Polls showing a virtual tie

Kos makes a compelling case that Kerry and Bush are in a virtual tie. He notes that if you look at 6 different recent polls, either Kerry or Bush is ahead by a smidgen (and it looks as though Kerry has dropped slightly). We need to fight like hell folks, or we're going to get this ass again for another four years.

I will make one final note, however. The polls kept showing Gore behind by 4-6% up until election day, as I recall, and we all know that Gore won. I imagine turnout probably would have been better had the media not kept saying that Gore was a goner. So don't trust the polls 100%. Read the rest of this post...

Florida Republican Senate candidate Mel Martinez gay-baits opponent when Martinez has openly-gay senior staff

If there were ever a time for the openly-gay staffers on Mel Martinez' Senate campaign in Florida to resign, the time is now.

Kirk Fordham, a longtime openly-gay Republican Hill staffer (and former chief of staff to repeatedly-outed gay Republican congressman Mark Foley) is Martinez' chief of finance for the Florida Republican's Senate campaign. Martinez is running against Rep. Bill McCollum in the upcoming Republican primary.

According to today's St. Petersburg Times editorial, Martinez' campaign blasted McCollum in a press teleconference set up to - get this - show that McCollum is anti-family because he's too pro-gay. During the conference call, Martinez' representatives spoke of their disdain for the "gay agenda," and when the reporters asked a question about gays working for Martinez' campaign - bit of hypocrisy there, Mr. Martinez? - the Martinez reps turned around and said McCollum has a gay political consultant! Martinez' reps actually used the fact that McCollum allegedly has a gay campaign staffer to smear McCollum. This even though Martinez has an openly gay finance chair, and has used another gay political consultant in the past (who ironically was head of the Florida Christian Coalition).

The Times' editorial concluded:

...the disgraceful intolerance on display in this conference call arranged by the Martinez campaign sank to depths that hadn't been seen in this or any other recent statewide race. Former Republican U.S. Sen. Connie Mack reacted by saying Martinez "has forfeited his ability to attract mainstream Democrats and independents in November." Mack may well be right.

How can these people live with themselves? Read the rest of this post...

Being Ben Ginsberg

FORMER Bush campaign lawyer Ben Ginsberg was on Nightline last night. First off, he's a very angry man. Second, I just loved this quote from him on the show, which I've dissected a bit:

"My job as a lawyer is to be sure they're complying with the law. I'm not a political consultant, I don't do message, I don't do strategy. What I was convinced of was the sincerity and the honesty of those men who have now been libeled, and their speech threatened, because the Kerry campaign and the Democrats don't like it."

Right, he doesn't do message. Sounds like "message" to me. Not to mention, how is your former boss' threat to sue to get all 527s abolished NOT threatening the speech of your Not-So-Swift Boat friends?

"And frankly, I think it's shameful that decorated veterans who want to express their views in a campaign should be villified and smeared the way they have been..."

You're right Ben, it is a shame when your clients villify and smear decorated veterans.

One final point. Would it be a conflict of interest vis-a-vis both clients when Ginsberg acts as Bush's outside campaign lawyer, at a time when the campaign is advocating the abolition of 527s, at the same time that Ginsberg is actually advising a 527? It hardly seems in the best interest of your 527 client for you to be helping another client that's trying to abolish them. I'd be curious to find out if Ginsberg was involved at all with the Bush campaign's efforts to get rid of the 527s? Read the rest of this post...

Is it just me, or...

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Buy tix for Planned Parenthood star-studded show in NYC during GOP Convention

Yeah, so they gave me two free tix in exchange for promoting their event and they're one of my clients :-) Seriously, I attended a similar event that Planned Parenthood held in DC during the March for Women's Lives this past April, and it totally rocked. Was incredibly well-done, star-studded, lots and lots and lots of famous musicians and entertainers, and the pace of the show was fabulous - i.e., someone would sing 3 or 4 songs, then someone else would get up and sing 3 or 4 songs, on and on for a good couple of hours. It was A SHOW, not a boring political rally, not lots of silly speeches, but a real variety show. I highly recommend folks buy tix if you're in NYC this Monday. You can buy your tix via Ticketmaster here.

Among those stars confirmed:
Moby, Lewis Black, Lou Reed, Joan Osborne, Nellie McKay, Michael McKean, Annette O'Toole, Kathleen Turner, and Giancarlo Esposito. Read the rest of this post...

