Love for all, not some. Do not fuck this up Washington State.

After a review of the 137,000 signatures collected to get R-71 on the November ballot, approximately 16,000 were found to be invalid. The law, that would have expanded domestic partnership laws in Washington State, was supposed to take effect on July 26. R-71’s opposition campaign put that on hold.

Despite the question of legitimacy regarding the 16,000 signatures, as of now, R-71 still considered to have enough “legitimate” signatures to be included on the ballot. If the referendum does appear on the November ballot, the law would take effect only if approved by voters Nov. 3. That means if you don’t want Washington State to take a giant step backwards in the fight for equality for ALL, you must vote to approve R-71.

I’ll be blogging updates of this issue every step of the way so stayed tuned.

Approve R-71 in November. More at www.approve71.org.

R-71, Washington State’s version of California’s Prop 8 (or Prop “Hate”) has made it onto the November ballot. According to the homo-haters at Protect Marriage Washington, over 137,000 signatures were collected, about 17,000 more than the referendum needed to make it to the ballot. R-71 was sponsored by Larry Stickney of the Washington Values Alliance. State Representatives Matt Shea (R-4th District) and Jim McCune (R- 2nd District) as well as Washington State Senators Dan Swecker (R-20th District) and Val Stevens (R- 39th District) have all endorsed the referendum. Additionally, the names and addresses of people who have provided financial support to the referendum will be made public in accordance with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission.

In order to ensure R-71 does not remove the constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry, please make sure you vote to approve the measure this coming November. Confused? Don’t be like Courtney Love who mistakenly voted “YES” Prop 8 in California thinking she was “approving” the legalization of same-sex marriage. Passage of R-71 will mean that domestic union rights of all Washington State residents will be upheld.

More on how to support R-71 here. Thanks to AFJ for the vote-or-die link.

I pay my taxes, I want my rights t-shirt by Marc Jacobs. $24. For JB.

Get one at a Marc store by locating one here.

Hi. We hate you.

While it looked like Maine was on it’s way to equality, the state chapter for Stand for Marriage collected over 55 thousand signatures in the hopes that they can overturn the bill signed by Maine Governor John Baldaci in May that legalized same-sex unions in the state.

KISS and Walmart. Yeah, that’s about right…

The “surprise” visit by Simmons and Stanley at the 39th Annual Walmart Shareholders Meeting gave rise to speculation that KISS will release their upcoming record, their first in 11 years, exclusively through the discount retailer. During the meeting Simmons was overheard saying something I’m sure he hated to admit:

I am not even close to being the richest guy in the crowd.

Of course Walmart’s shareholders are rich. The company that made over $400 billion dollars last year. However, Simmons’ comments are callous when you consider some of the reasons why Walmart’s Shareholders and Executives wallets are so flush.

On average, Walmart employees make less than $12 bucks and hour, and the majority of employees are unable to afford the company offered health benefits. This leaves around 700,000 of Walmart’s nearly two million employees uninsured. And, while KISS teaming up with a soul-sucking entity like Walmart isn’t quite the mindfucker like the Walmart/Aerosmith rumor, it still sucks. Rock and Roll all Over Walmart?

No thanks…

Hate makes you look fat. It’s true…

Proposition 8 was upheld today by the California Supreme Court by a margin of 6-1. Marriages performed prior to the passage of Prop 8 last year will not be dissolved. In 1948, the California Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny the right to marry to interracial couples citing that marriage was a basic civil right. So much for progress.

Below are some of the protest signs seen across the country at various April 15 Tax Day Tea-Party protests.

Obama Actually Eats Puppies! Bo, the other white meat? Bo. It’s what’s for dinner! Puppies, the new Pork!

What? Was someone already holding a sign that said “Obama Eats Babies?”. This chilly bitch gets an “F” for originality but gets an “A” for looking just like a young John Cusack.

I would go back in the U.S.S.R., but I’m stuck in Jersey.

Please Ms. Stolichnaya, don’t let us keep you here against your will any longer. I mean, it must be hard adjusting to President Obama’s leadership style when you’re accustomed to WITCHES! people like Vladimir Putin, his puppet Dmitri Medvedev and Ramzan Kadyrov (Chechnya’s President) running your country.

Say what now Chicago?

Bright orange sweatshirt? Check. Operation Chaos baseball hat? Check. Equating the plight of the American taxpayer to the atrocities of the Holocaust? Priceless. No wait, I meant to say that the price would be your soul. My bad.

Shouldn’t that kid be in school? Although, he seems pretty advanced for his age. I couldn’t spell the word “jackass”, much less use it in a sentence or write it on a protest sign, until at least the second grade.

Politicians are Jackasses. Just like my Dad!

Honk! Fest West, Seattle.

