Ellen DeGeneres Spends $100,000 to Broadcast 'No on Prop 8' PSA

The Bay Area Reporter has a story that Ellen DeGeneres has purchased $100,000 of television air time for the No on 8 campaign to run a message she taped urging California voters to defeat Proposition 8. Given Ellen's wide popularity and the fact that putting an actual face on victims of one's bigotry can have a effect in changing minds, I applaud Ellen's actions and hope that many California voters will think be fore they fall for the fear and hate-based bigotry being disseminated by proponents of Proposition 8. Here are some highlight highlights:

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Out television talk show host Ellen DeGeneres finally put her money where her mouth is. After weeks of criticism from the gay press and bloggers, DeGeneres has purchased $100,000 of television air time for the No on 8 campaign to run a message she taped urging California voters to defeat Proposition 8, which would eliminate same-sex marriage in California. The announcement was made Friday morning by the No on 8 campaign.

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In the video message, DeGeneres says that she believes "in equality for all people. Proposition 8 does not. Please, please, vote no on Prop 8." She also mentions her own wedding; in August she married longtime partner Portia de Rossi.

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Here's what the PSA says:

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"Hi, I’m Ellen DeGeneres. I got to do something this year I never thought I’d ever be able to do: I got married. It was the happiest day of my life. There are people out there raising millions of dollars to try and take that right away from me. You’ve seen their ads on TV. They’re twisting the truth, and they’re trying to scare you. I believe in fairness. I believe in compassion. I believe in equality for all people. Proposition 8 does not. Please, please, vote no on Prop. 8."

More Friday Male Beauty

Keys to A Successful Coming Out and Relationships

One of the reason I started this blog was to share my experiences coming out in mid-life and hopefully providing insights that would help others and/or allow them to side step some of my mistakes. Coming out is anything but an easy or overnight process and anyone contemplating doing so needs to understand that it will take time to get to the point of being at ease living as an out gay/lesbian. A couple of things have come to mind that I believe are important to making a successful transition.

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The first is the need to get involved in the gay community and organizations. Just going out to clubs or spending time in online chat rooms will not get you to the place you want to be. What prompted this thought is an article in the New York Times involving retirees who relocate to new locations, but much of the advice carries over to those in the coming out process since many of us find ourselves having to largely rebuild our social circles. Here are some highlights that I believe are applicable to those coming out:

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RUTH COY remembers the advice someone gave her for creating a new life in a new place: The magic words when you move to a new town are, ‘What can I do to help? . . . the most important factor for a successful transition is becoming connected to the local community. . . . “People need to participate in things,” said Warren Neal, an agent with ReMax Excaliber in Scottsdale, Ariz., “as a way to meet people in a new place.”

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While coming out may not involve moving to a new location in a physical sense, it will in many ways involve leaving old circles acquaintances and a need to become a part of new ones. Some of these should be within the larger LGBT community. This can include charitable organizations and other groups and activities. If one does not become involved, loneliness and a sense of isolation are likely outcomes.

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The second issue is finding ways to find a sense of comfort with one's sexual orientation and in time finding the right person for a committed relationship. When it comes to dating, it is important to remember that just because someone is attractive and/or shares some interests, it does not guarantee that they "are the one." It is very important that your would be partner be at a similar comfort level with who they are as you. Becoming involved with someone in the closet or who is not comfortable with their sexuality may well lead to problems. This quote from Gaytwogether looks at both the benefits of coming out and relationship pitfalls:

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He [the successful gay dater] has addressed any issues pertaining to internalized homophobia, feels a sense of acceptance and pride with being gay, and has overcome a lot of the gay stereotypes and myths that abound about gay men and dating. Coming out isn’t for everyone, but the more accepting you are about your sexual identity, the greater quality of life you can experience. You don’t have to live a double life any more, you no longer have to lie or hide behind secrets, you can live with less fear and stress, and your self-esteem tends to be higher in most cases. It’s not an easy feat, however—there’s years worth of shame to work through, but for most people the journey is beneficial as they can then live more authentically and truly be themselves. Dating and relationships can be made difficult without a resolution to this, particularly if both men are in different places of the coming-out continuum.

Outer Banks Weekend

My posting will be sparse (if not non-existent) this weekend inasmuch as we are headed down to Nags Head this evening for a weekend house party at the home of one of the boyfriend's good friends. Since my laptop died, any Internet access will be via friends' laptops, assuming we can even get an Internet connection. The photo above is from Jockey's Ridge - the largest natural sand dune system in the eastern United States covering 420 acres and rising 100 feet above the rest of the barrier island - which is a few blocks from where we will be staying on the oceanfront. It should be a fun weekend with a house full of gays, a few straights and a lesbian or two.

