Sparky:
It's mostly a happy day save for the hate spread by the Mormon Church & other soul deficient Fundies.

---

Rick Jacobs : Mormon Church on Prop 8: We Oppose Civil Rights (But Don't Tell)

Harry Truman famously said, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

President-Prophet Thomas Monson, the leader of the Mormon Church, clearly does not read history. If he did, he'd know that he and his apostles could not stand behind the stone walls and parapets of the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, shoveling cash and lies into California without consequences. The Mormon Church's members have contributed some $22 million into Prop 8, a vicious campaign here in California seeking to strip fundamental marriage rights from same-sex couples, making them permanent second-class citizens.

President-Prophet Monson seems to like "separate but equal," but seems a little touchy when he is called on leading such a campaign. Over the last two weeks, the Courage Campaign Issues Committee has tried to get President-Prophet Monson to stop breaking the Ten Commandments (in this case, number nine, "thou shall not bear false witness") and blackmail. As I wrote last week, the Church has been party to both in countenancing television ads that lie and in allowing a leading Mormon to write letters attempting to blackmail donors to the "No on 8" Campaign.

Joined by Rev. Eric Lee, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of California and backed by 17,000 signers, we tried to deliver a letter to the President-Prophet last week via one of his temples here in Los Angeles asking him to denounce these tactics. We were denied. So we then worked with friends in Salt Lake City -- former Mormons who were kicked out of President-Prophet Monson's Church for being gay -- to deliver the letter to the Mormon Church's Utah headquarters. As the local NBC affiliate, among others, reported, the letter was received.

In the meantime, Dante and David Atkins, brothers and netroots activists, created an ad that shows the effect the Mormon Church seeks to have on people's lives in California which the Courage Campaign Issues Committee is running on CNN and MSNBC in select markets of California on Election Day. You can watch the ad here:

On Daily Kos yesterday, Dante Atkins also provided a smoking gun memo showing that the Mormon Church has planned for more than a decade to hide behind others in its attempt to suppress civil rights.

Finally, after months of hiding, the Church issued a statement about our ad.

The Church has joined a broad-based coalition in defense of traditional marriage. While we feel this is important to all of society, we have always emphasized that respect be given to those who feel differently on this issue. It is unfortunate that some who oppose this proposition have not given the Church this same courtesy."

Then, late Monday, the Yes on 8 "coalition" -- which is really a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mormon Church with token investors from other right wing outposts -- issued a statement decrying the ad as "bigotry and intolerance." Obviously, President-Prophet Monson got upset that his hands got dirty, so he ordered his minions in California to jump out in front and take a bullet for him. They did and quickly.

The Mormon Church and its very junior partners in California owe all of us an apology. They seek to use the constitution to strip fundamental rights -- in this case of same-sex couples to marry -- away from millions of people. They lie in television ads. They blackmail. And then they invoke their religion to say that they are allowed to lie and hurt people, but not if they are caught.

It's simply too much.

When will President -Prophet Monson and his apostles finally stand for love, diversity and grace rather than hatred, exclusivity and self-righteousness? The Mormon Church, above all others in this nation, should understand the dangers of bigotry. My plea for this Election Day is that the Mormon Church will learn from its errors and lead for equality.

Thirty years ago, the Mormon Church at last decided that it was okay for African Americans to join its priesthood. Maybe, as we see real change in Washington, the Church will understand that it's time now to welcome all people into its vision of America and thereby join America as well.

---

AP:California Gay Marriage Banned As Proposition 8 Passes

LOS ANGELES - In an election otherwise full of liberal triumphs, the gay rights movement suffered a stunning defeat as California voters approved a ban on same-sex marriages that overrides a recent court decision legalizing them.

The constitutional amendment -- widely seen as the most momentous of the nation's 153 ballot measures -- will limit marriage to heterosexual couples, the first time such a vote has taken place in a state where gay unions are legal.

Gay-rights activists had a rough election elsewhere as well. Ban-gay-marriage amendments were approved in Arizona and Florida, and Arkansas voters approved a measure banning unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents. Supporters made clear that gays and lesbians were their main target.

