Congrats Denny

The Democratic establishment tried to boot Congressman Dennis Kucinich out of the system, waging an expensive primary campaign to unseat him. Kucinich held on though:

(Columbus, Ohio) Dennis Kucinich, the liberal Ohio politician who has made two failed White House campaigns, won the Democratic primary Tuesday in his battle to keep his seat against the toughest, best-financed challenger in his 12-year congressional career.

Kucinich genuinely stands on the sides of issues that favor helping people and ensuring equality for everyone. It's hopeful that Democrats in his district decided, by a wide margin, to keep him:

With 36 percent of precincts reporting, Kucinich was ahead with 52 percent of the vote, compared with 31 percent for Cimperman, according to unofficial returns compiled by The Associated Press.

Jon Swift On Obama's Backers

"Conservative" Jon Swift gives us a list of "supporters" that Obama should denounce. An excerpt from Jon's funny piece:

"Incidentally, the 'Yes We Can' video is directed by Jesse Dylan, whose father Bob Dylan wrote 'Subterranean Homesick Blues,' which included the lyric 'You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,' which is where the violent, radical, left-wing group the Weather Underground got its name."

Ding Dong's In

Utterly irrelevant Ralph Nader has put himself (because nobody asked him to) in the 2008 race. As Pam notes, his percentage in 2000 was 2.7% of the vote and in 2004 it was 0.3%.

I'm not ranting because I'm afraid of Nader the spoiler (As he very well was in 2000, and despite the cute pic above). I'm pointing out that he's not going to be the one to expose the hypocrisies in the Democrats' platforms (e.g., promising health insurance for everyone while clearly bedding with a bloated insurance industry.). Anyone who thinks he's going to be taken seriously enough to effect change in dialog or frames is as delusional as Ron Paul believers ("but Dr. Paul makes soooo much sense, it's so simple if you'd just listen... butterflies, and opportunity for everyone, yaaaay!") or even Nader himself.

The press shouldn't have bothered with a whisper on this. Be sure though, Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, and their rest of their ilk will claim a "Nader movement" despite the fact that any celebrity could enter the race at this point and catch as many votes as Nader. The great political thinkers that make up our media are never ones to deny the hubris of a crazy white guy with hate for the Dems.

Super Same Old Same Old

It's Super Tuesday, the day that could decide which candidate gets the presidential nomination for both parties. Also, it might not.

I'm not extremely excited about Clinton or Obama; neither openly support marriage equality. That position alone means I'm not someone they see, or feel they can afford to see, as worthy of having the rights that my straight neighbor has.

A Democrat controlled Senate isn't preventing passage of things like bills providing immunity for telecoms that spy on Americans. So, I'm not expecting much from a Dem in the White House.

I really hope I'm wrong because it's very likely that the next president will help determine the makeup of the Supreme Court. That will have a direct impact on how legitimate a human I am in the eyes of American law.

Make no mistake. Getting a Democrat elected president is important to prevent the disaster that would be a McCain or Romney determined Supreme Court (Goodbye marriage equality, hello sodomy laws.). But I can't imagine Clinton or Obama nominating a legitimate progressive for the court.

Given that and the caving that Democrats are doing in Congress, I feel like I'm casting my vote to maintain status quo and avert disaster rather than voting for change. Is it important? Extremely. Is it inspiring? Hardly. Is it more of the same for LGBT people? Absolutely.

An Unbiased Media

Does the "liberal media" include Chris Matthews of MSNBC gushing over John McCain after Bush's SOTU address? From Media Matters:

MATTHEWS: Let's go to Senator John McCain, Republican presidential -- there he is! Senator McCain, you know you're in my heart! I have to tell you the president gave your speech tonight.

[...]

McCAIN: I know that pundits like you and [MSNBC host] Keith [Olbermann] were making different predictions about who was going to win about a month ago, not only on the Democratic side, but on our side as well. So, I think a lot of things can happen between now and a week from now or even -- so, I just think --

MATTHEWS: I know.

