Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Here it is....
A new ad, set to debut at 3:30 today will parody an ad accused of race-baiting Tennessee Democrat Harold Ford by gay-baiting Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman. An advanced copy of the ad has been acquired by RAW STORY, and is viewable below.
The ad, produced by Proud of Who We Are and BlogActive, is a parody mocking the the RNC's now-infamous 'call me' ad. That spot, which the RNC eventually pulled this month, showed a scantily clad white actress saying she met Ford at 'the Playboy party.' It ended with her asking the congressman to call her. Many analysts believe it was produced to play on racist fears of interracial relationships.
Thanks to those of you who helped make it happen. Want to help us get it on TV? Click here.
PROJECT UPDATE: blogACTIVE's response to Ken Mehlman and his race-baiting of Harold Ford
BlogACTIVE visitors have supported the site's work on reporting about right wing closeted members of congress. And we're not done. There are plenty more of these jokers to expose after the election, too. And, as the media covers more and more of this, it's clear we're having an effect. (Click for clips from O'Reilly, Tucker and Nancy Grace.)
Over the past two years, we've seen this topic, one that radio and TV hosts avoided like the plague to one that is now affecting the right:
Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) - Just three days after he was 'outed' Bill Maher was talking about Craig by name on his show with Barney Frank.
Ex-Rep. Mark Foley - The site first reported that Foley was a danger to the gay community in March of 2005. His former Chief of Staff, Kirk Fordham was one of the very first cases reported on the site. At the time, Kirk, a gay man, was working to elect Mel Martinez to the US Senate. Martinez is a vehement homophobe.
Ex-Rep. Ed Schrock - BlogACTIVE posted seven audio recordings of Schrock seeking sex with men. At the same time he was doing that -- a felony at the time in Virginia -- Schrock was beating up gays and telling constituents that Don't Ask, Don't Tell was too lenient!

As head of Proud of Who We Are, I am spending hours each day calling evangelical and social conservative leaders to inform them just howmembers many membrs of what they call the "homosexual lifestyle" are asking them for their support and votes on Election Day. I take my message to leaders like James Dobson, Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer. I've also spent time calling such leaders in places like Idaho (home of Larry Craig).
It's odd being one of the people on the left engaging the far right. But trust me, when they have a chance to hear audio confirmation of a gay man who had sex with an elected GOP official, they become very concerned. Of course, most of them are truly surprised to learn how many closeted gay men are in the highest echelons of the Republican Party they are being asked to support next week. It's quite an education for them.
A blogACTIVE.com response to Ken Mehlman and his race baiting of Harold Ford:
Hey, Ken, two can play your game, pal. By late Tuesday afternoon BlogACTIVE will have produced and posted a response to your ad, which I suspect will get as much play as the original ad you used to interject your own brand of hate into the election.
I have engaged a writer, director, cameraman, actors, actresses, post production team and a publicity team to help push this top-notch video into the mainstream as quickly as possible.
Here are some of the screenshots. The original RNC is on the left... My response ad is on the right:


