Hillary Clinton's campaign is getting ready for 2012.
A company associated with Hillary Clinton's top presidential campaign advance staff has purchased a website domain that hints of a 2012 presidential bid for the vanquished senator from New York.
HRC2012.com was bought by the Markham Group on June 8, according to whois.com
Greg Hale of the Markham Group served as a key advance aide to Sen. Clinton, organizing political events for the campaign. The Markham website calls him the "lead consultant for advance and visual messaging." Partners Paul Neaville and Robert McClarty (the son of former White House chief of staff Thomas "Mack" McClarty) also worked on Clinton's advance team. According to whois.com, the site was registered by Todd Wilder, a longtime Democratic operative from Florida. A picture of Clinton pops up when the company's website is called up.
Anyone believe it's for her 2012 Senate campaign? Anyone?
The proposed George W. Bush Sewage Plant renaming that I told you about back in April? Yesterday the initiative qualified for the November ballot in SF. Congrats to the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco, whose board of directors includes drag star Peaches Christ and members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
Bawdy 70's game show The Newlywed Game is coming back to the airwaves. But via Good As You, check out the eligibility rules (PDF):I can't imagine any self-respecting queer couple wanting to go on The Newlywed Game, but then again I didn't use to think that people would eat worms for money on TV.
- 9 to 5: The Musical will begin Broadway previews March 24, 2009, at the Marriott Marquis Theatre following a Sept. 3-Oct. 19 tryout at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. Joe Mantello directs a cast that includes Stephanie J. Block, Megan Hilty, Allison Janney and Marc Kudisch.
- Whoopi Goldberg joins the cast of Xanadu on July 29th for a six-week run as the evil Calliope. Goldberg replaces Jackie Hoffman, who will return after Goldberg's run. I love Whoopi, but Xanudu - Hoffman = refund.
- The Helen Hayes Theater, currently home to Xanadu, has agreed to be purchased by the Second Stage Theatre, which will begin productions there in 2010. Second Stage will become the fourth non-profit Broadway house, joining Roundabout Theater Company, Manhattan Theater Club, and Lincoln Center Theater.
- A revival of West Side Storycomes to Broadway in March 2009. Casting to be announced. An out-of-town trial begins at DC's National Theater in December.
- Monday, July 21st: Broadway Stands Up For Freedom! - a benefit concert to support the youth programs of the New York Civil Liberties Union. The show "focuses the spotlight on the NYCLU's dedication to reproductive rights and other civil liberties issues relevant to young people." More info here.
- Forbidden Broadway: Dances With The Starsincludes a song parodying Broadway beefcake. Title: Xanadude.
- Phantom Of The Opera will close for a week next month for the installation a new surround sound system. "Designed by Olivier Award winner Mick Potter, the $750,000 new surround sound system will consist of over six miles of cable, 155 speakers placed throughout the auditorium, and a digital sound desk that will make the 28-member orchestra and 36 strong cast sound more powerful and clear than ever before. The digital system will up the number of microphones used in the show from 58 to 76 and The Phantom himself will have 3 dedicated microphones."
Using the same language as the amendment, a new Field Poll shows that a majority of Californians continue to oppose Proposition 8. Pollsters expect opposition to grow.
Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in California, is opposed by 51 percent of likely voters with 42 percent in favor, according to a new Field Poll. Those results put the proposed ban in a politically perilous position in the Nov. 4 election, said Mark DiCamillo, director of the nonpartisan Field Poll.
“Starting out behind is usually an ominous sign for a proposition,” DiCamillo said. “Over 90 percent of propositions that start out behind get taken down.” Typically, ballot measures start out ahead, but become less popular as the opposition campaign begins raising questions and creating doubt, he said.
Proposition 8 has attracted nationwide interest, with some analysts estimating that it will generate more than $30 million in total campaign spending. The poll is the first to question voters using the measure's exact language. But the results are similar to a Field Poll on the same topic in May, shortly after the California Supreme Court overturned laws that prohibited same-sex marriage.
The ACLU and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State have filed a joint lawsuit in a federal appeals court asking that government funding be refused to a Baptist childcare agency in Kentucky because the agency fires gay employees and proselytizes to the children.
The lawsuit asserts that Kentucky Baptist Homes has no right to accept public funding while imposing religious dogma on the children in its programs, and that the Homes’ religion-based anti-gay employment policy violates civil rights laws.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Alicia Pedreira, a former employee at the Louisville home who worked with troubled young people. Despite her excellent performance reviews, Pedreira was terminated in 1998 after officials at the facility learned she is a lesbian.
A federal district court dismissed the case earlier this year, ruling that the plaintiffs do not have legal standing to bring it. Americans United and the ACLU Thursday asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the case.
"I put my heart and soul into helping the children who were under the care of Baptist Homes and was making a difference in their lives," said Pedreira. "It was unfair to be fired for being a lesbian. It’s not right that an organization that is funded by state and federal dollars to do work for the state can get away with this." The lawsuit also asks the appeals court to strike down public funding for Kentucky Baptist Homes.
Via Towleroad comes the story of Oklahoma politician Brent Rinehart's homophobic comic book, which he is using to attack the people he thinks are trying to run him out of his OK County Commission office:
The "liberal good ol' boys,” gays and Satan are doing everything they can to get Oklahoma County Commissioner Brent Rinehart out of office, a comic book prepared by his re-election campaign claims. The comic book, obtained Wednesday by The Oklahoman, is expected to be mailed to voters by Rinehart's campaign, Rinehart said.
"A drowning man tends to thrash about,” state Attorney General Drew Edmondson, one of the targets in the book, said through a spokesman. "Nothing Rinehart says is worthy of comment or rebuttal.”
