Homos, Homos, Homos....nope, sorry, not on my list

If Dubya could read he'd probably respond to the list below by sayin' "Hea hea...not my constitumentcy...my people care about homos. The war on terror includes homos. They terrifi...terr...scare me. We want happy marriages between men and women. Sanctification of the wedlockian bond. 9/11."

Yeah, well as Salon points out today, the rest of the country feels a little differently about the issues the government should be addressing. I'm still waiting for someone who holds higher office to put all pretense of politics aside and say, on the record, in a microphone, with the cameras running, "This is all bullshit and we know it. Stop assuming all American's are the stupid, redneck fucks you're trying to pander to." The big deflection screen in the sky is at it again, trying to turn the focus from what really matters. If you're going to legislate morality, claim the moral high ground, and throw the Bible into every argument start with this: love thy neighbor as theyself. And let's throw in "Thou shalt not kill" for good measure.

The president, his party and the public's priorities

As the president and Republicans in Congress spend time this week pushing a constitutional amendment on gay marriage that has absolutely no chance of becoming law, perhaps they ought to take just a moment to check out the latest Gallup Poll. Gallup asked 1,003 Americans to say -- without any prompting from the pollsters -- what should be the "top priority for the president and Congress to deal with." Here is the complete tally of responses:

Situation in Iraq/war: 42 percent.

Fuel/oil prices/lack of energy sources/the energy crisis: 29 percent.

Immigration/illegal aliens: 23 percent.

Economy in general: 14 percent.

Poor healthcare/hospitals; high cost of healthcare: 12 percent.

Terrorism: 4 percent.

Education/poor education/access to education: 4 percent.

Federal budget deficit/federal debt: 3 percent.

Unemployment/jobs: 3 percent.

Taxes: 3 percent.

Social Security: 2 percent.

International issues/problems: 2 percent.

National security: 2 percent.

Environment/pollution: 2 percent.

Medicare: 2 percent.

Foreign aid/focus overseas: 2 percent.

Poor leadership/corruption/dissatisfaction with government/ Congress/politicians/candidates: 2 percent.

Poverty/ hunger/ homelessness: 1 percent.

Ethics/moral/religious/family decline; dishonesty; lack of integrity: 1 percent.

Natural disaster relief/funding: 1 percent.

Trade deficit/foreign trade: 1 percent.

High cost of living/inflation: 1 percent.

Unifying the country: Less than .5 percent.

Judicial system/courts/laws: Less than .5 percent.

Abortion: Less than .5 percent

Lack of money: Less than .5 percent.

Gap between rich and poor: Less than .5 percent.

Other: 1 percent.

No opinion: 4 percent.

Still looking for that part where people say "make a futile push for a constitutional amendment to stop homosexuals from getting married"? So are we.