McCAIN: -- things are very unsettled. I think a lot of Americans are undecided.

MATTHEWS: Well, you show a lot of courage out there, Senator. Thank you very much for coming on tonight. And by the way, we have our jobs, too. Our job is to predict what's --

McCAIN: I know you do. Tell Keith.

MATTHEWS: -- going to happen tomorrow night and we can't do it very well, but we do like doing it.

The Media Matters link contains nine more examples of Matthews promoting John McCain.

Rudy's Big Day

Today's the big day for America's mayor. Florida's primaries are underway. Rudy has said that the winner of Florida takes the nomination. He's currently holding at third in most polls.

Margins Of Error

Rudy is on CNN with Larry saying that all the polls he's seeing have him within a margin of error of the lead.

From CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Two new polls appear to show Republican Rudy Giuliani slipping in Florida, a state he once called "crucial" to his presidential chances.

In a survey conducted for the Miami Herald and the St. Petersburg Times, the former New York mayor only registers 15 percent among Republican primary voters. That puts him in a tie with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has spent little time in the state and has only a fraction of the organization Giuliani has there.

John McCain and Mitt Romney are statistically tied for the top spot in the poll — McCain's at 25 percent and Romney's at 23 percent.

Giuliani also finds himself in third place spot in a new American Research Group poll with 16 percent, a statistical tie with Mike Huckabee's 17 percent. John McCain is on top with 29 percent and Mitt Romney is second with 22 percent.

That's some margin of error Rudy! Wow. Bad pollsters! Bad pollsters! Go back to poll school!

Actually, the margin of error on the Herald/St. Petersburg Times poll is 5.1 percentage points. The American Research Group's poll has a margin of error of 4.

That means Rudy isn't in a statistical dead heat for even 2nd place in either poll.

Rudy also says that sometimes he wakes up in the morning and is amazed that he's running for president. So are we Rudy. So are we.

Rudy The Bully

I've finally read through this long, but interesting, NYTimes piece on Giuliani's revenge-based governance during his tenure as NYC's mayor. Some hightlights:

1. The mayor’s wartime style of governance reached an exhaustion point in the late 1990s. His poll numbers dipped, and the courts routinely ruled against the city, upholding the New York Civil Liberties Union in 23 of its 27 free-speech challenges during Mr. Giuliani’s mayoralty. After he left office, the city agreed to pay $327,000 to a black police officer who was fired because he had testified before the City Council about police brutality toward blacks. The city also agreed to rescind the firing of the caseworker who talked about a child’s death. ...

2. ... Mr. Giuliani’s war with the nonprofit group Housing Works was more operatic. Housing Works runs nationally respected programs for the homeless, the mentally ill and people who are infected with H.I.V. But it weds that service to a 1960s straight-from-the-rice-paddies guerrilla ethos.

The group’s members marched on City Hall, staged sit-ins, and delighted in singling out city officials for opprobrium. Mr. Giuliani, who considered doing away with the Division of AIDS Services, became their favorite mayor in effigy.

Mr. Giuliani responded in kind. His police commanders stationed snipers atop City Hall and sent helicopters whirling overhead when 100 or so unarmed Housing Works protesters marched nearby in 1998. A year earlier, his officials systematically killed $6 million worth of contracts with the group, saying it had mismanaged funds.

Housing Works sued the city and discovered that officials had rescored a federal evaluation form to ensure that the group lost a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Martin Oesterreich, the city’s homeless commissioner, denied wrongdoing but acknowledged that his job might have been forfeited if Housing Works had obtained that contract. ...

3. ... None of this left the mayor chastened. In March 2000, an undercover officer killed Patrick Dorismond, a security guard, during a fight when the police mistook him for a drug dealer. The outcry infuriated the mayor, who released Mr. Dorismond’s juvenile record, a document that legally was supposed to remain sealed.