Edmondson filed felony campaign finance charges against Rinehart last year, alleging Rinehart and his former campaign manager illegally funded the 2004 campaign for county commissioner. A trial has been scheduled for September.
Another of the book's targets, Sheriff John Whetsel, called it "extremely pathetic and very bigoted. I was taken back that in 2008, a candidate would use that type of inflammatory material and do it under the name of being a Christian.”
"This is one of the strangest things I've ever seen,” said Keith Gaddie, a political science professor at the University of Oklahoma. "I've never seen a comic book with the phrase ‘anal sodomy' in it before. That was a new one for me.” Gaddie said comics were common political campaign tools decades ago, but not for today. "He's pretty much grinding every ax he's got from his days in the county commission,” Gaddie said. "In a way, it's a sophisticated piece.”
In one sequence, Satan says: "If I can get the kids to believe homosexuality is normal!” The angel replies: "Hey Satan, not with Brent around you won't!”
The Winter Garden was built in 1896 as the American Horse Exchange and was opened by the Schubert family as a theater in 1911. Just a few of the famed Broadway musicals that have played the Winter Garden: Peter Pan, West Side Story, Funny Girl, Mame, Follies, Gypsy, Cats. Since 2001 the theater has hosted Mamma Mia! The movie version opens today, hence this Morning View.
Less than a year after Merck gave up on its initially promising HIV vaccine trial, the U.S. government announced yesterday that it too was giving up on a massive HIV vaccine trial.
Plans for a large human trial of a promising government-developed H.I.V. vaccine in the United States were canceled Thursday because a top federal official said scientists realized that they did not know enough about how H.I.V. vaccines and the immune system interact.
The decision is a major setback in an effort to develop an H.I.V. vaccine that began 24 years ago when government health officials promised a marketed vaccine by 1987. Health officials have long contended that such a vaccine would be their best weapon to control the AIDS pandemic.
A number of other H.I.V. vaccines are in various stages of testing around the world. But there had been high hopes for the government’s trial because the potential vaccine was among a new class that sought to stimulate the immune system in a different way.
The official who canceled the government trial, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it was becoming clearer that more fundamental research and animal testing would be needed before an H.I.V. vaccine was ever marketed.
Scientists say that developing a vaccine against H.I.V. is one of the most difficult scientific endeavors in history because of the uncanny nature of the virus. The government vaccine — known as PAVE, for Partnership for AIDS Vaccine Evaluation — was similar to a much-heralded vaccine that failed last year. That vaccine was developed by Merck, and Dr. Fauci’s agency helped pay for the Merck trials.
The NIH said that it is not completely abandoning the vaccine and will conduct a smaller study first to determine if it reduces HIV in the blood.
In more encouraging news, pathologists in Texas believe they have found the "Achilles heel" of HIV - a weak spot in its protein envelope that must remain constant for it to infect cells. They believe this weak spot may be the key to developing a vaccine.
As Aaron and I were walking in Hell's Kitchen yesterday on our way to see Yaz, we ran into Cheyenne Jackson leaving his apartment, presumably on his way to Damn Yankees, where he's moonlighting from Xanadu this month. (It was 7:30. What time do performers have to be there for an 8PM curtain? Seems to be cutting it close, even for Off Broadway.) Anyway, the block was deserted except for the three of us, and even though Jackson smiled and nodded as he passed, I played it cool, you know, Manhattan style, and didn't say, "OMG! Cheyenne! Can we have a photo!!" Dammit. I've taken plenty of photos of him at press events, but none with ME in them. Dammit.
Last night Aaron and I attended the first of three NYC shows by Yaz (Yazoo to you Brits) as they close out the American leg of their Reconnected reunion tour. It's been over 25 years since Alison Moyet and Vince Clark released the second of their meager two album output, but you wouldn't have known that by the reaction of the audience at the sold-out show at Terminal 5 in Hell's Kitchen. People sang, they swayed, they waved, Alison beamed - it was a total love fest.
The duo played pretty much every song from their two classic albums (1982's Upstairs At Eric's and 1983's You And Me Both), as well as my personal favorite State Farm, which was the non-album b-side to the show's opener, Nobody's Diary. Alison Moyet sounded amazing. A-mazing. You would never ever dream it's been 26 years since Situation blew the roof off every gay club in the world. Vince Clark stayed in his usual stoic Erasure-mode, occasionally lending a vocodered vocal over his very slightly re-worked versions of their beloved catalog.
The audience, as might be expected, consisted primarily of gay men in their late 30's - late 50's, guys who once danced to Yaz in shiny buckled shoes as they tossed their blue-black asymmetrical bangs out of their mascara'd eyes. But last night they waved their heavily tatted arms over their shaven/bald/salt-and-pepper heads and sang along to every song. Who knew so many people knew all the words to Winter Kills and Ode To Boy? (The link to Ode To Boy is a performance clip from last night already on YouTube.) During the encore of their immortal Only You, somebody in the front of the audience passed out a couple of hundred red paper hearts, which the audience waved slowly over their heads, bringing Alison to visible tears. It was lovely.I've seen Vince Clark many times as part of Erasure, of course, and I'd seen Alison perform solo at SF Pride in '99, but like probably everyone else last night, I'd never seen them as Yaz. Now all I need is a proper Alison Moyet solo tour so I can hear Love Resurrection, Invisible, or my all-time Moyet favorite, the uber-fabulous Whispering Your Name.
Terminal 5 Set List:Nobody's Diary, Bad Connection, Mr. Blue, Good Times, Tuesday, Ode To Boy, Goodbye 70s, Too Pieces, In My Room, Anyone, I Before E Except After C, Walk Away From Love, State Farm, Sweet Thing, Winter Kills, Midnight, Unmarked, Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I), Don't Go. ENCORE: Only You, Situation.
