When Majorities Rule

Jesus' General gives us a little history lesson.


(Photo via LA Times)

The Only Piece On Lambo Cockrissian You Need To Read

Glitter Graphics



So.....

We were really gonna let this whole Lambo thing go. He lost, yet yll over the intertubes you can read and view statements of his coyness (is that word?) about his involvement in the acts of buttfuckery.

Yet, Richard at Gawker has summed up our feelings. So here it is:



You know what, Adam Lambert? Just can it with the coy shit. Everyone knows the American Idol second-placer is a big ol' homo from Fruitington Corners, but in every goddamn interview the lurching behemoth always says things like "keep speculating..." And I wish he'd just man up and step out.

Not that people should be forced to come out of the closet, but fool keeps calling himself a role model, and then won't acknowledge the fact that he's the gayest thing since Jody Watley got lost in the Tenderloin that one time. You can't really call yourself a role model, I don't think in this post-Prop 8 bullshit era of codified homophobia, while completely playing "tee heeeeee" with the press about something as fundamental and unchangeable as who you like to put your junk into. Is it anyone's business? Of course it's not. But would it be nice, just for fucking once, for a clearly gay, currently popular (and that's fleeting, Mary. Don't think it isn't. You're gonna be whistling the national anthem at state fairs come this time next year) to step up to the plate and say "You know what? Forget my own career, I'm gay. I'm well-liked (currently) and visible and I'm a proud gay American"? Yes that would be really nice. Because it would be honest and brave and true and exactly what (in some small part) the struggling gay youth of America needs. A person who everyone loved who also just happens to be gay.

So, Mr. Lambert, I know the coy shit is fun and cutesy and oohhh hoo hoo don't you chuckle to yourself between gulps, but it's all starting to come off a bit latent and scaredy-cat and lame. And the more you're teasing and "Maybe I'll come out in Rolling Stone, maybe I won't..." the more it becomes something that should be teased about, something that should be hinted and whispered. And it's not. It's a fact like any other fact. So please, either be honest and forthcoming about yourself, or just shut the hell up, make way for the real men, and stop calling yourself a role model. Because right now the only person you're a role model to is the kids who want to be what they want to be, but also don't want anyone to know about it. And that's sad.

Update! Yes, I know he's supposedly coming out on the cover of Rolling Stone next week. So, good for him! And good for Rolling Stone! How wonderfully this whole thing has been parlayed into a money-making endeavor. The gay community is so grateful to you, Adam.



Richard Lawson is our new hero.

via Gawker

Here Is Your President Obama

This is the guy you voted for.

Soak in it:


Amid mounting calls from think tanks, former military leaders, and current servicemembers to end the military's failed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy by executive order, White House Press Secretary said today that President Obama will not intervene.

Said Gibbs: "To get fundamental reform in this instance requires a legislative vehicle. The president made a promise to change this policy; he will work with the Joints Chiefs of Staff, the administration and with Congress to ensure that we have a policy that works for our national interests...There have been discussions about the best way to move forward, and the only sustainable way to do that is through -- sustainable and durable way -- is through legislation, which the president has promised and has continued to work for."

Yesterday, the Palm Center released the results of a study along with a blueprint that would allow the President to end the failed military gay ban via executive order. Lt. Dan Choi, a skilled Arabic linguist and the first gay soldier fired under Obama, published an open letter to the President and Congress pleading that the military not discharge him.


Change™.


via Towleroad

Everyone Throwing Michael Steele Under The Back Of The Bus

Jesus, this guy can't get a break.

The first black RNC chair is under fire by basically every white Republican in the country.

First, they didn't take kindly to his idea of talking to brown people. Then, they didn't like his use of the intertubes. Oh, and that skirmish he had with the bloated, over-medicated douche nozzle.

Now, he's really screwed he pooch by telling GQ, a magazine for closeted men, that abortion should be a decision left to Americans with lady parts:


How much of your pro-life stance, for you, is informed not just by your Catholic faith but by the fact that you were adopted?
Oh, a lot. Absolutely. I see the power of life in that—I mean, and the power of choice! The thing to keep in mind about it… Uh, you know, I think as a country we get off on these misguided conversations that throw around terms that really misrepresent truth.