The victim, Mr. Giuliani opined, was no “altar boy.” Actually, he was. (Mr. Giuliani later expressed regret without precisely apologizing.)

Thankfully, Rudy's chances of getting his party's nomination are slim and getting slimmer. Seriously, those embarrassing numbers must have Giuliani's campaign managers scratching their heads, wondering how the wonder boy of the pundit set fell from grace so rapidly.

Fun Saturday

Some things I've bumped into over the last few days:

How tired are you? Take this test and find out.

People go fishing and catch a deer. Really.

Kate Harding on Dan Savage's odd obsession with other peoples' eating habits.

A very cool spice rack idea.

And remember, the South Carolina Republican Primary and Nevada caucuses happen today.

Reality

Rudy supporters are concerned about the chances for America's mayor in 2008 and a major media outlet actually reports it! Sometimes media does that. From the NYTimes:

But as Mr. Giuliani has plummeted from first to fourth — or worse — in some national polls, as he finished near the bottom of the pack in the nation’s earliest primaries, and as his lead evaporated even in Florida, the state on which he has gambled the most time and money, those Republican leaders are verging toward a grim new consensus:

If Mr. Giuliani loses in the Florida primary on Jan. 29, they say, he may even have trouble defeating the rivals who are encroaching on his own backyard.

“It’s pretty certain that he has to win Florida,” said Guy V. Molinari, the former Staten Island borough president, who is co-chairman of Mr. Giuliani’s campaign in New York.

Those supporters say they are confident that if Mr. Giuliani carries Florida or runs a very close second [How's that for leaving room for failure?], he will remain the odds-on favorite to claim virtually all of the delegates from the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut primaries on Feb. 5, when Republicans in 22 states vote.

Take heart Rudy, Chris Matthews still loves you. That's more evidence that the pundits and talking heads should be the last people we listen to on such matters.

Comic Wednesday

I'm having a crazy few days here and I can't write much beyond noting that, in Michigan's primary, Ron Paul beat up Rudy and Fred:

Paul	54,434	6%	0
Thompson	32,135	4%	0
Giuliani	24,706	3%	0

That's Ron over Rudy by more than two to one. You'd think that if Republicans were really excited about a candidate, the votes would show it, even a little.

On the comic front, DC's almost reached another crisis and the XMen: Messiah Complex wrap up to House of M is really good reading. I hope this Xmen event wraps up intelligibly. I'm skeptical given the endings of Marvel's last few universe altering messes.

What I'm really waiting for is Strange Girl #6.

A Reminder

Lest we forget, Adam Sandler, who stumped for Rudy back in 2007, is still, in fact, a dick:

And Republican presidential candidates got a few donations as well: singer Pat Boone donated to Mitt Romney and former candidate Sam Brownback, producer Jerry Bruckheimer contributed to John McCain, and Rudy Giuliani got money from Kelsey Grammer, Adam Sandler and Ben Stein. [a full list of celebrities is here.]

In addition to Bruckheimer, Boone, and Grammer, another celebrity joins un-funny man Sandler in his dickery:

Actor and Academy Award winner Jon Voight joins Robert Duvall and Adam Sandler as the latest celebrity to support Rudy Giuliani’s run for president. ...

“His commitment to keeping our military strong and his track record of transforming New York makes him the right man at the right time for our country.”

Is Voight referring to Rudy placing the emergency command center in the World Trader Center after the first World Trade Center bombing or that his administration failed to get first responders updated radios that would have saved lives on 9/11 (you know the event that Rudy loooooves to mention on the campaign trail (or see here, here, here, and here)?

Oh, Oh, Oh, on my TV right now Republican Representative from Long Island, Pete King, is on my teevee (Fox5 News, it's so tawdry) telling me that once Rudy wins Florida, he'll be the front-runner for the GOP. He also says that Rudy's the winner, because no one else has. Bwahahaha!