Friday Male Beauty

Prospect of McCain Appointments to Supreme Court Should Scare Us All

Just yesterday I did a post on John McCain and the threat his presidency would pose to the legal rights of LGBT citizens. Now today's Washington Blade has an editorial that looks at what I discussed in more detail and again underscores why at all costs McCain must not be elected President. The column also underscores why the Log Cabin Republicans should lose ALL credibility within the LGBT community for their endorsement of McCain. What on earth is wrong with the LCR? Do they truly want to be potential felons again? Here are some column highlights:

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IF YOU CARE about the rights of LGBT citizens, the two most important things you can do in the next few weeks are to vote for Barack Obama and to persuade friends and family to join you. Without for a moment diminishing the importance of the ongoing California initiative fight (which is itself huge), the ground zero for the movement pursuing LGBT equality right now is the presidential election. Either we will go backward, losing key rights we now have and leaving the country in the hands of those who offer at best their grudging “tolerance” (the term Sarah Palin used in the debate), or we go forward with real equality within our grasp.

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John McCain opposes every single legislative proposal for greater LGBT rights, whether it is the hate crimes bill, or protection from employment discrimination, or repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” This is a guy who says we shouldn’t even be able to adopt children! Barack Obama, by contrast, is supportive every time.

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But another, even more important reason for electing Barack Obama is the Supreme Court, which now hangs in the balance. And that is particularly true with regard to LGBT issues. In 2003, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to argue Lawrence v. Texas, the path-breaking Supreme Court case holding all sodomy laws unconstitutional. Lawrence not only eliminated the odious laws that had been used for many years to keep LGBT persons in a second-class status, it also laid the foundation for future progress in LGBT rights. Without it, our community’s future would look much different.

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If John McCain wins, we can expect new justices who will work with the current conservative bloc to turn back the clock on a whole series of important constitutional precedents protecting individual rights. Would a McCain court really overrule Lawrence? It’s hardly a long shot. The case as written by Justice Kennedy is closely tied analytically to the constitutional right to choose to have an abortion. If the latter goes (as it almost surely would if McCain wins) the Lawrence case would be left hanging by a thread.

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BUT THE RELEVANCE of the Supreme Court in this election goes far beyond Lawrence. The court could very well be faced in the next few years with constitutional challenges to state decisions not to recognize other states’ marriages or the military ban or state laws that prohibit employers and landlords from discriminating based on sexual orientation. How those questions are answered will have a profound impact on the lives of LGBT Americans.

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But I’m here to tell you this election matters exponentially. . . . as a community, we have every reason in the world to support Sen. Obama this year. We have a chance to see a president who has championed our rights his entire career. It’s not a chance we should pass up.

Fr. Geoff Gets The True Christian Message

Given my past membership in the Roman Catholic Church and my frequent commentary on the moral bankruptcy and false piety of the Church hierarchy from the Pope on down, I have found Fr. Geoff Farrow's blog most interesting. For new readers, Fr. Geoff came out and gave a sermon urging his congregation to vote against Proposition 8. For this he has been removed from his post and may likely be thrown out of the priesthood. The sad fact is that the Church's position on gays is toxic and causes untold misery to LGBT Catholics in my view so that prissy old queens who transfer their own self-loathing to others can feel better about themselves. It's yet another case where instead of being a force for good, religion is in fact a poisonous evil. Instead of removing the Fr. Geoffs from the Church, Benedict XVI and those like him who preach hate against others should be removed from the hierarchy and priesthood. Here are some highlights from Fr. Geoff's recent comments on his blog:

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I don't particularly feel like a hero, especially after I read the various comments which have been forwarded to me from literally, six continents.

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I believe the real heroes are the millions of brave men and women who's lives have been trampled upon, who have suffered emotional, psychological, spiritual, and physical abuse. Having had the privilege of listening to countless people over the years, I have always been amazed at the capacity that the human heart has to endure suffering. Not merely for a day, a week, a month or a year, but, for decades and in some cases for an entire lifetime. I have had the sad duty of officiating at funeral services for many who found the suffering to be--too much. I have sat with grieving parents, brothers and sisters, children of those who have lost someone they loved. These are the real heroes, the men and women and adolescents who against staggering odds wake up and face each day. Who try to carve out a little niche of love in a sometimes harsh world. Who form communities of acceptance and love in the face of ignorance and hate.

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And the Antichrist? He's the one that convinces people to hate in the name of God.

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The last two sentences say it all. Most of those Christianists and pompous Church officials and clergy who daily condemn gays and claim to honor God in reality do not. They instead honor their own egos and pathologies. God made LGBT individuals in his own image and for HIS purposes. Shame on those who claim to know more than God.

Final Thursday Male Beauty

California Teachers Association Donates $1 Million to Fight Prop 8

With the fundamentalists and Mormons mounting nothing shot of a crusade and anti-gay jihad to try to insure the passage of Proposition 8 in California, it is heartening to see that organizations like the California Teachers Association recognize that much more than gay marriage is at stake if the Kool-Aid drinkers are successful in California. Passage of Proposition 8 would be a crowning victory for those who want to amend constitutions to wipe out the rights of minorities. The precedent it would set is extremely dangerous. Who is next if gays can be constitutional made inferior citizens? True, other states have passed anti-gay amendments. But NO state to date has taken such action to eliminate constitutional rights as enunciated by a state's highest court. Here are some highlights from GayAgenda, a new LGBT news web page:

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The largest teacher’s union in California has donated again, giving $1 million to defeat Proposition 8, a November 4th ballot initiative which would repeal the legalization of same-sex marriage in the state.Tuesday’s contribution by the group makes the California Teachers Association the largest institutional donor to the No on 8 campaign. CTA also donated $250,000 back in August to Equality for All, a coalition of gay advocacy and civil rights groups who oppose Proposition 8.

