Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Breakfast with Speaker Pelosi
Even in the crazy world of Washington bloggers, I've had quite a twelve hour run. First, late last night I received word that the BlogPAC award was announced (you can read about it in the next post down). Then, this morning I found myself in the conference room of Speaker Pelosi's office with other bloggers and reporters talking about the war, impeachment, health care, the ban on gays in the military and a lot more. It was quite exciting to sit just two three seats away from the Speaker for an hour. The fact that it was the first woman speaker -- one who happens to represent San Francisco's Castro district -- made it all the better.Naturally, the question of impeaching the criminal-in-chief came up. Basically, the Speaker said she would support impeachment if she wasn't Speaker. Pelosi's argument against it is compelling. Washington is a power game. Those who have it want to hold it...and she clearly felt that impeachment would not help the Democrats retain control of Congress and win the White House. The outcomes of other goals is more predictable, she said.
Pelosi spoke about the art of politics and about keeping a caucus together on the issues. The Speaker seems to have a plan... she explained that it's her hope to that once the caucus is strong, she can lead them to more progressive positions. Her positions on most issues are great (although I have personally heard enough from politicians who seem to care about health insurance, but only for kids and seniors).
At the end of the session, she looked down the table and noted that it's "fabulous" to be Speaker, "absolutely fabulous."
After the program ended, I introduced myself to the Speaker and told her that in addition to the news responsibilities for PageOneQ that brought me to the event that I was also the blogger who was reporting on anti-gay closet cases in Congress. What the Speaker said to me in response was most definitely off the record so it will have to remain private. I will tell you I left the event feeling great.
The audio of the session will be posted. I'll link to it when it's up.
A special thanks to Politics TV and Talk Radio News Service for pulling this together.
Monday, July 30, 2007
WOW!
What a night!
As I sat prepping for YearlyKos, the convention of the liberal blogosphere, Mike Stark of Calling All Wingnuts posted some great news at DailyKos. I can't imagine a better honor than to be recognized by other bloggers for my work. I've been named a BlogPAC Hero. In addition to the honor, the award comes with a $1,000 grant.
Thanks to everyone at BlogPAC for this honor.
My dear friend Susie Madrak of Suburban Guerrilla wrote the story for BlogPAC. Here it is (it's also posted at Kos):
* * * *
BlogPac Hero: Mike Rogers is still kicking in the closet doorsBy Susie Madrak, Suburban Guerilla
Mike Rogers isn’t used to getting much respect for what he does. After all, he’s been outing closeted anti-gay politicians for years now, and the response is usually along the lines of what happened when he introduced himself to Joe Klein at a progressive conference a few years ago. I was there watching when Michael approached him for a handshake:
"I’m a fan of your work. I’m a blogger who works to out closeted gay elected officials who are anti-gay," he said.People have turned their backs on Michael Rogers for a long time, but as he points out, it hasn’t stopped him yet.
Klein looked at him with fairly obvious disdain. ("Like he’d just discovered dog shit on his shoe," I later described it to Michael.)
"I don’t approve of that," Klein responded.
"Really? I’m curious. Why not?" Michael said. (He’s used to the reaction, he says, but never lets it go unchallenged.)
"I find it distasteful."
"So if you found out a prominent Republican official, a leader in the anti-abortion movement, had paid for his girlfriend’s abortion, you wouldn’t consider that a story?" Michael said, drawing what he thinks is an obvious analogy.
"I just don’t approve of that," Klein said again. He turned and walked away. (Editor’s note: Klein, who later admitted he wrote the best-selling novel "Primary Colors," initially lied to reporters for months.)
"I’ve been a rabble rouser for a while," he says. And he has been. In high school Rogers was a student coordinator for a State Senate campaign ("A Democrat, of course," he noted). In college he was involved in the anti-apartheid and student voting rights movements, in New York City he belonged to ACT-UP, Queer Nation and was a board member of Lambda Independent Democrats.
In 2004, frustrated with the GOP's use of the Federal Marriage Amendment to garner votes, Rogers started BlogACTIVE -- a web site to report on closeted government officials and high-level staffers who work against the interests of the gay and lesbian community. His work began to have an impact right away.
"In less than two months, I exposed Congressman Ed Schrock's hypocrisy, the man who represented Virginia Beach – home to Pat Robertson’s Regent University," he says. "A very conservative district. I mean the Christian Coalition gave him a 92% rating." He coordinated a successful, tongue-in-cheek letter writing campaign that thanked the coalition for developing a voting guide that helped a gay man earn that rating. Within days of Michael's report, Schrock announced he would not seek reelection and his work landed on the front page of the New York Times and was the subject of a Washington Post editorial.