1. Blog, Blog, Blog - When the ad comes out tomorrow, tell everyone about it. Blog and email about it.
2. Email, email, email - Help me push the ad far and wide. I've seen the final draft. It's fantastic!
3. Support the ad with a donation via PayPal - Every penny helps. The creative team behind the ad hopes you will have trust in the accomplishments of blogACTIVE and Proud Of Who We Are to take a gamble on this response ad. The video will be made widely available, for free, in multiple formats. We are researching placing the ad on in selected media markets as well.
It would ruin the effort to give too many specifics away, but you can see a couple of screenshots above that we're taking the fight right back to the on their home turf. I hope you will take a moment to help this effort out with even small gift toward the ad. To donate via PayPal, click here.
Thanks!!!
Sunday, October 29, 2006
A little tease
Well, it's late...back to work for me. I'll explain more on Monday.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Times editorial page on the GOP's broken record
An editorial in the New York Times slams the Republicans and Bush over their homophobia and hypocrisy:
All this is, as everyone knows, just a show for rousing the base. If the last month has taught us anything about the Republican Party, it is that homophobia is campaign strategy, not conviction. Congressmen who trust their careers to gay staffers vote for laws to enshrine second-class citizenship for gays in the Constitution. Gay appointees and their partners are treated as married people at official ceremonies and social gatherings. Then whenever an election rolls around, the whole team pretends it’s on a mission to save America from gay marriage.
Mr. Bush and his faithful acolytes seem perfectly willing to stoke fears that create division and sorrow in a country that doesn’t need any more of either. The president has just a little more than two years left in office. You’d think that for once he’d want to consider devoting his time to making things better instead of worse.
Knock, Knock....Ken, are you in there?
And Ken has given conflicting statements, himself:
"[You] have asked a question people shouldn't have to answer"So, I decided it was time to confront Ken directly -- alongside a friend with a video camera doesn't hurt either! A blogACTIVE reader tipped me off that this past Monday that Ken would be the guest of honor at a fundraiser at a residence on Capitol Hill.
- Gay People's Chronicle (Cleveland), 3/25/05
"I'm not gay. But those stories did a number on my dating life for six months."
- NY Daily News, 5/2/06
People have already asked Ken if he's gay and he has given conflicting answers. Knowing he is now prepared for such questionon, I knew I had to come at it from a different angle. "You've given so many confusing answers to questions about your own sexuality...How do you think it will affect right wing...," I started. For the rest of the clip, click on the image for WMV or the MOV link below.

[WMV]
[MOV]
Update: Who is Phil Berg? Phil Berg is an out gay attorney who Mehlman is friends with. In other words, he has no problem being close friends with gays personally, as long as they don't mind him beating he crap out of gay people at the office. Oh, his friend from law school also went to the 2004 Inaugural events with Ken.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Race-baiting by GOP leaders
There's just one problem with all of this. There are leaders in the GOP who themselves have big unanswered question about their own personal lives. Questions I think people like Dobson probably don't want to know the answers to.
Thanks to a tip from one of my readers, I was able to ambush interview one of those leaders -- and trust me... on Monday night, less than a week after the Larry Craig report, I was the last person this guy wanted or expected to encounter.
I've been at this work a while and I can't think of a single straight man in American who when his sexuality was questioned, wouldn't respond with something between indignation and hostility. Not a one. And yet from this leader we've seen over two years of conflicting answers.
I'm going to be laying down a challenge to James Dobson today. I'll be posting a short video clip later on today. And I'll make sure that Dobson's PR team, led by Gwen Stein, knows about the post as well. As we know, James Dobson says that homosexuality is "a disorder" and "a descent into depravity." As the Republican Party gets ready to launch its much-vaunted 72-Hour program leading up to Election Day, Dobson has to ask a serious question of himself:
Do I have a Republican Party gay problem on my hands? Should I be leading people to the polls under the banner of combating the "homosexual lifestyle," when many powerful Republican leaders and officials are leading that "lifestyle," too?Just like they did with the Larry Craig outing last week, We know many in the mainstream media will again torture themselves about whether they should cover questions of gross hypocrisy and lies that just happen to deal with sexual orientation. That is their problem, not mine.
However, at some point, the mainstream media is going to have to get used to the fact that Democrats are not going to sit back and, as Chris Matthews asserted, not fight back. We are fighting back. And, the mainstream media will just have to get over the idea that gay people and gay intimacy are dirty or a pejorative. And, as GOP leaders are seeing, more and more media outlets stand ready to help move this message.
Look for the video clip later today...
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Boise Weekly - Not Your Everyday Newspaper: News: News Shorts: How To Crash A Web Site
The Boise e-mail lines were already buzzing last Wednesday afternoon, when gay activist Mike Rogers decided that he was ready to accuse Sen. Larry Craig of having sexual relations with other men. Rogers made his allegations on a nationally-syndicated radio talk show. BW had already gone to press, so a brief story about the accusations went onto our Web site.
Counting down...
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and it's wrong for lesbian and gay couples in New Jersey.
Sign Lambda's Contract for Equality.
Shimkus Chief of Staff is gay...