Below is my blurry, shaky video of Don't Go, the last song before the encore. I pan around a bit at the end so you can get a sense of the crowd and the venue. Ah, the venue! I kept saying to Aaron, "This place would make a GREAT nightclub!" Then it finally dawned on me that it had been a club, Exit, and that I'd been there many times five or six years ago. Time has not been as kind to my memory as it has been to Alison Moyet's voice.
Yaz plays Terminal 5 again tonight and closes the tour at the Beacon Theater on Saturday. Get there. Or wait another 25 years.
I know there's an "internet sensation" every ten seconds, but you really, really, really have to watch Act 1 of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a singing, acting, evil Doogie Houser bwah-ha-ha-ing bit of genius.
Conceived by Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a three-part musical miniseries, has become an online sensation since Part 1's release Tuesday. The traffic quickly crashed the server for free-view website drhorrible.com, and iTunes' downloadable version instantly became, at $1.99, the No. 1 video.
The musical stars How I Met Your Mother actor Neil Patrick Harris as tongue-tied super-villain Horrible, who hopes his freeze-ray gun will gain him standing with the Evil League of Evil and win him the girl of his dreams. Nathan Fillion (Desperate Housewives) co-stars as self-absorbed hero Captain Hammer. Felicia Day's Laundromat girl captures both their hearts.
Act 2 comes out later today and the series concludes (for now) with Act 3 on Saturday. After that, you'll have to pay to get it from iTunes. Created for a cost in the "low six figures", the series is expected to make a fortune on paid downloads.
The tidy palm lined streets and affordable homes of the Rybolt Reserve subdivision in suburban Orlando have become popular with middle class homebuyers and speculators but if you are a gay or unmarried opposite-sex couple the Homeowners Association has a message - don't bother to try to rent here according to some property owners.
Several owners say they have been told by the Association they cannot rent their properties in the East Orange County subdivision to couples who are not legally married or to same-sex pairs. "The Homeowner's Association is totally out of control," Suzane Musashe, who leases homes in the subdivision for investors, told WFTV.
"I feel like I am back in the 60's because there is such discrimination going on," Musashe told the station. The prohibitions are listed in a set of rules passed by the HOA, which describes Rybolt Reserve as a family oriented community. Musahse said the strict rules are so limiting they will send some homeowners into foreclosure. "You can only rent to a married couple, that's it. That eliminates more than half your market," she told WFTV.
The HOA restrictions are legal. Orlando has an ordinance protecting same-sex couples who purchase homes, but not renters. County Commissioner Bill Segal told the station that he may introduce an ordinance to protect gay and lesbian couples who rent.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has campaigned against the usage of the N-word by rappers and the film industry, apparently used the word himself in that now-famous whispered conversation caught by Fox News.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson used the N-word during a break in a TV interview where he criticized presidential candidate Barack Obama, Fox News confirmed Wednesday. The longtime civil rights leader already came under fire this month for crude off-air comments he made against Obama in what he thought was a private conversation during a taping of a "Fox & Friends" news show.
In additional comments from that same conversation, first reported by TVNewser, Jackson is reported to have said Obama was "talking down to black people," and referred to blacks with the N-word when he said Obama was telling them "how to behave."
Though a Fox spokesman confirmed the TVNewer's account to The Associated Press, the network declined to release the full transcript of the July 6 show and did not air the comments. Jackson - who is traveling in Spain - apologized in a statement Wednesday for "hurtful words" but didn't offer specifics.
"I am deeply saddened and distressed by the pain and sorrow that I have caused as a result of my hurtful words. I apologize again to Senator Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, their children as well as to the American public," Jackson said in a written statement. "There really is no justification for my comments and I hope that the Obama family and the American public will forgive me. I also pray that we, as a nation, can move on to address the real issues that affect the American people."
You may recall Jackson criticizing Seinfeld's Michael Richards when Richards was caught using the word during a stand-up performance.
That's the word the Dutch are using to refer to married gay men's "maiden" name. If you take your husband's name, of course. It just means "birthname." C'mon, we can do better than that. Ideas?
Kay Ryan, 62, an openly lesbian woman, has been named the nation's 16th poet laureate.
Known for her sly, compact poems that revel in wordplay and internal rhymes, Ms. Ryan has won a carriage full of poetry prizes for her funny and philosophical work, including awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1994, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, worth $100,000.
Ryan has published six books of poetry and her work can regularly be found in the The New Yorker.
And the United States inches closer to the civilized world....
AIDS Action applauds the Senate for overwhelming, bipartisan passage of the Lantos/Hyde U.S. Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act (S 2731), which reauthorizes the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The organization particularly commends the lifting of the statutory requirement that bars travel and immigration to the U.S. by HIV positive non-citizens. Also noteworthy are the mention and recognition of HIV prevention, care and treatment needs of men who have sex with men (MSM) and the removal of the directive requiring that 33% of prevention funds be spent on "abstinence-only until marriage" programs.
"PEPFAR has had significant success in saving lives and preventing new cases of HIV infection," said Ronald Johnson, Deputy Executive Director of AIDS Action. "Continuation of PEPFAR ensures expansion and sustainability of the greatest global heath initiative in history," he added. "The lifting of the travel and immigration bar removes the blemish on the United States leadership on HIV and AIDS. We are especially pleased that this discriminatory law has finally been repealed." AIDS Action urges prompt and timely final passage of the legislation and urges the President to sign the Lantos/Hyde bill.