Explain that.
The choice issue cuts two ways. You can choose life, or you can choose abortion. You know, my mother chose life. So, you know, I think the power of the argument of choice boils down to stating a case for one or the other.

Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion?
Yeah. I mean, again, I think that’s an individual choice.

You do?
Yeah. Absolutely.


Earlier in the article, while still stating he doesn't believe in marriage rights for sodomists, they're cool people and it's not their fault they'll spend an eternity in the Lake of Fire:

Let’s talk about gay marriage. What’s your position?
Well, my position is, hey, look, I have been, um, supportive of a lot of my friends who are gay in some of the core things that they believe are important to them. You know, the ability to be able to share in the information of your partner, to have the ability to—particularly in times of crisis—to manage their affairs and to help them through that as others—you know, as family members or others—would be able to do. I just draw the line at the gay marriage. And that’s not antigay, no. Heck no! It’s just that, you know, from my faith tradition and upbringing, I believe that marriage—that institution, the sanctity of it—is reserved for a man and a woman. That’s just my view. And I’m not gonna jump up and down and beat people upside the head about it, and tell gays that they’re wrong for wanting to aspire to that, and all of that craziness. That’s why I believe that the states should have an opportunity to address that issue.

So you think it’s a state issue?
Absolutely. Just as a general principle, I don’t like mucking around with the Constitution. I’m sorry, I just don’t. I think, you know, in a pluralistic, dynamic society as the one that we have, every five years you can have a constitutional convention about something, you know? I don’t think we should be, you know, dancing around and trying to amend it every time I’ve got a social issue or a political issue or a business issue that I want to get addressed. Having said that, I think that the states are the best laboratory, the best place for those decisions to be made, because they will then reflect the majority of the community in which the issue is raised. And that’s exactly what a republic is all about.

Do you think homosexuality is a choice?
Oh, no. I don’t think I’ve ever really subscribed to that view, that you can turn it on and off like a water tap. Um, you know, I think that there’s a whole lot that goes into the makeup of an individual that, uh, you just can’t simply say, oh, like, “Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being gay.” It’s like saying, “Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being black.”


As expected, the Klan didn't care for these remarks at all:

Steele drew fire from activists Thursday morning for his remarks.

"I think it is very troubling for a public figure, of either party, particularly one who presents himself as pro-life, to describe the abortion issue as being a matter of 'individual choice,'" That is language straight out of Planned Parenthood's messaging playbook," said Charmaine Yoest, the president and CEO of Americans United for Life Action, who said she hadn't heard from the RNC. "There are millions of pro-life Americans, Republican and Democrat, who are looking for leadership on the life issue and they will find Mr. Steele's comments disturbing and demoralizing."

Another anti-abortion activist and sharp critic of President Barack Obama on the subject, Jill Stanek, was even blunter.

"Michael Steele has just unmistakably proclaimed himself to be pro-choice," she said in an email. "You thought he was 'embattled' last week over his Limbaugh comment? Ha. He has now stepped both feet into it."


This forced Steele to backtrack:

I am pro-life, always have been, always will be.

I tried to present why I am pro life while recognizing that my mother had a "choice" before deciding to put me up for adoption. I thank her every day for supporting life. The strength of the pro life movement lies in choosing life and sharing the wisdom of that choice with those who face difficult circumstances. They did that for my mother and I am here today because they did. In my view Roe vs. Wade was wrongly decided and should be repealed. I realize that there are good people in our party who disagree with me on this issue.

But the Republican Party is and will continue to be the party of life. I support our platform and its call for a Human Life Amendment. It is important that we stand up for the defenseless and that we continue to work to change the hearts and minds of our fellow countrymen so that we can welcome all children and protect them under the law.


Now it's rumored that Katon Dawson, the elderly Grand Wizard who came in second to Steele, is organizing a no confidence vote for next week:

Republican insiders tell Political Wire that a no confidence vote on RNC Chairman Michael Steele is likely to be called after the NY-20 special election on March 31 -- regardless of whether Republicans win the seat or not.

