Final Saturday Male Beauty

My Thoughts on the Gibson - Palin Interview

I have not commented directly on the interview of Sarah Palin by Charlie Gibson although I have quoted some of Palin's moronic answers to question posed by Gibson. A reader posed the following question to me:

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I am surprised that you haven't commented on the interview ABC/Charlie Gibson did on Gov. Palin. I thought he treated her with total disrespect. I am no fan of her politics but he was so condescending it was hard to stomach. Republican nor Democrat should be treated like that. There are 1500 emailed comments on the ABC site for Charlie. They lambasted him. I have always liked Charlie but he did himself in. This is going to backfire bigtime. Just wanted to get your thoughts.

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I have not read the entire transcript, but from what I have read, personally, I think it was fair and I am glad that Charlie Gibson was tough on Sarah Palin. My big fear was that he'd be pathetic and have the interview turn into a puff piece favoring Palin. This woman could end up a heartbeat away from the presidency and if she can't take some tough treatment, then she'd best drop off of the GOP ticket. As for the "1500 comments," having tracked the way the Christian Right organizations work, I strongly suspect that a campaign was mounted to go after Gibson for not kissing Palin's ass and giving her an easy pass. The Christianists see in Palin a religious fanatic as nutty as themselves and I assure you that they will lash out at anyone who doesn't fawn all over her.

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As for disrespect, by selecting Ms. Palin, John McCain showed incredible disrespect for every thinking American and smart intelligent women in particular. I am not anti-woman and I have two highly intelligent and talented daughters - the younger has activist tendencies (can't image where she got that from) - who are everything Sarah Palin is not. Frankly, with NO political experience either one of them would have been a more competent selection than Sarah Palin. At least they are not crazy and they follow world events and politics outside of their home state. Ms. Palin has shown herself to be a near pathological liar and the woman needs to be exposed as such as well as a religious fruitcake. I would also add that given Palin's anti-gay views, her selection was nothing less than an irreparable insult to LGBT Americans on the part of every member of the GOP.

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P.S. Even Mary Matalin said of Gibson, “He did as good a job as anyone in that situation could do.”

Palin To Rape Victims: Bring Your Checkbook

While the storyline is that John McCain selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to appeal to women voters, I continue to be dumbfounded by Palin's anti-women agenda both while mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, and now on the campaign trail where she doesn't support equal pay for equal labor. Other than Christianist women who want to remain bare foot and pregnant and in the home, I do not see what Ms. Palin has to offer women voters other than her gender. Does McCain really think women are that stupid? Apparently so. Of all the things that have come out about Palin one of the cruelest is the fact that under her watch Wasilla was the ONLY jurisdiction in Alaska to charge rape victims for rape kits which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece. Imagine. You've been raped, Mayor Sarah wants your to have to pay for the rape kit, and then, if given her way, you'd be forced to carry your rapist's child since all abortions would be illegal. Here are highlights from Huffington Post:

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So, for four years - from 1996, when Palin took office to 2000 when this law was passed - Palin didn't seem to have a problem with charging rape victims to solve their own crime. And if she did, she certainly didn't communicate that to her hand-picked Police Chief, who didn't have a problem with it. I guess that's one way to be a "Maverick."

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As much as this seems like a post about Sarah Palin, it's really not. It's about John McCain. What I want to know is at what point in the vetting process, after going through Mayoral records, did the McCain campaign learn that Palin condoned the charging of rape victims the cost of processing rape kits? And after they found out, before he selected her, did he discuss the matter in the extensive discussions he had with Palin about her record and her views?

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Oh wait, that's right he didn't do any of this, because he made his decision after a short phone call. And now he has, on his ticket, someone who didn't seem to think that charging rape victims for forensics processing in their rape cases was all that big of a problem. Or, at least it wasn't a big enough problem to use her "responsibility" to change the policy.

More Saturday Male Beauty

Gospel Singer Shares Coming Out Journey

Yesterday's Washington Blade carried a story about gospel singer, Ray Boltz's coming out saga. There are many things that Boltz relates - he was married 33 years and has four children - with which I identify very strongly based on my own experience. Living a lie and trying to be straight ultimately becomes so exhausting. Like me, Boltz finally reached a point where he simply could not go on denying who he was and had to face up to it. I hope he finds the peace and self-acceptance I have found after so many years of unhappiness.

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Not surprisingly, there are a few nasty comments posted on the article by wingnut "Christians" who are so terribly threatened by the fact that just maybe the Bible doesn't have all the facts correct when it comes to sexual orientation or other issues. To me, those who fear homosexuality have a weak, simplistic faith that is all too easily threatened by anything less than a literal reading of 2000+ year old writings written by scientifically ignorant, tribal authors. I applaud Boltz's courage for finally admitting who he is. Here are some story highlights (I recommend a full read of the article):

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Ray Boltz was tired of living a lie. He’d gotten to a point nearly three years before where he couldn’t continue down the road his life had gone. His 33-year marriage to ex-wife Carol was, he says, largely a happy one. It produced four children — three daughters and a son who are now between 22 and 32 — but family life and going through the motions of being straight had grown so wearying to Boltz, he was in a serious depression, had been in therapy for years, was on Prozac and other anti-depressants and had been, for a time, suicidal.

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Continuing to pretend, Boltz says, was no longer an option. “I’d denied it ever since I was a kid. I became a Christian, I thought that was the way to deal with this and I prayed hard and tried for 30-some years and then at the end, I was just going, ‘I’m still gay. I know I am.’ And I just got to the place where I couldn’t take it anymore … when I was going through all this darkness, I thought, ‘Just end this.’”