The bill was passed WITHOUT Sen. Elizabeth Dole's repulsive attempt to rename it after Jesse Helms, the very scumbag who created the travel ban in the first place.
All in all, we have four wins today*.
1. People with HIV are now eligible to visit and immigrate to the United States. 2. Third world countries will get desperately needed funds to fight AIDS. 3. Opposition to Elizabeth Dole's re-election has been supercharged. 4. Andrew Sullivan gets to stay in the United States.
In a setback for the marriage equality battle in California, this afternoon the state Supreme Court refused to remove Proposition 8 from the November ballot.
The state Supreme Court refused today to remove a proposed ban on same-sex marriage from the November ballot. The initiative, Proposition 8, is a state constitutional amendment that would overturn the court's May 15 ruling allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry in California.
Gay-rights advocates sued June 19 to block a vote on Prop. 8, arguing that the measure would destroy fundamental rights that can't legally be abolished by an initiative. Noting that the Supreme Court's ruling relied on the constitutional rights of privacy and equal protection, they argued that a repeal would amount to a revision of the Constitution - something that requires approval of two-thirds of the state Legislature before going to the voters.
Sponsors of Prop. 8 replied in court papers that their opponents were trying to deprive Californians of their right to change their own Constitution. The court dismissed the case today in a unanimous order, without comment.
It seemed like a long shot, but still it's a disappointment.
Ron Paul's Openly Gay Campaign Chair Dies Without Insurance
Kent Snyder, libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul's openly gay campaign chair, has died of pneumonia at age 49. In an ironic twist to Paul's small government libertarian ideals, Snyder had no health insurance and leaves a $400K medical debt. Both the McCain and Obama campaigns offer full health insurance to campaign staff.
Activists belonging to the libertarian wing of the Republican Party continue to mourn the loss of Kent Snyder, a 49-year-old gay political operative credited with propelling the presidential campaign of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) into a national, grassroots movement that raised more than $35 million.
Snyder, who served as Paul’s campaign chair, died of pneumonia on June 26 after being hospitalized for about two months and after running up medical bills exceeding $400,000, according to friends and family members, who said he did not have health insurance.
Gay staffers from the Paul campaign, some speaking on condition that they not be identified, said they learned about Snyder’s unpaid medical bills from a web site created by his friends that calls on Paul supporters to contribute to a special fund to help Snyder’s family pay the bills, which come mostly from a two-month hospitalization. So far, the site (kentsnyder.com) has raised about $32,000.
“I can’t believe he didn’t have health insurance,” said one political activist who read about Snyder’s unpaid medical bills in a story published last month in the Wall Street Journal. “I can’t believe that Ron Paul didn’t give him health insurance,” said the activist, who asked not to be identified.
Libertarians loath the idea of universal health care because it would bloat the tax burden. Guess who's probably going to end up paying Snyder's tab? Sad, sad, sad.
Newsweek Poll Shows Obama's Lead Down To Three Points, Others Show Lead As High As Eight
I missed this when it came out this weekend. Obama's run to the center has almost completely erased his lead over John McCain according to Newsweek. Other polls show Obama's lead shrinking, but still as high as eight points.
A month after emerging victorious from the bruising Democratic nominating contest, some of Barack Obama's glow may be fading. In the latest NEWSWEEK Poll, the Illinois senator leads Republican nominee John McCain by just 3 percentage points, 44 percent to 41 percent. The statistical dead heat is a marked change from last month's NEWSWEEK Poll, where Obama led McCain by 15 points, 51 percent to 36 percent.
Obama's rapid drop comes at a strategically challenging moment for the Democratic candidate. Having vanquished Hillary Clinton in early June, Obama quickly went about repositioning himself for a general-election audience--an unpleasant task for any nominee emerging from the pander-heavy primary contests and particularly for a candidate who'd slogged through a vigorous primary challenge in most every contest from January until June. Obama's reversal on FISA legislation, his support of faith-based initiatives and his decision to opt out of the campaign public-financing system left him open to charges he was a flip-flopper. In the new poll, 53 percent of voters (and 50 percent of former Hillary Clinton supporters) believe that Obama has changed his position on key issues in order to gain political advantage.
On June 20th, the Newsweekheadline was: Obama Opens Up 15-Point Lead. Other poll results: CBS/New York Times poll shows Obama up by six. The ABC/Washington Post poll shows Obama up by eight.
There's trouble between the two biggest backers of California's Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that would overturn gay marriage. One group of haters doesn't want the other group of haters joining the fight to keep the measure on the ballot. Because, get this, they hate TOO much.
A united front by conservative forces against same-sex marriage in California is showing signs of cracking -- or of having been an illusion all along.
Last week, the proponents of Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that would limit marriage to heterosexual couples, asked the California Supreme Court to prevent another conservative group -- the Campaign for California Families -- from intervening in a suit that could determine whether that issue stays on the November ballot.
In a short brief filed Thursday, Folsom, Calif., lawyer Andrew Pugno, counsel for ProtectMarriage.com, argued that rather than back Prop 8, the CCF actively campaigned against it for years in favor of another amendment that would have sharply curtailed all gay rights.
"Only now that the act has qualified for the ballot as Proposition 8 do proposed intervenors support it," Pugno wrote. "Against this backdrop, there is significant concern that the presence of [the CCF] in this action will substantially interfere with real parties' ability to effectively defend Proposition 8." In an interview Monday, Pugno referred to the CCF as "extremists" who want to go beyond the issue of marriage and "strip away gay rights" of any kind.
Mathew Staver, founder and president of the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which represents the CCF, said Monday he was "disappointed and confused" by Pugno's motion. But he said his group is determined to back Prop 8.
