Mormon Quitting Church in Droves over Prop 8

The website Signing for Something http://www.signingforsomething… is registering resignations of Mormons who are quitting the church over Prop 8.  Many are also posting their letters of resignation for the world to read.  There is much anger within the Mormon Church directed at the hierarchy of the church for its generations of lying and misleading its own members.  For many, Prop 8 was the last straw.

CA-03: I Know, Let’s Put A Threatened Incumbent In Charge

This is hilarious:

California Rep. Dan Lungren is considering a challenge to House Minority Leader John Boehner for his leadership position.

Several House conservatives have courted Lungren in the past two days, seeking change in leadership after demoralizing losses in Tuesday’s election and two years of tussling with Boehner over earmarks, spending and most recently the $700 billion financial rescue package.

I know that Republicans are deeply in denial and all, but Dan Lungren?  He didn’t break 50% in his Congressional election on Tuesday, winning by only 13,700 votes, and if anything, the district is trending away from him.  The registration advantage is a thin 2.2%, and after two years of more organizing that’s likely to be even.  And Bill Durston is going to run for a third time in 2010.

Republicans in Democratic-trending districts often win by making few waves in Washington and running away from party ID.  There is absolutely no chance that a House Minority Leader could do that.  He’d be well-known to the district and the nation.  Whether successful or not, every Democrat and Democratic-leaning independent would know where Dan Lungren stands on the issues.  There wouldn’t be any low-information voters left.  And national groups would be encouraged to knock off the Republican leader in the House.  Remember that Durston got pretty much no meaningful help from any progressive organization in 2008 and still managed a close 5-point loss, improving his position by 13 points from one election to the next.

Please, oh please, Republican caucus, do this.  Let’s see Dan Lungren have two years in the spotlight before we knock him out.

SF Protest Against Prop 8

After several successful marches in LA and across California and even in Salt Lake City against Proposition 8, San Francisco held a big old protest against the passage of Prop 8.  Now, you might argue that these might have been helpful a little earlier, but that’s a moot point I suppose. What we deal with is the here and now, we can’t go back.

And here in SF, the rally was quite large.  Market Street, the main thoroughfare in downtown SF was closed for a while as thousands marched from the Civic Center to Dolores Park:

An estimated 2,000 people disrupted traffic in downtown San Francisco on Friday night, and another protest is planned for Oakland at noon today at the Mormon Temple.

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Friday night’s rowdy, whistle-blowing, shouting crowd held signs and shouted “Equal rights now” and “Yes we can,” blocking Market Street from the Civic Center and jamming traffic in the Castro district down to the Mission.(SJ Merc 11/8/08)

Apparently there’s a protest planned tomorrow near the Mormon temple in Oakland, but I don’t have the details on that. If you have them, go ahead and post them in the comments.

And people, remember, this is about justice. This is about ending discrimination and hate, not about beginning it or renewing it against any other group.  Take it from WeHo Councilman John Duran, we should seek to ask Americans to support us, one by one. Acknowledge what has happened without justifying hate.