Massachusetts marriage victory for gay couples

BlueMassGroup has been live-blogging it all day long. The AP has a long and somewhat technical explanation, but the gist of it is that the bigots failed to rescind marriage in Massachusetts.

Okay, here's a MUCH better explanation from Reuters. Read the rest of this post...

White House claims it wants to "get rid of partisanship"

And then they take a jab at incoming Speaker Pelosi. Uh huh, sounds like more of the same out of the WH. Did they just miss the massive rejection of that kind of nonsense that the American public just delivered yesterday? They don't get it and won't get it.

The president wants to work with the new House leaders, said Snow, and was encouraged by several Democrats' calls "to get rid of partisanship."

"Bush wants to go back to the Texas model. He's always reached out. He's been trying over the last couple of years with limited success," Snow said.

But despite the new House leaders, White House officials are not writing off the chamber as a bastion of liberalism, Snow said, adding that Bush believes the chamber will actually mirror his thinking on issues -- and perhaps even reject Pelosi's on occasion.

"Three dozen blue dogs have voted against her on various issues," Snow said, using a nickname for conservative Democrats. "And it's the conservative Democrats who made real gains."

Go back to the Texas model? When did we ever see any serious attempt by Bush to work together, ever, with anyone? He even jammed his policies down the throats of his own Republican members of Congress. Now Bush is suddenly the new guy in town who plans on being a uniter, not a divider? Yeah, and they're already taking pot-shots at Pelosi. Read the rest of this post...

Republican Senator from Wyoming diagnosed with Leukemia

Yikes. Read the rest of this post...

Religious right joins in GOP civil war

Spin, spin, spin baby. The fact remains that independents left the Republican party in droves. And that's not because the GOP didn't spend enough time embracing Lou Sheldon, James Dobson, and the men at the Concerned Women for America.

More from religious right leader Lou Sheldon:

...the candidates who didn't see the importance of marriage and family in 2006--like Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Nancy Johnson (R-CT), Jim Leach (R-IA), Jeb Bradley (R-NH), and Charlie Bass (R-NH)--are all out of a job.

Yeah, and Rick Santorum, George Allen, Katherine Harris, JD Hayworth, Blackwell in Ohio, Steele in Maryland and all the rest of the social conservatives just sailed to victory. Oh, not they didn't. They lost. And religious right candidate Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado nearly lost to Angie Paccione, a Democrat who openly supported gay marriage - yet her embrace of civil rights for glbt Americans didn't even scratch Paccione, in Colorado of all places. And in Virginia and Wisconsin, the anti-gay amendments actually HELPED GOP officials LOSE their elections.

So keep spinning, Lou. Because nothing would make me happier than for the GOP to embrace the religious right wingnuts even more tightly than they have to date. Go ahead and make yourselves a permanent minority. You'll have half the south, and that's it. Read the rest of this post...

150,000 Iraqis have been killed by insurgents since war started

From AP:

Nearly simultaneous car bombs struck two markets in predominantly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 16 people. Iraq's health minister said about 150,000 have been killed by insurgents since the war started, giving the government's first overall casualty estimate.

Read the rest of this post...

Big conservative Web site discusses "Mehlman is gay" gossip

From WorldNetDaily, a Web site widely read by Hannity and all the other wingnuts. WND seems to put the story in the context of the larger "gay mafia runs DC GOP" meme. They're melting down. Read the rest of this post...

Mehlman to leave RNC

CNN's John King just reported that Ken Mehlman will be leaving as chair of the Republican National Committee (i.e., head of the Republican party) by the end of the year. Apparently Kenny's just tuckered out. According to King, "He's been on the gerbil wheel, as one of his close friends put it, for well in excess of six years now and he's tired."

Uh, okay. Read the rest of this post...

Bush wants lame duck Senate to confirm Gates and Bolton

The White House is trying to ram through the nominations of Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense and John Bolton as UN Ambassador while the GOP is still in control:

The White House said today that it would seek confirmation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s successor in the lame duck Congress that is about to reconvene, and that it would seek confirmation of United Nations Ambassador John R. Bolton as well.