In the 2006 mid-term elections, when the Democrats were fighting to take back Congress, Rogers's work continued to pay off. "Right before the election, the Mark Foley intern scandal broke in the blogs and then the national press," he says. Rogers had first reported on Foley in 2005. "The Republicans were already trying hard to spin that as an aberration, then, thee weeks before the election, Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho was added to the mix. As Bill Maher and Barney Frank discussed Craig's closeted homosexuality on national television, the Republicans were again on the defensive, trying to explain that big pink elephant in the middle of the room. There was yet another layer of conservative hypocrisy." In an appearance on CNN, ABC News' Brian Ross confirmed that Rogers had served as a source in the network's reporting of the Foley story.
When he exposed Craig, the conservative Idaho senator, Rogers wrote:
I find myself in the odd position of being one of the few people who seem to be willing to tell religious conservatives, who don't approve of people like me, just how many conservative political leaders are like me.Also during the 2006 election, Rogers used the RNC's commercial against Harold Ford as the perfect opportunity to go after party chairman Ken Mehlman. In a widely viewed seen commercial Michael responded to the RNC's race bating by tossing a bit of Mehlman's strategy back at him. (The commercial he wrote and produced may be seen here.)
"As anyone who’s followed my work knows, I’m bipartisan when it comes to exposing closeted people who work against the gay community," he says. "The fact that 99% of these cases are Republicans says a lot more about the Republican Party than it does about me. Reporting this type of hypocrisy has done some real damage to their tactics and I’m not going to stop now."
Michael Rogers prides himself on doing meticulous research on a shoestring budget, carefully checking and double-checking sources, and traveling around the country to meet with them. "For years, I’ve been explaining why it’s in the progressive left's interest to fund my work," he says. "That’s why this BlogPac award is special to me – I am honored to be recognized for this work. There really is no greater honor than to be recognized by your peers. That this award comes from other bloggers means an incredible amount to me."
In addition to publishing BlogACTIVE, Michael also operates Proud Of Who We Are, a national coalition that holds government officials "accountable for their truths," and PageOneQ -- a lesbian and gay news site. PageOneQ is the largest progressive LGBT news aggregator on the web and has become an important launching point for a number of new bloggers. "Giving voices to bloggers is what PageOneQ is all about," he says. "The site depends on bloggers to give a fresh look at news, adding important commentary an analysis. At the site we strive to deliver the best of that content to our readers."
"As the impact of blogs continues to grow, I hope to continue to work to bring together leaders and bloggers in the gay community to advance the greater progressive agenda," Rogers told me. His work continues with that in mind. Rogers has created bridges between the lesbian and gay blogosphere, traditional organizations and community leaders and he recently founded an advertising network for lesbian and gay political bloggers.
"Bringing bloggers together to help them access resources, benefits us all," he explains. "Connecting them to other leaders in the community, academics and activists, helps us all move forward together. After twenty years of work in the movement, it's exciting to see the next step in organizing. Like my other work in the LGBT and progressive communities I am excited and fortunate to be a part of it."
I ask him: So who are your heroes? Who inspires you?
"Just about anyone who’s been harnessing the power of the web to create social change," he says. Whether it’s through individual action or community sites, we have a lot of great things happening." When pressed for specific examples, Rogers cites three. "John Byrne of Raw Story and his unyielding commitment to pushing underreported stories serves as a constant reminder of the value of my work. Mike Stark (Calling All Wingnuts) has done an incredible job of infiltrating the right wing noise machine and throwing a wrench into its gears. I've admired Matt Stoller's (Open Left) organizing and have tried to apply his methods to work I have done in the LGBT community bringing together activists, bloggers, organizational leaders and political folks."
Who inspired you in your earlier activist days?
Rogers points to ACT-UP founder Larry Kramer and Ann Northup. "Folks like them looked around, saw their government failing them and said 'enough is enough.' Instead of complaining, they did something about it…they organized a force that could not be ignored."
"There’s a similar revolution out there today," he says. "The power of the internet is not the information per se, but that now it’s bloggers who are pushing the information the traditional media has kept covered up.
"That’s why the mainstream media is so afraid of blogs: Because blogs threaten the unwritten pact of protection between the mainstream media and Washington’s power elite. No longer can journalists turn a blind eye to the bedroom shenanigans of these hypocrites, because the progressive blogs will not tolerate it," he says.
"And it’s not just the sex lives, but also the web of financial interests. It’s Pandora’s box and it’s open for business. Things are evolving as we speak, and there are many of us out here who will figure out how to ride the next wave."
Before landing in the blogosphere, Michael was involved in fundraising for progressive causes since 1988. Among the many non-profit positions he’s held: the first Development Coordinator at New York's Hetrick-Martin Institute and Harvey Milk School, Development Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Director of Marketing for a lesbian and gay choral festival with over 5,500 attendees. Rogers also served on the staff of Greenpeace as the Senior Manager of Major Gifts.