In California, with 95 percent of precincts reporting Wednesday, the ban had 5,125,752 votes, or 52 percent, while there were 4,725,313 votes, or 48 percent, opposed.

Similar bans had prevailed in 27 states before Tuesday's elections, but none were in California's situation -- with about 18,000 gay couples married since a state Supreme Court ruling in May. The state attorney general, Jerry Brown, has said those marriages will remain valid, although legal challenges are possible.

Spending for and against the amendment reached $74 million, making it the most expensive social-issues campaign in U.S. history and the most expensive campaign this year outside the race for the White House.

Elsewhere, voters in Colorado and South Dakota rejected measures that could have led to sweeping bans of abortion, and Washington became only the second state -- after Oregon -- to offer terminally ill people the option of physician-assisted suicide.

A first-of-its-kind measure in Colorado, which was defeated soundly, would have defined life as beginning at conception. Its opponents said the proposal could lead to the outlawing of some types of birth control as well as abortion.

The South Dakota measure would have banned abortions except in cases of rape, incest and serious health threat to the mother. A tougher version, without the rape and incest exceptions, lost in 2006. Anti-abortion activists thought the modifications would win approval, but the margin of defeat was similar, about 55 percent to 45 percent of the vote.

"The lesson here is that Americans, in states across the country, clearly support women's ability to access abortion care without government interference," said Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation.

In Washington, voters gave solid approval to an initiative modeled after Oregon's "Death with Dignity" law, which allows a terminally ill person to be prescribed lethal medication they can administer to themselves. Since Oregon's law took effect in 1997, more than 340 people -- mostly ailing with cancer -- have used it to end their lives.

The marijuana reform movement won two prized victories, with Massachusetts voters decriminalizing possession of small amounts of the drug and Michigan joining 12 other states in allowing use of pot for medical purposes.

Henceforth, people caught in Massachusetts with an ounce or less of pot will no longer face criminal penalties. Instead, they'll forfeit the marijuana and pay a $100 civil fine.

The Michigan measure will allow severely ill patients to register with the state and legally buy, grow and use small amounts of marijuana to relieve pain, nausea, appetite loss and other symptoms.

Nebraska voters, meanwhile, approved a ban on race- and gender-based affirmative action, similar to measures previously approved in California, Michigan and Washington. Returns in Colorado on a similar measure were too close to call.

Ward Connerly, the California activist-businessman who has led the crusade against affirmative action, said Obama's victory proved his point. "We have overcome the scourge of race," Connerly said.

Energy measures met a mixed fate. In Missouri, voters approved a measure requiring the state's three investor-owned electric utilities to get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2021. But California voters defeated an even more ambitious measure that would have required the state's utilities to generate half their electricity from windmills, solar systems, geothermal reserves and other renewable sources by 2025.

Two animal-welfare measures passed -- a ban on dog racing in Massachusetts, and a proposition in California that outlaws cramped cages for egg-laying chickens.

Amid deep economic uncertainty, proposals to cut state income taxes were defeated decisively in North Dakota and Massachusetts.

In San Francisco, an eye-catching local measure -- to bar arrests for prostitution -- was soundly rejected. Police and political leaders said it would hamper the fight against sex trafficking. And in San Diego, voters decided to make permanent a ban on alcohol consumption on city beaches.

---

Reid To Meet With Lieberman To Discuss Committee Chairmanship

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will likely meet later this week with Joe Lieberman to discuss whether the Democrat-turned-Independent will be stripped of his Senate committee chairmanship, a senior Democratic leadership aide tells CNN.

Lieberman currently chairs the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

This aide says that Reid, who is calling the meeting, has not yet decided what to do. The aide admits that the decision will be determined in part by the final election results -- and just how close the party is to a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority -- but insists that the biggest factor involved is lingering anger among Senate Democrats over Lieberman's Republican convention speech.

Read the whole story here.

---

I hate haters.