It's almost funny. Almost. But also it's very interesting that Protect Marriage knows what thin ice they're on.
This billboard went up in St. Cloud, Florida this week. St. Cloud is a one-time cow town just south of Orlando in Osceola County, but now it's mostly known for its strip of budget hotels not too far from main gate of Disney World. The billboard was put up by some whackjob local businessman and "man of God" who is promoting his country record, Please Don't Vote For A Democrat. Apparently he forgets that 9/11 happened under a Republican president, a Republican New York governor, and a Republican NYC mayor. Whatever sells records, Gomer.
Haloscan, which was recently acquired by another company, is having another meltdown. It appears that your comments ARE being recorded, but the pop-up comment boxes are showing empty at the moment. So damn annoying.
Elizabeth Dole Says "Fuck You" To Americans Who Died From AIDS
This is unbelievable. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) wants to rename the the current AIDS relief bill after Jesse Helms.
SA 5074. Mrs. DOLE submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill S. 2731, to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 2009 through 2013 to provide assistance to foreign countries to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows: On page 1, line 5, strike "and Henry J. Hyde" and insert ", Henry J. Hyde, and Jesse Helms".
Jesse Helms, the man who in 1987 described AIDS prevention literature as "so obscene, so revolting, I may throw up."
Jesse Helms, the man who in 1988 vigorously opposed the Kennedy-Hatch AIDS research bill, saying, "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy."
Jesse Helms, the man who in 1995 said (in opposition to refunding the Ryan White Act) that the government should spend less on people with AIDS because they got sick due to their "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct."
Jesse Helms, the man who in 2002 announced that he'd changed his mind about AIDS funding for Africa, but not for American gays, because homosexuality "is the primary cause of the doubling and redoubling of AIDS cases in the United States."
Many people hold Ronald Reagan responsible for adding to the early AIDS death toll by his inaction on the pandemic, but it was Helms' actions in thwarting early research that inarguably hastened the demise of many thousands of Americans. How many of my friends, of your friends, would be alive today if the life-saving medications had arrived just one fucking year earlier?
Fuck YOU, Senator Dole. Fuck you with something hard and sandpapery. (Via - Atomic Gay Wonk)
John McCain has softened his stance on gay adoption. Via his Director of Communications, Jill Hazelbaker:
"McCain could have been clearer in the interview in stating that his position on gay adoption is that it is a state issue, just as he made it clear in the interview that marriage is a state issue. He was not endorsing any federal legislation.
McCain’s expressed his personal preference for children to be raised by a mother and a father wherever possible. However, as an adoptive father himself, McCain believes children deserve loving and caring home environments, and he recognizes that there are many abandoned children who have yet to find homes. McCain believes that in those situations that caring parental figures are better for the child than the alternative."
John McCain, however, is cool with states banning adoptions by same-sex couples, even if it means that many abandoned children will never find homes or caring parental figures to look after them. Oh, and speaking of abandoned children: McCain divorced his first wife in 1980 when their daughter, the youngest of their three children, was just 14 years old. So John McCain—who personally prefers for children to be raised by a mother and a father—abandoned three of his own children, depriving them of the kind of mother-and-father home that he believes children deserve. Except, you know, his own.
Massachusetts Senate Repeals Marriage Residency Requirement
Today the Massachusetts Senate repealed the 1913 law limiting marriages performed there to residents of the state. The bill passed by a general voice vote with no objections.
The bill now moves to the state House of Representatives where it is expected to pass overwhelmingly. Governor Deval Patrick has promised to approve the bill "proudly", which will put a recognized-at-home legal marriage within a few hours drive for New York's gay couples.
The 1913 law was originally created to prevent interracial couples from crossing state lines to marry. It was ignored for decades until former Gov. Mitt Romney invoked it to prevent out-of-state gays from using their Massachusetts marriages to force court cases in their home states.
With his newest ad, Barack Obama continues to stress his willingness and ability to be a strong military leader and hypes his relationship with Republican Senator Dick Lugar, the long-time Bush-lackey war hawk who last year broke ranks and called for an end to the war. Still, this ad proves that when it comes to electioneering, terrorism continues to sell.
Pharmaceutical giant Roche has announced that they are suspending further research into HIV drugs because none of the drugs they are working on appear to improve on drugs already on the market.
"Research scientists currently working in HIV will be reassigned to other activities," Linda Dyson, a spokeswoman in Roche's U.S. office in New Jersey, said in an e-mail. Dyson confirmed an e-mail sent on Wednesday to some activists informing them of the decision. In that e-mail, the company said it "decided to refocus our resources within virology on diseases in which we can deliver substantial improvements over existing medications."
Fuzeon, Roche's HIV fusion-inhibitor, grossed almost $300M in sales last year, but its annual cost of $25,000 has made it less appealing than other medications. Roche will continue to sell Fuzeon in partnership with Trimeris. According to the story, HIV activists are not likely to mourn the withdrawal of Roche from the HIV drug market as the company has been unwilling to discount their products in the manner of other big pharma companies.
Drooling, enfeebled, medicated, Cheney acolyte. War hawk, Constitution burner, trophy wife. Pretty much hits on all the left's attacks on McCain. It's a pity the humorless National Review would never really pull a New Yorker in this way.
Room Eight, a blog about NYC politics co-founded by popular Politico.com columnist Ben Smith, has been quietly fighting a subpoena from Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson's office. The subpoena demanded to know the identity of the Room Eight anonymous blogger "Republican Dissident" who had criticized Johnson's office.
The subpoena carried a warning in capital letters that disclosing its very existence “could impede the investigation being conducted and thereby interfere with law enforcement” — implying that if the bloggers blabbed, they could be prosecuted.