So, the White House talks about conciliation, while trying to prevent honest debate. What else will they try to ram through? Read the rest of this post...

VIRGINIA SENATOR GEORGE ALLEN CONCEDES. DEMS WIN BACK US SENATE AFTER 12 YEARS!

Allen concedes. DEMS WIN THE SENATE!!!!!!!! Read the rest of this post...

CNN tells YouTube to pull down video outing GOP party head Ken Mehlman

I just got a cease-and-desist letter from YouTube, see below, regarding my CNN footage I posted. The footage, you'll recall, was from Larry King Live last night in which Bill Maher outed Republican Party chair Ken Mehlman as gay. It seems that CNN has suddenly decided that it no longer wants bloggers, or YouTube, posting any of its video, which is kind of surprising since I always thought we were doing a CNN a favor by constantly touting their network. Apparently I was wrong.

NOTE: You can still see the entire video on Huff Post.

CNN has also now edited the official transcript of Larry King Live, so that no one will ever know what really happened. Here is CNN's transcript:

MAHER: A lot of the chiefs of staff, the people who really run the underpinnings of the Republican Party are gay. I don't want to mention names, but I will on Friday night.

KING: You will Friday night?

MAHER: Well, there's a couple of big people who I think everyone in Washington knows who run the Republican...

KING: You will name them?

MAHER: Well, I wouldn't be the first. I'd get sued if I was the first. (A PORTION OF THIS TRANSCRIPT HAS BEEN REMOVED)

KING: Great way to close out this segment. It's poignant.

CNN didn't just edit out the naming of Mehlman as gay, they even edited out Larry's question, and Maher's answer, about why gay people sometimes work against their own people. Now why is that question being censored by CNN?

I plan to cut the video back to ten seconds, the crucial part where Bill Maher outs Mehlman, then put it back up (I also still have the 3 meg file, 1 minute 20 seconds long - as do lots of other people, including the Huff Post). I have a law degree from Georgetown and I know intellectual property law as it concerns journalism. You can post an 8 to 10 second video clip as fair use for news purposes, and that is what I plan to do. And if CNN and Google try to close down my YouTube account for using an 8-10 second snippet for news purposes, they're going to have serious problems.

Here is the cease and desist I just got from YouTube:

Read the rest of this post...

GOP congressman: Anti-gay amendment actually hurt GOP in Wisconsin

Okay, we now have a story here. The rather conservative Wisconsin Republican Congressman James "Tex" Sensenbrenner (of Kotex fame) is telling the Wisconsin media that the state's anti-gay amendment blew up in the face of the GOP and cost them control of the state legislature. That means the religious right and GOP strategy of gay-baiting actually hurt Republicans in the state. That's funny. And rather pathetic for the religious right.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

It sounded like a good idea at the time.

Get the proposed same-sex marriage constitutional amendment on the November ballot to drive up the Republican vote while driving Democrats out of office. The plan worked for President Bush two years ago, particularly in Ohio. So why wouldn't it do the same in Wisconsin this year, the GOP brass reasoned.

Welcome to the real world.

"The timing ended up backfiring," said U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Menomonee Falls Republican. "I think the opposite worked out this time."

The controversial amendment easily passed Tuesday, with Wisconsin voters approving the ban by 59% to 41%.

But the measure clearly had an unintended consequence by sparking a larger-than-expected turnout, especially among left-leaning college students, who flooded their campus polling places.

The result: Dems scored some unexpected gains in the Statehouse.

There's more from Rep. Sensenbrenner:

Sensenbrenner doesn't disagree with the impact of the amendment on driving up the campus vote. But that's only part of the story, he said.

By putting the same-sex marriage and death penalty measures on the same ballot, Sensenbrenner said, Republican leaders in the Legislature ended up drawing the wrong type of voter to the polls - Democrats, especially conservative ones. Those people voted for the ballot proposals but against Republican candidates.

