This is from The List by Jonh in DC. He is one really great reporter and his ezine is very informative. So please read on.
LATEST BREAKING NEWS: 1. Laura Bush finds gay marriage 'shocking'
First Lady Laura Bush must have lost her talking points yesterday when she blasted gay marriage, calling it "shocking." Now, some are trying to spin Mrs. Bush's comments as not being her own opinion, but rather her simply saying that "some Americans" find gay marriage shocking. Well, first of all, some Americans also find gay marriage to be a lovely and wonderful thing, so spare me the "Mrs. Bush wasn't taking a position" bs. The White House very clearly put the First Lady out there in an effort to put a soft face on their assault on gay Americans, and the first lady blew it by coming off just as intolerant as her hate-group-pandering husband.
But more importantly, the White House has now made clear that the opinions of personal family members on the gay marriage issue are fair game for the media. So where is Mary Cheney?

2. Maine House of Representatives says 'no' to anti-gay amendment
According to 365gay.com, Maine lawmakers earlier this week rejected a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have banned gay marriage. The Maine House of Representatives rejected the bill on Wednesday by 73-63 votes.
What interesting about this vote is that President Bush is going to be increasingly hard pressed to show that a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage is needed because of those pesky "activist judges." Is the president going to start arguing about activist legislatures now too? It seems our democracy is working just fine in the various states without the president's heavy-handed intervention.
Read more about the Maine vote here: http://thelist.c.tep1.com/maabXPRaa4wySb4EfRSb/

3. Chicago's Mayor Daley comes supports gay marriage
In breaking news that makes me proud to be a Chicagoan, gay journalist Rex Wockner reports that Chicago Mayor Daley supports same sex marriage. According to a story Wockner just released Daley had this to say:
"'[Cook County Clerk] David Orr can do it any way he wants. That would be up to him. I have no problems with that issue at all,' Daley said when asked about the ongoing issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples in San Francisco.
"'A lot of people are opposed to it. So be it,' Daley said. 'But again, you have to point out the strength of this community -- they're your doctors, your lawyers, your journalists, politicians. They're someone's son or daughter, they're someone's mother or father. They're parents. And I have been with them, they've adopted children, they have wonderful children. And to me, we have to understand this is part and parcel of our families and extended families. ... They love each other just as much as anyone else. They believe that the benefits that they don't have, they should have. And so I have a very open mind on it.'"
God bless him. Getting harder to say you're doing the will of the people, isn't it George?
Read more about Mayor Daley here: - href="http://thelist.c.tep1.com/maabXPRaa4wyTb4EfRSb/ - href="http://thelist.c.tep1.com/maabXPRaa4wyUb4EfRSb/
4. San Francisco gay marriages to continue, city to sue state
Another heterosexual hero of our movement is San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. As you know, Newsom has been letting the city marry gay couples for the past week, and over 2,700 marriages have already taken place. Today, the mayor announced that the city is going to sue the state of California over the issue, claiming the state law banning gay marriage is unconstitutional under the California constitution.
Personally, I say hurray for Mayor Newsom. Who'd have thought that as liberal a place as San Francisco would lead as conservative a revolution as pushing marriage? Some gay leaders, Congressman Barney Frank and the gay Republican group Log Cabin Republicans, are saying that the San Francisco marriages might cause trouble for our grand strategy to kill the federal constitutional amendment.
My response to them is: What grand strategy? All I see is a steady stream of bad news coming form the wacko anti-gay hate groups, a lot of vacillation coming from the Democratic party, and a lot of hatred coming from the Republican party. If there's a brilliant national strategy in place to kill this amendment in the US Congress, I have yet to see it, or its results. The only, ONLY positive images of gay Americans we've seen for months have been generated by local folks in Massachusetts and California who are taking things into their own hands and now showing America daily images of harmless and loving gay couples whose only desire is to love and be loved. To those freedom fighters in MA and CA I say 'hats off to you.' And to those who would criticize them, I say 'get your own House in order before you criticize those who refuse to sit at the back of the bus.'