“We were totally perplexed,” said Ben Smith, who co-founded Room 8 with Gur Tsabar. (The site calls itself an “imaginary neighbor” to the press room — Room 9 — in City Hall in New York.) The two promptly began looking for a lawyer. “We knew enough to be scared.”
This, of course, is a blogger’s nightmare: enforced silence and the prospect of jail time. The district attorney eventually withdrew the subpoena and lifted the gag requirement after the bloggers threatened to sue. But the fact that the tactic was used at all raised alarm bells for some free speech advocates.
The demand for secrecy raised the unnerving prospect that prosecutors could quietly investigate anyone who posts comments online, while the person making those comments is unaware of and unable to respond to the risk. The tactic also robs bloggers of one of their most powerful weapons: the chance to spread the word and turn the legal attack into an online cause célèbre.
Ben Smith called the Bronx DA's office to ask why they wanted the information, but prosecutors refused to say. District Attorney Johnson claimed to have no knowledge of the subpoena, which also demanded the IP addresses of several anonymous commenters on Room Eight. After Smith engaged the pro-bono assistance of privacy advocacy lawyers, Johnson reviewed the subpoena and judged it "unnecessary."
Once the subpoena was withdrawn, Smith was free to discuss the situation and it has know blown up into quite the hot topic, with many bloggers calling on New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate Johnson's office.
As the Times notes, there are ways to shield your IP address, but this case certainly raises questions about how many other gag-order type subpoenas have been used by the government to find the identities of our anonymous "dissidents".
Catching up on my YouTube subscriptions, I watched this latest post from my favorite anti-theist, Pat Condell. A one-time stand-up comedian, Condell is much more appealing to me than rant kings Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins. Still, I'm almost surprised that his famous 2007 post, The Trouble With Islam, hasn't gotten him killed.
The Second Circuit Court, which covers New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, has issued an apparently precedent-setting ruling that if you are caught with illegal drugs and admit to having shared them with others, you can also be charged with dealing.
Ricky P. Wallaceargued that he should not have been convicted of cocaine distribution because he merely shared the drug with friends and did not profit from its sale. But the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has informed Wallace that, in some circumstances, sharing can be considered a crime. In United States v. Wallace, 05-1424-cr, the circuit held for the first time that the "sharing of drugs, without a sale, constitutes illegal distribution for purposes of 21 U.S.C. §841(a)." Judges Dennis Jacobs, Amalya Kearse and Robert Katzmann said their decision preserves the important distinction between "personal use" of drugs and "distribution."
Without fanfare or press conferences, two lanes of Broadway from 42nd Street south to Herald Square have been permanently closed for the construction of a 7 block-long public esplanade to be outfitted with planters, seating, and a bike lane.
In a surprising reshaping of the urban landscape, the city is creating a public esplanade along a portion of one of its most prominent streets, Broadway in Midtown, setting aside the east side of the roadway for a bicycle lane and a pedestrian walkway with cafe tables, chairs, umbrellas and flower-filled planters. The esplanade, which the city is calling Broadway Boulevard, will run from 42nd Street to Herald Square. Scheduled to open in mid-August, it will change that section of Broadway from a four-lane to a two-lane street.
I'd rather have seen this done through Times Square, but I guess that wouldn't work.
For the second year running, GLAAD has named ABC as the major television network which has best presented the lives of LGBT people. Among cable channels surveyed, FX was named as best.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) today released its second annual GLAAD Network Responsibility Index, a report that maps the quantity, quality and diversity of images of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people on television. Once again, primetime programming on the five broadcast networks was evaluated and, for the first time, original primetime programming on 10 of the highest-rated cable networks was examined as well.
ABC, with shows like Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty, again received the highest ranking of the five broadcast networks; NBC and Fox remained the two lowest-scoring networks, with their LGBT-inclusive hours dropping slightly from the previous season. Among the sampling of cable networks evaluated, FX featured the largest number of LGBT-inclusive hours of original programming, while TNT offered the fewest.
"Time and again we see that what people watch on TV shapes how they view and treat the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people around them," says GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano. "ABC and FX are leading the way when it comes to telling our stories, showing other networks that including images of our community can go hand in hand with critical and commercial success. This year's GLAAD Network Responsibility Index offers an in-depth examination of where networks excelled and how they can improve, particularly in conveying the diversity of our lives."
The GLAAD Network Responsibility Index is scoring system used to review over 6000 hours of programming. "Each hour was reviewed for any on-screen major or minor LGBT representations. Based on the quantity, overall quality and diversity of these representations, a grade was assigned to each network: Excellent,Good, Adequate, or Failing."
According to the Times Of India, a lack of available women caused by the practice of aborting female fetuses is causing a "marked increase in gay activity" and male prostitution in the northwest state of Gujarat.
AHMEDABAD: The 2001 census ranked Mehsana as the district with the worst skewed sex ratio of just 801 women per 1000 men. The after effects are being seen now, with the north Gujarat town witnessing a marked increase in gay activity. All thanks to the dearth of eligible brides because of rampant foeticide over the years. Trends show that many affluent Mehsana men in their 30s are now wining and dining gays from Ahmedabad.
Suresh (name changed), a prominent figure in the gay circuit of Ahmedabad, is now being sought out frequently by unmarried men from Mehsana. "I get at least eight to 10 calls each month from Mehsana who pick me up from Ahmedabad. We check into guest houses on the Ahmedabad-Mehsana highway," says Suresh, who works in a cloth merchant's office in Kalupur. "Most of them prefer men over women as taking female sex workers to guest houses is risky," adds Suresh, who says there are at least half a dozen men like him in Ahmedabad who regularly entertain clients from Mehsana.