Honk! Fest West kicks off on Friday in Seattle. Honk! originated in Somerville, Massachusetts (hometown to yours truly) in 2006 as a way to peacefully show support for various grass-roots social issues and causes. To get their point across, Honk! West features raucous horn and drum performances. Which is exactly what you will find in the streets and clubs of both Ballard and Georgetown all weekend long. On Friday, a drum line from Jimi Hendrix’s Alma mater, Garfield High School will perform at 10pm at Mr. Spots in Ballard.  On Saturday, The Olympian Free Radicals (the lineup includes a very reed-blowing friend of mine, A420) will be at Squid & Ink in Georgetown. On Sunday, Honk! will hold a free showcase at Gasworks Park starting at 1 pm, followed by a horns-up showdown at Vera at 8:00.

Honk! Fest runs through Sunday. Full schedule here.

I would rather drink a fake beer out of my iPhone, than go through what it takes to drink a beer in Utah.

A new database, proposed by Witches! members of the Utah legislature, could track the drinking habits of bar patrons in Utah. Luckily, Utah’s Governor, Jon Huntsman, thinks the idea is too wacky even for Utah. Last year, Gov Huntsman increased the amount of liquor that can go into a drink in Utah from 1 to 1.5 ounces. Not so curiously, Utah is the only state in the US that actually limits the amount of alcohol that can be put in a drink. Anyway, if you think that’s crazy, here’s some of the hoops you have to jump to have a beer in Utah:

Utah is the only state in the country that requires customers to fill out an application and pay a fee to enter a bar that serves liquor. Bars in Utah are open to the public, but they’re still classified as private clubs and only members and sponsored guests may enter, even if it is just to use the restroom.

Modern day prohibitionist Republican Senate President Michael Waddoups, has suggested keeping a statewide database of everyone who enters a bar for up to 18 hours. Other law-making-booze haters in Utah have even suggested that the information be kept for up to 30 days. Naturally, Senator Waddoup insists that the data could be instrumental in the apprehention of drunk drivers. Despite the fact that the database, if implemented, would technically be collecting data on anyone who enters a joint that sells hooch in Utah.

Dick Cheney, a man who truly lives up to his name. Image via Pundit Kitchen.

In the history of first names, there is perhaps no other person who’s first name suits them more than former VP, Dick Cheney. And that’s because Dick Cheney epitomizes what it means to be a dick. He also suffers from perpetual “we’re all gonna die”, diarrhea of the mouth. Dick’s most recent Imodium moment came yesterday when he told Politico that the terrorists are going to kill us. Thanks due in part to President Obama’s decision to close Motel Hell Guantanamo Bay:

When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry. The United States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected. Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I’m not at all sure that that’s what the Obama administration believes.

Then the ever delusional Dick, claimed that his unpopular and unwavering support of waterboarding had been crucial in the prevention of another large scale terrorist attack during the last seven years of the Bush administration. And since Dick has the inside track on Al Qaeda, he decided to describe the type of attack that is coming and as well as the approximate number of people that will die when it happens. Disappointingly, Dick stopped short of providing an exact date for our upcoming date with Armageddon:

The terrorists are armed with something much more dangerous than an airline ticket and a box cutter – a nuclear weapon or a biological agent of some kind that is deployed in the middle of an American city. That’s the one that would involve the deaths of perhaps hundreds of thousands of people.

Geeze, thanks for the buzzkill, Dick. I mean for fuck’s sake Dick, if the only time you have a happy thought is when you’re shooting someone in the face, please keep it to yourself. I for one have had enough of your fear-mongering, old man nonsense.

Let them ALL eat cake…

…and until those rights are extended to the Gay and Lesbian community, the First Congregational Church of Ashaland, Oregon says it won’t be signing any more marriage licenses for anyone. First Congregation’s Reverend Pam Shepard had this to say about the churches decision to stop signing marriage licenses:

I’m helping the discrimination every time I sign a license.’… Every time I sign a license, it’s like I’m saying, ’OK,’ but it’s not OK.

Three other members of First Congregational’s clergy are also refusing to sign any marriage licenses. They will however continue to perform marriage ceremonies but the licenses will have to be signed by a Justice of the Peace or a Judge. The church has said it will also participate in Join the Impact on January 10th. Join the Impact is part of a National protest against DOMA or the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996. The act defines marriage to be between a man and a woman only.

You can (and should) get involved too. Click here for more information…

Sir Rupert, the Gay Knight. It’s funny when the Funnies make you think…

Hey there. I’ve been having issues with Cherrybombed.com since I upgraded to Flash 10 so my appologies for the lack of posts. It sucks because I’ve been wanting to tell you about this, and this but without photos, it’s really sort of boring. To me anyway. Hang in there though, I’ll get it fixed as quickly as I can. Did you hear me WordPress monkeys? Get me my fucking Flash 10 patch STAT!