Here's more on the SF situation: href="http://thelist.c.tep1.com/maabXPRaa4wyVb4EfRSb/
5. Massachusetts legislature decision still on hold
As you know, the Massachusetts state legislature got together last week in order to decide whether they should ban gay marriage in their state constitution. The legislature couldn't reach a decision and postponed the debate until March 11. In the meantime, gay marriages won't go into effect in Massachusetts until this coming May.
More on Mass. here: href="http://thelist.c.tep1.com/maabXPRaa4wyWb4EfRSb/
6. The anarchy excuse
The latest tactic by the religious right hate groups to win support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage is to claim that the burgeoning nationwide support for gay marriage is "chaos" and "anarchy" that must be stopped immediately by Congress with a constitutional amendment. Rather than recognize that America's democracy is functioning beautifully, and that now courts, legislatures and city governments are all speaking as one in favor of gay marriage, the anti- gay activists want to spin all of this as a national emergency in order to give the president cover for doing the wrong thing.
Their concern is understandable. Let's face, all is not well in George Bush-land. During the State of the Union, just a little over 3 weeks ago, Bush told the nation we needed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage because those "activist judges" in Massachusetts (who were mostly Republicans, by the way) were going to impose gay marriage on us against our will. Then a few weeks later, the Massachusetts legislature wasn't able to agree on banning gay marriage, and the White House complained about the legislature not doing its job. Then SF starting issuing marriage licenses, and that became a rationale for the White House pushing the amendment. Next came Mayor Daley in Chicago and the City of Chicago Human Rights Commission, both of whom oppose the amendment and support gay marriage, and I'll bet the White House will try to use that as justification too. And finally, the Maine House of Representatives this week also refused to pass a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
It's kind of hard to keep saying you're amending the US Constitution to stop those "activist judges" when now you've got numerous "activist" legislatures and "activist" mayors in the mix as well. Pretty soon President Bush will have to declare all Americans activists in his desperate search for a reason to justify overruling our state and local democratically elected officials by imposing his conservative Biblical views on all of our lives.

7. First they came for the activist judges...
The news over the past couple of days, with all the various legislatures and mayors and courts weighing in on gay marriage, and on our side, got me thinking of that Martin Niemoeller quote - the one that starts "first they came for the communists." Here's the original quote:
"In Germany, the Nazis first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics, but I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me."
- Martin Niemoeller, Berlin Lutheran pastor arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Dachau concentration camp in 1938; the Allied forces freed him seven years later.

Well here's an updated version I penned today:
"In America, President Bush first came for the "activist" judges in Massachusetts who ruled in favor of gay marriage. Then he came for the activist legislature in Massachusetts that didn't pass an amendment banning gay marriage. Then he came for the activist mayor of San Francisco who allowed gay marriage. Then he came for the activist mayor of Chicago who refused to oppose gay marriage. Then he came for the activist Human Rights Commission of Chicago that opposed a federal amendment banning gay marriage. Then he came for the activist House of Representatives in Maine that refused to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage. Then he came for me, but by that time there was no one left to speak up for the President because we were all activists."
- John Aravosis, American citizen fed up with a president who repeatedly changes his story to justify his unpopular political goals.
PRESIDENT BUSH ENDORSES ANTI-GAY AMENDMENT TO US CONSTITUTION DearMary.com vows stepped up efforts to expose Bush-Cheney hypocrisy on gay issue
www.DearMary.com
WASHINGTON, DC - President Bush today held a special press conference to declare his support for an amendment to the US Constitution that would ban marriage equality for gays, and possibly repeal every single gay rights law in the country and gay-positive policies at companies across America.
"President Bush is willing to gay bash in our nation's most sacred civil document in order to curry favor with far-right bigots," said John Aravosis, creator of DearMary.com and co-chair of DontAmend.com.
Bush's justification for the federal constitutional amendment changed significantly today from the reasoning he gave in his State of the Union at the end of January. In the State of the Union, Bush said that the amendment might be necessary to stop "activist judges" from legalizing marriage for gay couples. Today the president said that the amendment was necessary to stop activist judges "and" local officials who are supportive of gay marriage. As more and more American public officials announce their support for gay marriage, President Bush has been forced to constantly change his rationale.
"President Bush's justification for this amendment changes by the hour," said Aravosis. "First it was activist judges, now it's activist local officials. One would have thought that President Bush would have learned his lesson about making one justification in the State of the Union and another a few short weeks later."
Aravosis says DearMary.com and DontAmend.com, it's parent organization, will now ramp up actions to oppose this amendment.
"President Bush declared war on the gay community, today the gay community declares war on President Bush," Aravosis said. "As a result of the president's public support for codifying bigotry in the US Constitution, DearMary.com will ramp up its efforts and bring this battle to the president and vice president's doorstep. Dick Cheney's willingness to support discrimination against his own lesbian daughter Mary will be a topic of discussion in every American home for the next nine months," Aravosis said. "You can count on it."
"We urge all GLBT Americans and their friends and family to visit DearMary.com and donate to our nationwide ad campaign," Aravosis said, referring to the Web site's intention to run newspaper and magazine ads questioning Vice President Cheney's hypocrisy on this issue. "We must all join together now and fight back, hard."
The time is now! President Bush has endorsed a Constitutional Amendment that would make discrimination against LGBT people the law of the land.
The time is now! Thousands of same-sex couples are already getting married across the country.