Katon Dawson, who came in second in the January RNC vote, is said to be quietly organizing a vote and is getting the support of several state party chairmen who want to dump Steele.


This will probably work and brickbat will have no further interesting stories about the RNC chair because he will be replaced by a boring white guy.

Sigh.

While We Were Stuffing Our Faces...

Some bad shit happened:

Commandos who stormed the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-orthodox Jewish group found the bodies of five hostages inside, including a New York rabbi and his wife, officials said, as a fresh battle raged at the luxury Taj Mahal hotel and other Indian forces ended a siege at another five-star hotel.

More than 150 people have been killed since gunmen attacked 10 sites across India's financial capital starting Wednesday night, including at least 14 foreigners.

Early Friday night, Indian commandos emerged from a besieged Jewish center with rifles raised in an apparent sign of victory after a daylong siege that saw a team rappel from helicopters and a series of explosions and fire rock the building and blow giant holes in the wall.

Inside, though, were five dead hostages.


Now every news outlet is beating the story over heads 24/7, with interviews from Indian citizens, family of people who live in Mumbai, people who have been to Mumbai or seen it on a map, and people who really dig Indian cuisine.

Prop 8: NEVER FORGET

The backdraft continues...as it should:

Utah's growing tourism industry and the star-studded Sundance Film Festival are being targeted for a boycott by bloggers, gay rights activists and others seeking to punish the Mormon church for its aggressive promotion of California's ban on gay marriage.

It could be a heavy price to pay. Tourism brings in $6 billion a year to Utah, with world-class skiing, a spectacular red rock country and the film festival founded by Robert Redford, among other popular tourist draws.

..."At a fundamental level, the Utah Mormons crossed the line on this one," said gay rights activist John Aravosis, an influential blogger in Washington, D.C.

"They just took marriage away from 20,000 couples and made their children bastards," he said. "You don't do that and get away with it."

Today's Godtube Moment

A re-post, but a refresher on what Mormos believe.

Stunning.

Black Community Lynches Equality

Prop 2 here in Florida was going to pass no matter what.

However, new numbers in California show that Prop 8 passed with the aide of higher black turnout:

A few people seem to be interested in whether or not the black vote was decisive.

If the following standard analysis assumptions are true the answer is probably a very close ‘no’, but at least one of the assumptions seems very possibly false and with other fairly likely assumptions the answer looks like a ‘yes’.

My assumptions are:

1. that the vote among black people was as reported (69% Yes on 8).

2. that black people make up 6.7% of the CA population

3. that black people represented a share of the votes equal to their share of the population

I further assume that 8 passes with 52% which seems the likely number at this point.

Given each 1000 voters, black people in CA represent 67 of them.

There are 520 Yes votes and 480 No votes for each 1000.

At 69%, Black voters voted 46 Yes and 21 No for each 1000.

If they voted like White voters (55% No) they would have voted 31 Yes votes and 36 No votes.

That would make the final tally 505 Yes and 495 No votes. (50.5% to 49.5%). [numbers very slightly rounded]

But this analysis is VERY sensitive to assumption #3. It appears that black people in CA may have voted in a greater share than that of their representation of the population. Right around 10% of the vote.

That would mean that given each 1000 voters black people in CA represent 100 of them.

At 69% Yes on 8 that would be 69 Yes and 31 No for each 1000. If they had voted like White voters they would have voted 45 Yes and 55 No. That would make the final vote equal 496 Yes and 504 No (proposition loses 49.6% to 50.4%).

Interestingly, at the 10% vote share level, if a small majority of black people voted against the measure it would have lost (49% Yes, 51% No gives the measure a loss at 49.9%).

Basically, if the black voter share is 10% or higher, the black vote difference from the white vote made the difference so long as the final total is at or below 52%. And if the black voter share is any higher than 10%, it made the difference even if black voters had only split 50-50 instead of the 45-55 shown in white voters.

In Non-Election News...

Build your own Blingee



The Jonas Brothers are making their first movie about a farting dog.