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“You get to be 50-some years old and you go, ‘This isn’t changing.’ I still feel the same way. I am the same way. I just can’t do it anymore.’”There was some exploration of “ex-gay” therapy though Boltz never attended an “ex-gay” camp or formal seminar.“I basically lived an ‘ex-gay’ life — I read every book, I read all the scriptures they use, I did everything to try and change.”

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His physical relationship with his wife hadn’t been torturous. He says it helped that he felt genuine affection for her, if not sexual desire.“Sex was based on the fact that we loved each other and I wanted to make her happy,” he says. “I had sexual drives as well. You know, it’s like I never had to talk myself into having a relationship with her or that I was going, ‘Oh God, here we’re going to bed again’ — it wasn’t that. I loved her and we had a very full life; it’s just that inside, deep inside, it really wasn’t who I was.” Aside from sex, Boltz says this eventually took a toll on the couple’s intimacy.

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His faith was in transition — tenants he’d adhered to all his life suddenly were up for reconsideration, but there was a peace he hadn’t felt before.“I had a lot of questions [about faith], but at the bottom of everything was a feeling that I didn’t hate myself anymore, so in that sense I felt closer to God."

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He doesn’t want to get into debates about scripture and has no plans to “go into First Baptist or an Assembly of God church and run in there and say, ‘I’m gay and you need to love me anyway.’”For him, the decision to come out is much more personal.“This is what it really comes down to,” he says. “If this is the way God made me, then this is the way I’m going to live. It’s not like God made me this way and he’ll send me to hell if I am who he created me to be … I really feel closer to God because I no longer hate myself.””

Sarah Palin’s Worldview

With each passing day it should become increasingly obvious that the selection of Sarah Palin as John McSenile's running mate is an insult to every American other than perhaps the deranged elements of the Christian Right who are not, in my opinion, "dealing with a full deck" in any event and who always put religious fanaticism ahead of logic, reason and competence. As I have mentioned before, I have real suspicions whether or not Palin was foisted on McCain by the far right elements in the GOP such as James Dobson and other Christianists. If such is the case, McCain's knuckling under shows he is too senile to be president. Today's New York Times in its main editorial raises similar concerns which ought to demonstrate that by picking Palin, John McCain has confirmed that he is not fit to be president. Here are some editorial highlights:
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As we watched Sarah Palin on TV the last couple of days, we kept wondering what on earth John McCain was thinking. If he seriously thought this first-term governor — with less than two years in office — was qualified to be president, if necessary, at such a dangerous time, it raises profound questions about his judgment. If the choice was, as we suspect, a tactical move, then it was shockingly irresponsible.

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The idea that Americans want leaders who have none of those things — who are so blindly certain of what Ms. Palin calls “the mission” that they won’t even pause for reflection — shows a contempt for voters and raises frightening questions about how Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin plan to run this country.

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One of the many bizarre moments in the questioning by ABC News’s Charles Gibson was when Ms. Palin, the governor of Alaska, excused her lack of international experience by sneering that Americans don’t want “somebody’s big fat résumé maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment where, yes, they’ve had opportunities to meet heads of state.”

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But that is not what troubled us most about her remarks — and, remember, if they were scripted, that just means that they reflect Mr. McCain’s views all the more closely. Rather, it was the sense that thoughtfulness, knowledge and experience are handicaps for a president in a world populated by Al Qaeda terrorists, a rising China, epidemics of AIDS, poverty and fratricidal war in the developing world and deep economic distress at home.

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This nation has suffered through eight years of an ill-prepared and unblinkingly obstinate president. One who didn’t pause to think before he started a disastrous war of choice in Iraq. One who blithely looked the other way as the Taliban and Al Qaeda regrouped in Afghanistan. One who obstinately cut taxes and undercut all efforts at regulation, unleashing today’s profound economic crisis. In a dangerous world, Americans need a president who knows that real strength requires serious thought and preparation.

Saturday Male Beauty

Saturday Morning Reflections

The past week was insane at the office, especially when a defective Windows download crashed my office computer network, basically leaving the firm dead in the water for most of Thursday. To add to the mix, my roommate advised me that he has decided to get out of the Navy early, so I will be going through the routine of finding a new roommate who is both responsible and compatible. So far the weekend is making up for it all. Last night the boyfriend and I spent a relaxing evening at his beautiful home over dinner and then watching a video. He continues to amaze me with his gentleness, sensitivity and beautiful heart. He truly is a sweetheart and I consider myself so very, very lucky to have found him. I am savoring getting to know him on a deeper and deeper basis. At times I still feel he's almost too good to be true and hope that our relationship becomes even deeper and enduring.

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Tonight we have a fundraiser to attend featuring Leslie Jordan who has starred in Sordid Lives and appeared on Will & Grace. His show is called My Trip Down the Pink Carpet and is reportedly hysterically funny. We will be going to a post-show event where we hopefully will get to meet Jordan as well. Tomorrow will likely be the last of the Sunday afternoon pool parties at the home of some friends in Virginia Beach.