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CTA spokesperson, Sandra Jackson says CTA’s 800-member policy body voted overwhelmingly to oppose the gay marriage ban. Jackson said the issue concerns educators because “teachers teach the importance of equal rights for all.”

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Please help stop the hate and support the “No on 8” Campaign!

Virginia GOP Stoops to New Lows

I have often felt of late that the Republican Party of Virginia is even more reactionary, bigoted and down right nasty than the Party at the national level - even though the Virginia GOP claims to be the party of "family values" and "decency." While the GOP as a whole has sunk to despicable lows in this election cycle, the Virginia GOP has risen to the challenge to prove it is utterly sleazy and racist. The Talking Points Memo has a story that is almost too much to believe in terms of the racial overtones and bigotry now on display by the Republican Part of Virginia. The image above is from a a new mailer from the Republican Party of Virginia. Its hard to believe that any legitimate political party would put out such vile trash, but sadly it is indicative of how the Christianists and lunatic base has remade the Party into something evil. Here are some story highlights (other images from the vile mailer can be seen at TPM):

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In the race's final stretch, much of the real sludge and slime that floats to the surface will be the work not of the campaigns but of under-the-radar operations run by state parties and the like. Here, for instance, is a new mailer from the Republican Party of Virginia that has to be seen to be believed. It hits Dems -- and by extension, Obama -- for wanting to appease terrorists and rogue leaders.

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But the key is the last page, which displays a man who looks like Obama but with the same dark and sinister aspect as the bad actors depicted elsewhere in the mailing. . . . . We asked Virginia spokesperson Gerry Scimeca whether the likeness to Obama was in fact the Illinois Senator, and he said he couldn't immediately say. Asked to defend the mailer, he said: "It's about the fact that the world is evil," he said, referring to the multiple bad actors that populate the planet. "Choosing a president is about standing up to them."

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As Raising Kaine properly notes:

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All Virginians should utterly reject this entire approach to politics, as well as this specific mailer. And we're all still waiting for Bob McDonnell, Jim Gilmore, Bill Bolling, John Warner, etc. to denounce Jeff Frederick and demand his resignation as RPV chair. If not, we can only conclude that they agree with his approach, then vote accordingly.

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I suspect John Warner may condemn this action, but my bet is that Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell, Jim Gilmore and Bill Bolling will not. In fact, it looks like the type of bigotry McDonnell would support based on some of his past low life actions (e.g., the lynch mob atmosphere he helped create in forcing Verbena Askew from the Circuit Court bench because - my heavens - she was rumored to be a lesbian).

More Thursday Male Beauty

Republican Women, Federated's View of Blacks

The ugliness of today's GOP just gets worse and worse. I am truly coming to view the party in its current form as nothing less than an evil that MUST be defeated. These people are beyond horrible. The above photo is via Andrew Sullivan who had this on his blog: This is in an official Republican Party flier:

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The October newsletter by the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated says if Obama is elected his image will appear on food stamps -- instead of dollar bills like other presidents. The statement is followed by an illustration of "Obama Bucks" -- a phony $10 bill featuring Obama's face on a donkey's body, labeled "United States Food Stamps."

Virgil Goode Denies Involvement with Eden's Curve

Not surprisingly, Congressman Virgil Goode quickly denied any involvement witht the gay themed movie, Eden's Curve, written and produced by Jerry Meadors, the artistic director of the North Theater in Danville, which received a $150,000 earmark from the federal budget due to Goode's efforts. Meadows went to great lengths to explain why Goode and his wife, Lucy, are thanked in the closing credits of Eden’s Curve. Of course, even if Goode had no involvement with the movie, many of the Neanderthals in his district will be none too happy now that they know that Goode has a gay Press Secretary who had a part in the gay theme movie. Goode's district includes progressive areas like Charlottesville, but also some of Virginia's most reactionary and backwards areas as well with many Bible beating fundamentalists. Here are some highlights from Charlottesville's Daily Progress:

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U.S. Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount, said on Wednesday that he had nothing to do with a 2003 art house film that depicts gay sex, violent beatings and drug use. “I never gave any money to that film. Wouldn’t do it,” Goode said. “Haven’t even seen it. Wouldn’t see it.”

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In a bizarre twist to Goode’s re-election bid against challenger Democrat Tom Perriello, news rocketed across Virginia’s blogosphere on Wednesday that Goode and his wife, Lucy, are thanked in the closing credits of “Eden’s Curve,” a gay coming-of-age film that was inspired by a true story that occurred in Danville during the 1970s.

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The film is about a young man who goes off to an all-male college and begins to explore his sexuality, eventually engaging in a ménage a trois with his roommate and his roommate’s girlfriend. Afterward, the roommate becomes jealous and savagely beats the protagonist. A poetry professor takes in the injured main character and they begin a sexual relationship of their own. Once their affair is made public, however, the student leaves school and the professor commits suicide.