Rep. Mary Bono (R-CA) is skipping convention as gay marriage protest, among other reasons

Wow. Like I said, this is the 1992 convention all over again. The GOP has lost control of the spin totally.

The Desert Sun:

Rep. Mary Bono says she's skipping next week's Republican National Convention partly because the party has already committed to nominate incumbent President George W. Bush and because she disagrees with her party's stance on gay marriage.

"I've been to the last three conventions," said Bono, a Palm Springs Republican. "I felt in all honesty that I don't know how it benefits the district, how it benefits me and how it benefits the party. The outcome has already been decided."

Among the reasons she gave for staying home is her disagreement with the party's support of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Rep. Bono is the widow of Sonny Bono, and step-mom to Chastity, who is a lesbian. Read the rest of this post...

"His child is dead and the war needs to stop"

ABCNews:

Melida Arredondo said her husband, Carlos Arredondo, immediately fell apart when he saw three Marines approaching his home.

"My husband immediately knew that his firstborn son had been killed," Arredondo said on ABC News' Good Morning America.

The three Marines showed up at Arredondo's home to inform the family that Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo, 20, had died Tuesday in Najaf.

What happened next shocked the Marines and Arredondo's neighbors.

After getting the news, Carlos Arredondo walked into the garage, picked up a propane tank, a lighting device and a can of gasoline. He then proceeded to set the Marines' van ablaze while he was inside.

"I went to pieces and my husband, as you know, went to pieces and basically tried to accompany his son," Melida Arredondo, Alex's stepmother, said.

The Marines were eventually able to pull Carlos Arredondo from the burning vehicle. While they extinguished the flames that had engulfed him, the distraught father still suffered burns over as much as 50 percent of his body....

"This was his scream that his Chi-Chi — that's what he called Alex — this is his scream that his child is dead and the war needs to stop," she said.

Read the rest of this post...

NY judge declares partial-birth abortion ban unconstitutional

Ok, this is now GUARANTEED to be the GOP convention about social issues. There's no way around it. PBA is declared unconstitutional, by a NY judge, no less. Cheney comes out opposing the president on gay marriage. The GOP invites a guy to sing at the convention who thinks gays are trying to kill children. The platform is likely the most anti-gay in history, and calls for a constitutional amendment banning abortion. James Dobson and Pat Robertson are refusing to even attend the convention because they feel so spurned by Bush. Log Cabin calls the convention's claim of "compassion" as putting lipstick on a pig. And more.

It's beginning to feel a lot like 1992 over all again... :-) Read the rest of this post...

The Poor Get Poorer...

Bush's economic plan -- focus most tax cuts on the super rich, balloon the deficit and create huge new entitlement programs that line the coffers of big business rather than making health care truly more affordable -- continues to reap big dividends.

Yep, the new Census figures show 1.3 million more Americans living in poverty in 2003 and 1.4 million more Americans are uninsured. That's the third straight annual increase for both these categories, so if he's really lucky, Bush could go 4 for 4. Go Bush!

Hardest hit of all? Kids. Per the New York Times,

"Approximately 35.8 million people lived below the poverty line in 2003, or about 12.5 percent of the population, according to the bureau. That was up from 34.5 million, or 12.1 percent in 2002.

"The rise was more dramatic for children. There were 12.9 million living in poverty last year, or 17.6 percent of the under-18 population. That was an increase of about 800,000 from 2002, when 16.7 percent of all children were in poverty."
Read the rest of this post...

...And The Rich Go Shopping

Yes, while the poor and the lower middle class feel their pocket books shrinking, the rich are shopping away. Sales at high end stores are doing fine while stores catering to the unwashed (us, don't you know) are slumping.

Per the LA Times,

"On Wednesday, Williams-Sonoma Inc. reported a better-than-expected 55% jump in its fiscal second-quarter profit, fueled by sales of furniture and other household goods at its Pottery Barn chain.It was the latest sign that retailers marketing to higher-end consumers are prospering while major discount stores and mainstream apparel chains struggle. In recent weeks, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Gap Inc. have reported soft sales apparently because a sharp rise in gasoline prices squeezed lower-income Americans....

"But Coach Inc., which sells high-fashion handbags and accessories, reported a 113% jump in profit in its latest quarter while jeweler Tiffany & Co. reported an 11% increase in U.S. sales. Sales at Pottery Barn stores open at least a year climbed 10.2% in the second quarter. 'It appears that the higher-end retailers like Pottery Barn, Tiffany and Coach are all doing well,' Claire Gallacher, a retail analyst who noted that Pottery Barn targets consumers with a $75,000 annual income level and above. Added Kurt Barnard, head of Barnard's Retail Consulting Group: 'The upscale consumers can pay more for gas and not blink an eyelash.'"