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On a sad note, I have been watching the news coverage of the devastation in the Galveston-Houston area where I lived during my days as in-house counsel to Union Texas Petroleum, an independent international oil company. I was particularly saddened to see that Brennan's of Houston, Brennan's was totally destroyed by a fire. Brennan's was a favorite spot to take visiting out of town guests for the fabulous brunch that was one of its trademark offerings. It was among the first places my oldest daughter went out as a baby (a photo of the patio balcony - one of a number of elegant rooms - where we often sat is set out below). The restaurant also was the location of a scene in the movie Terms of Endearment. I suspect it will be one of many old haunts that will have been destroyed or severely damaged by Hurricane Ike. Here are some highlights from the Houston Chronicle:

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Brennan's Restaurant, a Midtown institution famous for its turtle soup and bananas foster and a time-honored eatery among local society, was ruined by the blaze. A 45-year-old man and his 4-year-old daughter, along with a third man who was not related to them, were taking refuge from the storm inside the brick structure. . . . Reached on his cellular phone, Alex Brennan-Martin, Brennan's co-owner and part of a family of famed New Orleans restaurateurs, declined to comment, apparently too emotional to speak.

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In 2005, Houston Chronicle restaurant reviewer Alison Cook included a personal note that rang true with many who grew up with Brennan's as a touchstone for a fancy night out. "I have a long and mostly happy history with this restaurant, which opened in the former Junior League building in 1967," Cook wrote. "Through my post-college jobs, Brennan's was a place where I got comfortable with fine dining, where I discovered the joys of Meursault wines, learned to eat grillade and grits, and decided that 'brunch' was a word to be welcomed instead of feared.

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Brennan's traces its history to a New Orleans restaurant of the same name opened in 1946 by Owen Edward Brennan. The son of a local shipyard worker, Brennan had already staked a claim on the local landscape when he acquired the Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street three years earlier. The Absinthe House was built in 1798 and was known to be pirate Jean Lafitte's secret hangout, and after buying it, Brennan staged lifelike mannequins of the notorious Lafitte and Andrew Jackson in what he called the "Secret Room" — the room in which a pact was supposedly made to assist in New Orleans' defense against the British at the Battle of New Orleans.

More Friday Male Beauty

Hurricane Ike Takes Aim at Houston

The AP and Virginian Pilot are reporting that Hurricane Ike may score a near direct hit on Galveston and Houston. I lived in Houston years ago and am familiar with Houston as well as Galveston - I have swam in the Gulf of Mexico and sunned on the beach beneath the seawall - which is protected by a 17 foot seawall (the photo at left shows spray from waves crashing against the seawall) which could be overwhelmed by a possible 20 foot storm surge. My thoughts and prayers go out to those in the path of the storm. As best I can determine, my Houston based clients and friends have joined the 1 million people who have evacuated. If the storm goes up the Houston ship channel, downtown Houston could flood and major damage occur to the oil refineries on the east side of the city. Here are some highlights:

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GALVESTON, Texas (AP) -- A massive Hurricane Ike sent white waves crashing over a seawall and tossed a disabled 584-foot freighter in rough water as it steamed toward Texas Friday, threatening to devastate coastal towns and batter America's fourth-largest city.

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Ike's eye was forecast to strike somewhere near Galveston late Friday or early Saturday then head inland for Houston, but the massive system was already buffeting Texas and Louisiana, causing flooding along the Louisiana coast still recovering from Labor Day's Hurricane Gustav.

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The National Weather Service warned residents of smaller structures on Galveston they could "face certain death" if they ignored an order to evacuate; most had complied, along with hundreds of thousands of fellow Texans in counties up and down the coastline. But in a move designed to avoid highway gridlock as the storm closed in, most of Houston's 2 million residents hunkered down and were ordered not to leave.

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White waves as tall as 15 feet were already crashing over Galveston's seawall. It was enough to scare away Tony Munoz and his wife, Jennifer, who went down to the water to take pictures, then decided that riding out the storm wasn't a good idea after all.

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Ike would be the first major hurricane to hit a U.S. metropolitan area since Katrina devastated New Orleans three years ago. For Houston - a city filled with gleaming skyscrapers, the nation's biggest refinery and NASA's Johnson Space Center - it would be the first major hurricane since Alicia in August 1983 came ashore on Galveston Island, killing 21 people and causing $2 billion in damage.

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Galveston, a barrier island and beach town about 10 feet above sea level and 50 miles southeast of downtown Houston, was the scene of the nation's deadliest hurricane, the great storm of 1900 that left at least 6,000 dead. But that also was before officials had the ability to warn residents that a hurricane was coming, and before the seawall was built to protect the community.

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If the storm stays on its projected path, it could head up the Houston ship channel and through Galveston Bay, which Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called a nightmare scenario. . . . The oil and gas industry was closely watching the storm because it was headed straight for the nation's biggest complex of refineries and petrochemical plants. The upper Texas coast accounts for one-fifth of U.S. refining capacity, and many platforms were shut down. Wholesale gasoline prices jumped to around $4.85 a gallon for fear of vast shortages.

GOP Tries to Down Play Palin Anti-Gay Book Ban Issue

As 365gay.com is reporting the Republicans are attempting to down play Sarah Palin's set to with the staff at the Wasilla Public Library. Although it is not clear, one of the books that may have been in controversy was a book by Rev. Howard Bess, a liberal Christian preacher in the nearby town of Palmer entitled "Pastor, I Am Gay." Try as the GOP might to back peddle, it clearly looks like Palin was up to something. Her pastor is clearly an anti-gay whack job. In my view, Palin personifies the danger of Christianists in public office since they seem incapable of not trying to inflict their religious views on everyone. Freedom of religion is a one way street to them. Perhaps Palin needs to move to Iran and join with the mullahs in censoring books. Here are some highlights from 365gay.com:

Shortly after taking office in 1996 as mayor of Wasilla, a city of about 7,000 people, Palin asked the city’s head librarian about banning books. Later, the librarian was notified by Palin that she was being fired, although Palin backed off under pressure.