Chuck Norris strikes a very ungay pose…

Chuck Norris can now add “writer” hatemonger to his resume. In addition to ass-kicking and hanging with his best buddy Mike Huckabee, Chuck has been writing for a right-wing rag called World Net Daily. A couple of days ago, Chuck picked up his best hate pen, and had this to say about some of the tactics being used by groups currently challenging the passing of Prop 8 hate in California. Methinks Chuck might be confusing some of his films with reality:

The enraged vehemence and actions being displayed by many Prop 8 opponents are the same underhand tactics bullies use in neighborhoods and school playgrounds. They reflect the ways that mobs conducted themselves in the underworld. They are methods gangs use to control their turf. They are the wiles that the KGB used to suppress their enemies.

Besides, not providing the same rights to everyone isn’t illegal. It’s all about boundaries, yo…:

They are American citizens who are following 5,000 years of human history and the beliefs of every major people group and religion – that marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman. Their pro-Prop 8 votes weren’t intended to deprive any group of their rights – they were safeguarding their honest convictions regarding the boundaries of marriage.

But really, what did you expect Chuck to say about this. His Dad is GOD. Below, Chuck makes his Daddy proud by calling out the “sham” known as Evolution:

There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live. It’s funny. It’s cute. But here’s what I really think about the theory of evolution: It’s not real. It is not the way we got here. In fact, the life you see on this planet is really just a list of creatures God has allowed to live. We are not creations of random chance. We are not accidents.

Phew! What a relief. To think, all this time I thought I had accidently evolved into a human being. Which is more than I can say for Chuck Norris…

Today I thought I would share some words of wisdom from some of my favorite people.

Alan Lomax, musicologist and cultural historian.

Alan Lomax, exerpt from The Land Where Blues Began, 1993:

Our times today are similarly out of joint, similarly terrorized. Technology has made the species rich and resourceful as never before, but the wealth and the resources rest with a few individuals, corporations, and favored nations. Most earthlings, most nations, are distanced from technological luxury, and that imbalance is presided over by armed forces capable of destroying the planet itself. Rage and anxiety pervade the emotions and the actions of both the haves and the have-nots.

Gore Vidal and John Kennedy, 1960.

Gore Vidal, transcripts from a 2003 interview on Dateline, Australia:

The censorship here is so tight in all of the newspapers and particularly in network television.  So, nobody’s getting the facts.  I mean, I spend part of the year in Italy and really, basically, what I find out I find out from European journalists who actually will go to Iraq, which our people cannot do or will not do, and are certainly not admired for doing so.  We are in a kind of bubble of ignorance about what is really going on.

Joe Strummer of The Clash.

Joe Strummer, lyrics from Know Your Rights, 1982.

You have the right to remain silent
You are warned that anything you say
Can and will be taken down
And used as evidence against you

Ralph Steadman, painter and political satirist. Painting of Ralph Steadman by, Ralph Steadman.

Ralph Steadman, excerpt from Steadman’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1998:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights – 50 years – 50 million violations and 50 thoughts …

Without the Universal Declaration of Human Rights my next first sentence could contravene some countries’ arbitrary rule of law and cause all others to surreptitiously conspire to suppress its blatant defiance of state.

I have the right to hold an opinion, express it, celebrate it, broadcast it, live by it, and travel with it anywhere I so desire and what’s more convince others, by peaceful means, that they should hold that opinion too.

Hunter S. Thompson. Gonzo journalist.

Hunter S. Thompson, excerpt from Fear and Loathing in Elko published by Rolling Stone Magazine, 1992:

“In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile—and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. We owe that to ourselves and our crippled self-image as something better than a nation of panicked sheep

I won’t be live-bloggin the debate tonight but I wil be watching. It’s just to difficult to type and watch TV while I’m hiding under my bed.

The Clash, I’m So Bored With The USA, 1977.

If you’ve been paying attention to the news the last few days, you might be thinking the same thing. The news is in doomsday overdrive. Banks are running out of money, the BCT (Brigade Combat Team) has been deployed to the US to prepare for any possible upcoming civil unrest, this guy is back on TV telling us all to run like hell or we’re all gonna die. All while this guy spends $5000 on makeup, which I’m sure is very reasonable to someone who owns 13 cars and 10 homes. What, no locusts?

Cherrybomb’s Daily Earwig for Thursday, September 25th is The Clash, I’m So Bored With The USA.

Ted Nugent wants you to know that he killed this American flag himself before making it into a shirt.

