The West Virgina Family Foundation plans to ask lawmakers to introduce a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Just as they've asked for the last six years.
West Virginia Family Foundation President Kevin McCoy stated: "The Marriage Protection Amendment will constitutionally protect marriage as only between one man and one woman, preventing activist judges from radically redefining marriage in our state. The amendment will also preserve the unique legal benefits that are provided for this sacred institution and prohibit counterfeit relationships such as homosexual 'civil unions' and 'domestic partner benefits,' which are homosexual 'marriage' by another name. "We call on the Legislature to stop obstructing the people's right to join thirty other states in constitutionally protecting the definition of marriage as only between one man and one woman."
Currently same-sex marriage is banned by statute, but not by West Virginia's constitution.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who was the lone Democrat to vote against the Defense Authorization Act when it included the repeal of DADT, now says he regrets not being in DC to also vote against the stand-alone version of the bill.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin apologized to his constituents Tuesday for missing two key votes over the weekend. Manchin has caught heat from friends and foes alike for failing to be on the Senate floor Saturday to vote on the repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” and the DREAM Act. Instead he was celebrating Christmas with his grandchildren in Pennsylvania. "Let me apologize to anybody and everybody within our listening and reading areas. I'm very sorry for missing the two votes,” Manchin said during a conference call with reporters Tuesday. For the record, Manchin says he would have voted against both bills. He says he took his cue on Don't Ask, Don't Tell from military leaders who felt in the middle of two conflicts now was not the time to change a major policy. And he was not satisfied with the DREAM Act because he wants to see comprehensive immigration change.
Again, I was only here three weeks…didn’t know much about the issue. It’s something that probably will be, it needs to be repealed and it will be repealed. But I was voting, basically on timeliness. I sat on two meetings of armed services both telling me, ‘it should be on our time table, not legislative time table.’ So I voted to let the military have it on their timetable….I made a decision based on that. [...] What they were saying was, ‘we got fronts, we got a war in Afghanistan, we got 50 percent of our troops deployed, can you not wait until we get out of this?’
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has issued an explanation and apology for his DADT vote today.
"While I believe the 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' policy will be repealed someday, and probably should be repealed in the near future, I do not support its repeal at this time," Manchin said in the statement. "I truly understand that my position will anger those who believe repeal should happen now and for that I sincerely apologize. While I am very sympathetic to those who passionately support the repeal, as a Senator of just three weeks, I have not had the opportunity to visit and hear the full range of viewpoints from the citizens of West Virginia."
Manchin went on to say that the president should end DADT discharges by executive order.
In the special election to replace the late Sen. Robert Byrd, Tea Party-endorsed West Virginia GOP head John Raese is tied with Gov. Joe Manchin. Raese's wife is the founder and president of Conservative Women of West Virginia. Raese poses on his campaign site with a rifle slung over his shoulder, vowing to fight gun control, overturn Roe Vs. Wade, stop stem-cell research, and "repeal Obamacare."
RELATED: Three Senate seats are up for grabs in special elections this term: Illinois, West Virginia, and Delaware. State law requires that the winners be seated in the Senate immediately, meaning that should the GOP take any or all of those seats, Harry Reid's lame duck session could easily be completely blocked from considering items such as another run at the repeal of DADT.
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) has died at the age of 92. Byrd was the longest-serving U.S. Senator in history and was first elected in 1959.
Mr. Byrd’s perspective on the world changed over the years. He filibustered against the 1964 Civil Rights Act and supported the Vietnam War only to come to back civil rights measures and criticize the Iraq war. Rating his voting record in 1964, Americans for Democratic Action, the liberal lobbying group, found that his views and the organization’s were aligned only 16 percent of the time. In 2005, he got an A.D.A. rating of 95. Mr. Byrd’s political life could be traced to his early involvement with the Ku Klux Klan, an association that almost thwarted his career and clouded it intermittently for years afterward. In the early 1940s, he organized a 150-member klavern, or chapter, of the Klan in Sophia, W.Va., and was chosen its leader at a meeting. After the meeting, Joel L. Baskin, the Klan’s grand dragon for the region, suggested that Mr. Byrd use his “talents for leadership” by going into politics. “Suddenly, lights flashed in my mind!” Mr. Byrd later wrote. “Someone important had recognized my abilities.”
How and when Byrd will be replaced in the Senate is unclear.
West Virginia law states that if there is a Senate vacancy more than two and a half years before the incumbent's term ends, a special election would be called for this November. That two and a half year mark is July 3 -- four days from now. But, as the Post's Paul Kane notes, the language of the law is unclear as it sets up a schedule that would begin the special election process after the "primary next", meaning, according to Democrats, in the spring of 2012. Such a schedule would place the special election in November 2012 when Byrd's 9th term would have ended anyway. The decision of how to read the law will almost certainly come down to Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat and the person seen as the most likely long term successor to Byrd in the Senate. And, either way, Manchin will be required to appoint someone to serve out Byrd's term -- whether it is determined that the term ends this fall or in the fall of 2012.
"If you are responding to a sermon that I preached about gays I would like to render the following apology. Nearly 15 years ago I preached a sermon that promoted physically hurting gay people. I was young, stupid and immature. I didn’t even hold to the belief of hurting people when I wrongly made those comments. I regret those words and have asked God to forgive me for them. I am not a believer in the gay life-style but I was profoundly wrong in making any comments about hurting people. If I could retract those words I certainly would.
"I wrongly represented both God and myself. I truly believe that God is a God of LOVE. I believe he loves the whole world even when people in the world do things that are wrong; Such as my wrong representation of how to treat someone who does not believe the same way I do. I no longer preach like that and I purposely teach and train others to preach and behave properly as well. The hurtful words in that sermon tape were erased many years ago and somehow have resurfaced much to my disappointment and embarrassment. I realize I have disappointed many who have heard those words in that sermon. May I include my disappointment in myself. Once again, I offer my humble apology." - Pastor Jeff Owens, in a message posted on the site of the Shenandoah Baptist Church.
I'll just note that the message is on the church's "contact" page, not their main page, and one must go through the below button to read it. In other words, it seems like this apology is meant to be seen by homos that are looking for the church's phone number. And not by the church's members. Owens did post an audio apology as well, however. UPDATE: The apology has been posted to YouTube.
The West Virgina Family Foundation plans to ask lawmakers to introduce a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Just as they've asked for the last six years. 