Supporting our BlogPAC Hero.
Rogers work goes on. "If there is one thing we learned in the last election cycle," Rogers notes, "It's that there is a never ending supply of closeted anti-gay political and religious leaders to report on." When the media focus shifts away from elections, he continues his research, blogging, and exposing of hypocrites. Investigating the cases and pushing the stories doesn't come cheaply and Rogers needs the help of the progressive community to support his reporting. You can help Mike continue to kick open the closet doors by clicking here.)
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
That "farm team" line inspired me...
Does it ever end?
Howie Klein over at Down With Tyranny has the latest case of a GOP leader stepping over the line. The money quote from Howie's post:
Howie has a ton of details.
She also said she hopes to present evidence of several 'other incidents of sexual misconduct' in which Flory took advantage of vulnerable young women." This particular young woman had passed out after a typical Young Republican drunken party after the convention and when he thought she was sleeping, according to Skutnik, Flory "violently forced several sex acts upon her."Apparently the sexually inappropriate have a farm team: The Young Republicans.
Howie has a ton of details.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Woo Hoo! It's Blogosphere Day!!!
It's a crazy day here, I'm working on an exciting project... I did want to do a quick post on Blogosphere Day. My blogging friend Howie Klein wrote a great post and has graciously given me permission to republish it here.
A word about Blue America. These three are the real deal: Howie (who writes Down With Tyranny), Jane Hamshire of Firedoglake, and John Amato of Crooks and Liars are unabashed in their demand that candidates they support be right on the money on LGBT issues. When Chris Carney (D-PA) flip flopped from a campaign pledge and voted against hate crimes, Blue America demanded a return of the contribution. I hope you'll support them.
Show them some love. From Down With Tyranny:
A word about Blue America. These three are the real deal: Howie (who writes Down With Tyranny), Jane Hamshire of Firedoglake, and John Amato of Crooks and Liars are unabashed in their demand that candidates they support be right on the money on LGBT issues. When Chris Carney (D-PA) flip flopped from a campaign pledge and voted against hate crimes, Blue America demanded a return of the contribution. I hope you'll support them.
Show them some love. From Down With Tyranny:I'm going to control myself all day today (24 hours... starting... NOW) and not do one ask for a candidate-- not even for Donna Edwards or Angie or Victoria Wulsin, Tom Allen, Charlie Brown or any of our other Blue America candidates (although make sure you come back Saturday and meet Jon Powers). But you thought Blogosphere Day is all about asking for grassroots donations right? It is. And in past years we helped some great candidates, like Ned Lamont and Paul Hackett, get their candidacies off the ground.
But this year we've decided to try something different. The infrastructure behind our Blue America Page is ActBlue. About a year ago one of the founders of ActBlue, Ben Rahn, was our guest for a chat and he explained how ActBlue works. Since 2004 our online community has raised over $25,000,000 for Democratic candidates through ActBlue. Ben tells me we can fly past the $100 million mark in this election cycle-- but they need to build up their infrastructure a bit to handle that. That's what Blogosphere Day 2007 is all about.
So far ActBlue has had 200,000 individuals contributing to around 1,700 candidates. Many of these contributions are for $5 and $10 and $20 and the power of 200,000 people loving our country and what it's about enough to donate what they can afford is a power the Republicans will never duplicate. Their donations come primarily from businessmen looking for special consideration and for government handouts. Our contributions elected a Democratic House of Representative and a Democratic Senate and in 2008 we will elect a Democratic President. Together we are powerful. I want to plead with you today to help insure a blue America by helping ActBlue stay strong and vibrant. Remember, even $5 helps build an America that will be safe for our families. Here's the place to do it.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Larry talks to Larry...
Larry Flynt appeared on the Larry King show... And, get this....they talked about sex:
FLYNT: We've got good leads. We've got over 300 initially. And they're down to about 30 now which is solid.
KING: When are you going to print?
FLYNT: Well, the last thing now is we don't know if we want to let it to drip, drip, drip or we want to go with everything at once.
KING: You mean you might release 30 names at once?
FLYNT: A good possibility.
KING: Will we be -- I don't want to get into names yet. Will we be shocked?
FLYNT: Yes.
KING: Were you shocked?
FLYNT: I was shocked, especially at one senator but...
KING: One senator especially?
FLYNT: Yes.
Look at what Nick found!
Nick Langewis, the associate editor of PageOneQ found this while checking out the WaPo RSS:
[PageOneQ: THREE YEARS LATE: Washington Post says Reagan died today]
[PageOneQ: THREE YEARS LATE: Washington Post says Reagan died today]
Monday, July 16, 2007
A new corner of the blogosphere arrives...