His proof: About 275,000 people cast ballots for the ban on same-sex marriages but not for Green.

What's more, he said, the Republican strategy gave opponents 1½ years to organize and raise millions of dollars.

"It was a lose-lose situation," Sensenbrenner said. "You had Reagan Democrats and socially conservative union members who wanted to vote yes and yes (on the referendums) and then voted for Doyle.

"And then you had liberals who voted no on both, then voted for Democrats."

Read the rest of this post...

GOP Senator Burns concedes Montana race to Democrat Tester

If and when Republican Senator George Allen (R-VA) concedes at 3pm today, it's all over. More on Burns. Read the rest of this post...

Increasing concerns that House race in Florida stolen by Republicans

This is getting extremely fish. Read the rest of this post...

"60 Minutes" anchor Ed Bradley just died

Read the rest of this post...

CNN reports that Jim Webb's lead increases over George Allen

UPDATE: Allen has scheduled a 3pm Eastern time news conference. Odds are that's when we officially find out that Karl Rove handed the entire congress to the Democrats. And Jim Webb is now having a news conference at 4:15pm Eastern.

7,484 lead over George Allen. It just went up a few hundred votes. Thanks for the recount, George. Our lead is going up. Read the rest of this post...

CNN censors Bill Maher, deletes Larry King Live segment where Maher outs GOP party chair Ken Mehlman as gay

UPDATE: CNN had YouTube pull down the video, send me a cease and desist letter, and they even edited their transcript. Fortunately you can still the video on the Huffington Post.

We reported last night that Bill Maher outed GOP party chairman Ken Mehlman as gay on Larry King Live last night. In the rebroadcast of the show, the segment in which Maher names Mehlman is gone. Interestingly, you can see the ticker at the bottom of the screen is unaffected, meaning, this is video edited by CNN, not a YouTube user. (Another friend of ours saw the rebroadcast and confirms, the segment was edited out.)

This is the new video, where CNN censored Maher:



You can see the uncensored video here to compare. Also, you can find the transcript from LKL here via Huff Post. Read the rest of this post...

Anti-gay measure in Virginia may have cost Allen the election, and Republicans the Senate

Oh, now this would be sweet justice. The Republicans' gay-baiting may have cost them control of the US Senate, and sent George Allen packing in Virginia. Now that's funny. Read the rest of this post...

Still over 20,000 votes to be counted in OH-15

Incumbent Republican Deborah Pryce thinks she's won her race. Typical Republican. Doesn't think the all votes have to be counted for her to win. Wrong. Mary Jo Kilroy can pull this one out. There are over 20,000 votes that remain to be counted:

With 20,000 ballots still uncounted and her lead just 2,835 votes, Republican Rep. Deborah Pryce yesterday declared victory over Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy in their hard-fought race for Congress.

But Kilroy and her campaign manager said Pryce is premature. They think the uncounted votes in Democratic-leaning Franklin County will be enough to overcome the deficit and send Kilroy to Congress.

In unofficial figures released late yesterday by the Franklin County Board of Elections for the entire 15th District, the Upper Arlington Republican had 100,343 votes and Kilroy had 97,508. Pryce, a seven-term incumbent, gained her margin in Union and Madison counties.

About 21,000 provisional ballots and 20,000 absentee ballots cast in Franklin County and received Monday and Tuesday remain to be counted, with about half of those in the 15 th District, according to Franklin County election officials.

Kilroy said those uncounted votes, particularly those in heavily Democratic precincts around Ohio State University, could tilt the balance her way. Kilroy edged Pryce in Franklin County in early returns.

"This race is still on," Kilroy said. "It’s not decided yet."

This race is still on -- and Kilroy can win. Read the rest of this post...

Voter turnout was at 40% this time

Same as 2002, but some states did show higher turnout. Read the rest of this post...