Shimkus, as you may recall, was the GOPer on the Page Board who CONCEALED from the Democrat on the Page Board the very existence of the emails.
I have heard over and over from some of these guys how they are 'working from within the party to make things better for gay people.' In some rare cases, it's true -- and I don't report on those guys here. That clearly can't be the case with Shimkus' staff. According to the HRC Scorecard, his rating dropped eight percentage points from the 108th congress:

Thanks, for nothing, Craig.
I have written a letter (PDF) to the chairs of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to encourage them to take a look at this guy.
And I'm not sure which is worse... To be a closet case and work against us, or to be out as a gay man and work for a dope like this. If anyone doubts Roberts is gay, click here.
Back up
Shimkus senior staffer soon...
Someone ought to tell this guy to shut up
Former Gov. James McGreevey, who resigned after acknowledging a gay affair, said he would tie the knot with his partner if state lawmakers decide to allow gay marriage.Let's make sure that this guy doesn't become the poster boy for marriage equality... He doesn't have a very good record and there's no need to give the other side ammunition by allowing a corrupt guy to be the most visible one in our community.
Marriage would offer the ability to bless our relationship in a committed way,' McGreevey, 49, told The New York Times.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Charlie Crist has some questions to answer...
A young rising star in the Republican Party has boasted to witnesses of his sexual relationship with Charlie Crist, the frontrunner in the Florida governor's race who has repeatedly denied that he is gay.Sorry, Charlie... Looks like you closet door has been busted open.
The GOP staffer, 21-year-old Jason Wetherington, told friends at separate social functions in August that he had sex with Crist, according to two credible and independent sources who heard Wetherington make the claim first-hand.
Wetherington, who recently worked as a field director for U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris and currently works for state representative Ellyn Bodganoff's reelection campaign, also named a man whom he said is Crist's long-term partner, a convicted thief named Bruce Carlton Jordan who also recently worked for Harris in her long-shot Senate bid.
Jordan made headlines recently when the Miami Herald learned that the felon was working as Harris's travel aide. The newspaper noted that Jordan, 42, was reported to be close friends with Charlie Crist, whom he convinced to attend an annual Florida Funeral Directors Association meeting in 2003."
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Denial? Where?
So, let's up the ante. I'll pay $500 to anyone who asks the following question of Senator Larry Craig:
Senator, have you any sexual encounters with one or more men in the past ten years?Here's what you need to do to get the prize:
1. You must ask the question on legally obtained video, which you must give to BlogACTIVE.com to run on this site.
2. Craig needs to answer or clearly acknowledge that he has heard the question and declined to answer.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Yet again, Sully supports right to closet hypocrisy
You have to separate the marketing from the reality. The reality is, these members are not homophobic. For the most part, they're using this marketing to play to our base and stay in power. They have to turn out the votes,' said David Duncan, once a board member of the Lesbian and Gay Congressional Staff Association and a former top aide to Rep. Robert Ney (R-Ohio), who last week pleaded guilty to corruption charges linked to the Abramoff scandal.
Andrew Sullivan, the openly gay conservative columnist, calls the Republican leadership 'closet-tolerant.'
'They're tolerant of gay people but they have to keep quiet about it because their base would go crazy if they ever express it. That's the bottom line,' Sullivan said. 'They have this acute cognitive dissonance, which is a polite way of saying hypocrisy.'"
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Thanks, ADVOCATE readers

