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Conservative Legal Group Sues to Force California to Defend Prop 8

A social conservative legal organization is attempting to force the State of California to defend Proposition 8.

The Sacramento-based Pacific Justice Institute has petitioned the 3rd District Court of Appeal to compel Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown to defend the ballot initiative against its current legal challenge in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The institute is arguing that as the state's chief law enforcement officer, Brown does not have discretion to defend only laws with which he personally agrees. And because the California Constitution gives the governor final say when he and the attorney general disagree on legal matters, Schwarzenegger must be compelled to file an appeal to preserve Proposition 8 as well, the group's lawsuit states.

The institute brought its motion on behalf of Joshua Beckley, pastor of Ecclesia Christian Fellowship church in San Bernardino, and included with it a declaration of support from former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III. Meese, who served one term as attorney general under President Ronald Reagan and Reagan's legal adviser when he was governor of California, said that Schwarzenegger and Brown's positions were at odds with his own experience.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who declared the initiative unconstitutional August 4 in a landmark ruling, has suggested that only the state has "standing" to defend the law. Brown and Schwarzenegger filed motions arguing that same-sex weddings should be allowed immediately before the Ninth Circuit issued a stay.

The appeal will be heard in San Francisco on December 6th.

PHOTOS: JLS Has an Oral Fixation

Marvin Humes is usually the JLS boybander spotted with something in his mouth. Aston Merrygold switches it up and is pretty in pink as he demonstrates how to work a lollipop. Fellow hottie JB Gill shows his oral skills AFTER THE JUMP ...

Gov. Rick Perry: Texas is "A Land Opportunity" ... Except for Gays

On the lunch menu at Texas Gov. Rick Perry's campaign appearance at a Texarkana barbecue joint: Jobs, jobs and same-sex marriage.

The friendly crowd at Clem Mikeska's Bar-B-Q ate it up. Later on, someone in the audience who wanted to know if the governor of Texas wants to be the next president of the United States. "No," Perry said. "I have no intention to go to Washington, D.C., except maybe to go to a museum, like the Smithsonian." Social issues might be in the back seat, but they're still in the car: "There is still a land of opportunity, friends — it's called Texas," Perry said. "We're creating more jobs than any other state in the nation. ... Would you rather live in a state like this, or in a state where a man can marry a man?"

Some data per the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics: In July, the largest non-farm job increases were reported in, among other states, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, where marriage equality is the law. Iowa, New Hampshire and Vermont, where marriage equality is also legal, boast unemployment rates almost one-third less than Texas.

Via ANDY

POLL: Majority of GOP Believes Obama "Sympathizes with Islamic Fundamentalism" and Sharia Law

A new Newsweek poll has found that a majority of Republicans believe President Obama "sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world." Some 52 percent of Republicans agreed with this. Only 33 percent of Republicans said the “allegation” was "probably not true."

Earlier this month, new polling by the Pew Forum on Religion found that almost 20 percent of Americans wrongly believe the President is Muslim. Significantly more Republicans—about one third—shared this incorrect view.

If the President isn't Christian, still awaiting that explanation of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ ...

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POLL: More Americans (Wrongly) Believe Obama is Muslim

Black Gay Republican D.C. Council Candidate Protests Rating

A Black gay Republican candidate for Washington D.C. Council has protested the candidate rankings released last week by the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance. Ward 1 candidate Marc Morgan has blasted the rankings as a “high school popularity contest” after receiving a significantly lower score than the Democratic incumbent, reports the Washington Post.

In the Ward 1 council race, the GLAA gave openly gay Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) a perfect score of a 10. But Marc Morgan, the GOP candidate in the race, received a score of 3. "He agrees with GLAA on the issues but offered no substance in his questionnaire," GLAA said of its rating of Morgan. "We found only a minimal record."

Morgan sent out a statement today accusing GLAA of engaging in a "high school popularity contest. "As a gay man who has traveled across the country fighting for gay rights, I find it hard to believe that someone such as CM Graham can be three times as supportive of LGBT rights as I am," Morgan said. "I don't understand how any person who answered GLAA's questionnaire could be more supportive of gay rights than a gay man himself, but I suppose that is something the GLAA will have to live with should one of their "favorites" not win this election."

Openly gay challenger Tim Day in Ward 5 also complained after receiving a low ranking. GLAA defends it ratings, saying the GOP candidates have no record on LGBT rights and expect "points because they are openly gay."

There's a lot of that going around.

The issues page of the Marc Morgan for DC Council website does not discuss any LGBT-related platform issues. On his Facebook page, the Black gay Republican describes his family as active in Ohio Republican politics and boasts that his uncle "was an advisor to Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell."  You may recall that Blackwell, in addition to helping to disenfranchise Black Ohio voters in the 2004 presidential campaign, has ranted against the "homosexual lifestyle" and once infamously compared gays to "arsonists and kleptomaniacs."