Back to Sandler, this weekend I saw a trailer for an upcoming film in which Sandler plays a former Israeli commando turned hairstylist. The racist and xenophobic stereotypes abound, as does the gender stereotyping (i.e., look at the big tough guy doing something that a woman would normally do, now that's funny!).

It looks like Adam's transitioned from making fun of gay people to making fun of the Arab-Israeli conflict, or something.

Judge Gives MSNBC Slapdown

From the LA Times (via ThinkProgress):

Senior Clark County District Court Judge Charles Thompson vowed to issue an injunction halting the nationally televised debate if MSNBC failed to comply. Kucinich had filed a lawsuit seeking to be included just this morning.

The judge ruled it was a matter of fairness and Nevada voters would benefit from hearing from more than just Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama. Kucinich had been invited to participate in the 6 p.m. Pacific debate Tuesday, but that invitation was rescinded last week following the ....

A judge in Nevada has just ordered MSNBC to include Rep. Dennis Kucinich in Tuesday's Democratic Party presidential debate in Las Vegas or he will cancel the forum.

results of the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucuses that showed Kucinich trailing badly.

Kucinich received the news in an Associated Press story handed to him during a telephone interview with Neil Cavuto on the Fox Business channel. Kucinich read the news item out loud: "It says ‘A Nevada judge said Monday that Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich must be included in Tuesday’s candidates’ debate in Nevada’. Holy smokes! I just found out. I have to get off the phone now. I have to make plans to go to Nevada.”

Go Denny. Go.

PostBlog: The Nevada Supreme Court ruled in favor of MSNBC. People and democracy suffer under big media politics. What a shame.

Friday Roundup

Some things I read this morning:

- Very stupid people in Texas are playing tug of war with lions and tigers in a zoo-sponsored event that places people on one end of a rope and raw meat for the giant cats on the other end. Video is here.

- The law student who filed a federal lawsuit against the MA Board of Bar Examiners over a gay marriage question on the bar exam (and eventually withdrew the suit) has issued an apology to the LGBT community. Good for him if it's earnest, but I wouldn't recommend going to him for advice on matters LGBT (once he passes the bar exam). He did call marriage for us, "patently offensive and morally repugnant."

- The Gay City News warns that we should fear the distinct possibility of a Huckabee presidency. I wouldn't dispute that Huckabee and that prospect are frightening. However, given that some pillars of the fundamentalist community aren't exactly with him and that the GOP beltway crowd sees him as a member of base that they want votes from but not in their country clubs, he has a real fight ahead if he's going to mobilize the base responsible for putting Bush in the White House.

- The National Academy of Sciences has released an 88-page booklet (under the 'read the book' link, or directly here) explaining why evolution is science and creationism isn't. Yes!

- And finally, it seems that gay people are just fine with the military when bodies are needed for war.

Rudy, Meet Ron

Rudy Giuliani seems to be consistently placing with Ron 'The Blimp' Paul in the primaries.

Iowa:
Paul 11,817 votes (10%, 2 delegates)
Giuliani 4,0974 votes (4%, 0 delegates)

Wyoming:
Giuliani 0%, 0 delegates
Huckabee 0%, 0 delegates

New Hampshire (with 71% of the results in):
Rudy Giuliani 14,160 votes, 9%
Ron Paul 12,876 votes, 8%

Joe Scarborough was on MSNBC earlier telling me what a great result NH is for Rudy.

Reading

Pam has a great post up concerning racism and the current elections. It's definitely worth a read.

Bullying Bill O

Bill O'Reilly can't keep his facts or temper in order. In New Hampshire on Saturday, he got pushy at an Obama rally and was put in his place by the secret service:

Obama staffer Marvin Nicholson, a personal aide always at Obama's side during rope line handshakes, said O'Reilly yelled at him to get out of the way of his cameraman's shot. Nicholson said O'Reilly came around the waist-high barricade separating Obama from well-wishers.

