Final Saturday Male Beauty

Two Faces of Christians in San Diego

San Diego saw two very different faces of Christianity today. One face, represented by those assembled at Qualcomm Stadium represents an alleged version of Christianity - which is not even really Christian, in my opinion - based on intolerance, hate, mindless and hypocritical obedience to obsolete Bible passages, and ignorance. The fact that these folks routinely ignore the Bible caveats against divorce underscores their outright hypocrisy. (A photo of some of the Kool-Aid drinkers is at left) Purportedly in attendance was one of the high priests of hate, James Dobson, and also Lou Engle who organized the event.

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The other form of Christianity - the true form if you will - was represented by a service at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral near Balboa Park. This form recognizes modern medical and mental health knowledge, extends love to others and follows Christ's dictate to love your neighbor as yourself. One has to wonder what is wrong with those at the Qualcomm event that they need to destroy the CIVIL legal rights of others in order to (1) feel good about themselves and (2) in the case of the organizers, fleece money from the ignorant. As if my boyfriend and I being married would affect their self-centered, self-absorbed lives or marriages in any way. Here are some highlights from the San Diego Union-Tribune:

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Supporters and opponents of Proposition 8 were holding religious-themed events Saturday, as the Tuesday vote on same-sex marriage nears. At Qualcomm Stadium, thousands were attending TheCall, which organizers said is a prayer and fasting event in support of passage of Proposition 8, which would ban such unions.

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Meanwhile, opponents of Proposition 8 organized a day of activity called “Make the Right Call,” which included a morning interfaith service at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral near Balboa Park. A 9 p.m. candlelight vigil against Proposition 8 was planned to take place in Hillcrest, with San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and his daughter, Lisa, participating.

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More than a dozen local religious leaders took part in the event, including the Rev. Mary Sue Brookshire of the United Church of Christ in La Mesa whose homily was interrupted several times by applause. She spoke of a lesbian friend who felt her life was incomplete because of society's treatment of gays. “As long as she is not fully human, neither am I.”

OMG - Palin Duped By Prank Comedy Call

FURTHER UPDATE: As the story of Bible Spice getting suckered by the Canadian comediennes makes the news circuit, here's what the Obama campaign had to say:

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Robert Gibbs, a senior advisor to Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, told reporters in Springfield, Missouri: "I'm glad we check out our calls before we hand the phone to Barack Obama."

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McCain has run a horrific campaign and this incident clearly shows that no adult seems to be in charge. Perhaps a bit less smear tactics and some attention to what the hell is going on is needed.

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UPDATE: The story has made it into the MSM - here's a link to the Los Angeles Times coverage. I love this part:

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The phone call ended with Audette bringing up an adult film, which is being produced by Larry Flynt and reportedly features a Palin look-alike. He called it an edgy documentary.

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This too funny!! Sarah "Caribou Barbie" Palin and her team were fooled by a prank call from a Quebec comedy duo who convinced her that she was speaking with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. I bet some one's ass will be in a sling big time. One has to wonder how such a call got through Palin's handlers. Personally, I'm a bit surprised that she knew what France is. Here are some highlight from cnews.ca (watch the video below - what will Tina Fey do with this one?):

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MONTREAL - A Quebec comedy duo notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state has reached Sarah Palin, convincing the Republican vice-presidential nominee she was speaking with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. In the roughly six-minute telephone interview released Saturday, Palin and the pranksters known as the Masked Avengers discuss politics, pundits, and the perils of hunting with Vice-President Dick Cheney.

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We have such great respect for you, John McCain and I, we love you," Palin is heard to gush to comedian Marc-Antoine Audette, masquerading as Sarkozy. Palin doesn't seem to realize she's being tricked until Audette tells her at the end of the interview. "Oh, have we been pranked?" she says. Seconds later, Palin's aide can be heard before the line goes dead. Throughout the conversation, Audette drops plenty of clues that something's amiss.

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They've been popular on the Quebec comedy scene for a decade. The Masked Avengers, who have a regular show on Montreal radio station CKOI, will air the full interview on the eve of the U.S. elections. It can also be heard in full on their website www.justiciers.tv .

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More Saturday Male Beauty

Letting Go of Your Internalized Homophobia

The battle over Proposition 8 in California has not surprisingly made me think a great deal about the homophobes who are pushing for the measure's passage so as to deprive LGBT citizens full equality under the civil law. Those who hate us - they disingenuously claim that they don't but let's be honest, they do hate us - have been saying all kinds of hateful and divisive things about gays including how allowing us to marry "threatens western civilization." Or at least so says Tony "Klu Klux Klan" Perkins of the deceptively named Family Research Council.

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With all the hate being disseminated, I've also found myself thinking about the effort it was for me to finally put my internalized homophobia and self-loathing behind me as I made my journey through the coming out process. Suffice it to say, it was not an easy journey and included one nearly successful suicide attempt. But I survived it and now I can rightfully look with disdain/contempt on those who continue to preach hate and loathing against gays. Their goal is to not only make others hate us but to try to make us hate ourselves as well. So, how does one finally let go of the ingrained homophobic baggage accumulated over many years. For me, there were a number of things that I think allowed me to finally let go of my internalized homophobia. I will share them since I know I have many readers still going through the coming out process or living in the closet based on the e-mails I receive.

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1. If you haven't already figured it out on your own, do some reading and get yourself up to date on the fact that sexual orientation is not a choice. If you are religious, accept the fact that God/Allah (or whatever deity you worship) made you gay and it's not going to change. Why did it happen? You'll never know, so move on with your life and make the most of the hand you have been dealt.Most importantly, do NOT let others try to make you feel guilty about your sexual orientation.