The tent splits over a little honesty
In the words of Lincoln (a man who was intimate with men), "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I say, divide away.
SJ Mercury News: Foley scandal no excuse to tear holes in Republicans' `big tent':You know, a great paper like the Mercury News ought to fact check. The Senator didn't deny anything and a spokesman gave an obsfucatory response.
Gay blogger Mike Rogers upped the stakes by appearing on radio to accuse a married Republican senator of having sex with men. The senator denied it.
Richard Rothstein on Queen For a Day
Proceed at your own risk: QUEEN FOR A DAY 2006:Queen For a Day!
Mike is the present day Jack Bailey, a man none of you remember because you're all so fucking young. Bitches.
The trouble with growing older--other than falling apart and dying-- is the 'nothing new under the sun' syndrome blues. And all Mr. Rogers has done is delivered yet another remake of yet another classic American TV show in the tradition of The Addams Family, Bewitched and Charlie's Angels.
Thanks, Richard!
Video: Bill Maher and Barney Frank on Larry Craig...
Bill Maher: I was looking at what is going on in Washington these days and now I see a lot of these gay Republicans being outed. This Larry Craig character from Idaho. You must have met him at least, what does your gaydar tell you about him?For the rest, watch the video:
Barney Frank: I actually served in the House with him and my sense tells me...
Friday, October 20, 2006
Audio from Ed Schultz Show...
TAKE ACTION: Tom Coburn's legislative director is gay
The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power. ... That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That's a gay agenda.Well, Tom, gay men do wield a LOT of power. In fact, your legislative director, Roland Foster is gay. I'm not sure which is more ridiculous, a gay legislative director for Coburn or a gay communications director for Santorum.
And just how bad for gay people is Mr. Foster? Well, here's what the Human Rights Campaign thinks about his boss, Senator Coburn:

He's a big zero!
Roland makes a nice chunk of change, too:

That's an annualized salary of $102,500. Not bad for a self-loathing homophobe who happens to be gay.
TAKE ACTION: Tell the team at Coburn's office what you think of Roland Foster being a gay man working for Tom Coburn. Just copy and paste the email addresses below and send off a note.
You can also try to click here, but not all email programs will open properly.
And, just so everyone knows, I talked to him on the phone and he didn't have much interest in chatting back with me. (On the call he knew it was a 'Mike Rogers' calling and he picks up the phone as if he is very familiar with me... I wonder if he thought I was one of the two members of congress named Mike Rogers.) When I gave him an opportunity to answer questions and tell me if my information was wrong, he hung up on me.
PS: Get this...When Coburn saw a cover of Poz magazine with naked people on it he cancelled his Senate office's subscription. I wonder what would happen if he imagined Mr. Foster naked with other men. (And, for the record, Poz founder Sean Strub has committed a hell of a lot more to this country and the LGBT community than Roland Foster has.)
Poor Karl....
Poor little Karl, getting beaten at his own game....
Conservative voters likely to stay home, The Washington Times:
Until the Foley scandal broke, there wasn't even a mathematical possibility of a Democratic takeover of either body of Congress,' South Dakota-based campaign consultant Paul Erickson said. 'But Foley introduced a concrete voting-base suppression factor that is immeasurable until election night.
Last time elevation
Thank those of you who made a gift to my work. It's with the support of blogACTIVE's readers that I am able to conduct the research necessary to report on the lives of hypocritical politicians. If you have not made a gift, I hope you will consider clicking here to head over to PayPal to support blogACTIVE.
Next up, I need to hire a researcher to review over 1500 pages of disbursements made by a member of Congress.... quite interesting information is in there... I know it because I've already seen one set of documents that raise a lot of questions. And let there be no doubt, I already have some of the documents I will be using to report on this member of Congress.
Is THAT the reason the House member's press secretary won't take my calls?
I hope you'll consider supporting this work of exposing hypocrites in our government by clicking here to make a gift via PayPal or sending support to Mike Rogers, PO Box 21190, Washington, DC 20009.
Thanks!
From this week's National Journal
Murmurs
Building on his claimed success in "outing" gay congressional Republicans, including ex-Rep. Mark Foley of Florida, Washington blogger Mike Rogers says he will name another prominent GOP official before the November 7 election. "I will have documents" on the next one, he added. A Democrat, Rogers said he will continue to oust Republicans from the closet so "we can have an honest political dialogue." He is eager to force a showdown with the Christian Right, whose leaders have said that they don't want gays in the GOP.
Another day.... Another report...