The progressive gay blogosphere has arrived and the rest of the political world is cordially invited to take notice. The addition of former Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK) to the upcoming Democratic presidential candidate forum sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and MTV’s LOGO channel represents a sea change for our corner of the netroots community.
Whether or not one thinks Gravel should have been included in the August 9th event is not very important to the story. The real lesson here is that the growing gay blogosphere is "a new form of political commentary leaving adolescence with all the swagger of a twenty year old," says fellow Huffington Post blogger Sara Whitman.
A little bit about the evolution of the issue. Last Tuesday, HRC announced that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had agreed to participate in a presidential forum on August 9. The forum's focus, the release said, will be "issues of importance to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community." To date, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich have also confirmed they will attend.
HRC responded to the initial question from bloggers: 'Why wasn't Mike Gravel invited?'
A "standard we set was that the candidates we invited had to have raised $100,000,” said an HRC spokesperson, who later amended that to mean that the $100,000 had to have been raised by the end of the second quarter, a deadline which HRC says Gravel had not meet.
“We wanted to make sure that with the limited time we had to present this forum, our community got to hear from candidates who could actually be President. We have gotten some feedback about not inviting Mike Gravel. Unfortunately, he didn't meet the $100,000 threshold,” said the spokesperson at the time.
Gay bloggers from sites as diverse as Queerty, Pam Spaulding's Pam’s House Blend, The Bilerico Project and the Huffington Post quickly rallied behind Gravel, who has run a gay-positive campaign, supports marriage equality, and has railed against discriminatory policies such as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. As a result, HRC, three days after their initial announcement, invited Gravel because of what they said was “enthusiastic community response.” Gravel immediately accepted the invitation, and his campaign credited the “online blogosphere community” for making it happen.
Kudos to the bloggers and to the Human Rights Campaign for creating the space for an open dialogue. Exactly one month and one day after launching their own blog, HRC BackStory, the multi-million dollar organization not only heard bloggers and their concerns, but they were able to keep the blogs informed with updates on the emerging event details.
This, of course, is not the first time LGBT bloggers have helped create change. When HRC went after Microsoft for not supporting an anti-discrimination bill and Ford for slashing ad purchases in community publications, bloggers contributed to the effort by helping to mobilize petition signatures and phone calls. When the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation went after Snickers for an anti-gay commercial, bloggers engaged readers to pressure candy-bar manufacturer Mars.
And, of course, perhaps most important of all was Lane Hudson's posting of Mark Foley's emails at StopSexPredators. That one post created a story which became one of the keystones in the Democratic takeover of Congress. Lane's 67 words and four images helped to change the course of history.
What is truly interesting about the Gravel matter is that it represents one of the first times an effort by bloggers to bring change within the LGBT community was met with such a resounding success. Other bloggers have tried to strong arm groups, as Andrew Sullivan is wont to do, but usually to little avail. In this case, bloggers provided quick feedback to bring their views -- and those of their readers -- to the kind of organization that just a few years ago would take weeks, if not longer, to respond to members’ concerns. This time, the exchange occurred over the course of three days.
The folks at HRC are good people, and I'm 100% certain there was no great conspiracy to exclude Mike Gravel from the debates.
At the same time bloggers -- including widely read Whitman, Hudson, and Spaulding -- wrote of their disappointment of Gravel not qualifying. Their arguments for inclusion were bolstered when it was learned that just days before Gravel hit the $100,000 threshold.
Blog posts were written, emails flew, phone calls were made, ideas tossed around. Netroots activists and organizational leaders were united by technology and by week's end the event was expanded by a half-hour (to 90 minutes) and Sen. Gravel was invited to attend.
"We won!" a friend who blogs about gay politics told me. "Can you believe that the blogs beat HRC at this?"
"No," I replied. "There is no reason to declare a winner or a loser. The winner here is the entire community. The technology brought us closer together -- and folks on the same team don't try to score points against each other."
People in Washington listened to those they represent outside the Beltway. What a refreshing change.
Whether or not one thinks Gravel should have been included in the August 9th event is not very important to the story. The real lesson here is that the growing gay blogosphere is "a new form of political commentary leaving adolescence with all the swagger of a twenty year old," says fellow Huffington Post blogger Sara Whitman.
A little bit about the evolution of the issue. Last Tuesday, HRC announced that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had agreed to participate in a presidential forum on August 9. The forum's focus, the release said, will be "issues of importance to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community." To date, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich have also confirmed they will attend.
HRC responded to the initial question from bloggers: 'Why wasn't Mike Gravel invited?'
A "standard we set was that the candidates we invited had to have raised $100,000,” said an HRC spokesperson, who later amended that to mean that the $100,000 had to have been raised by the end of the second quarter, a deadline which HRC says Gravel had not meet.