Increasing homosexuality is seen as the reason why Mehsana ranks after the migrant hub of Surat in terms of HIV prevalence. Mehsana's men have been known to buy brides from tribal areas, as there is an acute shortage of girls in most communities. "While homosexuality is increasing everywhere, in the case of Mehsana the skewed sex ratio could be fueling this trend further," says sociologist Gaurang Jani.
Abortion of female fetuses + time = gay prostitution. Hmmm.
An Italian prosecutor who has brought down several local mafia families says that gay mafiosi are "too scared to come out of the closet", but that American crime families are more forgiving of homo wiseguys.
Antonio Ingroia, who has helped bring several bosses to justice, said: "Being gay is still a taboo for Italian society in general, let alone the Mafia, which is an archaic organisation. "These bosses have to cover their homosexuality; they're afraid because they risk being ridiculed and killed." Mr Ingroia said that the American Mafia had "a more broad-minded attitude towards gays and so gay bosses can come out."
Times have certainly changed. In 2003, a mob informer told a New York court that the gay head of the mafia family on which The Sopranos series based was executed by his own men because they feared the family would be ridiculed by the rest of the underworld. Anthony Capo told the trial: "Nobody's gonna respect us if we have a gay homosexual boss sitting down discussing Cosa Nostra business." John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato, head of the De Cavalcante family, the biggest in the state of New Jersey, was shot dead in 1992 after it was rumoured that he had relationships with other men. Capo told the court: "It shocked me he couldn't be acting that way - he was a leader of men."
Well, the American mafia did historically run the NYC gay bar scene.
Thanks to dictator Robert Mugabe's fubar regime, hyperinflation in Zimbabwe has forced the government to cease printing their $500M notes (above) and switch to $25 and $50 billion Zimbabwean dollar notes. The price of a newspaper in Zimbabwe is now $25B ZD. At the time of yesterday's above-linked story, a beer in a Zimbabwean bar was $150B ZD, or $6 USD. But by the time you read this, that beer will probably cost $50 billion more.
The madness, however, may end very soon. The German company that provides the paper to print the bills has suspended sales due to Mugabe's fraudulent election last month. What happens after the government can longer print the increasingly worthless bills? A barter economy? Revolution? Both, probably.
PFLAG Pissed Over McCain's Anti-Gay Adoption Comments
From Sunday's New York Timesinterview with John McCain:
Question: President Bush believes that gay couples should not be permitted to adopt children. Do you agree with that?
Mr. McCain: I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no I don’t believe in gay adoption.
Q: Even if the alternative is the kid staying in an orphanage, or not having parents.
Mr. McCain: I encourage adoption and I encourage the opportunities for people to adopt children I encourage the process being less complicated so they can adopt as quickly as possible. And Cindy and I are proud of being adoptive parents.
Q: But your concern would be that the couple should a traditional couple.
“In a country where more than 125,000 children are waiting for foster parents, Senator McCain would deny loving homes to children who desperately need them simply because of an outdated prejudice about what a family may look like,” said Jody M. Huckaby, executive director of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). “We are disappointed and saddened that a public leader who is himself an adoptive father would deny the children in America’s foster care system the opportunity to thrive as part of a welcoming family. Love makes a family, but short-sighted positions like Senator McCain’s can certainly tear families apart, too.”
Many marrying mo's in California are requesting no wedding gifts, instead they are asking friends and family to donate to the fight against Proposition 8.
Gays and lesbians marrying in California are ditching traditional wedding gifts and asking friends to contribute money to fight a ballot measure that would make their unions illegal.
A month after California began legally marrying same-sex partners, thousands of dollars that might have been spent on toasters or dinnerware for newlyweds have been donated to the campaign against the November referendum that seeks to define marriage in the state as only between a man and a woman.
"Most of the couples marrying have been together a very long time. They have already moved in together and some of them have kids together," said John Duran, president of Equality California.
"So the usual notion of a huge reception or acquiring your first microwave is not really happening. A lot of these couples are directing their family and friends to the wedding registry on our site to help us keep these marriages in place."
Unshocking: 60% Of Christian Website Readers Believe New Yorker's Obamas Cover Is "Dangerously Close To The Truth"
Via Queerty, here's the latest result of today's poll on World Net Daily, which ask readers to "sound off" on New Yorker's Obamas-as-terrorists cover. At the moment, 60% of their wingnut readers believe the cartoon is "isn't too far from the dangerous truth about the Obama family." Embiggen for the idiocy.
Today Michelangelo Signorile blasts the hypocrisy of John McCain's stance on gay marriage, pointing out yesterday's Los Angeles Times story which discusses the fact that McCain got engaged to his present wife Cindy while still legally married to his first wife, who had just been in a devastating car accident.
In fact, McCain got his marriage license with Cindy several weeks before his divorce had been finalized. Yesterday McCain repeated his opposition to gay marriage but added that he also "doesn't believe in gay adoption."
Some of the callers to Signorile's SiriusFM show argued that McCain's marriage history is old news and shouldn't be discussed. Signorile disagrees:
1) For a man who is pushing an amendment in California to uphold the "sanctity" of marriage -- and cut gays and lesbians out of it -- I think it certainly is relevant to look at how he has treated this institution himself, personally and legally. This, for me, is the number one reason why this story is enormously important. It cuts to the core of his own claims on marriage;
2) McCain appears to have lied about when he finalized his divorce and whether or not he was living with his first while dating the second one, and that surely raises questions about what else he might be lying about in his past, and certainly a lie of any kind by a presidential candidate is news;
3) How horrendous McCain treated his first wife does reflect one his character, something that once again is front and center in an election; it also brings us back to recent times and his coziness with a female lobbyist, and, as The New York Times reported (and was attack by Republicans for), the speculation among some on his staff that he was having an affair with the lobbyist. Cindy McCain defended her husband publicly, and said her husband wouldn't be involved with another woman while married. And yet, as the LA Times story reveals, Cindy McCain was dating him while he was still married and was still living with his wife even though McCain has tried to cover up that fact;
4)The Reagans are reported to have been angry with McCain for what he did to his first wife. Surely the fact that a previous Republican president and his wife were angry at a future Republican presidential candidate is news.