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2. If you belong to a strongly anti-gay religious denomination, leave it. The sooner the better. Having been raised a Roman Catholic, other than being a Muslim, Mormon or Evangelical Christian, it would be hard find a less gay friendly denomination - particularly under the current Nazi Pope (not that the less than sainted John Paul II was any better). For me, the concurrent timing of the explosion of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal made it all the more easy for me since it highlighted the moral bankruptcy and hypocrisy of the Church's leadership. In my case, I found the ELCA to be a much better church home for me. While it's not perfect, it is far better than remaining in a denomination that calls me "inherently disordered."

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3. Related to the second item, if you are from a strong religious background, do your own reading and research. There are many other interpretations of the Bible besides the ones claimed by the anti-gay Christianists. In addition, do some reading on Bible history and you will soon learn that there were all kinds of political and non-religious issues that shaped the Bible. It's not inerrant and it's not the literal word of God, so learn the historical facts to throw back in your detractors' faces (it will have the added bonus of driving them crazy).

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4. Get a good therapist. It's most unlikely that you can make the coming out journey all alone. In my case, I found two great individuals. The first, who is actually an ordained Presbyterian minister with a Ph.D. in psychology helped me deal with the religious guilt issue. The second helped me come to see that there was a future even after a horrific divorce where I was largely put on trial for being gay. Leaving you former life is not easy - especially when you do not know what will ultimately replace it. If you don't like one therapist, then find a different one who can help you with the transition.

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5. Make gay friends - and not just the bar and/or chat room crowd. Better yet, get involved in some gay causes and organizations where - based on my experience - you will meet some amazing people. Getting to know them and observing how at peace they are with themselves and who they are will help you to further let go of the indoctrination you have received in terms of what gays are like. I can honestly say that I have met more truly genuine and decent people in the gay community since I have come out than I knew in my closeted life in my artificial and supposedly perfect former neighborhood and social circles.

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6. If possible, live your life totally out. Remaining semi-closeted be it at work or with family will continue to subconsciously tell you that being gay is bad. After all, the message you receive is that being gay is so bad that your boss/fellow employees will not want you around. Likewise, thinking that "it'll kill my parents" or that "they won't love me anymore" is giving yourself a constant message that it's wrong to be gay. Admittedly, I was lucky in that my entire extended family accepted me and treated my ex-partner as part of the family. They are likewise embracing the new boyfriend. As the father of three children, I cannot understand any parent who would disown their child because they are gay. If your parents were to disown you, remember that it is THEM, not you, who has the problem.

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7. If you feel anger at times, do not direct it at your self. Harness it for constructive purposes whether it be in working on gay rights causes, writing a blog (which I find to be good therapy), or something else.

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8. Always remember that you are a good, decent person entitled to all the rights and respect that others receive and that the fact that you are gay doesn't change that. The goal is to be able to stand in front of a mirror and say to yourself "I'm gay and that's OK and I'm proud of who I am."

The Economist Endorses Obama

The Economist has long been a respected and conservative British business journal - I suspect that Sarah Palin has not only never crack the cover of an issue, but that she probably doesn't even know what The Economist is. It cannot be called socialist or liberal by any of the typical definitions thrown out by the GOP and far right in the USA to demonize Democrats. Thus, it is all the more noteworthy that The Economist has endorsed Obama as the best pick to lead the USA back to a sounder business/financial footing. Worse yet, it slams McCain/Palin. Here are some highlights:

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The United States is unhappy, divided and foundering both at home and abroad. Its self-belief and values are under attack. For all the shortcomings of the campaign, both John McCain and Barack Obama offer hope of national redemption. Now America has to choose between them. The Economist does not have a vote, but if it did, it would cast it for Mr Obama. We do so wholeheartedly: the Democratic candidate has clearly shown that he offers the better chance of restoring America’s self-confidence.

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At the beginning of this election year, there were strong arguments against putting another Republican in the White House. A spell in opposition seemed apt punishment for the incompetence, cronyism and extremism of the Bush presidency. Conservative America also needs to recover its vim. Somehow Ronald Reagan’s party of western individualism and limited government has ended up not just increasing the size of the state but turning it into a tool of southern-fried moralism.

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[T]he Candidate McCain of the past six months has too often seemed the victim of political sorcery, his good features magically inverted, his bad ones exaggerated. The fiscal conservative who once tackled Mr Bush over his unaffordable tax cuts now proposes not just to keep the cuts, but to deepen them. The man who denounced the religious right as “agents of intolerance” now embraces theocratic culture warriors. . . . Meanwhile his temperament, always perhaps his weak spot, has been found wanting. . . . The choice of Sarah Palin epitomised the sloppiness.

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Is Mr Obama any better? Most of the hoopla about him has been about what he is, rather than what he would do. His identity is not as irrelevant as it sounds. Merely by becoming president, he would dispel many of the myths built up about America: it would be far harder for the spreaders of hate in the Islamic world to denounce the Great Satan if it were led by a black man whose middle name is Hussein; and far harder for autocrats around the world to claim that American democracy is a sham. America’s allies would rally to him.

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There is no getting around the fact that Mr Obama’s résumé is thin for the world’s biggest job. But the exceptionally assured way in which he has run his campaign is a considerable comfort. It is not just that he has more than held his own against Mr McCain in the debates. A man who started with no money and few supporters has out-thought, out-organised and outfought the two mightiest machines in American politics—the Clintons and the conservative right.

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On the financial crisis his [Obama's] performance has been as assured as Mr McCain’s has been febrile. He seems a quick learner and has built up an impressive team of advisers, drawing in seasoned hands like Paul Volcker, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. Of course, Mr Obama will make mistakes; but this is a man who listens, learns and manages well.