Palin notified Emmons she would be fired in January 1997 because the mayor didn’t feel she had the librarian’s “full support.” Emmons was reinstated the next day after public outcry, according to newspaper reports at the time. The Rev. Howard Bess, a liberal Christian preacher in the nearby town of Palmer, said the church Palin and her family attended until 2002, the Wasilla Assembly of God, was pushing to remove his book from local bookstores. Emmons told him that year that several copies of “Pastor I Am Gay” had disappeared from the library shelves, Bess said.

“Mayor Palin gave us some terrible moments and some rather gut-wrenching moments, particularly when Mary Ellen said she was going to have to leave,” said Cathy Petrie, who managed the children’s collection at the time. . . According to the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman newspaper, Emmons did not mince words when Palin asked her “how I would deal with her saying a book can’t be in the library” on Oct. 28, 1996, in a week when the mayor had asked department heads for letters of resignation.

Jim Rettig, who heads the American Library Association based in Richmond, Va., suggested that lingering quarrel raises issues that are still relevant as librarians prepare to celebrate Banned Books Week later this month. “Librarians are very committed to the principles of the First Amendment of the Constitution and that means we don’t allow one individual or a group of people to dictate what people can or cannot read,” he said.

As for Palin's probably views on gays, one need look no farther than her pastor who is on the record as maintaining that gays want the laws changed to "justify their sickness" and supporting Daddy Dobson's bogus "pray away the gay" Love Wins Out program. Here are some highlights from PageOne Q:

ABC’s Brian Ross investigated a controversy surrounding Sarah Palin asking about books being removed from the Wasilla library. Rev. Howard Bess a pastor at a local church. Hess said, “She wasn’t just using the religious right to get elected. She was one of them.” Ross’ investigation uncovered video of a recent sermon at the church Palin attended in Wasilla. The current pastor said, “Everybody in the world has a guilty conscience. That’s why homosexuals want laws of the land to justify their sickness. They have a guilty conscience.”

Friday Morning Male Beauty

Blizzard of Lies

In his column today Paul Krugman looks at the almost unbelievable level of lying coming from the McCain/Palin campaign. One would think that after the disasters the Chimperator has brought upon the USA through all of his lies and half-truths the American public would have wised up by now and made it very clear that politicians who are constant liars will be punished at the polls. Apparently not so based on the fact that McCain is not hugely down in the polls. Although the worthless media which achieves new levels of laziness and synchophancy daily bears a huge responsibility for allowing liars to go unpunished. I find it ironic that the self-anointed party of God is the most truth challenged rather than the alleged godless liberals. McCain/Palin truly sicken me. McCain/Palin obviously thinks the majority of Americans are morons. If they win in November, then they will be proven correct. Where are those of us who are not morons supposed to go?? Here are some column highlights:

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Did you hear about how Barack Obama wants to have sex education in kindergarten, and called Sarah Palin a pig? Did you hear about how Ms. Palin told Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks” when it wanted to buy Alaska a Bridge to Nowhere? These stories have two things in common: they’re all claims recently made by the McCain campaign — and they’re all out-and-out lies.

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I can’t think of any precedent, at least in America, for the blizzard of lies since the Republican convention. The Bush campaign’s lies in 2000 were artful — you needed some grasp of arithmetic to realize that you were being conned. This year, however, the McCain campaign keeps making assertions that anyone with an Internet connection can disprove in a minute, and repeating these assertions over and over again.

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Why do the McCain people think they can get away with this stuff? Well, they’re probably counting on the common practice in the news media of being “balanced” at all costs. You know how it goes: If a politician says that black is white, the news report doesn’t say that he’s wrong, it reports that “some Democrats say” that he’s wrong. Or a grotesque lie from one side is paired with a trivial misstatement from the other, conveying the impression that both sides are equally dirty.

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[H]ow a politician campaigns tells you a lot about how he or she would govern. . . . . Thus, the deceptive and dishonest 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign provided an all-too-revealing preview of things to come. In fact, my early suspicion that we were being misled about the threat from Iraq came from the way the political tactics being used to sell the war resembled the tactics that had earlier been used to sell the Bush tax cuts.

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And now the team that hopes to form the next administration is running a campaign that makes Bush-Cheney 2000 look like something out of a civics class. What does that say about how that team would run the country? What it says, I’d argue, is that the Obama campaign is wrong to suggest that a McCain-Palin administration would just be a continuation of Bush-Cheney. If the way John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning is any indication, it would be much, much worse.

Final Thursday Male Beauty

Obama Pledges Equality for All, Including Gays

It is blatantly obvious to a casual reader of this blog that I whole heatedly support the candidacy of Barack Obama and as many readers know I have both contributed money, donated old office furniture to his local office, and allowed his campaign staff to utilize my phone lines for phone banking. In my opinion, he is our best hope of turning this nation around and setting it on a better course. One of my many reasons for supporting Obama is that he does believe in equal rights for gays. In contrast, the McCain/Palin ticket believes that gays should be banned from the military, have no rights as couples, and should "pray away the gay." I truly shudder to contemplate what will happen to this country should McCain/Palin be elected. This week, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign responded in writing to a series of questions submitted by William R. Kapfer, co-president of Window Media, the Washington Blade’s parent company. Here are highlights from those questions and written responses:

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Washington Blade: What personal experiences or friendships in your life have shaped how you view gay issues?

