Now the fun really begins

Well I survived the Republican National Convention with my heart intact. But as luck would have it, us lgbts in South Carolina are going to be gearing up for Gay Pride that will be coming up this month.

And on the heels of the "South Carolina is so gay" controversy, things promises to be very interesting. Especially seeing that RuPaul will be performing.

This year I have made up my mind - I will not be a parade monitor. Every year I volunteer to walk alongside the floats and the marchers in order to keep the parade going and keep them from the protestors.

To hell with all of that - this year, I am going to ride on a float.

But there are other important things to consider.

Like what am I going to wear.

Seriously though, I doubt that the following will be my last thoughts regarding the upcoming election, but I still feel the need to voice them:

1. John McCain's speech - I told myself that I wasn't going to watch it. But I succumbed to temptation and turned the channel.

To put it nicely and without bias - John McCain's speech reminded me of Tucker Carlson on "Dancing with the Stars."

Forget gay marriage, can't we get a constitutional amendment against McCain making speeches?

2. If Sarah Carlin is so damned vivacious and exciting, then why won't the McCain camp let her do an interview?

3. About the Log Cabin Republicans endorsing McCain - A popular anti-gay industry stereotype about gays is about how we loved to get screwed. This has to be the first time I have ever seen a gay group try to prove this stereotype through its political practices.

Until Monday (or barring something monumental happening), I am out of here.

UPDATE - I told you that community organizers remark was going to bite Palin in the ass

From ThinkProgress.org:

Last night during her speech to the Republican National Convention, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) sought to play up her experience as mayor of a small town in Alaska by mocking community organizing:

PALIN: And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities.
Today, the nation’s leading organization’s responded to Palin’s attack:

– Center for Community Change: When Sarah Palin demeaned community organizing, she didn’t attack another candidate. She attacked an American tradition — one that has helped everyday Americans engage with the political process and make a difference in their lives and the lives of their neighbors.

– Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now: ACORN members, leaders and staff are extremely disappointed that Republican leaders would make such condescending remarks on the great work community organizers accomplish in cities throughout this country. The fact that they marginalize our success in empowering low- and moderate-income people to improve their communities further illustrates their lack of touch with ordinary people.

More at ThinkProgress.org


Before this solemn mockery is o'er, all hell will break loose

One more speech and I can go back to monitoring the anti-gay industry.

McCain will talk tonight on what he can do if elected president.

But of course all of the attention is on last night and Sarah Palin's speech.

If you ask me, there are two more things to be brought up:

1. This "blame the media" mode will sooner or later backfire if the Republicans continue it. I have already seen some members of the media speak on it and they ain't exactly happy about it. The last thing McCain and his folks need are enemies in the press. And just how long will it be before the American public write them off as whiners?

2. To hell with claims of sexism. Palin obviously wants to stomp with the big dogs so let her stomp or get chewed up.

In other words (and this is me channeling myself when I was in high school watching a good old fashioned catfight) - beat that sista down!!!!

I almost can't wait to get back to showcasing the lies of the anti-gay industry. For one reason, One News Now has put their comments section back up. (I would link to it but as you know the powers that be on that site Rickrolled me).

Secondly (and this is something I don't think anyone has thought about with the convention and hurricanes) I think that our friend Peter LaBarbera may be a very unhappy camper. As I understand it, Southern Decadence was supposed to take place, thereby insuring that Peter would get more "research" of scandalously clad gay men in leather.

I think Hurricane Gustav put a kibosh on that.

But if I know Peter, he probably has something extra silly planned.

I await with interest. Really I do.

Associated Press - Palin stretched the truth in speech

Well the speech is over and to the surprise of no one, Sarah Palin did a good job.

But a few things caught my eye -

1. That attack on the media will backfire. As articles have shown, we don't know that much about her. Hell, McCain didn't know that much about her when he selected her. Trying to bully the media isn't going to play out well publicly. It just gives the impression that the campaign has something to hide.