And the poor people? Let them eat cake. Oh, wait. They can't afford cake.
Read the rest of this post...

Once again, Bush's problem is WHO FUNDS THE ADS rather than WHAT THEY SAY

Reuters:

"The president said he wanted to work together (with McCain) to pursue court action to shut down all the ads and activity by the shadowy ... groups," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One.

So the problem, to Bush, isn't that the ads run by the Not-So-Swift Boat Veterans are outright lies, but rather it's how the ads are funded - the content doesn't bother Bush a bit. (Not that he was ever a guy for substance.)

Someone needs to ask Bush if this means he'd have no problem with the Swift Boat ads if they were being paid for by his campaign. Read the rest of this post...

Why does the GOP hate NYC?

Finally someone went and found the old quotes from Republicans attacking NYC back in the early 90s whent the Dems announced they were holding their convention there. (I'd tried researching this weeks ago, to no avail - very hard to narrow down a search with good keywords about this). Anyway, Kos reports that Sirota reports all about the GOP dissing NYC then AND now.

Fun, fun, fun. Read the rest of this post...

GOP Convention entertainer: Gays trying to kill our children, gays can be cured, homosexuality is a curse, declares "war" on gays

"I’m not in the mood to play with those who are trying to kill our children." - Donnie McClurkin, GOP Convention entertainer speaking about gays.

Donnie McClurkin, one of the just-announced entertainers to be performing at the GOP Convention in NYC, thinks homosexuality is a "curse," that it's caused by men raping small children, that being gay is a choice, that it can be cured, and most explosively, that gays are trying to "kill our children." Big tent? Try big tent of hate.

One more thing before we get to the good stuff. The GOP Convention Web site notes that McClurkin "is spearheading a grassroots effort to bring about unity among churches throughout New York and New Jersey." What the GOP doesn't tell you is that, according to the 700 Club, he's spearheading the grassroots effort so that "Christians can have a major voice against the homosexual agenda."

From the 700 Club (this one is particularly bad - it sounds like he's planning to use his GOP convention appearance to help the war against the gays):

The recent limelight on the homosexual agenda has Donnie stirred. "The gloves are off," he says. "And if there’s going to be a war, there’s going to be a war. But it will be a war with a purpose." He is very concerned that the Christian community is not outraged at the recent homosexual high school in New York. "This is not a privately funded school. It is a public school funded by taxpayers' money. Why isn’t anyone else speaking out?" he asks. Donnie believes that it actually puts the children more at risk than if they were attending a regular high school. "Everyone knows that everyone at the high school is homosexual. That makes for an easy target."

His main purpose, though, is to help sexually confused children. "How do they know that they are homosexual?" asks Donnie. "If you ask them and go back far enough, it’s usually a pinpoint place." For the ones that want help, Donnie is there for them. There are young boys who weep at the altar. "They want help," says Donnie. "That’s what I’m there to do." The gay community is saying that Donnie is a threat and that he is trying to convert young children or control their minds. "I’m not in the mood to play with those who are trying to kill our children. Someone has to be the voice for them, and the children are only hearing one voice right now," he says.

Donnie believes this is the era for the mega-church. He says that if the churches can get together and unite, then Christians can have a major voice against the homosexual agenda. "There is not enough being said. Thank God for The 700 Club – no fanfare intended. There are no Christian programs telling the news like it is. It’s time for Christians to stand up and fight," he says.

It is Donnie’s hope that by 2004 he will be able to unite 100,000 Christians to affirm their faith and allegiance to Jesus Christ using Madison Square Gardens or the Nassau Coliseum.

From Keith Boykin:

What has made McClurkin a controversial figure is not his music, but his preaching. Last year, his book, Eternal Victim/Eternal Victor, explained his 20-year experience with homosexuality, which he said started after he was raped by an uncle.

"Love is pulling you one way and lust is pulling you another and your relationship with Jesus is tearing you," McClurkin told the media. He now "counsels adolescent boys that homosexuality is a choice they can overcome," according to the New York Times.