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Revelations about “Eden’s Curve” emerged at a Wednesday morning press conference convened by liberal blogger and activist Mike Stark. Stark, a student at the University of Virginia School of Law, is best known for getting tackled by several George Allen supporters in a video filmed at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel in 2006.

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Stark said he was tipped off about the film’s connections to Goode because Stark is a nationally known antagonist of conservative Republicans. “Eden’s Curve” is relevant to Goode’s re-election campaign, Stark said, because Goode is a vocal opponent of same-sex mar-riage.“When you stick to the facts, there’s a question of hypocrisy,” Stark said. “Virgil Goode sets forth this vision of family values that excludes, in a vituperative way, homosexuals. … There’s enough smoke here. And there’s certainly the fire of hypocrisy.”

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In 2003, Goode secured a $150,000 federal economic development earmark to help businessman Roy Gignac finance a $3.5 million restoration of the North Theater in Danville. Meadors is the artistic managing director of the theater.

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Goode added that he was unaware of the subject matter of “Eden’s Curve.” He only knew, he said, that Duncan had a role in “some film.” A spokeswoman of Perriello, Goode’s opponent in the Nov. 4 election, declined to comment. “We just learned about this,” spokeswoman Jessica Barba said. “We’re still trying to process the details. We’re not going to comment on this right now.”

Thinking Conservatives: MIAs of the GOP

It's nice to see others recognize what I realized quite some time ago when I resigned from the Republican Party after 8 years as a City Committee member, precinct captain, appointee to a state board, and active worker on the campaigns of numerous GOP candidates. The tide against reason and logic began long before John McCain picked Bible Spice Palin as his VP candidate, but Palin's selection more or less formalized the GOP's abandonment of thoughtful analysis and reason in exchange for the delusional alternate universe of the Christian Right. Living in an area that is home to CBN and Regent University, one all too often comes into contact with the Christianist zombies/robots who either cannot or will not let go of their indoctrination by disingenuous folks like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and James Dobson (all of whom are usually laughing all the way to the bank). In today's Los Angeles Times, Rosa Brooks has a op-ed column that does a great job at looking at the flight of thinking conservatives from the GOP. Here are some highlights (emphasis in caps is mine):

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Maybe most fun of all, we're getting to watch a steady procession of rats leaving the sinking GOP ship. One by one, the nation's more reputable conservatives have been edging away from the Republican presidential ticket. It started with John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Thinking conservatives -- as of a couple of months ago, there were still a few left -- were distinctly underwhelmed. In the New York Times, David Brooks chastised McCain for "throw[ing] away standards of experience and prudence" by picking Palin. In the Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer said Palin was "not ready" for prime time. David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, complained that Palin had "thoroughly -- and probably irretrievably -- proven that she is not up to the job." In the National Review, conservative columnist Kathleen Parker said Palin was "clearly out of her league" and urged her to "bow out."

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In the Washington Post, George Will slammed McCain for his "fact-free slander," "substitution of vehemence for coherence" and "boiling moralism." On MSNBC, former Reagan speechwriter and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan admitted that she's not sure who she'll be voting for this November: "Ahh. Umm. I'm thinking it through."

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Then -- more fun -- some conservatives began to actually endorse Barack Obama. Wick Allison, a former publisher of the National Review, wrote that today's brand of conservatism "has produced financial mismanagement, the waste of human lives, the loss of moral authority, and the wreckage of our economy that McCain now threatens to make worse. ... Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history."

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Christopher Hitchens, who has spent the last five years deriding the Democratic position on Iraq as that of "the surrender faction," endorsed Obama too, concluding "the Republican Party has invited not just defeat but discredit this year, and ... both its nominees for the highest offices in the land should be decisively repudiated."

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Whee! Incredibly, the fun continued. Christopher Buckley, National Review columnist and son of conservative icon William F. Buckley, also endorsed Obama: "Obama has in him ... the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. ... And so, for the first time ... I'll be pulling the Democratic lever in November."

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[I]t's painful to watch. Once, the GOP proudly claimed to be the "party of ideas." They weren't generally good ideas, it's true -- but they were ideas eloquently defended by men and women who believed it was their duty to study history, philosophy, science, economics and international relations and to do the intellectual heavy lifting needed to try to persuade smart people with different views to come around to their way of thinking. That was the GOP nurtured by conservative intellectuals such as William Buckley. Buckley was many things liberals didn't admire, but he wasn't IGNORANT, SAVAGE OR STUPID BY CHOICE.

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But today, as the last few sober grown-ups leave the party, the visible face of the GOP increasingly looks like that of the people who shout "kill him!" when Obama's name comes up, who speak of black men they don't like as "uppity" or as "boys," who think you can't trust a Muslim or an Arab, who think talking about "Barack Hussein Osama" is witty and (I'm talking to you, Sarah Palin and John McCain) who claim Obama "pals around with terrorists."