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Barack Obama: Michelle and I have been blessed with many openly gay and lesbian friends and colleagues whom we have been close to for many years. While that fact has made the issue facing the LGBT community more personal, the fundamental reasons I have for supporting equality are greater than any individual. I am running for President because I believe that we as a nation need change. We need to end the divisive politics of George W. Bush and pursue policies that treat all of us, regardless of identity or background, with dignity, equality and respect.

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Blade: Would you decline to nominate a qualified Supreme Court justice or cabinet member who had a history of nti-gay rulings?

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Obama: I would have to consider the totality of the candidate’s record and qualifications. However, I think someone who has an established record of failing to support equal opportunities for all Americans would not fare well in an Obama-Biden administration.

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Blade: Important gay rights legislation unrelated to marriage has been stalled in Congress for quite some time. The gay community has high expectations for an Obama administration. What are reasonable expectations for a first-term Obama administration: How aggressively would you push for Congress to pass ENDA, the hate crimes bill, repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and other gay-related bills in your first year in office, and would you mention those bills in your State of the Union address?

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Obama: These bills are all important priorities for me. Senator Biden and I have long committed ourselves to supporting fundamental civil rights for all. In addition to the issues you mentioned, I also support full repeal of DOMA to provide equal federal rights and benefits to LGBT couples. America must live up to our founding principle of equality for all, and it’s wrong to have millions of LGBT Americans living as second‐class citizens in this nation. I support these efforts because I know that equality is a moral imperative. Back when I was in the Illinois Senate, I co‐sponsored a fully inclusive bill that prohibited discrimination on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender identity, extending protection to the workplace, housing, and places of public accommodation. The non-discrimination bill has become law in Illinois. If I am honored to serve as your President, I will continue to do what I’ve done throughout my career and in this campaign: speak out on behalf of the cause for equal justice and opportunity for LGBT Americans.

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Blade: Do you think repeal of all of DOMA would, in fact, prompt Congress to strongly consider and possibly pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage?

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Obama: Again, I think this issue ties in to who controls Congress. And a Democratic Congress that enacts a repeal of DOMA would not be likely to pass a Constitutional ban on gay marriage — partly because our party rejects enshrining discrimination and divisive distinctions among citizens into our founding documents.

Trial Judge Finds Florida Gay Adoption Ban Unconstitutional

In a long over due decision a Florida Circuit Court Judge has ruled that Florida's statute banning gays from adopting is unconstitutional. The ban obviously deprived would be gay adoptive parents of equal protection and rights under the Florida Constitution, not to mention in my view the United States Constitution. Moreover, the judge recognized that allowing the gay father and his partner was in the best interests of the child - what is ALWAYS supposed to be the guiding principle in child placement decisions. Even more interestingly, the judge found that there was no justification for the ban other than to treat gay and lesbians in a punitive manner. I have always maintained that the Christianist backed anti-gay statues have never been about protecting marriage or children but rather ONLY about punishing gays and lesbians for not conforming to Christianist religious views. Here are some highlights from the 67 page opinion (which can be found here-order [PDF text]):

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The Court finds the foregoing facts to be true: (a) The fact that Petitioner is a gay man is irrelevant to his skills as a parent and his fitness to adopt. Irrespective of Petitioner's sexual orientation, it is in the minor's best interest to be adopted by Petitioner, (b) Floridians who are gay or lesbian are not for that reason inherently incapable of parenting an adopted child, (c) In view of the less restrictive alternative safeguards that exist, there is no need for categorical disqualification of all gays and lesbians in Florida from adoption to ensure that no child is adopted by an inappropriate caregiver, and (d) After having listened to and read the legislative history surrounding the enactment of SB 354, the Court finds that there was no non-punitive purpose for categorically excluding every single gay and lesbian Floridian from adopting children.

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In the ruling, the judge also Florida noted that the statute was passed by lawmakers in 1977 amid a politically charged campaign led by singer Anita Bryant to send gay people ''back into the closet'' following her efforts to repeal the Dade County anti-discrimination ordinance. The judge said the law violates the Constitution's separation of powers by preventing family court and child welfare judges from deciding case-by-case what is best for a child. The judge also noted:

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''Contrary to every child welfare principle,. . . 'the gay adoption ban operates as a conclusive or irrebuttable presumption that . . . it is never in the best interest of any adoptee to be adopted by a homosexual.''

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While the decision is not binding precedent, the opinion lays out a logical and reason basis that could be utilized by other fair minded members of the judiciary. Unfortunately, as I found in my own divorce case, there are far too few fair minded judges on many state court benches.

More Thursday Male Beauty

Former GOP Senator Calls Palin a 'Cocky Wacko'

UPDATED: Sarah Palin appeared on ABC News and was questioned by ' Charlie Gibson in exclusive interview. Seems she is an even bigger war mongerer that the Chimperator. The woman is scary. Here are some highlights from the interview:

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PALIN. . .And we've got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable and we have to keep...

GIBSON: You believe unprovoked.

PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on Russia, under the leadership there.