"Then he grabbed me with both of his arms and tried to push me out of the way," Nicholson said after the campaign agreed to make him available to reporters.

A Fox News spokesman did not immediately respond to e-mail and phone messages.

The scene was hard to miss. O'Reilly is about 6-feet-5-inches tall. Nicholson is 6-feet-8-inches tall.

"I told him, 'Sir, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't shove me anymore.'

"He called me 'low class.' He was pretty upset."

Secret Service agents assigned to protect Obama ordered O'Reilly back behind the barricade. At that point Obama approached him and extended his hand.

Faux News journalism in action! Awesome!

Friday

It's the first Friday of the New Year. I've got a cold, or am getting a cold. I'm hoping to get some rest this weekend; maybe I'll be able to fend off whatever I'm getting.

The big news today is that Obama bested Edwards and Clinton and Huckabee beat millionaire Romney in Iowa. The Huckabee win is interesting. Conservative Washington insiders hate him. He's not their candidate. He's an actual member of the Christian fundamentalist base that neocons rely on for votes but like to keep quietly tucked away from the spotlight. He's also the only non-millionaire GOP contender. He's not one of the 'use the fundies for votes' business set, he's one of the fundies. The base that the GOP has appealed to has turned out and picked a candidate that appeals to them. Go figure. Check out these stats (via Pam) on Huckanut in Iowa:

Some 45 percent of Huckabee's vote came from those who described themselves as "born again," according to news media entrance polls, and Huckabee won 55 percent of those people who said religion mattered a "great deal." Romney only got 19 percent of the born-again votes and only 12 percent of those who said they cared a great deal about religion.

Only a shortsighted conservative would be surprised. Huckabee is a bed of nightmares (and to be sure, he is a nut, scroll through items on him here and here) the GOP made for itself.

Switching to the losers, the Giuliani camp has been repeating that they aren't focused on Iowa or New Hampshire, but taking a 'big state' approach. Still, it was more than a little funny to see blimp-floating Ron Paul best America's mayor 10% to 4%. And where else but FauxNews would would you find this kind of delusion? Politico's Mike Allen:

Tonight is a fantastic night for John McCain. … He’s one of the biggest winners of the night. He’s now in a fantastic position. Except for Barack Obama, there’s almost no one you’d rather be tonight than John McCain.

McCain finished fourth, behind GOP savior Fred Thompson.

New Hampshire will certainly be interesting. My bet is that if Romney doesn't take the state (perhaps McCain will repeat his 2000 victory), his candidacy is done.

Pam has some interesting stats up that I haven't been able to find a source for, but are very hopeful:

Total Iowa Turnout (approximate)
356,000

Percentage of total vote
24.5% Obama
20.5% Edwards
19.8% Clinton
11.4% Huckabee (R)

I did find these exciting stats though:

Democrats reported turnout at 239,000, and nearly 115,000 Republicans took part.

Doing the math, that's a total of 354,000. Huck's 39,814 votes make for 11.2% of the total. It's a bit mushy (but fun) to lump together separate parties' primary numbers, but the turnout numbers sure are encouraging.

Suddenly, I Don't Hate Australia (As Much)

It was nice to read this lead paragraph this morning:

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Conservative Prime Minister John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat Saturday at the hands of the left-leaning opposition, whose leader has promised to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and withdraw Australia's combat troops from Iraq.

Sadly, Rudd is not in favor of marriage equality for everyone. However, he's an improvement over homophobic John Howard and favors laws that give same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples (although, as we know, that tactic has been a failure in NJ).

PostBlog: Be sure to check out Jonathan's review of John Howard's deceptive cheerleading for the Iraq debacle.

Rudy's Ready

Giuliani said in a press conference today that he's the man to protect us from aliens! Awesome!

The Romney campaign responded that only Mitt can protect us from cyborgs traveling back in time to take out Sarah Conner.