Thursday Male Beauty

Obama Takes Lead in Virginia

Since the beginning of the year I have maintained that Barack Obama had a very good chance to carry Virginia and the latest polls tend to show that such a view was correct. True, there is still a chance the undecideds will cut for McCain, but if Obama carries northern Virginia and the older large cities by a large margin (e.g., Norfolk went 64% for John Kerry in 2004 and could well go more strongly for Obama with a high turn out), it will be nearly impossible for the reactionary parts of the state to put McCain over the top. Last night's debate performance by McCain probably did not help convince undecideds to vote for McCain based on the numerous focus group results. Here are some highlights from CNN's latest coverage:

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Obama picked up 13 electoral votes when Virginia was moved from the category of tossup state to a state that is leaning toward him. That put him over the 270 electoral-vote threshold needed to win the White House.

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Virginia hasn't gone Democratic in 44 years," said Alan Silverleib, CNN senior political researcher. "But a number of polls -- including our own -- now show Obama up double digits there. And, as the map shows, if Obama holds that lead, it may be enough to put him into the White House." "Conversely, McCain really can't afford to lose Virginia's 13 electoral votes. That state is a key part of the Republican electoral coalition," Silverleib added.

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A new CNN/Time Magazine/Opinion Research Corporation survey in Virginia released Wednesday indicates that Obama holds a 10-point lead over McCain -- 53 percent to 43 percent among likely voters. "Obama is winning men and women in Virginia, and is doing well across the state east of the Blue Ridge Mountains," CNN polling director Keating Holland said.

McCain Lies About Supreme Court Nominee Standards

John McCain lied frequently during last night's debate, but one lie in particular ought to have sent the alarm bells ringing among women, LGBT citizens and anyone else who believes in personal privacy. This lie dealt with who McCain would nominate to the U. S. Supreme Court if president. While he stated that he would have no litmus test for nominees, he has repeatedly promised to nominate individuals like Scalia and Thomas who do NOT believe that the Constitution grants the right to privacy to individual citizens. It is this right which was first enunciated in Griswold v. Connecticut which struck down a law that barred MARRIED COUPLES from using birth control that began the line of cases that includes Roe v. Wade and Lawrence v. Texas that have granted protections to women and struck down the laws that continued to make LGBT citizens potential felons in 13 states, one of which was Virginia.

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McCain can call such anti-privacy nominees whatever he wants - "strict constructionist" is a favored code term with Christianists - but the bottom line is that with two more such "strict constructionists" on the Court, contraception, abortion under any circumstances, and a permanent end to the sodomy laws all are put at risk. Read Scalia's opinions and dissents - it is all there. If you don't believe me, also read the websites of Christianist groups like Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, etc., and you will see that this organizations want the line of privacy decisions reversed and "strict constructionists" is the code term/litmus test that would be used to select justices that would over turn such prior Supreme Court decisions.

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In short, McCain lied big time last night. He's become as much a pathological liar as Bible Spice Palin who, if her lips are moving, is likely lying.

Final Wednesday Male Beauty

GOP Continues Its Descent to a Party of Infamy

While initial focus group polls are showing that Barack Obama won the third presidential debate and McCain has denied that his Party is engaging in racist and thug like conduct, the stories of GOP outrages and politics of hate continue to come in. The first comes from Sacramento, California, where the Sacramento GOP web site calls for the torture of Barack Obama. This isn't a case of some lone nutcase. This is the official party website for a large county unit. Obviously, McCain's statements that he abhors such conduct are lies. Even his smirking and condescending behavior during tonight's debate showed his contempt for Obama. I and I suspect many others are coming to be ashamed that we were ever Republican given the current face of the Party. Here are some highlights from the Sacramento Bee:

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Sacramento County Republican leaders Tuesday took down offensive material on their official party Web site that sought to link Sen. Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden and encouraged people to "Waterboard Barack Obama" – material that offended even state GOP leaders. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has pushed the party to try to broaden its appeal, took issue with the site. "In the governor's view, it's completely and totally inappropriate," said Julie Soderlund, a Schwarzenegger spokeswoman.

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Taking credit for the site (sacramentorepublicans.org) and its content was county party chairman Craig MacGlashan – husband of Sacramento County Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan. The Bee asked MacGlashan about the content after seeking his reaction to hate-filled graffiti that was spray-painted over an Obama display on a fence at Fair Oaks Boulevard and Garfield Avenue.

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But he defended his Web site. "I'm aware of the content," he said. "Some people find it offensive, others do not. I cannot comment on how people interpret things." MacGlashan said he would "consider people's complaints" before taking any action. By Tuesday night, much of the questionable material – which ranged from depicting Obama in a turban to attacking Michelle Obama – had been removed, replaced with political cartoons attacking Obama.

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The second example of behavior beyond the pale involves the circulation of "jokes" by a top Tampa, Florida, Republican. I am truly starting to believe that some in the GOP are secretly hoping their unconscionable behavior may prompt some nut job to try to actually harm or kill Obama. The behavior looks like something one would expect in a banana republic, not the USA. Here are highlights from the Tampa Tribune:

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Al Austin, a longtime, high-level Republican fundraiser from Tampa, today sent to his list of political contacts an e-mail containing a joke that refers to the assassination of Barack Obama.