2. All of that talk about attracting Hilary Clinton voters just went out of the window. Palin did nothing concilatory to appeal to those women. Her tone was mean and sarcastic. The delegates may have loved it but remember some of those same delegates loved Pat Buchanan's 1992 speech and we all know how that played out.

3. The crack about community organizers and the comment about Obama wanting to read terrorists their rights are going to backfire on her.

4. And the most important thing (by way of Americablog), Palin was highly deceptive about many things in her speech:

Ballsy move to lie to America during one's introductory speech. But, that's what Palin did tonight. AP said Palin "stretch[ed] the truth. She lied:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

The gloves are truly off here. When the hype and afterglow of Palin's speech is over, I am interested in seeing what is going to happen.


The Palin paradox and other things (because it's not all about her)

In the words of Addison DeWitt in All About Eve, tonight Sarah Palin will give the performance of her life.

No matter how the media tries to hype her speech up as a do or die situation, we all know how it's going to end. She is going to walk out to the podium under thunderous applause before her speech and will be hailed as a "gutsy underdog" when it's over.

Short of cutting a loud fart in front of the microphone, Palin will do just fine tonight, causing conservatives to heap her with more platitudes than Michael Jackson received when he started winning awards for the Thriller album.

But I find the line of defense that she is being attacked due to sexism highly funny. It would be more funny it if weren't insulting.

For months, we have all be inudated by claims, phony anecdotes, and out-and-out lies about Barack Obama.

And when folks pushing those claims got called to the carpet, they feigned shock saying "oh so it's wrong to even criticize Barack Obama. We are only just trying to find out the truth."

Now they take the opposite road with Sarah Palin. Give me a break.

When Palin has a book written on her by an attack artist like Jerome Corsi, then we will talk. Other than that, everyone is well within their rights to scrutinize her.

After all, John McCain certainly didn't.

But don't be fooled by this circling of wagons. According to this link, not all Republicans favor Palin.

And according to an MSNBC poll, people (by a large margin) think that the media should not back off investigating her background.

In other news . . .

I want to link you all to this very interesting story by a young black gay man. He recounts coming out to his family and introducing them to his partner.

In this fast paced world of bullshit, it's nice to spotlight brave folks like him.

I will try to not have a heart attack this week

With the good comes the bad.

Last week was the Democratic National Convention. So now this week will be the Republican National Convention.

And I may not watch it.

While I firmly believe in looking at two sides of an issue, even if my mind is made up, my heart just won't be able to take it.

I tried really hard yesterday to watch Fox News as their pundits pontificated about the effect of Hurricane Gustav on the convention. I was doing well until one of them, Fred Barnes, remarked that the relief effort of Hurricane Gustav wipes away the ill feelings of the inaction during Hurricane Katrina.

After ten minutes of mental profanities and two minutes of feeling slightly guilty for wishing that I could jump through the television and bury my foot in Barnes's ass, I came to the conclusion that maybe just this once, I don't have to look at both sides of an issue.

I'm an Obamaniac and I'm proud of it. And I am not voting for him solely because of his color. I am voting for him because he is a Democrat. The fact that he is an African-American is simply icing on the cake.

But you know what? What if I was going to vote for him solely because of his ethnicity? In this political climate, just what is wrong with that?

After all, John McCain choose Sarah Palin as vice president simply because she is a woman and evangelicals are excited about her because she claims she is also one.

But who is going to point the finger at that?

And speaking of choices and heart attacks, I see the Log Cabin Republicans have endorsed McCain.

While I understand the need for them to be autonomous, I also have to say that they aren't that smart.

The Log Cabin Republicans cited several reasons why they support McCain, but I want to talk about one:

An endorsement will give Log Cabin better access to a McCain administration.

Yeah right. How much access do you think they will get when James Dobson starts threatening to pull supporters away from McCain unless he stops "legitimizing the homosexual agenda?"