There are serious problems with the vote in Florida's 13th CD

Figures that the 13th CD in Florida is the district Katherine Harris represented. The Democrat, Christine Jennings, is currently behind her opponent, Vern Buchanan, by 368 votes. But there is something seriously wrong with the vote tally from Sarasota county. According to the county's website, there an undervote of over 18,382 in the county for the Congressional race. That's over 10 times the undervote for the Senate race. Something is rotten in Sarasota County:

We're been watching this closely in Sarasota," said Lowell Finley, co-director and legal director for Voter Action, a national group formed in 2005 to challenge cases of voter fraud caused by electronic voting machines.

"The results are extremely irregular, and the fact that a large number of votes don't seem to be counted in just one race on these electronic machines is a very suspicious circumstance. We don't think the official results are accurate by any means."

At the heart of Jennings' argument is that 18,382 voters who cast ballots didn't vote for anyone in the 13th Congressional District race. That's about 15,000 more "undervotes" than in the last midterm election.

If Democrats can prove that a technical glitch caused the undervote, they'll argue that Jennings won nearly 53 percent of the Sarasota County vote.

There's no way that something didn't screw up here. It should come as no surprise that the State of Florida and the top Sarasota County elections official think that the results are :

Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman in Tallahassee for the Florida Department of State, which oversees elections, said undervotes can be "protest votes" and that the election agency has seen unusual returns before.

"I just can't put myself in the voter's mind," she said.

Voters also tend to skip votes farther down the ballot. But in Sarasota, the House race was among the first three.

The top election official in Sarasota County defended her office but said she wasn't sure why there was a high number of undervotes.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

"We did a good election," said Kathy Dent, Sarasota County's top election official. "Our poll workers did exactly what we asked them to do."

The results have no integrity. Buchanan can't be elected because of a technical glitch. Read the rest of this post...

Under-30 crowd voters increased this year

Excellent news, especially since they leaned heavily towards Democrats.

Young Americans voted in the largest numbers in at least 20 years in congressional elections, energized by the Iraq war and giving a boost to Democrats, pollsters said on Wednesday.

About 24 percent of Americans under the age of 30, or at least 10 million young voters, cast ballots in Tuesday's elections that saw Democrats make big gains in Congress. That was up 4 percentage points from the last mid-term elections in 2002.

Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Well, it's real. The Democrats control the House and Senate. They set the agenda. For years, we've been subjected to hate-filled legislation pushed by GOP leaders. Those days are over.

We have to be on alert. The GOP is going to be in overdrive trying to undermine the Democratic agenda. They will be trying to define Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. We know the GOP's dirty tricks. And, we'll fight back.

We should get to watch Allen concede today. Amazing. Many people deserve credit. I want to thank Siddarth. He's the guy who Allen called "macaca." I was always impressed by the way he handled the whole scandal. He's still in college but helped defeat one of the nastiest Senators in America. Not bad.

What else? Read the rest of this post...

It's a new day, but same Iraq chaos

Unloading Rumsfeld is definitely a good start but Gates is going to have to start moving quickly if he wants to turn this thing around, or at least slow down the chaos.

Beset by rampant sectarian violence, Iraq's parliament voted Wednesday to extend the country's state of emergency for 30 more days, as at least 66 more Iraqis were killed or found dead.

Wednesday's deaths included those of eight soccer players and fans cut down by a pair of mortar rounds that slammed onto a field in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, announced the deaths of a soldier and a Marine, raising the number of American forces killed this month in Iraq to 21 in the first eight days of November.

Read the rest of this post...

European press responds to US elections

"Democrat 'thumping' hastens exit of Rumsfeld."

In Le Monde, it's headlining the Senate victory, leading with Webb.

In Die Welt, it's Doppelte Niederlage für Bush (double defeat for Bush). Read the rest of this post...

More on Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan - it's an absolute mess

Just an ongoing, horrible tragedy. Talk about investigations that we can finally have. Read the rest of this post...