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The joke concerns a group of schoolchildren discussing the definition of “tragedy” as opposed to “great loss” or “accident.” The punch line comes when one child says that if an airplane carrying Obama and his wife, Michelle, “was struck by a ‘friendly fire’ missile and blown to smithereens,” the event might be a tragedy “because it certainly wouldn’t be a great loss, and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”

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Austin, a prominent real estate developer long known as one of the state’s leading Republican campaign fundraisers, has served in recent years as finance chairman for both the national and state Republican parties.

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In my view, it is crucial that McCain/Palin go down to a diastrous defeat so that this type of politics can be repudiated once and for all. People like Craig MacGaslan, John McCain, Sarah Palin and Al Austin are disgusting and utterly unfit to hold political positions.

India High Court: Use Science, Not Rligion to Justify Gay Sex Ban’

Would that more courts in the USA would demand that proponents of anti-gay laws have to support their arguments with more than just religious beliefs and texts. That's what the Delhi High Court said on Wednesday to government officials who were trying to rely on religious texts to justify the penal code ban on gay sex. The Court told the government proponents to come up with scientific reports to justify the proposed continuance of the anti-gay ban. If the proponents of Proposition 8 had to deliver such evidence in support of their anti-gay efforts, the Proposition would be dead. Here are some highlights from the Times of India:

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Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Muralidhar [chastised the government] for relying on religious texts to justify the prohibition on consensual sex between adults of same sex. "We won't be first country to decriminalise in case we do. Show us AIDS has spread where homosexuality has been decriminalised. Place some authentic study like one backed by UN," HC said.

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The court's remarks came when the additional solicitor general P P Malhotra cited an article condemning gay sex which was religious in nature and in which racial profiling had been done to arrive at conclusions. "We should not accept religious literature instead of scientific report. In a secular country how can a government rely on a report which says that certain races contribute more to homosexuality?," the bench remarked, adding, "These are not scientific reports. This is a propaganda. Your arguments should be based on scientific reports. Show us scientific reports which justify criminalisation of such acts."

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The National Aids Control Organisation, in its affidavit filed on behalf of Union health ministry, had said that gay sex among consenting adults should be decriminalised. The court observed that if the government goes by the religious text referred by it then all such people (homosexuals) in the country would be put behind the bars.

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Referring to Naco report, the court said that right to health is a fundamental right which cannot be denied to any one and the government has to justify criminalisation of gay sex which may pose health hazards to such people. "There is no doubt that they are high risk group, so you have to prove that allowing gay sex among consenting adults would increase the risk of HIV to an extent to criminalise it," the court said.

More Wednesday Male Beauty

Dedicated to "Emily"

Mormons and Proposition 8 - Update

UPDATED: Emily's blog is now touting Don Sedgwick, a jewelry store chain owner who graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Business Management and holds an elected school board position on the Saddleback Valley Unified School District as an "education expert." Sadly, it is typical of the far right religious elements to label as an "expert" anyone who will parrot what they want to hear regardless of their lack of legitimate credentials. Based on my many years as a education activist, I can assue you that most elected school board members in practice know little about education - especially when they hold no actual education credentials. Once again, the Christianists and Mormons talk about truth and integrity but do not practice it in reality.

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In response to yesterday's post about the disproportionate amounts of money being funneled by Mormons to support Proposition 8 which would forever make LGBT couples second class citizens in California, I received a comment from one "Emily." "Emily" is a blogger who operates a blog that is advocating for passage of Proposition 8. Not surprisingly, "Emily" - who appears to be LDS - was none too happy about the first grade class that took a field trip to observe a same sex marriage as part of its study of current events. While "Emily" did allow me to track back to her/his blog, there is no e-mail link, you cannot confirm her/his real identity, and all comments are moderated (hence my comments that differed in view have not been published). To "return the favor," I have not published Emily's comment.

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Emily and her/his blog - as well as the comments that are allowed - evidence the typical religious extremist's view that THEY and their denomination "know" the will of God. Moreover, a number of the posts/comments clearly depict gays as diseased and less than normal human beings. The irony of course is that having lived through high school in New York State not too far from Hill Cumorah near Palmyra, New York, where Joseph Smith allegedly found the golden plates comprising the Book of Mormon, to this day most people in that area view Joseph Smith as an extreme nutcase and fraud. Despite this fact, Emily displays the hubris of believing that she/he and the LDS know God's will and are "private citizens doing what they can for what they think is good."

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History is full of those who murdered, tortured, and marginalized others based on the religious beliefs of the sanctimonious believers who thought THEY were right. The Inquisition is one such example, the religious wars in Europe in centuries past are another, as are the ongoing murders of adherents of rival religions in the Middle East. Obviously, "Emily" and those like her/him still haven't learned this lesson from history. Once again, I believe at times that religion causes far more evil than good. The incessant efforts of Christianists and in this case Mormons to marginalize gays is obviously an evil. Citing religious belief for justification of harming others does not make it right.

Virginia GOP Politicians and Gay Sex

Sometimes I think some of Virginia's Republican elected officials are bipolar (not to mention not too bright). Publicly, they are vehemently anti-gay and have near perfect zero scores with HRC while privately they follow a different path. In most cases, unconfirmed rumors circulate about their secret lives and remain just that, unconfirmed. Every once in a while however, their secret life gets exposed and the hypocrisy meter goes off the charts. Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon was former Congressman Ed Schrock who represented Virginia Beach. In Congress, he had one of the most consistent anti-gay voting records, but in private he was using Mega Phone to set up gay trysts - until Mike Rogers at BlogActive.com ended the charade and Schrock withdrew from his re-election campaign in 2004.