That Fuckin' Redneck Has Stuff To Say

Alaska's favorite enemy combatant domestic hostage first son-in-law strung a few words together for the liberal media:

Levi Johnston, who's having a baby with Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter, can't believe all the things he's hearing.

No, he wasn't held against his will on the campaign trail. No, he's not being forced into a shotgun wedding with 17-year-old Bristol Palin.

"None of that's true," Johnston, 18, said in a rare interview with The Associated Press. "We both love each other. We both want to marry each other. And that's what we are going to do."

...The soft-spoken teenager discussed his relationship with Palin and how life has changed with fatherhood fast approaching. He agreed to talk despite the presidential campaign's advice in the days following Gov. Sarah Palin's nomination to avoid the media.

"They're not telling me anything right now," Johnston said as he checked his Blackberry. "It's pretty chill."

Not surprisingly, Johnston was a little shocked when he learned about Bristol's pregnancy, but he says he quickly embraced the prospects of fatherhood. The baby is due Dec. 18. Johnston has dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician.

...Johnston hinted he's expecting a boy, but he declined to discuss baby names.

"I'm looking forward to having him," he said. "I'm going to take him hunting and fishing. He'll be everywhere with me."

Johnston, a Wasilla heartthrob, said he wanted to set the record straight.

For starters, he said his much-maligned MySpace page was a joke _ the one that claimed he said: "I'm a ... redneck," and "I don't want kids." Johnston said his friends created the page a few years ago and he had nothing to do with it.

Johnston said he has dated Palin since his freshman year in high school.

"We were planning on getting married a long time ago with or without the kid," he said. "That was the plan from the start."

...The young man said he wasn't an expert on politics by any stretch. Asked about Barack Obama, he replied: "I don't know anything about him. He seems like a good guy. I like him."

Johnston didn't register in time to vote, according to the Mat-Su Division of Elections Office in Wasilla. But he's still rooting for John McCain and Sarah Palin.

"I just hope she wins," he said. "She's my future mother-in-law. She better win."

10 Years

Where are we?

A decade after such a brutal attack, 3 states embrace marriage and a gay 13yo can be gunned down in broad daylight while sitting in class.

Judy Shepard reflects:

Great advances have been made in changing people’s attitudes and eliminating ignorance about the gay community even in my wonderful state of Wyoming. At least I thought so, until I read the readers’ comments following an article about the ten year observance of Matt’s death in the Cheyenne, Wyoming newspaper.

I understand that the readers who take the time to write in are doing so because they absolutely disagree with the article and those who do agree won’t bother to write comments. However, it brought home to me how much work is left to do to make the world an accepting place. The level of ignorance is astounding. The continuing belief that what happened to Matt was not a hate crime and the notion that ‘special people shouldn’t have special rights’, is beyond my comprehension. The level of ‘hate’ is frightening.

World Still Proves To Be A Sad Dark Place

This account via PeterPan:

Sometimes opponents of same-sex marriage will argue that we don't need legal marriage if we can get all the same things from domestic partnership, or power-of-attorney paperwork. But it is not the same thing, as these true stories tragically illustrate:

...Just ask Bill Flanigan. Bill’s partner of five years, Robert Daniel, was admitted in critical condition to a Baltimore shock trauma center because of complications arising from AIDS. The two were on a family trip from California on their way to visit Bill’s sister in the Washington, D.C. area. Bill followed Robert’s ambulance to the hospital and rushed into the critical care unit. When he arrived, he asked to see Robert and confer with his doctors. Staff members shut him out. They said that only family could visit, and Bill didn’t count.

But, Bill insisted, what about my durable power of attorney for health care decisions? What about the fact that we are registered as domestic partners? (Bill and Robert carried around with them all the legal documentation they could to make sure their relationship would be respected.) The staff paid these things no mind. They let other patients’ family members in and out of critical care throughout the night, while Bill waited. He was never permitted to make the physicians aware of Robert’s wishes not to have life-prolonging treatment, and he was kept from Robert’s side. The nightmare the couple had tried to make sure would never happen came to pass.