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[T]his cannot be another election where the choice is based merely on fear. In terms of painting a brighter future for America and the world, Mr Obama has produced the more compelling and detailed portrait.

Saturday Male Beauty

Why The Religious Right Really Hates Gay Marriage

Since the mid September or so I have been following a new gay news blog, Gay Agenda (check it out if you have not done so). Today it has a column that looks at the issue described in the caption to this post - as well as the choice between Obama vs, McSenile/Bible Spice - that sums up the situation and adds one new twist to the real motivation of the Christianists. Like myself, the writer is a bit of a news junky and pretty passionate when it comes to gay rights issues and the need to confront the anti-gay Christianists (who I often tell "when you stop lying about gays, I'll stop telling the truth about you"). Here are some highlights from James Hipp's column:

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I have yet to figure out one good reason anyone would vote for the McCain/Palin ticket. Notice I said “good” reason. Now there are plenty of people out there who are hiding behind their true feelings and are offering substitute reasons for voting for McCain. Truth of it is however, if you’re voting for McCain, you’re either a racist, a bigot, make over $250,000.00 a year and are too selfish to want to pay taxes, or you’re perhaps just not very well educated. What ever the case, there is NO good reason to vote for McCain, and if you offer me an excuse as to why you are, I’ll shoot you down quicker than Palin can kill a coyote from a helicopter.

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Now, as we all know, a very important reason to not vote for McCain is his stance on GLBT issues. The man simply thinks we are not equal citizens and would like to keep up that way (and let’s not mention his running mate who thinks being gay is a choice and favors and federal ban on gay marriage).

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Much like my stance on someone voting for McCain, I’ve yet to hear one valid reason to prevent gay marriage. So again, what is it about this issue that has so many fired up against it? Well, now there are plenty of reasons, and many along the same lines as I mentioned above, bigotry, hate, you know the excuses. It is very similar to the reasons people wanted to maintain segregation back during the civil rights movement (they’ll take our jobs, and move into our neighborhoods and look at us). But, what is the real reason? I think I may have just figured something out.

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[T]here is a high extremely high degree of disapproval for us [gays] being in a relationship. If you haven’t noticed, a lot of straight people will claim they don’t have a “problem” with gay people, but they don’t want to see it or hear about it. Well not seeing it means there are no gay relationships, just single gay people. . . . Here-in lies the fear of gay marriage. Straight people are scared to death that gay people will marry, and stay married. They are afraid our divorce rate will be so much lower than theirs, that it make them all losers. Gay people will then be permitted to “pass judgment” on straight people, because we can make a marriage last, provide more stable homes for our children and realistically show them how a married couple is suppose to act.

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Yes the straight people who oppose gay marriage claim first and foremost that gay marriage will somehow ruin the “sanctity” of marriage and take away the “sacredness” of it. Well, what they are really afraid of is loosing, and not only loosing their right to throw stones, but loosing their facade of being holy, Christian and right. Just as gay people can move into a ghetto and somehow make it fabulous and raise the roof on property values, we can do the same for marriage. We can set the standard! That is why they (the religious right) fear gay marriage!

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I would also add to James' theory that in addition to being afraid that gays might do a better job with marriage than the straights, the Christianists very much want to be able to point out that the laws treat guys differently and that, therefore, we are inferior. It's really all about stroking the Christianists' ego's and giving them a basis to feel superior. It has NOTHING to do with protecting the "sanctity of marriage." In their hearts they know it, but want to pretend otherwise. Sadly, too many sheeple fall for the bull shit.

Obama and the Jewish Vote - McCain Lies Fall Flat

John McSenile and Bible Spice have been doing their dishonest best to discredit Barack Obama with Jewish voters by beating to death the non-story of Obama's connections with Rashid Khalidi (never mind, of course, McSenile's own ties to Khalidi). As has been typical of the McSenile/Palin ticket, their whole campaign boils down to trying to smear Obama as opposed to discussing ideas and substantive proposals that they would implement if elected. Thus, I found this column by Edgar M. Bronfman, the former president of the World Jewish Congress and and chairman of the Board of Governors of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, all too funny; He basically kicks McSenile to the curb and identifies Palin as the world class cretin that she is in fact. Here are some highlights via the Huffington Post:

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I am supporting Obama for president for two reasons: one is my disdain for the McCain-Palin ticket, and the other my respect and admiration for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

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Among Jewish voters, some feel the basic question is which candidate will act in the best interest of Israel. The answer is Barack Obama. As an American Jew who loves Israel, I cannot support John McCain. He cannot provide what Israel needs most--a respected, credible, morally strong America. To have the United States and Israel both regarded by the rest of the world as unreliable and in isolation is no way to solve the problems that plague both countries. This has been the effect of the Bush policies, and these are the policies that John McCain has promised to continue. Barack Obama is the candidate who can restore America's moral authority in the world and position our government to help negotiate peace.

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John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as running mate is the towering example of his poor judgment. Palin's ignorance of public affairs is monumental. Especially disturbing to the Jewish voter should be her willing acceptance of the campaign assignment of demagogy, which has stirred up racism and hate. The prospect of our having a 72-year-old president in poor health raises the real possibility that Palin could be our president, a thoroughly frightening thought. (I am well aware, in my eightieth year, of the flagging energy of any 72-year-old.) McCain's choice of Palin was a bid to the extremists in the Republican party, not the considered choice of a man who puts his country first.

