I’ll state my biases up front: I may be right leaning, but I am also gay. I disagree with the average RedStater on the issue of  gay marriage so this post will remain entirely ‘my bias’ free, except to bash liberals. It solely is going to be a wrap up of the state of the States with respect to marriage. Use this information as you will to support or oppose same sex marriage.

Maine: Voters reversed an effort by the legislature to legalize gay marriage several years ago.  Gay marriage groups have however gathered enough signatures to place another referendum on the November ballot. Equality Maine claims their polling shows 54% support.

Maryland: Democratic Gov. O’Malley announced his support for gay marriage during the state of the State. He has gone onto introduce a bill into the legislature which is soon scheduled for a committee vote. I believe a similar measure passed the Senate last year, but failed in the House. The recent WaPo poll shows Maryland voters are 50/50 split on the issue.

Minnesota: A referendum has been placed on the November ballot to amend the state constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. PPP has pinned support for the amendment at 48%, opposition at 44% and 8% of the electorate as clueless.

New Jersey: Both chambers of New Jersey’s legislature are expected to be able to easily pass a bill legalizing gay marriage despite Gov. Chris Christie’s pledge to veto any gay marriage bill that crosses his desk. However, Gov. Christie has also voiced his support of placing a referendum on this November’s ballot; a move that Christie has predicted NJ voters would easily pass. Marriage conscious voters should know that the only major obstacle to a voter’s referendum is the Democratic leadership (i.e. further evidence of liberals believing they  ‘own’ groups) and that there is a chance the Democrats may scrap up a veto-proof vote. Voting in the legislature should happen within the next few weeks.

North Carolina: Voters will vote on a constitutional referendum to define marriage as between one man and one woman in May, which is the same day as the Republican primary. There will be a Democratic primary on the ballot as well, because Gov. Purdue has recently announced that she is declining to run for reelection. However, this only brings support down to a 22% or 56/34 margin for traditional marriage.

Washington: Do-nothing Democratic Gov. Gregoire announced her intent to legalize gay marriage this year, probably to detract from her terrible governing record. While Washington already has civil unions, the bill is expected to pass after the state Senate voted in favor of the bill 28-25 with 4 Republicans crossing party lines. The House vote is rumored to occur tomorrow at around 1pm PST at which time Washington will be set to become the 7th state to legalize same sex marriage. A voter’s referendum challenge is expected by same sex marriage opponents.

Republican Cadidates: Romney was the latest to be glittered bombed by gay activists a few day ago for his support of a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Demonstrating how absolutely childish and stupid my fellow progressive gay friends are.

Proposition 8: The 9th Circuit of Appeals ruled today that California’s attempt to amend the state Constitution was unconstitutional. However, the ruling was quite narrow in the sense that the justices did not rule on gay marriage, but instead on the unique circumstance of California  striking down same sex marriage after it had allowed gay men and women the right to marry for 5 months.  (i.e. the court struck down Judge Walker’s incredible claim that gay marriage is unconstitutional, and instead limited it to California’s actions of first allowing and then disallowing gay marriage “without cause”).

That’s a wrap.

The current Presidential $1 coins have been minted since 2007. The dollar coin has recently been thrown back into the spotlight by NPR after it’s reporting of the waste created by unused coins.  But, contrary to NPR’s opinion, by eliminating the $1 paper dollar and switching our currency to use to the $1 coin, the US gov’t would save $184 million annually and $5.5 over 30 years. How does this work?

The $1 bill costs approx 5.5¢ to print with the average note lasting only 1.5 to 3.5 years before it’s shredded and thrown in a landfill.
The $1 coin costs approx 8¢ to mint, but could last to 30 years in circulation and is recyclable at the end of its life.

The total elimination of the paper $1 bill would save the Federal government billions in the long run. Of course in the first couple of years it would not make much of an impact, but that’s not exactly the $14 trillion dollar question we are worried about. Besides does it not make more sense to create savings in simple currency rather than $200 million out of social security, national defense or having to raise taxes? Why not switch?

The GAO’s report can be found here: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11281.pdf

I’ve also had some counterarguments thrown out for me. Here are some of the more common ones:

Vending machines don’t accept $1 coins. Actually, most machines accept them as do the self-service machines in supermarkets. The vending machine companies would much rather have $1 coins in circulation than paper dollars, e.g. it’s expensive to install those bill scanners and then having to fix them after a ratty $1 bill got jammed in it by some frustrated customer.

Dollar coins are heavy. Yes, they are compared to the dollar bill. Compared to 4 quarters: not so much. Does that make them more cumbersome? Not necessarily. The Canadians, Australians, Europeans and British all have one and two coin denominations and society hasn’t come to a screeching halt for them.

The changeover will be expensive. Sure, there’s going to be initial start-up costs for the sudden and massive demand for $1 coins. However, the mint has two weapons in it’s arsenal against this. First is that $1 coins are already produced and there’s a $1 billion coin stockpile in Federal Reserve vaults as NPR reported. Second is the $2 bill, which are still printed in quite large quantities. Seriously, if you hate coins that much, as for the Twos at your bank. They have them.

You can’t get dollar coins! Banks have them. Next time you’re in your bank, ask for them. Not to mention there’s approx. $1 billion in dollar coins sitting in Federal Reserve banks.

What about counterfeiting? The coins are worth a dollar a piece. Creating a profitable counterfeiting operation that could match the bulk purchases and economies of scale that the US Mint has would be difficult. You can also look at the €/£/AU$/C$ currencies all of which have 2 unit coin denominations and do not suffer from numerous counterfeiting problems.

… and the obligatory ‘What to do?’

> Contact your lawmakers.
> http://dollarcoinalliance.org/get-involved/
> Go to your bank, withdraw dollar coins and start spending them. (I do.)

First we learn he’s going to tax health care benefits to pay for part of it. Now the Wall Street Journal reports John McCain would pay for the rest of his health care plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid: $882 billion from Medicare alone, requiring cuts in benefits and eligibility or both. John McCain — taxing health benefits — cutting Medicare. We can’t afford John McCain.

I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.”

Fast forward 18 months, and Obama has signed into law the Exact. Same. Thing. this attack ad falsely claimed John McCain’s health care plan would do. The ObamaCare law has not only cut a half trillion dollars from Medicaid, but has instituted a tax on high cost health care plans (see Cadillac tax).

This attack ad is pure hypocritical gold for Republicans, and must be resurrected immediately.

So where does this tie into RedState? Believe it or not, most conservative advocacy groups have nonprofit affiliates that have signed up to work with GoodSearch.

Among them are; Americans for Prosperity Foundation, American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), Cato Institute, Right to Life National Committee and chapters, Club for Growth State Action, Judicial Watch, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Conservative Caucus, the Federalist Society and many more.

I’m sure these organizations, as well as the ones I have not included, would love for you to make a habit of using GoodSearch.