“We wanted to make sure that with the limited time we had to present this forum, our community got to hear from candidates who could actually be President. We have gotten some feedback about not inviting Mike Gravel. Unfortunately, he didn't meet the $100,000 threshold,” said the spokesperson at the time.
Gay bloggers from sites as diverse as Queerty, Pam Spaulding's Pam’s House Blend, The Bilerico Project and the Huffington Post quickly rallied behind Gravel, who has run a gay-positive campaign, supports marriage equality, and has railed against discriminatory policies such as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. As a result, HRC, three days after their initial announcement, invited Gravel because of what they said was “enthusiastic community response.” Gravel immediately accepted the invitation, and his campaign credited the “online blogosphere community” for making it happen.
Kudos to the bloggers and to the Human Rights Campaign for creating the space for an open dialogue. Exactly one month and one day after launching their own blog, HRC BackStory, the multi-million dollar organization not only heard bloggers and their concerns, but they were able to keep the blogs informed with updates on the emerging event details.
This, of course, is not the first time LGBT bloggers have helped create change. When HRC went after Microsoft for not supporting an anti-discrimination bill and Ford for slashing ad purchases in community publications, bloggers contributed to the effort by helping to mobilize petition signatures and phone calls. When the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation went after Snickers for an anti-gay commercial, bloggers engaged readers to pressure candy-bar manufacturer Mars.
And, of course, perhaps most important of all was Lane Hudson's posting of Mark Foley's emails at StopSexPredators. That one post created a story which became one of the keystones in the Democratic takeover of Congress. Lane's 67 words and four images helped to change the course of history.
What is truly interesting about the Gravel matter is that it represents one of the first times an effort by bloggers to bring change within the LGBT community was met with such a resounding success. Other bloggers have tried to strong arm groups, as Andrew Sullivan is wont to do, but usually to little avail. In this case, bloggers provided quick feedback to bring their views -- and those of their readers -- to the kind of organization that just a few years ago would take weeks, if not longer, to respond to members’ concerns. This time, the exchange occurred over the course of three days.
The folks at HRC are good people, and I'm 100% certain there was no great conspiracy to exclude Mike Gravel from the debates.
At the same time bloggers -- including widely read Whitman, Hudson, and Spaulding -- wrote of their disappointment of Gravel not qualifying. Their arguments for inclusion were bolstered when it was learned that just days before Gravel hit the $100,000 threshold.
Blog posts were written, emails flew, phone calls were made, ideas tossed around. Netroots activists and organizational leaders were united by technology and by week's end the event was expanded by a half-hour (to 90 minutes) and Sen. Gravel was invited to attend.
"We won!" a friend who blogs about gay politics told me. "Can you believe that the blogs beat HRC at this?"
"No," I replied. "There is no reason to declare a winner or a loser. The winner here is the entire community. The technology brought us closer together -- and folks on the same team don't try to score points against each other."
People in Washington listened to those they represent outside the Beltway. What a refreshing change.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Truth In Advertising: $500 reward
I was researching an item today and ended up at the Log Cabin website. I noticed a series of rotating pictures, including the two images below:
Here's the simple reward offer: Anyone who scores me a 10 minute interview with both of the Log Cabin member couples above gets $500 bucks. Surely, if they are on the front page of the Log Cabin site they are comfortable about giving an interview to an LGBT publication, like PageOneQ.
And, oh, don't you just love the PhRMA and Pfizer logos?
Here's the simple reward offer: Anyone who scores me a 10 minute interview with both of the Log Cabin member couples above gets $500 bucks. Surely, if they are on the front page of the Log Cabin site they are comfortable about giving an interview to an LGBT publication, like PageOneQ.And, oh, don't you just love the PhRMA and Pfizer logos?
GOP Daily Sex Report: A NY GOPer caught with his pants down
Just this week...
Yet another elected official is accused of dropping his pants inappropriately. Even the GOP in liberal New York City can't keep their act together.
[Note to RNC: Consider a caucus for Foley, Vitter, Allen and Gallagher and the rest of these guys at the '08 convention. Have it in the Ken Mehlman Suite.]
From the NY Post:
- US Senator David Vitter was exposed for using the DC Madam's services...
- Florida House member Bob Allen was arrested in Florida for offering a cop money for sex
- North Carolina Rep. David Almond resigned amid allegations that he exposed himself and chased a female employee saying "suck it baby."
Yet another elected official is accused of dropping his pants inappropriately. Even the GOP in liberal New York City can't keep their act together.
[Note to RNC: Consider a caucus for Foley, Vitter, Allen and Gallagher and the rest of these guys at the '08 convention. Have it in the Ken Mehlman Suite.]
From the NY Post:
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Affecting change from within...