Interview with McClurkin from FamilyChristian.com:

What influenced me is seeing people, young people especially, who are being totally decimated in their sexuality. It's amazing how we turn a blind eye to the fact that our children are directly influenced by what they see and what society portrays as normal living. Homosexuality has really ravished (sic) our children. It started in my generation. I was touched by it and I struggled with it and all that for years and there was nobody to deal with it. I started dealing with it in my sermons and even when we do our concerts.

I hugged a young boy in Chicago a month and a half ago. I made an altar call for those that wanted to receive Jesus. One mother brought her son up on stage. [He was] 11 years old, most beautiful little boy you've ever seen. [They] stood there crying and she said, "He was raped two weeks ago." He broke loose from his mother, grabbed me by the waist and broke down crying. I have to do something and I can't care about [what] the gay community [thinks]. If they want to fight, fine, let's fight. Let's fight but know that I'm fighting to win. I don't care about their propaganda and their agenda. The bottom line, there's a whole slew of [people] out there that want to be delivered.

Interview with McClurkin from Charisma Magazine:

I was sexually abused and raped by this uncle, and it caused great hurt and confusion in my life for many years to follow... a seed had been planted--a seed of homosexuality that I would struggle with for many years to come. I was not born with these sexual tendencies. It wasn't chromosomal and had nothing to do with my DNA. These tendencies surfaced because a broken man thrust an 8-year-old boy into this whirlwind. Thus my first sexual relationship was with a man. Before I could ever know the purpose or pleasure of a woman, have my first date or even my first kiss, the wound was inflicted, and the seed was planted.... I was 13 when I was sexually molested again. This time it was by my uncle's son, Clarence Jr. If the seed of homosexual lust and desire was planted with my uncle, it was surely fertilized and deeply rooted with his son's sexual violation of me....

But it wasn't long before I discovered that there were many more in the church with these problems who wanted to be free but had to remain silent because this was a taboo issue. They came to church week after week, looking and yearning for deliverance from this desire. They, like myself, were thrust into this before they had a choice in the matter by someone who took advantage of them....

I discovered that there were vultures also in the church--predatory men who would soon attempt to take advantage of a broken boy and his confusion. My world of security was invaded when other broken men, in need of healing, revealed their secret lifestyles and introduced me to a deceptive underworld in the church....

They would pray with me, talk with me, and a few of them--Sister Kitty Braizley in particular--would even teach me how to carry myself like a man. When I wanted to sing soprano, they'd say things like, "Get some bass in your voice!" or, "Men don't sing soprano!" Sister Braizley even taught me how to walk. If I held my hand up in a feminine way, she'd hit it and say: "Put your hands at your side. Men don't hold their hands like that!"

...They were thrust into homosexuality by neglect, abuse and molestation....

....There are many more things that need to be done to break the curse of homosexuality.

Read the rest of this post...

ClearChannel promoting "Heterosexual Pride" parade

Yes, ClearChannel radio is promoting a Straight Pride parade in the wonderfully tolerant south. Isn't that cute? Wonder how they feel about White Pride? Perhaps it's time to file an FCC complaint against this station. Or at the very least, start calling their advetisers. I'd start with Kroger, Pantene, and Time Warner Cable who have ads on the station's Web site. Anyone want to volunteer to find contact info for those companies (I often check press releases on their Web sites, the media staff often puts their phone and email on the releases).

This is the man in charge of advertising - might want to let her know that you'll be calling their advertisers:
myronbethea@clearchannel.com

And this is the staff running the station:

You can email all of them at once here.

Or email them individually:
jonrobbins@clearchannel.com
rickSchmidt@clearchannel.com
Chase@clearchannel.com
gbinz@triangleradio.com

Station Main Phone: 919.878.1500 Read the rest of this post...

Naked Boys Singing!

That got your attention, didn't it? Everyone knows that when the GOP comes to NYC, they're gonna get access to a whole passel of Broadway shows. But the delicate sensibilities of the Republicans meant they had to give a family values check and eliminate any shows that might seem even remotely unseemly to anyone, anywhere. That meant cutting out lots of family favorite shows that play in the heartland like the Tony winner "Hairspray," Hugh Jackman's campy turn in "The Boy From Oz" and -- Broadway being Broadway -- many of the biggest draws in town. "Cats" is long gone, but they are free to check out the Bush-approved "The Lion King," "Aida" and two shows set in France (!) -- "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Phantom of the Opera."