In what may be the best thing to happen to Gotham's waning nightclub scene in many years, Mayor Bloomberg's office has announced that he is looking into repealing New York City's nightlife-stifling cabaret law. That 82 year-old restriction prevents three or more people from dancing in a bar or restaurant unless that establishment has a city-issued cabaret license, a treasured little document only held by 181 businesses in this city of eight million.
During Rudy Giuliani's "quality of life" crackdown in the late '90s, police regularly fined or closed businesses that allowed dancing but did not have a cabaret license. Just last year a court upheld the city's right to issue and enforce the licenses. Such enforcements have been a convenience afforded the NYPD to close down "troublesome" nightclubs at their whim.
As NYC's fringe neighborhoods continue to gentrify and luxurify at a dizzying pace, the nouveaux riche of Manhattan have complained loudly and often effectively about the nightclubs in the nightclub districts they have moved into. You don't move next to the aiport and then complain about planes, but apparently it's totally reasonable to buy a zillion dollar loft across from a decade-old disco and complain about music.
Cheers to Bloomberg for at least floating this idea. Let's hope he succeeds.
With I Kissed A Girl, Kate Perry's pop ode to lesbian experimentation in its third week at the top of Billboard's singles chart, conservatives are continuing to fruitlessly (heh) blow their tops. Over on Townhall.com, Brent Bozell III is calling this "the bi-curious summer."
When our culture merchants calculate how to exploit societal attitudes toward the homosexual lifestyle, one factor doesn't enter into the equation. Frankly, they don't give a d--- about people who believe it's a sin against God. Those religious people with their religious hang-ups aren't likely to watch MTV, so why bother with their silly complaints?
Religious concerns safely tossed aside, producers are free to explore how best to profit from pushing envelopes. They know that (most) men don't enjoy watching gay men, but enough do like to watch women flirt with lesbianism to make it a commercially viable enterprise. Enter the idea of women being "bi-curious," as the slang goes.
The trend has landed on top of the Billboard pop charts and has dominated the top of the i-Tunes download list in the form of Katy Perry's song "I Kissed A Girl." The concept has become so mainstream that she performed her song on Fox's summer series "So You Think You Can Dance." She's also made a cameo appearance on the CBS soap opera "The Young and the Restless." This summer she's one of the few female performers featured on the Warped Tour, an appropriate word for her act.
Bozell goes on to attack MTV for "exploiting" bisexuality via Tila Tequila. Where has Bozell been for the last 20 years? Pretty girls flirting with bisexuality have been the hallmark of straight porn, nighttime soaps, and cable channels for, like, ever.
"It is with great sadness that I announce that I feel I must withdraw from openly supporting man-woman marriage in the United States. I recently learned quite a bit of disturbing information that makes it impossible for me to continue supporting a movement I no longer respect. I have not yet decided when or even if I will write about why I’m ending my participation in this debate.
"I’d like to thank Maggie Gallagher of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy who got me started with blogging at MarriageDebate.com and encouraged me to create my own blog, which ultimately became GaysDefendMarriage.com. I’d also like to thank the dozens of commenters, both those who agree with me and those who disagree, who have made this Web site a true place of conversation rather than just another pro-man-woman-marriage site.
"In case you’re wondering:
"1) I do not advocate that people give time or money to the Proposition 8 campaign in California.
"2) People should vote their consciences on the ballot measure. I’m not a California voter, but if I was, I’d probably hold my nose and vote yes, though I can’t be sure. " - David Benkof, the putrid prince of self-loathing, in a typically bizarre "final" post on his blog, Gays Defend Marriage.
You may recall that Box Turtle Bulletinexposed Benkof's inflated journalistic claims last month. Whatever this mysterious epiphany that Benkof has experienced may be, he hasn't quite seen the light, having dropped in on Pam Spaulding's blog this morning to call her a "nasty bitch."
The U.S. Census Bureau announced that it will not be counting gay marriages in its 2010 nationwide count of Americans and how they live. In fact they will "edit" the responses of legally married gay couples to change their status to "unmarried partners."
The U.S. Census Bureau, reacting to the federal Defense of Marriage Act and other mandates, plans to edit the 2010 census responses of same-sex couples who marry legally in California, Massachusetts or any other state. They will be reported as "unmarried partners," rather than married spouses, in census tabulations - a policy that will likely draw the ire of gay rights groups.
The Census Bureau followed the same procedure for the 2000 census, and it does not plan to change in 2010 even though courts in Massachusetts and now California have ruled gay men and lesbians can marry lawfully.
"This has been a question we've been looking at for quite a long time," said Martin O'Connell, chief of the Census Bureau's Fertility and Family Statistics Branch. "It's not something the bureau could arbitrarily or casually decide to change on a whim, because our data is used by virtually every federal agency." The Census Bureau is not falsifying people's responses, O'Connell said, because the bureau will retain people's original census responses.
Shannon Minter of the National Center For Lesbian Rights: "To have the federal government disappear your marriage I'm sure will be painful and upsetting. It really is something out of Orwell. It's shameful."