The addition of former Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK) to an upcoming Human Rights Campaign presidential candidate forum represents a sea change for the progressive gay blogosphere. Whether one thinks Gravel should have been included in the event -- slated for August 9th on MTV's LOGO channel -- or not is not that important to the story. The lesson to learn from the experience is that the growing gay blogosphere is what fellow Huffington Post writer Sara Whitman called "a new form of political commentary leaving adolescence with all the swagger of a twenty year old."
Kudos to the bloggers who wanted this to happen. The Human Rights Campaign deserves credit here, too. Exactly one month and one day after launching their own blog, , the multi-million dollar organization not only heard bloggers and their concerns, but they were able to keep the blogs informed with updates on the emerging event details.
This, of course, is not the first time GLBT bloggers have been engaged making change. When HRC went after Microsoft for not supporting an anti-discrimination bill and Ford for slashing ad purchases in community publications, bloggers helped mobilize petitions and phone calls. When the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation went after Snickers for an anti-gay commercial, bloggers helped engage consumers to pressure Mars, manufacturers of the popular candy bar.
And, of course, and perhaps most important of all, Lane Hudson's posting of Mark Foley's emails at StopSexPredators, helped bring down a homophobic Congress and changed the course of history.
What is interesting about the Gravel matter is that it is one of the the first times an effort by bloggers to bring about change within the community was met with such a resounding success. Other bloggers have tried to strong arm groups, as Andrew Sullivan is wont to do. In this case however, bloggers provided just the kind of feedback to bring their views -- and those of their readers -- to the kind of organization that just a few years ago would take weeks, if not longer, to make changes in response to member concerns.
A little bit about the evolution of the issue. Last Tuesday, HRC issued a press release announcing that Hillary Clinton John Edward and Barack Obama had agreed to participate in a presidential forum on August 9. The forum's focus, the release said, will be "issues of importance to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community."
HRC responded to the initial question from bloggers: Why wasn't Mike Gravel invited?
Blog posts were written, emails flew, calls were made, ideas tossed around. Netroots activists and organizational leaders were united by technology and by week's end the event was expanded by thirty minutes (to an hour and a half) and Sen. Gravel was invited to attend. Gravel subsequently confirmed his attendance and participation.
"We won!" a friend who blogs about gay politics told me, "Can you believe that the blogs beat HRC at this?"
"No," I replied, "there is no reason to declare a winner or a loser. The winner here is the entire community. The technology brought us closer together and folks on the same team don't try to score points against each other."
People who represent people in Washington listening to people outside the Beltway, what a refreshing change.
Kudos to the bloggers who wanted this to happen. The Human Rights Campaign deserves credit here, too. Exactly one month and one day after launching their own blog, , the multi-million dollar organization not only heard bloggers and their concerns, but they were able to keep the blogs informed with updates on the emerging event details.
This, of course, is not the first time GLBT bloggers have been engaged making change. When HRC went after Microsoft for not supporting an anti-discrimination bill and Ford for slashing ad purchases in community publications, bloggers helped mobilize petitions and phone calls. When the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation went after Snickers for an anti-gay commercial, bloggers helped engage consumers to pressure Mars, manufacturers of the popular candy bar.
And, of course, and perhaps most important of all, Lane Hudson's posting of Mark Foley's emails at StopSexPredators, helped bring down a homophobic Congress and changed the course of history.
What is interesting about the Gravel matter is that it is one of the the first times an effort by bloggers to bring about change within the community was met with such a resounding success. Other bloggers have tried to strong arm groups, as Andrew Sullivan is wont to do. In this case however, bloggers provided just the kind of feedback to bring their views -- and those of their readers -- to the kind of organization that just a few years ago would take weeks, if not longer, to make changes in response to member concerns.
A little bit about the evolution of the issue. Last Tuesday, HRC issued a press release announcing that Hillary Clinton John Edward and Barack Obama had agreed to participate in a presidential forum on August 9. The forum's focus, the release said, will be "issues of importance to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community."
HRC responded to the initial question from bloggers: Why wasn't Mike Gravel invited?
The other standard we set was that the candidates we invited had to have raised $100,000. On the Democratic side, that meant we also invited Sen. Chris Dodd, Sen. Joe Biden, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Gov. Bill Richardson. We wanted to make sure that with the limited time we had to present this forum, our community got to hear from candidates who could actually be President. We have gotten some feedback about not inviting Mike Gravel. Unfortunately, he didn't meet the $100,000 threshold.The folks at HRC are good people and I'm 100% certain there was no great conspiracy to exclude Mike Gravel from the debates. At the same time, because of Gravel's strong support of the community's issues, a number of leading bloggers -- including Whitman, Hudson and Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend -- wrote of their disappointment of Gravel not qualifying. (The fact that Gravel had, just days before, hit the $100,000 threshold bolstered the argument for inclusion.)