GIBSON: Would you favor putting Georgia and Ukraine in NATO?
PALIN: Ukraine, definitely, yes. Yes, and Georgia.
GIBSON: Because Putin has said he would not tolerate NATO incursion into the Caucasus.
PALIN: Well, you know, the Rose Revolution, the Orange Revolution, those actions have showed us that those democratic nations, I believe, deserve to be in NATO. Putin thinks otherwise. Obviously, he thinks otherwise, but...
GIBSON: And under the NATO treaty, wouldn't we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?
PALIN: Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help.

GIBSON: And you think it would be worth it to the United States, Georgia is worth it to the United States to go to war if Russia were to invade.

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I love it when past and present members of the GOP speak the truth - it drives the wingnut faction berserk (not that they aren't already unhinged). Now former Republican U. S. Senator Lincoln Chafee has stated the obvious truth that Sarah Palin is a "whacko" and indirectly that McCain must be too since he selected her. Would that the MSM would grow some backbone and do its job and fully expose her extreme non-mainstream, book-banning religious views, lack of candor, and lack of experience. I truly pray that the McSenile strategy of keeping her muzzled backfires and that she reveals her unfitness to be vice president and discredits McCain for having selected her (assuming of course he, as opposed to Daddy Dobson, picked actually chose her). Here are some highlights from MSNBC:

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Former Rhode Island Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee has called vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin a "cocky wacko" and said her selection as John McCain's running mate has energized supporters of Democrat Barack Obama. Chafee left the Republican Party last year after losing his bid for re-election and now supports Obama.

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He said her speech at the Republican National Convention had the unintended effect of energizing Democrats and Obama supporters. "People were coming into my office, phone calls were flooding in, e-mails were coming in, 'I just sent money to Obama, I couldn't sleep last night' — from the left. To see this cocky wacko up there," Chafee said to laughter.

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Chafee said in an interview Thursday that he found much of Palin's convention speech objectionable, particularly her "mocking" assertion that Obama was overly concerned with al-Qaida terrorists getting read their rights.

Have You Attempted Suicide or Know Someone Who Has?

365gay.com is running an online survey that I found both interesting and frightening. Here's the question and the response broken down into percentages as of the time I viewed the results:
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Do you know an LGBT person who has attempted to commit suicide?
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No. 29%
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Yes, someone I know. 25%
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Yes, me. 24%
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Yes, someone dear to me. 21%
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I could have answered yes in more than one category, but limited my response to the "Yes, me" category. It speaks volumes that so many respondents answered in the same category that I did. It definitely shows the posionous influence that living in a homophobic society seems to have on LGBT individuals. It also shows that much more needs to be done to reduce the number of those of us who at some point feel suicide is a viable option to the extent of attempting it.

Thursday Male Beauty

California Psychological Association States Opposition to Proposition 8

As Pam's House Blend is reporting, the California Psychological Association has announced it's opposition to passage of California Proposition 8 which would deprive same-sex couples the right to marry under California law. In my view, it is important that LEGITIMATE mental health organizations take public stands in opposition to the quackery of groups like Focus on the Family and similar Christianist organizations who routinely parade out bogus experts who are little more that snake oil merchants and charlatans. Would that the APA and CPA would start revoking the licenses of quacks who peddle reparative therapy and "pray away the gay" programs popular with wingnuts like VP candidate, Sarah Palin. Here are some highlights from the CPA release:

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This past Spring CPA joined the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Association of Social Workers and its California chapter in filing an Amicus Brief with the California Supreme Court on the subject of same sex marriage. The CPA Board of Directors engaged in a robust discussion about this matter, and voted overwhelming to take this action. The Amicus Brief provided extensive psychological research on key points relevant to the issue, and this brief was the only brief cited (out of the 45 Amicus Briefs the Court received) in the Court's opinion issued on May 15, 2008 that struck down California's ban on same sex marriage.

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The November ballot in California will include Proposition 8, a ballot measure that, if passed, would eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry. The measure would, in effect, overturn the recent Supreme Court decision that was supported by the Amicus Brief mentioned above.
In light of the fact that CPA joined with APA and the other mental health associations in filing the Amicus Brief, and upon the recommendation of the Government Affairs Committee of CPA, the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors recently voted that CPA take a formal position of opposition to Proposition 8. The CPA Board of Directors and the Executive Committee asked that we inform the full membership of this decision. We ask that you consider this information as you make your decisions in the November election.

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In the referenced Amicus Brief cited by the California Supreme Court in its historic decision, the CPA argued in part as follows:

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B. Homosexuality Is a Normal Expression of Human Sexuality. . . . In recognition of the scientific evidence, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the DSM in 1973, stating that “homosexuality per se implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability, or general social or vocational capabilities. After thoroughly reviewing the scientific data, the American Psychological Association adopted the same position in 1975, and urged all mental health professionals “to take the lead in removing the stigma of mental illness that has long been associated with homosexual orientations.” The National Association of Social Workers has adopted a similar policy.

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Thus, mental health professionals and researchers have long recognized that being homosexual poses no inherent obstacle to leading a happy, healthy, and productive life, and the vast majority of gay and lesbian people function well in the full array of social institutions and interpersonal relationships. With particular relevance to the issues before the Court in this case, as explained at greater length in Sections III and IV below, such functioning included the capacity to form healthy and mutually satisfying intimate relationships with another person of the same sex and to raise healthy and well-adjusted children.