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Barack Obama is the leader who can begin to undo some of the damage done by Bush's policies. His background as an American who has lived among diverse cultures makes him sensitive to the cultural and religious motives that shape conflicts. He is cerebral, measured, calm, and pragmatic. By his character, he will engage these issues with more than stonewalling and weapons. He is brilliant in his choices of advisors. He is a tough idealist who has the courage to imagine an America that may inspire hope, not fear, in the Middle East and around the world.
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Obama can inspire much-needed support for Israel among this next generation of American Jews. . . . . He has articulated a vision for American society that does not ask us to ignore our differences--religious, racial, or economic--but to set aside divisive rhetoric and acknowledge that we all have a stake in building a more ethical society. Under his leadership a renewed America can help to foster a renewed Israel.

Final Friday Male Beauty

What This Presidential Election Is Really About

For those who know me and/or read this blog, they know that I am a political junky. I read numerous blogs and papers EVERY day. I also have the perspective of an attorney with 31 years legal experience, some of it as counsel in a Fortune 50 company. I’ve read numerous endorsement in this presidential election but one of the most powerful I have seen to date is that in Esquire magazine – the first it has EVER done in 75 years. It can be found here.

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The editorial takes it a while to warm up, but when it does, it spells out why this nation cannot stand another Republican administration and what is really at stake – and it’s far more than money and who will lower one’s tax bill - which seems to be all that my GOP friends care about - or who will most degridate gay Americans. I urge you to read the whole editorial. In a former job some 25 years ago, I traveled the world extensively, even once got to sit at a table with and talk to a head of state, and I got to see “Old Europe” as its detractors call it up close as well as parts of the Third World. At the time, America looked damn good and I was proud to be an American. But we have lost that America. Personally, I want it back. Here are some highlights from the Esquire Endorsement of Barack Obama:

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Senator Obama is the only one of the two candidates who seems to believe in the idea of a political commonwealth, that there are those things -- be they the guarantees in the Bill of Rights or mountains in Alaska -- that we own together. Barack Obama stands, however inchoately and however diffidently, for the notion that a common purpose is necessary for common problems, that "government," as it is designed in our founding documents, is our collective responsibility. It is this collective responsibility that built America into a great power without peer in the history of the world. And it is this collective responsibility that has succumbed to nearly thirty years of phony rightist populism, corporate brigandage, and the wildly cheered abandonment of a common American civic purpose. It is shocking that in America an argument for salvaging the common good is regarded as a radical notion by anyone, but that is where we are.
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This year it's more than enough because we are not all in that enterprise together anymore, and we have not been for some time. For seven years, for the purposes of deceitful war-making and constitutional vandalism, the president chose to preside over "the base," and the devil take the common good. For several years, before the war soured, and New Orleans drowned, and he meddled grotesquely with how a woman's family in Florida chose to allow her to die, and mocked the very institutions he was to protect, this was praised as the height of political acumen. The incompetent president and his wolfish advisors were encouraged and enabled in their various schemes and praised for their cleverness into the bargain. Anyone who questioned what was going on -- any member of what was once memorably described to writer Ron Suskind as the "reality-based community" -- was of no consequence, their voices ignored, their concerns as foreign as those of a tribesman in New Guinea.

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And now, with it all in ruins, it's time to move ahead, without recriminations or even without maintaining the simple clarity of the historical record? That is not change we can believe in. And that is precisely where Barack Obama is frozen. But make no mistake, in our view the senator from Illinois is the only possible choice to lead the country. . . . John McCain has decided on a cheap and dishonorable campaign. He has embraced the tactics with which he was slandered in 2000, and he has hired the people responsible for them. In so doing, he has become something of a mockery of everything he once purported to be.
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That McCain is now attempting to seize the mantle of "change" for himself is profoundly absurd. And that he expects the American people to swallow it is profoundly insulting. History demands that this election be a referendum on the Bush years, and John McCain has tried desperately to change the subject.
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Then, of course, he picked an agent of intolerance to join him on his ticket. But it is not Governor Palin's religious beliefs that are of concern to us. More to the point, there is no serious debate to be had over Sarah Palin's preparedness to be president of the United States. Because in fact, she is stunningly unqualified, having never taken a position of consequence on an issue of consequence before she was selected in the last days of August. But she has now been put in a serious position to assume the presidency, and her selection is the clearest indication yet of the contempt that Senator McCain -- transformed into nominee McCain -- now feels for the process of governance.
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More than any other recent election, we are voting this year not merely for a president but to overthrow two governments. The one we can see is the one in which constitutional order has been defaced, the national spirit degraded, and the country unrecognizable because so much of the best of itself has been sold off or frittered away. The other one is the far more insidious one, a doppelgänger nation of black prisons, shredded memos, and secret justifications for even more secret crimes. Moreover, the current administration has worked hard not only to immunize itself from the political and legal consequences of the government we can see, but it has also worked within the one we cannot see in order to perpetuate itself. For the past several months, it has worked to make extricating ourselves from the catastrophe it has wrought in Iraq as hard as possible. It has sought to make permanent the culture of corporate brigandage and predatory incompetence that it has made a hallmark of its stewardship of the country and its government. Salted throughout the vast bureaucracy are dozens of little homeschooled land mines, the products of a dozen cheapjack diploma mills selling patent-medicine history to the spiritually gullible.
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And nowhere is it more clearly visible than in the federal courts. It is in the courts where the depredations of the past seven years can become permanent. It is in the courts where the un-American legacy of George W. Bush can live forever -- or, at least, as long as most of the rest of us do. The Supreme Court already is dangerously close to an extremist conservative majority, and Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito were both born after John Paul Stevens already had passed the bar, and it was Stevens who, as recently as last June's Boumediene decision, helped create a thin 5 -- 4 majority in favor of reestablishing the right of habeas corpus for those people being detained by the administration in places like Guantánamo Bay.
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There is no evidence at all that anything will change under a President John McCain, who has already identified Roberts and Alito as his beau ideals of Supreme Court justices. . . The virus will gestate and spread on his watch, all throughout the federal government. Bushism must be ripped out, root and branch, everywhere it has been established, or else the presidential election of 2008 is a worthless exercise in futility. Barack Obama may not be the man to do it, but John McCain, for all his laudable qualities, clearly is neither willing nor able to do so.

