most of the time. I want more of a club chair than a big cushy overstuffed thing. And I tried a bunch of them out in the store, but the comfortable ones weren’t cool looking, and the cool ones weren’t comfy. The ideal couch and chair were at Eddie Bauer’s, but the price tag was way out of my league.
On the furniture plus side, I recovered my ottoman. I had an old one that I covered with a sheet a long time ago, but it was looking shabby and I had covered the wooden legs as well. So I took off the old sheet, got real upholstery fabric from JoAnn’s, took off the wooden legs, and recovered the ottoman with a brown textured fabric, then replace the legs. It looks great and for a thrown together Sunday afternoon project it went astonishingly well.
And I moved the dining room table into the dining room, along with the chairs that go with it. I know that’s jumping the gun since I’ll be painting in there, but I couldn’t stand having a totally empty room. I need to do something about the work room, though. It’s pretty disorganized. I need a workbench.
1. …went to the doctor?
October — follow up visit with the surgeon who removed my appendix.
2. …went to the dentist?
June. Shoot. I need to make an appointment.
3. …filled your gas tank?
Yesterday.
4. …got enough sleep?
September, when I was recovering from surgery.
5. …backed up your computer?
No comment.
Salon has a really interesting article that examine’s John Kerry’s surge and the effect that vietnam veterans are having on his campaign, and how he’s really having an effect on Bush and his war record.