WATCH: NBA Player Brandon Jennings Does Lady Gaga

Milwaukee Bucks rookie point guard Brandon Jennings pays off a bet, serves his best BQ realness and dances to Lady Gaga's "Love Game." Oh and there's the obligatory "pause" Tweet to confirm his heterosexuality. LOLz

You do you, Brandon. Watch AFTER THE JUMP ...

WATCH: Vanessa Williams in "Desperate Housewives" Promo

There is a new sheriff on Wisteria Lane. The Desperate Housewives promotional marketing campaign for Season 7 has clever "Wild West" theme and is built around new cast member Vanessa Williams. The first promo image leaked over the weekend and now there is video, look and watch AFTER THE JUMP ...

UPDATE: Not Guilty Plea for Man Who Fatally Beat Infant Boy for "Acting Like a Little Girl"

There are several updates to the horrific case of a Long Island man accused of brutally beating the life out of a toddler boy that he was babysitting. Twenty-year-old Pedro Jones reportedly confessed to beating the 17-month old boy because he was "acting like a little girl." Jones has plead not guilty to manslaughter. Defense attorneys are seeking to exclude that video taped confession and dismiss the indictment.

Jones claims he was not properly Mirandized, reports 27East.

William T. Ferris said his client was not read his Miranda rights during police investigations and video interviews with Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota’s office—statements that have become the primary evidence prosecutors have offered against Mr. Jones. In them, police claim, Mr. Jones admitted to beating the baby to death. Further, Mr. Ferris said Mr. Jones asked for a lawyer at the time of those investigations and interviews, and his request was ignored. Robert Clifford, spokesman for the [DA], rejected the suggestion that Mr. Jones was deprived of his rights.

There's more: At the August 11 arraignment, prosecutors presented disturbing details about Jones' history and the extent of injuries to the 17-month-old baby, reports the Sag Harbor Express.

Jones was previously living in a homeless shelter before moving in with the child’s mother on the Shinnecock Reservation. In a taped confession,  Jones admitted to hitting and beating the child as far back as April, when he first started dating the mother. (Jones isn’t a member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation.) The child’s body was riddled with injuries, and evidence of previous abuse. In addition to the twenty-six external injuries, the deputy medical examiner also documented injuries to the lungs and heart of this seventeen month old.

Court documents state that Jones caused the death of the infant “by striking him several times throughout his body with his closed fists and grabbing him by the neck.” [Prosecutors] pointed out that Jones admitted to the killings in both a written and taped confession. When asked what prompted him to beat the child, Jones allegedly told investigators, “I was trying to make him act like a boy instead of a little girl.”

The next hearing is scheduled for November 12.

Pedro Jones plead not guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter charges. He faces up to 25 years in prison. Hopefully he will be sentenced to the max and consecutive terms.

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LI Man Kills Baby Boy for "Acting Like a Little Girl"

Monday Posts

Cray travel day. Posting much later or in the morning.

VIDEO, REPORTS: New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina 5 Years Later

Five years ago today, Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf of Mexico coastline, displacing more than 250,000 people from Louisiana to Florida. The damage was catastrophic in New Orleans. The much-heralded levee system failed spectacularly and the rushing waters of Lake Ponchatrain engulfed much of the Crescent City. More than 1,500 people died in the days and months following the flood. Media coverage that followed was often criticized for its bias. 

Across New Orleans and the Gulf, the tragedy was remembered ...

President Obama and the First Lady arrived in still-struggling New Orleans. Obama promised his Administration "is going to stand in the future with you until the job is done."

Watch AFTER THE JUMP ....

The Times-Picayune republishes its entire news and photo archive of the storm. Read the newspapers' pages of the days following the storm. 

Never-seen-before aerial images document the morning after Katrina

Hundreds of N.O. residents marked the anniversary at an ecumenical service in Jackson Square.

St. Bernard Parish residents bid a symbolic "farewell" to Katrina at a "funeral."

Sandra Bullock returns to the high school she helped rebuild.

CBS News visits Plaquemines Parish, where Katrina first made landfall, "nearly wiping that place off the map. Tragically the first place hit has been the last place rebuilt. Before Katrina about 15,000 people lived on the Parish's east and south ends. Today it's about 3,500. Some low-lying communities look like ghost towns."

FEMA admits its mistakes. "'We were spending too much time going back and forth over procedures,' [Administrator Craig Fugate] said, adding that FEMA has learned to "focus on outcomes" since the Obama administration put him in charge of the agency, which was vilified for its slow response in Katrina's aftermath."

Watch the President's speech, news reports and personal stories AFTER THE JUMP