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Like heterosexuals, lesbians and gay men benefit to the extent that they are able to share their lives with and receive support from their family, friends, and other people who are important to them. In many studies, for example, lesbians and gay men have been found to manifest better mental health to the extent that they hold positive feelings about their own sexual orientation, have developed a positive sense of personal identity based on it, and have integrated it into their lives by disclosing it to others (commonly referred to as “coming out of the closet” or simply “coming out). By contrast lesbians and gay men who feel compelled to conceal their sexual orientation tend to report more frequent mental health concerns than their openly gay counterparts, and are also at risk for physical health problems. In fact, no major mental health organization has sanctioned efforts to change sexual orientation.

Thoughts on Fathers and Sons

I'm not sure why, but I had dreams about my father throughout the night last night. Perhaps it is because the second anniversary of his death is approaching. Perhaps it is because I had been talking with my son about the logistics of what we were going to do for his birthday. Sadly, my dad died on my son's birthday, thus always prompting bitter sweet thoughts as that date approaches. I had seen my father less than two weeks before he died and he had actually seemed to have been rallying again in his struggle against cancer. When I got the call that final morning that he was failing and that I needed to come immediately, it was too late for me to make it from Norfolk to Charlottesville before he died. It turned out he had died less than an hour before I arrived and I was not able to say one last goodbye, not that he would have necessarily known I was there.

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As long time readers know, my relationship with my dad was not always the best. He was a difficult man in many ways although in retrospect he always loved me and tried to do what was best for me. He definitely taught me what it was to be honest, stand by one's principles and not join in with people who were like lemmings scurrying after what was most popular or expedient. That we were not closer than we were was partly his fault, but also mine because of the glass wall I kept erected between me and others during my closet years. That glass wall also stood between me and my own son for many years. The glass wall was there to protect "my secret" and to protect me from the rejection I feared would occur if my dad, my son, and everyone else discovered I was actually gay. It impeded so many relationships. As it turned out, neither my dad nor my son rejected me, and with my dad I found the closure that had eluded us for nearly 50 years. I am still working on being the father my son deserves, but at least openness and honesty have been achieved. So many lost years - all because of homophobia and fear and the damage they do to those in the closet and to a indirect extent those who love them.

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I admit that I rage at times on this blog against the Christianists and others who seek to denigrate gays and keep anti-gay bigotry alive. I do so because I do not want anyone to have to experience the pain and unhappiness I endured. These haters can no longer touch me (because I won't let them), but they seek to harm others still on a daily basis through the lies and false religion they disseminate. I have little sympathy for those who seek to oppress us because in my opinion their anti-gay agenda is really selfish and all about themselves. How so? They seek to protect their fragile "faith" that cannot endure the fact that just maybe God made some of us gay by design and that just perhaps the Bible is not 100% accurate. If forced to admit these truth, then their whole sham world falls apart. Worse yet, for some it's all about making money by preying on gays and their families. Still others worry about the "embarrassment" of having a gay child or relative. What would their friends and neighbors think? They think first of themselves and later, if at all, about their child/relative. To me its an ultimate form of selfishness.

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Thankfully, my dad - and more or less all my extended family for that matter - passed the test and accepted and embraced me for who I am. That is the best gift that anyone can give to someone gay. Not money and things, but love and total acceptance. I thank my dad for having given me that gift.

Final Wednesday Male Baeuty

Reduced Dominance Is Predicted for U.S.

A new intelligence report/forecast being prepared for the next president - whoever he may be - on future global issues predicts a steady decline in U.S. dominance on the world stage in the coming decades. This will no doubt cause angst among the GOP base who still believe we are living in the 1950's or perhaps the late 1960's. The decline in U.S. influence will be a result of a combination of factors as the world is reshaped by globalization and confronted with the effects of climate change which may include regional upheavals over shortages of food, water and energy. Obviously, it is critical that the next president be someone who can comprehend these forces and issues and make policy decisions and adjustments accordingly. That pretty much rules out John McCain and today's anti-knowledge, anti-science, Bible and guns totting Republican Party. We are likely on the threshold to changes akin to what Britain faced after World War I but will we have leadership wise enough to see it? I shudder to think of what awaits the country if McSenile and Christian Taliban Palin are elected. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:

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The report, previewed in a speech by Thomas Fingar, the U.S. intelligence community's top analyst, also concludes that the one key area of continued U.S. superiority -- military power -- will "be the least significant" asset in the increasingly competitive world of the future, because "nobody is going to attack us with massive conventional force."

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"The U.S. will remain the preeminent power, but that American dominance will be much diminished," Fingar said, according to a transcript of the Thursday speech. He saw U.S. leadership eroding "at an accelerating pace" in "political, economic and arguably, cultural arenas." . . . The new view is in line with that of prominent economists and other global thinkers who have argued that America's influence is shrinking as economic powerhouses such as China assert themselves on the global stage.

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The predicted shift toward a less U.S.-centric world will come at a time when the planet is facing a growing environmental crisis, caused largely by climate change, Fingar said. By 2025, droughts, food shortages and scarcity of fresh water will plague large swaths of the globe, from northern China to the Horn of Africa. For poorer countries, climate change "could be the straw that breaks the camel's back," Fingar said, while the United States will face "Dust Bowl" conditions in the parched Southwest.

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Energy security will also become a major issue as India, China and other countries join the United States in seeking oil, gas and other sources for electricity. The Chinese get a good portion of their oil from Iran, as do many U.S. allies in Europe, limiting U.S. options on Iran. "So the turn-the-spigot-off kind of thing -- even if we could do it -- would be counterproductive."

