At this critical moment in Our Nation's history?

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the first diagnosis of the global threat of AIDS, a disease that now affects 40.3 million adults and children and is spreading. Did the president take this moment in time to assemble the press and make a statement on one of his former "top priorities"? No. Yesterday 50 people were kidnapped at Iraq bus stations by gunmen dressed in police uniforms. Did our president take this time to make a statement on a war we are currently fighting, a war that he started? No. Yesterday the Dow Jones Industrial average dropped over 199 points on fears of a slowing economy and inflation. Did the president take this moment to reassure a nation about its economy? No. Yesterday oil prices once again rose to over $73 a barrel, on threats of Iran cutting its supply. Did the president, a former oil man with friends in high places in the oil industry both domestic and middle eastern, address the Nation's concerns with rising fuel costs or the ongoing negotiations with Iran? No.

Instead the president of the United States chose to take this "critical time in Our Nation's history" to preach to the religious right choir in the Old Executive Building (as opposed to the originally scheduled Rose Garden) on the "federal marriage amendment". No, this isn't an amendment aimed at ending divorce. This is an amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman, discriminating against people who want to pair off and spend the rest of their life together based on their gender. It is not just an amendment to a particular law, it is an amendment to OUR CONSTITUTION. To attach an amendment to the US Constitution first the Senate needs to approve it, and not by a simple majority (51 votes) but by a "super majority" (67 votes) which this amendment has no chance of doing.

So with every other serious issue facing the Nation, including being in a time of war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and against the noun terror, the president chose to hold one of his infrequent public addresses to support an amendment that has no chance of passing the US Senate, which means it won't be put to a vote for the two thirds majority it would need in the House of Representatives in order to be put to the people of the United States, who according to most polls are well divided and no where near the two thirds majority needed for ratification. One of the political reasons this distractor in chief is counting on is the continuing of his dividing of Our country. The other is the worst display of pandering I have ever seen, fully realizing the pandering of presidents like Clinton.

The question is will the republicans be fooled again? Will they be stupid enough to fall for these blatantly empty words again? If you know a republican, ask them if they are bamboozled by the president's latest politcal ploy to rally "his" people around this intolerant and impossible amendment to the greatest living document of democracy in the world. An amendment that takes away the choice of millions of Americans.

You know what I think? I think the government should change everything that has the word marriage in it to the words "civil union" and leave things like the "sacrament" and "sanctity" of marriage to churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, and other places of worship, not to mention the engaged individuals themselves. Or there's always letting the States handle it, as they do issues like the death penalty.