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To continue to govern ourselves this way is unthinkable. It is unsustainable as a democracy to continue to mock so egregiously in secret what we continue to profess in public. That is the task for the next president. That is the main reason to vote for Barack Obama of Illinois. We strongly encourage you to do so.

A Great "No on 8" Ad

The "No on 8" campaign has a great new ad which can be seen on YouTube. It shows that while bigotry is not something new, history is never kind looking back on the wrongs done to other human beings. While the Christianists may think "God" is on their side - he/she is not - they will be looked upon with scorn and distaste by future generations who question how anyone could be so cold hearted and cruel.

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P.S. Colorado fundraiser and philanthropist Tim Gill will match dollar-for-dollar contributions to "No on Prop 8" made through the Gill link HERE till the deadline of midnight tonight. Please donate - I have.

More Friday Male Beauty

Photographer Adam Bouska - Self Portrait

Palin Driving Voters to Obama

UPDATED: Former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria this week he intends to vote for Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday. The condemnation of Palin for VP by rational Republicans just just keeps on coming. Meanwhile, the Kool-Aid drinkers think she's the future of the GOP.
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John McCain's "maverick" pick of "I can see Russia from my window" Caribou Barbie for his VP seems to be one of the large factors as to why voters are fleeing the GOP presidential ticket. The chorus of conservatives who are condemning her as not ready for prime time continues to grow. Now Lawrence Eagleburger has joined the list of those finding Palin totally inadequate to the job. Here are some highlights from the Huffington Post:

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Lawrence Eagleberger, who served as Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush and whose endorsement is often trumpeted by McCain, said on Thursday that the Alaska governor is not only unprepared to take over the job on a moment's notice but, even after some time in office, would only amount to an "adequate" commander in chief.

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"And I devoutly hope that [she] would never be tested," he added for good measure -- referring both to Palin's policy dexterity and the idea of McCain not making it through his time in office. . . . Asked by the host whether Palin could step in during a time of crisis, Eagleburger reverted to sarcasm before leveling the harsh blow. "It is a very good question," he said, pausing a few seconds, then adding with a chuckle: "I'm being facetious here. Look, of course not."

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As the New York Times is reporting, the general public other than the Kool-Aid drinker set seems to concur with Eagleberger's assessment. Palin may be the darling of the delusional Christianists but to those in touch with the real world, she's poison. Here are highlights from the Times story:

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A growing number of voters have concluded that Senator John McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, is not qualified to be vice president, weighing down the Republican ticket in the last days of the campaign, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

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And in a possible indication that the choice of Ms. Palin has hurt Mr. McCain’s image, voters said they had much more confidence in Mr. Obama to pick qualified people for his administration than they did in Mr. McCain.

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Over all, views of Ms. Palin were apparently shaped more by ideology and party than by gender. Ms. Palin was viewed as unprepared for the job by about 6 in 10 men and women alike. But 8 in 10 Democrats viewed her as unprepared, as well as more than 6 in 10 independents and 3 in 10 Republicans.

Silicon Valley Leaders: Vote No on 8

A group of SILICON VALLEY TECH LEADERS took out a full page ad in the San Joe Mercury News today urging voters to "Say NO to Prop 8." "The honorary co-chairs of “Silicon Valley Leaders Say NO on Proposition 8″ include: Sergey Brin; Bill Campbell, Chairman, Intuit; David Filo, Founder, Yahoo; Chuck Geschke, Founder and Chairman, Adobe Systems; John Morgridge, Former CEO and Chairman, Cisco Systems; Pierre Omidyar, Founder and Chairman, eBay; Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook; Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google; and Jerry Yang, Founder, Yahoo."

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You have until midnight tonight to DONATE HERE and help win this battle.

The Haters Forget - Obama's White Side

The haters of the Christianist and Klan base of today's Republican Party are going to great lengths to demonize Barack Obama and depict him as "foreign" and "un-American." It's all a lie, of course, but then no group lies more than the self-absorbed, self-righteous false Christian set. Via Pam's House Blend, I found a post on KansasParie.net which underscores just how disgusting and untrue these anti-Obama lies have become. The story of Obama's maternal grandparents (pictured below) doesn't get much more American. Here are some highlights:

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Barack OBama’s “white side” seems to be overlooked and I find them quite interesting, particularly his mother and grandmother who raised him. I would have liked knowing them. The girl [in the photo] is Stanley Ann Dunham (mother of Barack Obama) who is shown with her parents, Stanley Dunahm and Madelyn Payne Dunham. Madelyn Dunham was the nurturing grandmother who was figured significantly in his early life.

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“Madelyn Payne, was born in the oil boomtown of Augusta, to stern Methodist parents who did not believe in drinking, playing cards or dancing. She was one of the best students in the graduating class of 1940. And, in ways that would foretell the flouting of conventions by her daughter Stanley Ann, Madelyn was different.”

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“When World War II came, Stanley enlisted in the Army. Madelyn became a Rosie-the-Riveter at Boeing Co.’s B-29 production plant in Wichita. And Stanley Ann Dunham arrived in late November 1942.” “The Dunhams were full-time working parents, renters and strugglers in pursuit of the next opportunity. After the war, Madelyn worked in restaurants while Stanley managed a furniture store on Main Street in El Dorado.”

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With each passing day I have a lower regard for the GOP and its increasingly vile base.