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Another Republican about whom unconfirmed rumors have circulated is former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore who ran unsuccessfully against current Virginia Governor Tim Kaine. To date nothing apparently has been confirmed or Kilgore ceased to be of interest after he lost the race for Governor. Personally, having met Kilgore in person back before he launched his race for AG, let's just say my gaydar indicated that Kilgore must have an extensive collection of Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand albums.

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Now, Mike Rogers has his sights on ultra anti-gay Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode about who there have also been rumors of playing for more than one team. BlogActive is reporting on how Goode appears to have given support to the producer of Eden's Curve, a movie that is filled with lots of gay sex and lots of drug use, and which featured his gay Press Secretary, Linwood Duncan. In addition, the conservative Republican Congressman moved an earmark for $150,000 to the very theater in less than gay-friendly Danville, Virginia, run by the movie's producer. Obviously, something looks a bit suspicious. Here are some highlights from BlogActive (be sure to watch the video below on BlogActive):

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"How does Virgil Goode (R-VA) square his condemnation of gay and lesbian Americans while helping to make Eden's Curve?" asks Mike Stark as part of this story of anti-gay hypocrisy and that good old Washington power tool, money.

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[H]ow does an anti-gay Republican US Congressman come to support a movie that is filled with lots of gay sex and lots of drug use? Well, the best place to start is with Linwood Duncan, Goode's Press Secretary. Linwood is gay (an open secret in DC) and has aspirations to be a movie star.

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You're thinking "what's the big deal?" Who cares if Roll Call wrote about a movie starring a right-wing Congressional staffer that was "especially popular at gay and lesbian film festivals across the country because the lead character gets mixed up in relationships with his male roommate..."?I'll tell you who cares. The anti-earmark conservatives care and the anti-gay troglodytes care... A LOT!

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You read it here first: After his press secretary got his first film acting break in a movie filled with gay sex and drug use, the conservative Republican Congressman moved an earmark for $150,000 to the very theater run by the movie's producer. And get this, the press secretary is on the board!

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Mike Stark of Accountability Moments has joined forces with BlogActive to deliver this video with clips from Eden's Curve and questions for Virgil Goode. Watch it and learn the connections between Goode and the film makers and actors, see the earmark that moved $150,000 to the theater run by the movie's producer.

Wednesday Male Beauty

Sarah and Todd Palin's REAL Ties to Anti-Americans

The ever disingenuous Bible Spice Palin continues to tell lies about Barack Obama's alleged ties to terrorists yet conveniently forgets her husband's seven year love fest with Alaska Independence Party ("AIP") and/or her own past statements that she supports the party's principles - like breaking away from the USA? The women is despicable and proves herself more of a lying snake with each passing day. Now Salon has a lengthy article that looks at the Palin's ties to the AIP and one can only wonder why the MSM is not all over the issue. But then I forget, most in the MSM no longer have heard of the concept of investigative reporting. A reading of the Salon article makes it clear that it is Sarah Palin, not Barack Obama, who is out of touch with true mainstream American values. This woman is a nutcase and dangerous. Here are some highlights from the Salon story:

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Though [former Alaskan Independence Party chairman Mark] Chryson belongs to a fringe political party, one that advocates the secession of Alaska from the Union, and that organizes with other like-minded secessionist movements from Canada to the Deep South, he is not without peculiar influence in state politics, especially the rise of Sarah Palin. An obscure figure outside of Alaska, Chryson has been a political fixture in the hometown of the Republican vice-presidential nominee for over a decade. During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin's campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory.

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Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution's language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as "Black Helicopter Steve," to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. "Every time I showed up her door was open," said Chryson. "And that policy continued when she became governor."

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The AIP was born of the vision of "Old Joe" Vogler, a hard-bitten former gold miner who hated the government of the United States almost as much as he hated wolves and environmentalists. . . . . During a gubernatorial debate in 1982, Vogler proposed using nuclear weapons to obliterate the glaciers blocking roadways to Juneau. "There's gold under there!" he exclaimed. Vogler made another failed run for the governor's mansion in 1986. But the AIP's fortunes shifted suddenly four years later when Vogler convinced Richard Nixon's former interior secretary, Wally Hickel, to run for governor under his party's banner. Hickel coasted to victory.

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Hickel's subsequent failure as governor to press for a vote on Alaskan independence rankled Old Joe. With sponsorship from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Vogler was scheduled to present his case for Alaskan secession before the United Nations General Assembly in the late spring of 1993. But before he could, Old Joe's long, strange political career ended tragically that May when he was murdered by a fellow secessionist.

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"The AIP is very family-oriented," Chryson explained. "We're for the traditional family -- daddy, mommy, kids -- because we all know that it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. And we don't care if Heather has two mommies. That's not a traditional family."