So where are those naked boys and when will they start singing? It seems that one of the shows that WAS approved was the Off Broadway hit "Naked Boys Singing," which certainly would sound risque and perhaps gay-ish to anyone with half a brain. But the Republicans put it on their "approved" list. Obviously, they didn't realize the show had boys. And they were naked. And they were singing. Often about each other. (A rather amusing show, but the weakest number features two men having phone sex with each other while singing a plaintive love duet.) Needless to say, someone put two and two together and finally got four and the show has been dropped. But not to worry -- before it was removed from the site for convention goers, about a dozen people bought tickets. They know a good title when they see one. Enjoy!
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Trent Lott Is Right!

Hey, a broken clock has the correct time twice a day and Trent Lott is right about the government classifying way too many documents. He extolls the beauty of open government in this opinion column for the New York Times. As Lott reminds us, 9/11 chairman Thomas H. Kean said three-quarters of the classified material he reviewed should not have been classified in the first place.

This is a decades-long trend, but Clinton put guidelines into place that automatically declassified many documents after a certain amount of time in the belief that anything that could be made public should be made public. Bush has reversed that policy, seeming to practice the belief that anything that doesn't HAVE to be made public shouldn't be made public.

As Lott writes, "Secrecy has become so pervasive in the federal government that it's often unclear whether facts are classified for legitimate security reasons, or simply for the political protection of agencies and officials.... At its extreme, the culture of classification can impair the information-sharing among intelligence agencies necessary to ensure sound policymaking; it can also deprive the American people of their ability to judge the effectiveness of their government on national security matters."
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Blair to be impeached?

OK, it's a publicity stunt but I wish we could do the same in the US. The purpose of the UK action is to get Blair to defend his decision to invade Iraq. If Clinton could be impeached because of a blowjob, why not impeach Bush for taking us into war based on lies?

Eleven members of parliament (MPs), mainly Welsh and Scottish nationalists who opposed the war and two opposition Conservatives, want to use the dated practice to force Blair to defend himself at Westminster over his decision to go to war.

"For the prime minister to mislead Parliament and public and get away with it is simply not acceptable."

Thank goodness we have elections in November to voice our opinions.
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GOP dirty tricks try to stifle the vote

It's revolting that voter intimidation is still a problem in the US. Some people seem to think that democracy is only for select people.

In a new report, the NAACP and People for the American Way cite incidents from Florida to Detroit. NAACP Chairman Julian Bond said efforts at intimidation
and suppression, once a tool of Democrats in the Jim Crow South, "have increasingly become the province of the Republican Party" as it seeks to counter
the overwhelming advantage Democrats enjoy among black voters.

Among the incidents cited: A Republican state representative in Michigan
told the Detroit Free Press that the GOP will have "a tough time" if "we do not
suppress the Detroit vote." Detroit is 83 percent black.

In Jefferson County, Ky., the local GOP plans to send poll watchers to Democratic, predominantly black precincts to challenge voters' eligibility. A similar, 2002 plan provoked cries of voter intimidation after a recruitment filer became public. The flier asked for volunteers to protect Ernie Fletcher's gubernatorial campaign against potential fraud by "the black militant division of the AFL-CIO" and the NAACP.

In Maryland's 2002 gubernatorial election, anonymous fliers were distributed in black neighborhoods in Baltimore gave voters the wrong date for Election Day and told them to be sure to pay parking tickets, overdue rent and outstanding warrants.

Read the rest of this post...

US dead in Iraq now at 968

At least 25 Iraqis reported killed today in fighting around the Kufa mosque. The Iraqi death toll since the start of the US invasion is estimated to be between 11,690 - 13,695 though the US is not providing any numbers.
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Journalists rounded up at gunpoint in Iraq by police

What the hell is going on over there? Even Bush hasn't gone this far (yet) but his team in Iraq is falling apart quickly. If the media doesn't make a stink about this one (which was burried well inside another article) we're all in deep trouble.

Iraqi police angered by news coverage of the standoff around the Imam Ali Mosque rousted journalists from their hotel at gunpoint Wednesday night and took them to hear police chief al-Jazairi criticize their reporting.

About 50 journalists were taken to police headquarters, including representatives of CNN, the British Broadcasting Corporation, Agence France-Presse and several U.S. newspapers. Iraqi police officials have expressed anger that journalists pay too much attention to al-Sadr and not enough to the police.

When the journalists were returned to their hotel many found their rooms had been ransacked, and some reported small amounts of money missing.

Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi later sent a bus to the hotel to collect journalists so he could deliver an apology, but the journalists refused to go.

Read the rest of this post...