How much access do you think they will get once Donald Wildmon gets his followers to send letters to the White House demanding that McCain not meet with them.

Unfortunately the Log Cabin Republicans' endorsement of McCain glosses over an ugly but true fact regarding Republican politics. Since Reagan, every Republican presidential candidate sooner or later have had to pander to the religious right and the anti-gay industry.

And McCain is no different (hence the pick of Palin). When and if the time comes that McCain has to choose between Log Cabin Republicans and the religious right, just what can they do?

They don't have any real power in the Republican party. If they do, would someone please write me and tell me just what it is.

Beware the potential Zogby spin - it may not be accurate

My prayers go out to those who are affected by Hurricane Gustav. And I think that McCain made a good decision to make changes to the Republican National Convention.

But I echo Obama's sentiments - hopefully those in charge will do better than they did during Hurricane Katrina.

I read something today that is interesting and I want to bring it to everyone's attention before the "spin doctors" try to manipulate it:

Republican John McCain's surprise announcement Friday of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate - some 16 hours after Democrat Barack Obama's historic speech accepting his party’s presidential nomination - has possibly stunted any Obama convention bump, the latest Zogby Interactive flash poll of the race shows.

The latest nationwide survey, begun Friday afternoon after the McCain announcement of Palin as running mate and completed mid-afternoon today, shows McCain/Palin at 47%, compared to 45% support for Obama/Biden.

In other words, the race is a dead heat.

The interactive online Zogby survey shows that both Obama and McCain have solidified the support among their own parties - Obama won 86% support of Democrats and McCain 89% of Republicans in a two-way head-to-head poll question not including the running mates. When Biden and Palin are added to the mix, Obama's Democratic support remains at 86%, while McCain's increases to 92%.

That's the Zogby poll. But the National Gallup poll has Obama ahead by eight points. It also says that Sarah Palin is an unknown quantity.

But how much do you want to bet that the Zogby poll will be repeated ad naseum by McCain's people, Fox News, One News Now, Town Hall, and every conservative blog and talking head who wishes to score quick points for the Republicans.

Already there is an effort underway to spin the Zogby poll. This is what the conservative writers from Newsmax said:

It is incredible, but the designation of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate seems to have totally obliterated Barack Obama's bounce from his convention and after his magnificent speech. Zogby actually has McCain two ahead and Rasmussen's Friday only data shows Obama only three up!

First of all, the use of the Rasmussen poll by Newsmax is a clever distortion.

According to the Rasmussen poll, before the convention, Obama and McCain have been pretty much even with Obama leading slightly.

During and after the convention, the poll shows Obama moving up by three to four points at the most. The Rasmussen poll never showed a "bounce."

So for Newsmax to use the Ramussen poll to claim that Obama enjoyed a big bounce from the convention and that McCain destroyed said bounce by his pick of Palin is highly farfetched.

Which brings me back to the Zogby poll. Anyone who tries to use the Zogby poll to make the case that Palin destroyed Obama's convention bounce is clearly not reading the entire article. Please bear in mind the words in the first sentence of the article's lead:

Republican John McCain's surprise announcement Friday of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate - some 16 hours after Democrat Barack Obama's historic speech accepting his party’s presidential nomination - has possibly stunted any Obama convention bump, the latest Zogby Interactive flash poll of the race shows.

What the Zogby poll is actually saying is that McCain's choice of a vice president has added more interest to the race by energizing his base. Before his pick of Palin, many were so-so about his candidacy. Now that he has picked his running mate, interest in him from his base has picked up.

In other words, as the second paragraph of the article clearly says, both candidates have solidified support in their own bases.

This election is not predictable. No one could have ever predicted that Obama would defeat Hilary Clinton for the Democratic nomination and no one could have predicted that McCain would pick Sarah Palin as his running mate.

And I am sure that before it's all over, more unpredictable things will happen.