New York Governor: GOP is Race Baiting

As difficult as it was to watch the Republican National Convention, I did so under my "know what your enemy is up to" theory. Frankly, I was shocked - but not really surprised given today's GOP's anti-minority, anti-gay and anti-immigrant core message - when I heard the derisive comments about Barack Obama's past as a community organizer made by a number of speakers, including Christianist nutcase, Sarah Palin. Having lived in Alabama, Texas and Virginia, I recognized coded race baiting when I hear it. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who picked up on the racist nature of the comments. As Newsweek is reporting, New York Governor David Patterson has unloaded on this less than subtly coded message. Here are some highlights from Newsweek:

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(ALBANY, N.Y.) New York Gov. David Paterson said Tuesday that there were racial overtones in the Republican presidential ticket's criticism of Democrat Barack Obama's work as a community organizer. "There are overtones of potential racial coding in the campaign," Paterson said at an event in New York City.

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Paterson said that while Republican candidates John McCain and Sarah Palin haven't directly talked about race, it's strongly implied in comments Alaska Gov. Palin and others have made about Obama.

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"The Republican party is too smart to call Barack Obama 'black' in a sense that it would be a negative," Paterson said. "But you can take something about his life, which I noticed they did at the Republican convention. A 'community organizer,' they kept saying it, they kept laughing, like what does this mean?

More Wednesday Male Beauty

Episcopal Bishops Oppose California Gay Marriage Ban

UPDATED: The Los Angeles Times is now reporting that six (6) Episcopal bishops are opposing passage of Proposition 8. Here are some highlights:

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[I]n a joint statement issued Wednesday at the diocese headquarters in Echo Park, the six bishops said that "society is strengthened when two people who love each other choose to enter into marriage, engaged in a lifetime of disciplined relationship building that serves as a witness to the importance of love and commitment."

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The statement was signed by Bruno and Bishops Marc Handley Andrus, Barry L. Beisner, Mary Gray-Reeves, Jerry A. Lamb and James R. Mathes. (Three assistant bishops -- Chester L. Talton, Sergio Carranza and Steven Charleston -- also signed.)The bishops concluded: "We believe that this continued access [to marriage] promotes Jesus' ethic of love, giving and hope."

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According to the joint statement, some of the six bishops believe it is appropriate for priests to officiate at marriage ceremonies and pronounce blessings, while others want to wait to hear from the Episcopal Church's governing body, the General Convention. It meets next in Anaheim in July 2009.

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While the morally bankruptcy Roman Catholic bishops and spineless Knights of Columbus in California have come out in support of Proposition 8 sadly, they haven't shown similar motivation to demand that Cardinal Mahoney and other corrupt bishops and cardinals resign for their misdeeds in the sexual abuse scandal. The hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic Church and its efforts to inject religion into the civil laws continues unabated.

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Meanwhile, two Episcopal bishops have come out and announced their opposition to Proposition 8 which would strip California same-sex couples of the right to marry. No doubt knuckle dragging Neanderthals like Nigeria Archbishop Peter Akinola will have conniption fits. Here are some highlights from the San Jose Mercury News:

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SAN FRANCISCO—The Episcopal bishops of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area are opposing a November ballot initiative to overturn the California Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage in the state. The Right Rev. Marc Handley Andrus, Episcopal bishop of California, and the Right Rev. J. Jon Bruno, Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles, are scheduled to join other faith leaders and gay couples Wednesday in speaking out against Proposition 8.

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The measure, which would amend the state constitution to limit marriage to unions between a man and woman, is also being opposed by individual churches and clergy through a group called California Faith for Equality. Their work is designed to counter the huge organizational and financial push the amendment is receiving from leaders of the Roman Catholic and Mormon faiths.

John McCain's Baldfaced Lie

Barack Obama was in Norfolk this morning and spoke at Granby High School a few miles from my house. One of the issues that came up was the lie being spread by the McSenile/Palin campaign that Obama had referred to Palin as a pig. The truth is Obama never called Palin a pig - although I'd be happy to call her things far worse - and now local Congresswoman, Thelma Drake is jumping on the band wagon. Of course Thelma is terrified that she may lose her re-election contest against Glenn Nye and apparently is willing to lie as well to try to remain in power. Worse yet, Thelma Drake is is one of the 19 national members of the “Palin Truth Squad.” Sara Palin and the truth, now there's an oxymoron from everything we've seen to date. Shame on you Thelma!!

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Andrew Sullivan has a good analysis of this manufactured lie based controversy. With each passing day, McCain is proving himself ever more unworthy to be president. Here's Andrew's thoughts: The full context of Barack Obama's quote is as follows:

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“John McCain says he’s about change, too — except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics. That’s just calling the same thing something different.”

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With a laugh, he added: “You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change; it’s still going to stink after eight years.”

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We are being asked to believe that he called Sarah Palin a pig. If the people making that accusation have half a brain they know it's not true. This is not a question of interpretation. It is a fact. So we now find out again that John McCain is prepared to tell an absolute lie - in public, verifiable, uncontestable. He does not have the minimal public integrity to be president of the United States.

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This claim is absurd on its face, like the Palin nomination to begin with. Absurd. And you can now tell who on the right has even a scintilla of intellectual honesty. That's all this episode is about: another tail-spin in the death throes of the Republican party.

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My only advice to Obama: stay calm; stay cool; focus on the issues; behave like the president you want to be. They are trying to get into your head. But you are so much smarter and more decent than they are.