Ted Nugent said that he sent his girl, Sarah Palin, an advance copy of his new book, “Ted, White & Blue: The Nugent Manifesto”. Nugent says the book, due out early next month is an honest look at his life and views on the world. Like this Nuge-Nugget:

The amazing quality American Dream that is my life is available to anyone willing to fight for rugged individualism. Doing the right thing is ridiculously easy and always much more satisfying.

I think what Ted means here is that being willing to live in the woods, kill your own food and shit in a hole, is not only ridiculously easy, it is also the American Dream. But wait, the talking-points for Ted, White and Blue are even more inspiring. According to Ted, simply by reading Ted, White and Blue you will discover the following things you never thought you wanted to know:

Why war is the answer to so many of our current problems
Why, if Ted were a Mexican, he’d start a revolution
How to change the world for the better through the power of God, guns and rock ‘n’ roll

Ted Nugent. Native American headdress, check. Confederate flag shirt with arms cut off, check. Automatic machine gun, check. Looking like the next White House Chief of Staff? Priceless.

What? No talking-point about birthin’ babies on a pile of bibles? Anyway, I know this isn’t really news that  Ted Nugent in enamored by the idea of Sarah Palin being our next VP. I really just wanted to have a reason to print the love-letter to Sarah Palin that accompanied Nugent’s fascist book of tripe. It’s pretty much the most un-rock ‘n’ roll thing I’ve ever read. Which makes sense since, like Sammy Hagar, Ted Nugent is a fucking tool:

Dear Governor Palin,

Please accept this copy of my new book, “Ted, White & Blue: The Nugent Manifesto” for you and your family. As a proud fellow American hunter, fisherman and lover of Alaska’s soul cleansing magnificent Spirit of the Wild, we who live our American Dream by God, truth, logic, goodwill and decency, thank you for bringing such defiant common sense and self evident truth back to the GOP and politics. We wish you Godspeed for the best hunting and fishing season of your life and pray to God almighty that you bring your bold spirit to the White House.

Godbless, XOXO,

American BloodBrothers, Ted Nugent and family

Okay, Ted didn’t put the XOXO in there but you know he wanted to.

Sarah Palin’s Alaskan church, Wasilla Assembly of God. Palin appears in this video.

To quote a verrra good looking friend of Cherrybomb, I am nervous. All paranoid Internet chatter aside, I would like to ask that you visit the website responsible for posting this video, Talk to Action , and do so on a regular basis. These videos from inside Palin’s apocalyptic, Third Wave church and any other negative media coverage about Sarah Palin is being suppressed and in cases, removed from sites that publish them. Anything and everything is being done to prevent the general public from seeing what a perfect fascist actually looks like. Hell, if I used to bill rape victims for their rape testing kits back when I was Mayor of Wasilla, I’d probably be hiding from the media too.

If you are not registered to vote, please make sure you register and vote in November. Help enable other people to vote by organizing carpools to the polls. Hold your friends accountable that say they aren’t going to vote.

I refuse to believe that we could lose this election to people that believe that the power of Christ can travel through your cell-phone. Oh, yeah. That’s in the video too.

Paranoid-ally Yours,

Cherry

Sarah Palin at the Republican National Convention, September 3rd, 2008.

I know I’ve seen this somewhere before. I just can’t put my finger on it…wait a minute. That’s it. Phew, I feel so much better now. Anyway, I’m with Gloria Steinem on this one. The only thing Sarah Palin has in common with Cherrybomb is a chromosome.

Cop drags protester through the street, get’s tackled.

This video shows a member of the non-violent, human rights group, Blac Bloc getting tackled by a cop. Minutes later, the cop gets tackled by another protester which knocks his captive free. And that’s not all that happened yesterday.

Rage Leads March at 2008 RNC.

Yesterday, cops tear gassed a group of people that had initially assembled on the lawn of the Minnesota’s capital building after the Internet became rife with reports that Rage Against the Machine would make an appearance at the Convention. Zack de La Rocha and Tom Morello performed an unplugged version of Killing in the Name Of, and then led the crowd on a short march. The problem was that Rage’s unplanned march ran directly into another planned march being held by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, swelling the size of Rage’s small crowd by several thousand. This of course made the cops freak out and overreact. Which is just pretty much what has been happening in St. Paul since last week.

Man, I know former Minnesota governor, Jesse Ventura, would never had let this happen in St. Paul.

Thanks to the Red Davey Kid for the protest linkage…

This is not Kevin Smith of Florida.

Kenneth Smith, age 29, was arrested yesterday in Rivera Beach, Florida for wearing baggy pants. The city passed a law in March of 2008 making “exposure of undergarment in public” illegal. Now Smith is out $150 and it’s 30 days in the pokey if he gets popped again. Cities in Louisiana and Michigan also has similar laws on their books.

I mean, if baggy pants are considered obscene, will laws banning muffin top pants be next? Don’t answer that question…