Okay, we were told that there was no money to provide healthcare to poor kids, properly take of our soldiers who had their minds and bodies shattered in Iraq, fix our crumbling schools, repair our national infrastructure or rebuild New Orleans. But, now George Bush is requesting $700 billion to bail out the financial services industry that he, Dick Cheney, John McCain and the rest of the “of the rich, by the rich and for the rich” Republican Party has destroyed?
Struggling to stave off financial catastrophe, the Bush administration on Friday laid out a radical bailout plan with a jawdropping price tag _ a takeover of a half-trillion dollars or more in worthless mortgages and other bad debt held by tottering institutions.
I wanted to bump up this post by Vic Basile because with less than 50 days before election day Vic’s message is even more important than ever. This video from the Human Rights Campaign also underscores Vic’s message and makes clear what is at stake this election for LGBT voters.
By Vic Basile
Vic, a longtime GLBT activist, was the first executive director of the Human Rights Campaign and a co-founder of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund.
During the 2004 election, I wrote about doing all that I could to prevent my family and friends from voting for candidates who oppose equality for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender people. More importantly, I encouraged all of my GLBT brothers and sisters, as well as our straight allies, to do the same.
Of course, we can’t really stop our friends and families from voting for whomever they choose – it is, at least for them, a free and democratic country – but we can prevent them doing it without damaging our bonds of love, trust and friendship. The reality is that they can’t truly love or even respect us, and knowingly vote for candidates who work to deny us the same equality and freedoms they enjoy. The two are simply incompatible.
There are excellent developments to a story we posted last week on Republican-lead efforts to deny voting rights to homeowners facing foreclosures in Michigan. The story has gone national. The Barack Obama campaign, the Democratic National Committee and several Macomb County voters filed a lawsuit in federal court in Detroit to prevent the practice.
The injunction [would] prohibit the Macomb County GOP, the Michigan Republican Party, the Republican National Committee or anyone connected with them from challenging Michigan voters whose homes are on foreclosure lists.
Obama campaign general counsel Bob Bauer said during a conference call with reporters that the “lose your home, lose your vote” strategy, even if the challenges are unsuccessful, “creates an atmosphere of intimidation that could drive voters from the polls” because even people who aren’t challenged may leave without voting because polling gets bogged down.
Even better news: The despicable Republican foreclosure strategy is now becoming a campaign issue because “Obama was joined by running mate Joe Biden and a dozen other Democratic U.S. senators in calling on Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey to ensure that voters facing foreclosure aren’t harassed or intimidated at polling places.”
But wait there’s more. Macomb County Republican Party Chairman James Carabelli claims he did not say the state party would challenge voters whose homes are on foreclosure lists. The party boss claims he will sue MichiganMessenger.com for libel if they do not retract the story. ‘Cause, you know, the Republican Party never challenges or suppresses voters and they can prove that. Not.
Voting rights are a bedrock of the Democartic Party and it’s freakin’ fantastic the Obama campaign will challenge Republicans in Michigan over this sacred right. After weeks of lackluster campaigning and being off-message, it’s downright orgasmic to hear Obama will adopt this issue. As we said last week, this is a winning issue in Michigan for the Obama campaign.
By Richard J. Rosendall
First published September 11, 2008 in Bay Windows
I’m sick of the phony reasons some gay people give for opposing Barack Obama. I am not talking about my friends in Log Cabin Republicans, who prefer John McCain for broader ideological reasons. I am talking about angry Hillary Clinton supporters.
For example, Sirius OutQ talk-radio host Larry Flick, still upset that Clinton had not won the Democratic nomination, slammed Obama on Aug. 28 for opposing same-sex marriage. Yet Clinton holds the same position on marriage — except that she would only repeal Article 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, whereas Obama favors total repeal.
Flick challenged Sirius Left host Mark Thompson, an African American minister and activist with whom I’ve worked for years, on his support for Obama. Flick expressed outrage that Obama accepted help from “blatant, aggressive homophobes” Donnie McClurkin and Illinois state Sen. James Meeks. Yet Clinton enjoyed support from homophobic Bishop Eddie Long of Lithonia, Ga., and from former D.C. City Council member Vincent Orange, who as a mayoral candidate in 2006 called his opponents morally unfit for supporting marriage equality.
Elizabeth Birch, longtime LGBT activists and former Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign talks about the stark differences between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain on LGBT issues.
When the Prince of Darkness Karl Rove says you are going too far in your campaign and being dishonest, you know you have a problem.
In an interview with Fox News Sunday, Rove slams the McCain Campaign:
McCain has gone in some of his ads — similarly gone one step too far, and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the ‘100 percent truth’ test. …They ought to — there ought to be an adult who says, ‘Do we really need to go that far in this ad’?
I never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I agree with Karl Rove. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little…
More – including the new hard-hitting Obama ad – after the jump.
In yet another sign of the “enthusiasm gap” between supporters of Barack Obama and supporters of John McCain comes this clever and funny take on Les Miserables.
If you haven’t already, register to vote, request an absentee ballot find your polling location at Vote for Change.
Voter registration deadlines across the country are coming upon us quickly. I don’t want you to miss out on the electoral fun of saying buh-bye to George Bush and Dick Cheney so I am posting registration deadline information for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The fight between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain is a fight for the future direction of our country and we can’t have any sitting on the sidelines.
Visit Vote for Change to register to vote, request to vote absentee, or find your polling location.
There may have been a time when John McCain could have been considered a “maverick,” but that time has clearly come and gone. McCain has hired Karl Rove’s henchmen to run what even the traditional media is calling one of the nastiest campaigns in recent memory.
With little more than 50 days to go before election, we are coming down to the wire in being able to reach out to friends and families about why this election is so crucial to the LGBT community. The information that gets shared here on LGBT for Obama is a great resource to help explain why a vote for John McCain is a vote against LGBT people and our families.
