Barack Obama

First Same Sex Couple Married at LTBB Invited to White House

Victoria Sweet

Tim LaCroix and his longtime partner, Gene Barfield, will be guests of President Barack Obama on Thursday at a reception honoring LGBT Pride Month, MLive.com reportedtoday. LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

The men were married in March by the LittleTraverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, of which LaCroix is a member. Same-sex marriage is prohibited in Michigan, but federally recognized Native American tribes are self-governing and aren’t bound by state law.

Story here.

Previous coverage here.

Obama and Fletcher/Singel

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here, at the Presidential apppointee reception.

And from our POV:

WSJ Endorses Obama

Matthew L.M. Fletcher3 Comments

What?!?!? The Wall Street Journal endorses Obama?!?!?

Yes.

Here is the editorial (H/T here):

Every vote for a nonincumbent Presidential candidate is in some sense a risk, given the power and complications of the job. But in both his lack of experience and the contradictions between his rhetoric and his agenda, Barack Obama presents a particular leap of hope. It is a sign of how fed up Americans are with Republicans that millions are ready to take that leap even in dangerous times.

To his supporters, such as Colin Powell, the first-term Senator has the chance to be “transformational,” the kind of gauzy concept that testifies to Mr. Obama’s unusual appeal. His candidacy is certainly historic, and that isn’t simply a reference to his Kenyan father and American mother. One secret to Mr. Obama’s success is how little his campaign has been marked by race, at least not by the traditional politics of racial grievance. He has run instead on a rhetorical theme of national unity, a shrewd appeal to voters weary of the polarizing debate over Iraq and the Bush Presidency.

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Mother Jones on Obama and Indian Country

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Go Wizi!!!!

From Mother Jones (H/T Indianz):

If Barack Obama wins New Mexico on November 4, he may want to thank Wizipan Garriott, the vote director of what the Obama campaign calls its “First Americans” voter outreach program. The effort targets the politically neglected but heavily Democratic Native American vote, which Obama strategists believe could be critical to putting some historically red states into play for Obama.

The Obama campaign is reluctant to discuss the details of its ground game, but it’s clear the campaign’s Native American outreach strategy is extensive. The campaign has two Chicago-based staffers devoted to coordinating the nationwide effort, and Garriott has recruited locals on reservations around the country to serve as paid organizers. Montana, Alaska, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and New Mexico have all been targeted at points in the campaign.

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Jeffrey Rosen on a “Judicial Apocalypse” if McCain Elected

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the New Republic:

During every presidential campaign for the last two decades, liberals have predicted an apocalypse in the Supreme Court. In their dire visions, as many as four justices are always about to retire, meaning that a Republican victory would turn the court radically to the right and lead to the certain overturning of Roe v. Wade.

In each of the past three elections, of course, these hyperbolic predictions have turned out to be wrong. Since 1996, Roe has been supported by a comfortable 6-3 majority, and the Court, controlled by two relatively moderate swing justices, Sandra Day O’Connor and now Anthony Kennedy, has remained fairly centrist. All of this had led some Court-watchers, including me, to conclude that the stakes for the Court in most presidential elections are less dire than many liberals fear.

Not this time. This year, for the first time since the New Deal era, a single election really does have the power to transform the Court–at the very moment that voters, rightly concerned about the tanking economy and the war in Iraq, are looking the other way. Given the fact that the older justices are liberal rather than conservative–and that the oldest, John Paul Stevens, is 88–it’s hard to deny that nominations by John McCain would change the Court far more dramatically than those by Barack Obama. An Obama victory would maintain the current balance of the Court, while a McCain Court could create a solid conservative majority.

What’s at stake is not only Roe v. Wade, but issues directly tied to the current concerns of the public: among them, Congress’s power to regulate the economy as well as limits on the president’s power to act unilaterally in the war on terrorism. Although McCain claims to favor justices who will defer to the political branches, the most likely Republican nominees are hardly consistent advocates of judicial deference. Voters who are hoping McCain will nominate relatively moderate judicial mavericks should think again.

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Message from Barack Obama to Indian Country

Matthew L.M. Fletcher5 Comments

Obama: A full partnership with Indian country

By Barack Obama

For 20 months now, I’ve traveled this country, often talking about how the needs of the American people are going unmet by Washington. And the truth is, few have been ignored by Washington for as long as American Indians. Too often, Washington pays lip service to working with tribes while taking a one-size-fits-all approach with tribal communities across the nation.

That will change if I am honored to serve as president of the United States.

My American Indian policy begins with creating a bond between an Obama administration and the tribal nations all across this country. We need more than just a government-to-government relationship; we need a nation-to-nation relationship, and I will make sure that tribal nations have a voice in the White House.

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Number One Job in Indian Country?

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From Reznet:

DENVER — While it’s certainly not a vice-presidential pick, speculation is heating up over Sen. Barack Obama’s eventual choice for the White House-level Native policy adviser position he has promised to create if elected.

At the Democratic National Convention this week, Native delegates and leaders offered their thoughts on who in Indian Country might be ready for what could become the highest ranking Native job in America.

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Open Letter from Leonard Peltier to Barack Obama

Matthew L.M. Fletcher9 Comments

Not entirely sure we should post something from Leonard Peltier, but he important to many people in Indian Country. And since we posted on Russell Means’ declaration of independence earlier this year, why not?

But remember, even Clinton didn’t pardon him. Incidentally, after the break, it stops being about Barack Obama to become more about Leonard Peltier….

An Open Letter to Barack Obama
Symbolism Alone Will Not Bring Change
By LEONARD PELTIER

I have watched with keen interest and renewed hope as your campaign has mobilized millions of Americans behind your message of changing a political system that serves a small economic elite at the expense of the peoples of the United States and the world. Your election as president of the United States, where slaves and Indians were long considered less than human under the law, will undoubtedly constitute a historic moment in race relations in the United States.

Yet symbolism alone will not bring about change. Our young people, black and Native alike, suffer from police brutality and racial profiling, underfunded schools, and discrimination in employment and housing. I sincerely hope your campaign will inspire some hope among our youth to struggle for a better future. I am, however, concerned that your recent statement on the Sean Bell verdict, in which the New York police officers who fired 50 shots at a young man on the eve of his wedding were acquitted of criminal charges, displays a rather myopic view of the law. Until the law is harnessed to protect the victims of state violence and racism, it will serve as an instrument of repression, just as the slave codes functioned to sustain and legitimize an inhuman institution.
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