Friday Male Beauty

A Blight on Virginia: God Country and McCain

Unfortunately, parts of Virginia have found themselves home to some of the worse gay-haters and Christianist whack jobs around: Virginia Beach has the dubious distinction of being home to Pat Robertson's Regent University, numerous ultra conservative groups are based in the western Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., and then there's Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg. Of course, the name Liberty University is ironic since its founder and current leadership were/are all about depriving liberty and rights to those who do not subscribe to their intolerant, unloving form of alleged Christianity. While overall Virginia is trending blue, these pockets of lunacy continue to be a blight and embarrassment to non-Kool-Aid drinkers in the state. A Washington Post story looks at some of the zealots who attend Liberty University. Fortunately, they are becoming more and more of a minority in Virginia. Here are some highlights:

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LYNCHBURG, Va. Claire Ayendi is dealing with the fading kick of two double shots of espresso. It's the eve of homecoming weekend at Liberty University, and Ayendi, the president of the college Republican club, is trying to rig up a parade float in support of Sen. John McCain.

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To be a college Republican in the face of Obama Nation takes a measure of fortitude. For Ayendi, it also requires tons of prayer and caffeine. McCain's poll numbers are sliding. Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is a bottomless pit of money and energy. Even the hay bales on the rolling hills of once solidly GOP Lynchburg are painted red, white and blue with the name "Obama." And at Liberty University, founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell in 1971, the first student Democratic club has sprung up.

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For eight years, Liberty students have had one of their own in the White House with George W. Bush. . . . A pipeline of jobs stretched from evangelical colleges such as Liberty to the executive branch. Now a new dawn threatens, and young activists such as Ayendi are fighting hard to the final hour, in part to prepare for the new phase of activism they foresee in the event of an Obama victory.

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An astonishing 80 percent of Liberty's 11,400 residential students are registered, and most are Republicans. With polls showing Virginia on the verge of going Democratic, Liberty has canceled classes on Election Day and will provide buses to the polls. The school has also encouraged out-of-state students to switch their registration to Virginia.

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Liberty operates in a parallel universe from other colleges. Alcohol and sex are prohibited. Students caught watching R-rated movies are brought before a court of their peers. Bulletin boards around campus advertise "Pre-Marital Workshops" and the bookstore sells T-shirts that say "I [Heart] Christian Boys."

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Claire Ayendi . . . In addition to opposing abortion and same-sex marriage, she is against social welfare programs and overtaxation by the government.

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Not all of Ayendi's friends at Liberty are in political lockstep, made evident by the arrival of Ray Woolson. . . . Woolson is calm. "I think being a liberal is the most compassionate thing you can do," he says. "Jesus was a pacifist who chose to spend his time with the poor people. They weren't Big Oil, they were prostitutes." "There are a lot of kids at school who are blindly conservative," he says.

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One has to wonder how a liberal was allowed into the college. As is typical, the conservatives claim to be Christian as they advocate for tax cuts and the elimination of social programs. It's about them and THEIR money. To Hell with everyone else. Somehow, I do not think, Christ would be too impressed by the prosperity gospel.

Final Thursday Male Beauty

A Rabbi's Thoughts In Support of Gay Marriage

Through the Second Saturday Salon that meets in Ghent each month, I came to be on the e-mail address book of Rabbi Michael Lerner who supports gay marriage and who says that the Bible contains no bar to same sex marriage. I find his views interesting because - and this will shock the Christianists - the Old Testament and Leviticus belongs to the Jewish faith. They wrote it and the Christian Church commandeered it for their own. Here are highlights from an e-mail from Rabbi Learner:

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From the time I became a rabbi, I've been performing homosexual marriages in my synagogue, though with changes in the liturgy and ketuvah (they are not ke'dat moshe ve yisrael, but they are holy kiddushin and treated as such). For Torah literalists and fundamentalists, I argue in my book Jewish Renewal that what the fundamentalists fail to do is to read the actual literal words: that a man should not lie with a man the way that they lie with a woman. The words are striking because in the context all the other sexual commands do not qualify by saying "the way that x does y" but are simply categorical. But here there is no categorical prohibition, but only a prohibition on a certain way of being with a man. So I agree with Torah: men should lie with men in a different way than they lie with women, recognizing and honoring the uniqueness of that relationship. Jesus says nothing against homosexual acts. But Paul goes off against them, probably meaning the way homosexuality was being abused in Rome at the time. Nothing in the Hebrew bible prohibits gay marriage. And none of the religious texts prohibits lesbian marriages or affairs.

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There is, in my view, no legitimate reason why states should prohibit gay marriage. All the allegedly rational reasons are transparently phony--evidence that gay families do not do as good a job at raising children as heterosexual couples is scant, except for gay couples living in societal contexts where homophobia plays a shaping role in the lives of gay parents and their children. Most of the evidence I've seen shows the opposite--that homosexual families range from healthy to neurotic in precisely the same distribution as heterosexual families, usually facing the same severe problems that everyone has sustaining loving relationships in a society that privileges selfishness and materialism.

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There is no legitimate reason to deny homosexuals the same rights given to heterosexuals in any sphere, and that includes marriage. But denying those rights is precisely what Proposition 8 seeks to do.