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"The Alaskan Independence Party has got links to almost every independence-minded movement in the world," Chryson exclaimed. "And Alaska is not the only place that's about separation. There's at least 30 different states that are talking about some type of separation from the United States." This has meant rubbing shoulders and forging alliances with outright white supremacists and far-right theocrats, particularly those who dominate the proceedings at such gatherings as the North American Secessionist conventions, which AIP delegates have attended in recent years.

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Another far-right organization with whom the AIP has long been aligned is Howard Phillips' militia-minded Constitution Party. The AIP has been listed as the Constitution Party's state affiliate since the late 1990s, and it has endorsed the Constitution Party's presidential candidates (Michael Peroutka and Chuck Baldwin) in the past two elections. The Constitution Party boasts an openly theocratic platform that reads, "It is our goal to limit the federal government to its delegated, enumerated, Constitutional functions and to restore American jurisprudence to its original Biblical common-law foundations." . . . . In Wasilla, the AIP became powerful by proxy -- because of Chryson and Stoll's alliance with Sarah Palin.

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In 1994, Sarah Palin attended the AIP's statewide convention. In 1995, her husband, Todd, changed his voter registration to AIP. Except for an interruption of a few months, he would remain registered was an AIP member until 2002, when he changed his registration to undeclared. In 1996, Palin decided to run against John Stein as the Republican candidate for mayor of Wasilla. While Palin pushed back against Stein's policies, particularly those related to funding public works, Chryson said he and Steve Stoll prepared the groundwork for her mayoral campaign.

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While Palin played up her total opposition to the sales tax and gun control -- the two hobgoblins of the AIP -- mailers spread throughout the town portraying her as "the Christian candidate," a subtle suggestion that Stein, who is Lutheran, might be Jewish.

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By Chryson's account, he and Palin also worked hand-in-glove to slash property taxes and block a state proposal that would have taken money for public programs from the Permanent Fund Dividend, or the oil and gas fund that doles out annual payments to citizens of Alaska. Palin endorsed Chryson's unsuccessful initiative to move the state Legislature from Juneau to Wasilla.

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Chryson says the door remains open now that Palin is governor. (Palin's office did not respond to Salon's request for an interview.) While Palin has been more circumspect in her dealings with groups like the AIP as she has risen through the political ranks, she has stayed in touch. When Palin ran for governor in 2006, marketing herself as a fresh-faced reformer determined to crush the GOP's ossified power structure, she made certain to appear at the AIP's state convention. To burnish her maverick image, she also tapped one-time AIP member and born-again Republican Walter Hickel as her campaign co-chair.

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But whether the Palins participated directly in shaping the AIP's program is less relevant than the extent to which they will implement that program. Chryson and his allies have demonstrated just as much interest in grooming major party candidates as they have in putting forward their own people. At a national convention of secessionist groups in 2007, AIP vice chairman Dexter Clark announced that his party would seek to "infiltrate" the Democratic and Republican parties with candidates sympathetic to its hard-right, secessionist agenda. "You should use that tactic. You should infiltrate," Clark told his audience of neo-Confederates, theocrats and libertarians. "Whichever party you think in that area you can get something done, get into that party. Even though that party has its problems, right now that is the only avenue."

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Now, Palin is a household name and her every move is scrutinized by the Washington press corps. She can no longer afford to kibitz with secessionists, however instrumental they may have been to her meteoric ascendancy. This does not trouble her old AIP allies. Indeed, Chryson is hopeful that Palin's inauguration will also represent the start of a new infiltration. "I've had my issues but she's still staying true to her core values," Chryson concluded. "Sarah's friends don't all agree with her, but do they respect her? Do they respect her ideology and her values? Definitely."

Buckley Leaves National Review

I just recently did a post on the announcement by Christopher Buckley (pictured a left), the son of National Review founder, William F. Buckley, Jr., that he intended to vote for a Democrat for the first time in his life by voting for Barack Obama. Not only is Christopher Buckley the son of the founder of National Review, a conservative new magazine bastion, but he was himself a contributing columnist to the magazine. But not any more. Buckley announced today that he has resigned from National Review. Here are highlights from CNN's coverage of his announcement:

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(CNN) — Christopher Buckley, the son of conservative icon William F. Buckley, said Tuesday he's resigned from the conservative National Review days after endorsing Barack Obama's White House bid, among the most powerful symbols yet of the conservative discontent expressed this election cycle.

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In an online column, Buckley said he had decided to offer his resignation from the magazine his father founded after hundreds of readers and some National Review colleagues expressed outrage he was backing the Illinois senator. "While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for," Buckley wrote.

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"Eight years of 'conservative' government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case," he also wrote.

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Buckley expressed disappointment the magazine, and conservatives in general, were not more open to dissenting opinions that his own father once championed. My father in his day endorsed a number of liberal Democrats for high office, including Allard K. Lowenstein and Joe Lieberman," he said, adding later, "My point, simply, is that William F. Buckley held to rigorous standards, and if those were met by members of the other side rather than by his own camp, he said as much."

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Buckley is only the latest among several prominent conservative to express dissatisfaction with McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin. David Brooks, Kathleen Parker, David Frum, Peggy Noonan, and George Will, all high-profile conservative thinkers, have each openly criticized the ticket over the last month.