Back to the Ed Schultz Show today...
5:40pm EST... It will be a quick one...
If you thought Traynham working for Santorum is strange... wait till you hear this one!
Ed is one of the few people I want to hear "straight talk" from.
Check out Ed's book Straight Talk from the Heartland, here.
Questions, Questions, Questions...
The Cup of Joe:
I don't know whether this is true or not. This is why I believe this "votes like he hates the gays" Senator should go on Meet the Press Sunday to discuss the matter.See the rest of this hysterical list at Cup of Joe.
Here are some potential questions for Tim Russert.
1) Senator, welcome to Meet the Press. What's your favorite Madonna album?
Another (supposed heterosexual) hypocrite
A file allegedly suppressed by Congresswoman Heather Wilson (R-NM) has been obtained by RAW STORY.
In 1995, just three days into her tenure as Secretary of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, Wilson removed a routine working file alleging that her husband had engaged in inappropriate contact with a minor. The file was then transferred to the department's attorney in her own Albuquerque office, where it soon went missing.
...
More than ten years later, RAW STORY has uncovered and confirmed the authenticity of the police incident report believed to be contained in the missing dossier. Filed as a case of child abuse in 1993, it contends that Wilson's husband Jay Hone, an Albuquerque attorney, touched a then-16 year old boy 'in a manner that was not welcome.'
CBS chimes in on Larry Craig
On Wednesday, the Spokane Spokesman-Review made the controversial decision to run a story about rumors swirling around Idaho Senator Larry Craig -- a story that likely never would have seen the light of day a few short years ago. The basics of the story are as follows: Gay-rights activist Mike Rogers claimed on his blog and a syndicated radio program that confidential sources had provided him information concerning consensual homosexual relationships involving Craig. The senator responded to the story through a spokesperson, calling it 'completely ridiculous.'Just so we are clear... I, too, think it's "completely ridiculous" for an anti-gay Senator to have sex in Union Station bathrooms. See, Craig's office and I do agree on something.
It's interesting to see that we have only heard "non-denial" denials
.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Santorum
Was about to...
There are non-gays in the George Allen campaign
Gay Republicans: An article in Section A on Wednesday about friction in the Republican Party between gays and religious conservatives said Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) had a campaign manager who is gay. The Allen staff member who is gay is his communications director."
Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Gay Republicans Fight Perceived Oxymoron
[Family research Council president Tony] Perkins said the GOP shouldn't worry about losing votes of gays because their numbers are dwarfed by Christian conservatives. He predicted that any GOP presidential hopeful deemed a gay-rights supporter would be denied the 2008 nomination.
USA Today on the Larry Craig report by BlogACTIVE
"Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, vigorously denied the claim made by self-described gay rights blogger Michael Rogers that Craig has had sex with men for years. Rogers claimed, on his blog , that he interviewed four men who said they had sex with Craig. Rogers said it was a legitimate posting (he also made the claim on the nationally syndicated liberal talk show of Ed Schultz) because Craig supports an anti-gay rights agenda. But Rogers did not identify the men he talked with. Still, despite Craig's denials and the anonymity of the accusers, some bloggers immediately accepted Rogers' assertion as fact."
Well, of course there are bloggers that accept it as fact. I've never been wrong yet.
Who would have known?
Permeating the news....

Who would have thought two years ago that national radio shows would have me on to talk about these hypocrites by name?
Oh, it's day three and we still haven't heard from Senator Craig himself. And where is Ken Mehlman?
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Prompting newsroom discussions across Idaho
This is quite interesting... It's a video archive of the Spokesman Review's Editorial Board discussions about the decision to run the story on my report about Larry Craig.