Blog posts were written, emails flew, calls were made, ideas tossed around. Netroots activists and organizational leaders were united by technology and by week's end the event was expanded by thirty minutes (to an hour and a half) and Sen. Gravel was invited to attend. Gravel subsequently confirmed his attendance and participation.
"We won!" a friend who blogs about gay politics told me, "Can you believe that the blogs beat HRC at this?"
"No," I replied, "there is no reason to declare a winner or a loser. The winner here is the entire community. The technology brought us closer together and folks on the same team don't try to score points against each other."
People who represent people in Washington listening to people outside the Beltway, what a refreshing change.
Friday, July 13, 2007
The power of blogs
Interesting news from the blogosphere. I just hung up the phone with Mike Gravel's spokesman. HRC and LOGO had excluded Gravel from a forum and after they reversed and I was the first press person they told they would attend the forum.
Make no mistake about it. The gay blogs made this happen. Here's a report, including a great quote from Gravel: "This invitation is a direct result of our supporters' actions and would not have happened without the online blogosphere community and my supporters."
Make no mistake about it. The gay blogs made this happen. Here's a report, including a great quote from Gravel: "This invitation is a direct result of our supporters' actions and would not have happened without the online blogosphere community and my supporters."
Pressure from bloggers causes HRC reversal on Gravel; Former Alaska Senator will be participate in form on LOGO
by TJ Helmstetter and Michael Rogers
Gravel campaign credits bloggers, tells PageOneQ: We will attend
PageOneQ is the first news outlet to confirm with former Senator Mike Gravel's (D-Alaska) campaign that he will attend the HRC/LOGO presidential forum next month. Speaking moments after he stepped off a plane, campaign spokesman Alex Colvin said "the Senator is thrilled and he will accept the invitation."
Human Rights Campaign and LOGO officials today reversed a previous decision to exclude the long-shot presidential contender from a Democratic candidate's forum on LGBT issues. Senator Gravel was invited "after enthusiastic community response," according to an HRC press release.
"This invitation is a direct result of our supporters' actions and would not have happened without the online blogosphere community and my supporters," Senator Gravel said in a statement made to PageOneQ. "I extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone who made this happen," he added.
"This did not come from the campaign," spokesman Colvin told PageOneQ. "It came from the bloggers, from members of the Human Rights Campaign, and supporters Senator Gravel's campaign who took the initiative to voice their discontent with the decision to exclude Senator Gravel."
Earlier in the week HRC confirmed that Gravel was not invited because he had not raised more than $100,000 for his campaign, a criterion set by the debate sponsors. Some prominent LGBT bloggers publicly questioned the decision to exclude Gravel, who supports marriage equality and has been a vocal critic of the anti-gay policies of the current administration. Those bloggers included both Lane Hudson and Sara Whitman at Huffington Post, Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend, and the writers at gay culture site Queerty, who first raised the issue of Gravel's exclusion. "Clinton, Obama and all the front runners better fasten their seatbelts. A new form of political commentary is leaving adolescence with all the swagger of a twenty year old, Whitman told PageOneQ. Whitman, a frequent poster at Huffington Post also blogs at Suburban Lesbian Mom. Additional bloggers who rote about the exclusion were Michael Crawford at Bloggernista and Chris Crain at Citizen Crain.
The Democratic presidential candidates event will air on LOGO on August 9. Moderators will include HRC President Joe Solomonese and Melissa Etheridge. Confirmed candidates so far are Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Barack Obama. Top Republican candidates did not respond to HRC inquiries relating to a similar event for GOP contenders.
Bob Allen... Looking over the handicapped stall...
I'll be careful here, as my nephew told me his college-freshmen buddies read the site... But, for Bob Allen, a quick pointer: If you're any good, YOU are the one who is supposed to be paid... and a lot more than $20.
More details on the hypocritical, anti-gay closet case politician arrested in Florida:
"'How about across the bridge, it's quiet over there," Florida House member and state co-chairman for Sen. John McCain's presidential bid Bob Allen allegedly told a police officer moments before his arrest in a Florida park for soliciting sex. Allen, a Republican first elected to the House in 2000, was referring to a possible location for a sexual encounter that would be away from the men's room in the park.
"Allen engaged me in a conversation in which it was agreed that he would pay me $20 in order to perform a 'blow job' on me," Officer D. Kavanaugh wrote in the arrest report, obtained by pq. Kavanaugh stated that he was in the handicapped stall and he "observed Allen look over the door of my stall and make eye contact with me. Allen then stepped away and then came back to the door of my stall and looked in, making eye contact with me again."