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Rabbi Lerner can be contacted here: Rabbi Michael Lerner RabbiLerner@Tikkun.org

Catholic Anti-Gay Jihad Continues

The hypocrisy and official homophobia of the Roman Catholic Church truly knows no bounds and it's hard to decide which recent story I should start off with. I guess I will start with the one that too me demonstrates the most hypocrisy - yes, I know it's a tough call given the Church's phenomenal levels of hypocrisy. I'll start with the article captioned "Vatican Urges Psychological Tests on Future Priests." The immediate thought that comes to my mind is, shouldn't ALL current priests, bishops, cardinals and the Prada Pope also be required to undergo these psychological tests? I mean, if we want to allegedly protect children, let's test everyone. Oops, I forgot. Many of them would not pass - and the Vatican knows it. Of course, has the Vatican stopped to consider that it may end up with few or new priests if this is testing is done? Here are some story highlights:

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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Candidates for the Catholic priesthood should undergo psychological tests to screen out heterosexuals unable to control their sexual urges and those with strong homosexual tendencies, the Vatican said on Thursday.

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Vatican officials told a news conference the tests would not be obligatory but decided on a case-by-case basis when seminary rectors wanted to be sure a man was qualfied for the priesthood. The testing by a psychologist or psychotherapist should aim to detect "grave immaturity" and imbalances in the candidates' personality.

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"Such areas of immaturity would include strong affective dependencies; notable lack of freedom in relations; excessive rigidity of character; lack of loyalty; uncertain sexual identity; deep-seated homosexual tendencies, etc. If this should be the case, the path of formation will have to be interrupted," it said.

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Further demonstrating the Church's obsession with gay sex is this article from the San Francisco Chronicle concerning a $200,000 contribution by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in support of "Yes on 8." As usual, rather than clean their own house of those who enabled and/or covered up the sexual abuse of children, the good bishops are sent into near orgasm at the thought of normal gays marrying and living their lives proudly out of the closet. Here are some highlights:

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Campaign finance records show the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has given $200,000 to back a Nov. 4 ballot initiative that would change the California Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage. . . The Washington-based conference represents the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States.

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Along with leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and evangelical Christians, Catholic clergy and laity have been active participants in the coalition of religious groups working to pass the initiative. Donations totaling $1.4 million have made The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization, the largest institutional donor to the Yes on 8 campaign.

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And then there's this article from the Los Angeles Daily News which looks in part at the Church's "ex-gay" program's efforts to "cure" gays so they can marry innocent straight women with the pretense that if men marry and have children, then they are "cured." It's utter bull shit, of course - as I know all too well from my own experiences - but then the Church for centuries hasn't cared what happens to women. Better that women enter into doomed marriages and have families fall apart rather than admit that homosexuality is normal and part of God's plan. Here are some highlights:

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While many Catholics are strictly following the church's strong support of Proposition 8, the controversial ballot measure is causing others to re-examine the church's stance. Most notable among them is the Rev. Geoffrey Farrow, a Fresno priest recently suspended after declaring his support for the No on 8 campaign and disclosing he is gay.

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The Rev. Maurice Harrigan of Holy Trinity Church near Glendale disagrees with clergy who speak against the Catholic Church's position on Proposition 8. "If Father Farrow is disagreeing with the teachings of the church, then he has no place being a priest," Harrigan said. "If you are contradicting what the church stands for, then don't be part of the church."

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Harrigan oversees the Los Angeles chapter of the Roman Catholic-based Courage support group, modeled after 12-step recovery programs, for men and women renouncing gay and lesbian lifestyles. If they continue to feel homosexual attraction, members receive help in living celibately.

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"In some cases, members finish the program and go on and marry members of the opposite sex and have children," Harrigan said. "As for the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign, I do hope membersof the Catholic Church step up and vote."

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A lot of our pastors have simply chosen not to talk about it," said Farrow, who is considering writing a book about his experiences. "This is not a political issue or a civil-rights issue. It's a human issue. Families are torn apart. I would hope that the hierarchy (within the Catholic Church) looks at this issue. I know many nuns and priests would vote no on the proposition."

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One of the best things I ever have done is leave the Catholic Church. I think that if I had remain in the Church I'd feel dirty and tainted by the Church's hypocisy and false witness to Christ.

More Thursday Male Beauty

Gay "Mafia" Is Redefining Politics

No doubt the Christianists will be shrieking and all a twitter over the new Time article that looks at the efforts of a group of extremely wealthy gays who are putting it where it can do the most good to help defeat gay hating and gay-baiting politicians. The loonies of the far right have no qualms about trying to inflict their religious views on all citizens and making huge monetary donations - e.g., the money flowing into California to support "Yes on 8" - but God forbid that gays act similarly. Personally, I applaud the efforts of the "Cabinet" as they are called in the article. Would that more LGBT citizens would do more in the struggle for full legal equality . As one gay blogger noted about the battle to defeat Proposition 8 in California:

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Memo to the gays: wake up. The most depressing aspect in the gay community has been the apathy of so many, as well as the energy and determination of so few. So many straight people seem to be doing more for this issue than many gay people. That's unacceptable. It's perfectly legitimate to expose the LDS campaign against civil rights; but the Mormons are working the system. The right response is to work it back. Donate here. But better still: call your family and friends in California and tell them why this matters. If you live there, get organized. Canvass; campaign; volunteer; spread the word on the web. This is our Gettysburg. And we're losing it.

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Here in the Hampton Roads area, there are many gays who could do far more for gay equality and lending support for the passage of legislation that would afford employment non-discrimination protections and other laws that would allow gays to have the full rights and protections of other citizens. Instead, they whine about being victims or are fearful of taking on any personal risk totally mindless of the fact that often bad things happen because good people allow them to. The excuses that "I don't want to get involved" or "I'm in the closet to my family" don't cut it at the end of the day. Positive change often requires some personal risk and discomfort. The "Cabinet" as the group in the article are called may be able to help in the financial battle to support gay friendly candidates, but foot soldiers are still needed. Moreover, the strongest testimony one can make is to live "out and proud" and dispel the lies disseminated about us by our enemies. Sorry, I digress. Here are some highlights from the Time story:

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A few weeks before Virginia's legislative elections in 2005, a researcher working on behalf of a clandestine group of wealthy, gay political donors telephoned a Virginia legislator named Adam Ebbin. Then, as now, Ebbin was the only openly gay member of the state's general assembly. The researcher wanted Ebbin's advice on how the men he represented could spend their considerable funds to help defeat anti-gay Virginia politicians.