Bill was allowed to see Robert only after Robert’s sister and mother arrived, hours later. By that time, Robert was unconscious, his eyes taped shut and a breathing tube – something Robert specifically did not want – down his throat. Robert died a few days later, without the two men ever having a chance to say goodbye.

UpWord via PP

WTF, Sara?

Ugh.

Atleast we were ahead of the game.

The World Is A Sad Dark Place

Glitter Graphics




The Rockey Mountain News hit a new media low. One of their asshat reporters live-blogged a 3yo's funeral, who was killed at an ice cream store:

rabbi calls end to ceremony 10:28 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

rabbi chanting final prayer in hebrew 10:27 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

earth being placed on coffin. 10:22 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

rabbi recites the main hebrew prayer of death 10:20 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

rabbi zucker praying 10:18 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

coffin lowered into ground 10:18 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

people gathering at graveside 10:14 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

procession begins 10:01 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

cars queueing up to follow hearse 09:59 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

pallbearers carry out coffin followed by mourners. 09:48 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

people again are sobbing. rabbi again asks god to give marten everlasting life. 09:46 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

video shows marten blowing out candles on birthday cake, marten with dog. last images are of headlines. 09:44 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

video of marten is projected on screen. 09:32 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

rabbi says marten is close to god now. 09:31 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

rabbi says marten loved to be tickled. calls the death a nightmare. no words can sooth us, he says. 09:28 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

family member says marten is with grandmother who died last year. ' marten we loved you,' he says. People sobbing. 09:22 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

family member remembers marten. 09:20 AM September 10, 2008 from txt
rabbi says we will always remember marten and he will live in our memory. 09:18 AM

September 10, 2008 from txt

rabbi recites 23rd psalm. 09:16 AM September 10, 2008 from txt

Oh yeh, forgot to tell you that he did it on Twitter.

Douche.

Low

The GOP knows their base and had 9udy 11uliani direct and produce this sadistic film about 9/11 before WALNUTS! spoke so delegates would have something to jack off to.....besides hidden toilet-cam footage of young interns.

Mitcham Doesn't Make The Cut

Australia's first openly gay olympian missed the finals:

Gay Australian diver Matthew Mitcham failed to make the finals of the men’s 3m springboard competition at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday.

Mitcham finished 16th out of the 18 divers in the semi-final, with only the top 12 divers going through to the final round.

His teammate Robert Newbery made the final round with an 11th place finish in the preliminaries.
Mitcham still has a chance at a diving medal on Friday in his strongest event, the men’s 10m platform. The preliminary rounds will be held on Friday night.

Matthew's site here.

The Iraq War Is Soooooo 2003

Finally. Something besides lameass stories about Baby Jeebus Christian/Mooslim/Space Christian Electoral SMACKDOWN 2008™ or how things are exploding wherever brown people live.

The Russians decided to liven up a slow news week bombing the shit out of Georgia:

The Russian military advanced into Georgia on two fronts Monday, heading towards cities outside the breakaway provinces that have been the centers of fighting.

From the flashpoint South Ossetia, the Russian military moved south towards the central Georgia city of Gori, Georgia said. Russia said its troops were on the outskirts of the city.

...Russian troops were also in Senaki, in western Georgia, having advanced from Abkhazia, Russian and Georgian officials said.

Russia's Interfax news agency cited an official with the Russian Defense Ministry saying troops were in Senaki to "prevent attacks by Georgian military units against South Ossetia." Senaki is home to a Georgian military base.

Meanwhile, the 2008 candidates had stuff to say.

John McCain released a really long boring geography lesson while gumming apple sauce:

"Georgia is an ancient country, at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and one of the world's first nations to adopt Christianity as an official religion. After a brief period of independence following the Russian revolution, the Red Army forced Georgia to join the Soviet Union in 1922. As the Soviet Union crumbled at the end of the Cold War, Georgia regained its independence in 1991, but its early years were marked by instability, corruption, and economic crises.

Barack said stuff too while on vacation; in between windsurfing and hating America.