But hopefully the most unpredictable occurrence will be the pundits and journalists doing their jobs and not giving us half the story . . . for a change.

I await in anticipation to be surprised.

Good choice? Bad choice?

Awesome speech by Obama. That's all I can say.

And I noticed that McCain is trying to blunt the effect of the speech by his vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin.

Palin, Governor of Alaska, is not known to many people. Naturally the internet is abuzz with google searches, yahoo searches, and every other search.

She is pro-life and not necessarily pro-gay. Of course members of the anti-gay industry are lining up to praise McCain's choice.

Palin has also been called blunt, not necessarily a positive characteristic for someone who is allegedly not necessarily gay-friendly. This means she has the potential to say something ridiculous about the lgbt community while at the same time claiming that she is not homophobic.

So did McCain pick a younger, cuter version of Sally Kern?

Who knows. Maybe I am making too much of the situation.

But from what I do know, McCain picked a first term governor with no national experience and who is currently under an ethics violation (allegedly for using her office in a vendetta against her former brother-in-law) to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Well there goes that argument against Obama regarding lack of experience. At any other time, this would be considered a crappy choice. Hell, if Obama had made a choice like that he would be rode out of town on a rail.

You do have to give McCain points for effort though. By going for the odd choice, he has attracted some attention.

But attention, as does mystery, fades in time.

The question is what will the voters see when that happens.

Radom thoughts and significant ramblings

The Democratic Convention is almost over. Meanwhile John McCain will soon name his vice presidential candidate and the Republicans are going to start their convention.

I feel as if I am watching the coming attractions in a movie theatre.

Folks, its about to get ugly.

Last night, I googled the latest lie about Obama (the one about William Ayers and the Weathermen) and it got me thinking.

Why is it so hard for some Republicans to campaign on the issues? Why can't they just say "we feel so and so won't do a better job than our candidate."

But no. In a huge show of self involvement that would land many of us on a psychiatrist's couch, Republicans and their cohorts (especially the anti-gay industry) make every election a pitched battle between good and evil with them wearing the wings and the halo:

We can elect Michael Dukakis because he is a card carrying member of the ACLU who opposes children saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

We can't elect Bill Clinton because he is a draft dodger who protested against his country on foreign soil.

We can't elect Al Gore because he is a congenital liar who says he created the Internet.

We can't elect John Kerry because he didn't deserve the medals he got in Vietnam.

It's a broken record that no one seems to have the sense to throw away. And that's because its somewhat effective.

Dirty political tactics are like pornography. Americans claim to be disgusted by it, but at the same time, it draws their interest.

And this time, there is a serious overload of rumors, conjecture and intentional whispering campaigns. Forget how nasty it was with Bill Clinton. Republicans, conservatives, and the rest of the so-called moral folks have gone into hyperdrive about Obama, accusing him of every of bad behavior except for shooting J.R. Ewing and "squeezing the Charmin."

By themselves, the claims are bizarre. But if you grouped them together, they take the semblance of one of those ridiculous Left Behind books combined with an episode of Twin Peaks:

Obama has deep ties with Jerome Wright, a "nutty" preacher.

Obama is a rock star.

Obama’s birth certificate is fake .

Obama has deep ties with “terrorist” William Ayers.

Obama had sex and did drugs in a limo with a white guy.

Obama is the anti-Christ.

Obama is secretly Muslim.

Obama’s mother was Communist.

Obama received “training” in a Muslim school while a youngster.

Obama did drugs while in the Senate.

Obama is for infantcide.

Obama is uppity.

Obama is like Paris Hilton.

Obama is unpatriotic because he does not put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance.

Obama is unpatriotic because he does not wear an American flag pin on his lapel or tie.

Obama was sworn into office on the Koran.

Years from now, people will look back at this election and scratch their heads. They are going to ask the question that I have been asking for a number of months:

What's wrong with these people.