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Using Ebbin's expertise, the gay donors — none of whom live in Virginia — began contributing to certain candidates in the state. There were five benefactors: David Bohnett of Beverly Hills, Calif., who in 1999 sold the company he had co-founded, Geo-Cities, to Yahoo! in a deal worth $5 billion on the day it was announced; Timothy Gill of Denver, another tech multimillionaire; James Hormel of San Francisco, grandson of George, who founded the famous meat company; Jon Stryker of Kalamazoo, Mich., the billionaire grandson of the founder of medical-technology giant Stryker Corp.; and Henry van Ameringen, whose father Arnold Louis van Ameringen started a Manhattan-based import company that later became the mammoth International Flavors & Fragrances. The five men spent $138,000 in Virginia that autumn, according to state records compiled by the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project.

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On Election Day that year, the Virginia legislature stayed solidly in Republican hands; the Democratic Party netted just one seat. But that larger outcome masked an intriguing development: anti-gay conservatives had suffered considerably. . . . other candidates critical of gays were also defeated, including delegate Richard Black, who had long opposed gay equality in Richmond.

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The group that donated the money to use against Black and the others is known as the Cabinet, although you won't find that name on a letterhead or even on the Internet. Aside from Bohnett, 52; Gill, 55; Hormel, 75; Stryker, 50; and Van Ameringen, 78, the other members of the Cabinet are Jonathan Lewis (49-year-old grandson of Joseph, co-founder of Progressive Insurance) and Linda Ketner, 58, heiress to the Food Lion fortune, who is running for Congress against GOP Representative Henry Brown Jr. of South Carolina.

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Among gay activists, the Cabinet is revered as a kind of secret gay Super Friends, a homosexual justice league that can quietly swoop in wherever anti-gay candidates are threatening and finance victories for the good guys. Rumors abound in gay political circles about the group's recondite influence; some of the rumors are even true.

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Cabinet spending shows up in races all over the country where pro-gay candidates have a good shot. For instance, Bohnett, Gill and Van Ameringen have given $143,000 this year to New York Democrats, who are within two seats of controlling the state senate. A Democratic New York legislature would likely approve equal marriage rights. The Cabinet's Gill and Stryker have seen their money achieve remarkable results in their respective states, Colorado and Michigan.

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There's nothing illegal about the Cabinet's coordination of its members' giving, according to Lawrence Noble, campaign-finance expert with the Washington-based firm Skadden, Arps. . . . it's hard to argue that the left in general and gays in particular should sit on their hands while foes outspend them. . . . For its part, the Cabinet seems poised to prod the gay movement into being sleeker, faster, more tactical.

Loony Bin Elements of GOP Seek More Control

One would think that the data evidencing the flight of moderates from the Republican Party - I myself fled a number of years ago - would be a wake up call to the Party that the embrace of the lunatic Christianist elements has been an ill-advised move regardless of the temporary success of Rovian politics. Should the McCain/Palin ticket and numerous Congressional Republicans go down to defeat next Tuesday, the evidence would seem even stronger that far right extremism and intolerance is driving the Party toward a permanent minority status. But that would require leaders who are in touch with reality - something that automatically excludes the Christianists who seek control the Party with an iron fist. Perhaps it is time for moderate Republicans to start a new party and allow the current GOP to become an irrelevant religious party lost in the political wilderness. Here are some highlights from the Los Angeles Times that look at the battle for the soul - or what's left of it - of the Republican Party:

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The social conservatives and moderates who together boosted the Republican Party to dominance have begun a tense battle over the future of the GOP, with social conservatives already moving to seize control of the party's machinery and some vowing to limit John McCain's influence, even if he wins the presidency.In skirmishes around the country in recent months, evangelicals and others who believe Republicans have been too timid in fighting abortion, gay marriage and illegal immigration have won election to the party's national committee, in preparation for a fight over the direction and leadership of the party.

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The growing power of religious conservatives is alarming some moderate Republicans who believe that the party's main problem is that it has narrowed its appeal and alienated too many voters. . . . Some moderates argue that the party's top priority must be to broaden its outreach, a caution laid down by retired Gen. Colin L. Powell on national television this month when he broke from the party and endorsed Obama. Surveys show McCain beating Obama among white men but losing with almost every other demographic group.

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A focal point of the GOP fight is the selection of the next chairman of the Republican National Committee -- the party's power center for fundraising and strategic thinking. With various factions already trying to build support for their favored candidates, some conservatives are warning that McCain cannot serve as the party's spiritual guide even if he becomes president.

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One moderate contender for party chairman, Jim Greer, is pushing a theme of ethnic outreach. Greer is chief of the state party in Florida and is a close ally of the state's governor, Charlie Crist, who some in the party say is laying the groundwork to spread his brand of centrist Republicanism to the national stage. . . . Greer and Crist have also moved to distance the Florida party from some of the more aggressive tactics of the McCain campaign. In recent weeks, the state party declined to pay for direct-mail pieces linking Obama to 1960s domestic terrorist-turned education professor William Ayers, a connection that the McCain campaign has tried to highlight.

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Some conservatives argue privately that an Obama victory would clear out strategists and policy thinkers from the Bush era and the McCain campaign, leaving the party in a better position to rebuild itself as a contrast to the Democrats, who would have control of Congress as well as the White House.