Huffington Post Needs A Blogenema

Out of all the internets, HuffPo has really outdone themselves on Millbabypalooza. Take this for example, entitled The Anatomy Of The Edwards Affair:

...By then, the peculiarities of his relationship with Hunter had been much discussed. While mainstream press attention was scant, the National Enquirer and a select number of online sites - most prominently Mickey Kaus at Slate - had been poring over the issue for months.

The Huffington Post had too. Back in September 2007, we reported that the videos, which Hunter had been paid to produce for Edwards' One America Committee, had gone mysteriously missing.

...In a follow up story, the Huffington Post unearthed Hunter's website - erased from the web shortly after Edwards launched his presidential campaign - in which it was revealed that she had never made films before.

See? The big bad MSM was ignoring the affair while shining beacons of journalism like HuffPo and the National Inquirer were all over it.

Now that everyone knows about the millbaby, it's time to place blame. And who has been the frequent target over at HuffPo? Elizabeth Edwards. The lady with tata cancers who was cheated on by her lying homosexual husband.

Let's explore HP's douchiest blogs about the Mrs. Edwards.

From Lee Stranahan:

"You do it yourself, that's what really hurts..." - Radiohead, Just

As I write this, we're just a couple of hours into the official mainstream media phase of the John Edwards scandal and I'm already surprised. Something has happened that I didn't anticipate.

I've lost respect for Elizabeth Edwards.

As I've said previously, I admired both of the Edwards prior to this. Like most people I especially liked and admired Elizabeth Edwards. Even when I believed that Edwards was hiding something, I assumed Elizabeth was a victim. Now, that's changed.

...I am fully convinced that if there was just a short affair with Rielle Hunter in 2006, John Edwards could have run for President eventually. Just not in 2008. Elizabeth Edwards shouldn't have supported his bid for the White House and she especially shouldn't have helped him promote the story about what a great husband he was.

Very edgy, Lee, using Radiohead lyrics and all.

Here's another one from Bonnie Fuller:

The bigger question is "why did Elizabeth Edwards drink her husband's Kool-Aid? How could she have possibly believed that her husbands affair would remain a private matter when he was running for President of the United States? Hello, the National Enquirer had already broken the story last fall. Why in fact, did she knowingly encourage her spouse to even enter the campaign when she had been fully informed about the affair for over a year? And she helped support and propagate John Edwards' image as a devoted husband and family man.

...No, Elizabeth Edwards had to be in some extraordinary form of denial and that's why she became her husband's "ambition enabler", when she supported his recent run for the presidency. My belief is that after almost thirty years of marriage she too had become so invested in his political ambitions, his cause, that she couldn't give up either, even after he cheated and she knew there was a chance his affair could be reported in the mainstream press.

Now, here's what Elizabeth herself has to say:

Our family has been through a lot. Some caused by nature, some caused by human weakness, and some – most recently – caused by the desire for sensationalism and profit without any regard for the human consequences. None of these has been easy. But we have stood with one another through them all. Although John believes he should stand alone and take the consequences of his action now, when the door closes behind him, he has his family waiting for him.

...John has spoken in a long on-camera interview I hope you watch. Admitting one’s mistakes is a hard thing for anyone to do, and I am proud of the courage John showed by his honesty in the face of shame. The toll on our family of news helicopters over our house and reporters in our driveway is yet unknown. But now the truth is out, and the repair work that began in 2006 will continue. I ask that the public, who expressed concern about the harm John’s conduct has done to us, think also about the real harm that the present voyeurism does and give me and my family the privacy we need at this time.

In summary, Lee Stranahan, Bonnie Fuller, and alot of eds over at HuffPo are giant stinking douchebags and let's try to concentrate on the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.....plus the looming WW3 against Russia, led by the newly elected Generalissimo el Presidente John McCunt.

He Did It

But says he isn't the father of the child:

John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.

More PhotosIn an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.

Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.

This from Ben Smith:

Imagine...

If John Edwards were the nominee today.

Larry Craig Refuses To Give Us Fodder

The Idaho Bathroom Goblin will not attend the GOP convention, thus preventing us from making cheap jokes about the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Thanks alot.