This was, reported the officer, the second time Allen had entered the bathroom. Earlier, Allen had been seen entering the bathroom by Kavanaugh and other officers in the park.
As the lurid details of his alleged encounter with the officer emerged, Allen told a press conference he "would ask people not to jump to any conclusions about this." Allen faces misdemeanor charges for solicitation.
When his appointment to the McCain campaign was announced, the Arizona Senator said Allen was a community leader and praised his ability to "wrestle with the important issues of our day."
The report is graphic in nature and contains sexual language.
The text of the written by Officer D. Kavanaugh:
Scott Hutcheson contributed to this report
For the complete story see: Arrested pol is McCain campaign Florida co-chairman.
For a full size version of the arrest record, click here or on the image below.
More details on the hypocritical, anti-gay closet case politician arrested in Florida:
"'How about across the bridge, it's quiet over there," Florida House member and state co-chairman for Sen. John McCain's presidential bid Bob Allen allegedly told a police officer moments before his arrest in a Florida park for soliciting sex. Allen, a Republican first elected to the House in 2000, was referring to a possible location for a sexual encounter that would be away from the men's room in the park."Allen engaged me in a conversation in which it was agreed that he would pay me $20 in order to perform a 'blow job' on me," Officer D. Kavanaugh wrote in the arrest report, obtained by pq. Kavanaugh stated that he was in the handicapped stall and he "observed Allen look over the door of my stall and make eye contact with me. Allen then stepped away and then came back to the door of my stall and looked in, making eye contact with me again."
This was, reported the officer, the second time Allen had entered the bathroom. Earlier, Allen had been seen entering the bathroom by Kavanaugh and other officers in the park.
As the lurid details of his alleged encounter with the officer emerged, Allen told a press conference he "would ask people not to jump to any conclusions about this." Allen faces misdemeanor charges for solicitation.
When his appointment to the McCain campaign was announced, the Arizona Senator said Allen was a community leader and praised his ability to "wrestle with the important issues of our day."
The report is graphic in nature and contains sexual language.
The text of the written by Officer D. Kavanaugh:
"On 11 July 2007 at approximately 1533 hours I was conducting a plain clothes investigation in the area of 10 Broad Street (Space View Park). I observed a white male driving a silver 4 door Toyota pull into the driveway, which is a roundabout, twice within a matter of moments. I recall this because I was conducting surveillance in an attempt to capture a burglar in a nearby condominium and I was concerned about counter-surveillance.
"I observed Allen walk into the men's restroom ... I then observed Allen leave the restroom and walk towards a park bench. I then entered the bathroom to adjust my police radio. On my way out of the restroom I almost bumped into Allen who was on his way into the restroom again. Allen changed his course of direction when he saw that I was leaving the restroom and went back towards his park bench. I talked with the other officers again and then entered the bathroom and began washing my hands. Allen entered the the restroom behind me and proceeded into the first stall.
"I realized there were no paper towels to dry my hands so I walked into the handicap stall to dry my hands. As I stood in the stall drying my hands I observed Allen look over the door of my stall and make eye contact with me. Allen then stepped away and then came back to the door of my stall and looked in, making eye contact with me again.
"I said 'hey buddy' and Allen said 'hi' and then stepped away again. About 5 seconds later Allen pushed open the door to my stall and stepped inside. I was standing against the far wall of the stall. Allen closed the door behind him and stood against it. I said 'What's up?' and Allen again said 'hi.' Allen then said, 'this is kind of a public place isn't it?' I said, 'do you have somewhere else we can go?' Allen said, 'How about across the bridge, it's quiet over there.' Allen engaged me in a conversation in which it was agreed that he would pay me $20 in order to perform a 'blow job' on me. Allen stated that he wanted me to ride with him across the river before he performed the act and gave me the money. Before entering Allen's vehicle I identified myself as a police officer and detained him."
Scott Hutcheson contributed to this report
For the complete story see: Arrested pol is McCain campaign Florida co-chairman.
For a full size version of the arrest record, click here or on the image below.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
I love your signature, wanna go on a date?
As they say, Birds of a feather, flock together. Here, the closeted anti-gay governor of Florida signs a bill as the closeted anti-gay member of the Florida House looks on:
Busted
SHOCKER! A closeted gay GOP Florida House member was arrested for soliciting sex from a police officer. As if one has to ask, his voting record for the past 5 years has been 90%+ with the Christian Coalition. And, duh, he was endorsed by the state's Right to Life Committee. Oh, did I mention he was ranked dead last by the state's LGBT Democratic group?Closeted gay, anti-gay Republicans in politics: The gift that keeps on giving.
From PageOneQ:
A member of the Florida House of Representatives arrested yesterday on charges of soliciting a male undercover police officer is the co-Chairman of the Florida campaign of presidential hopeful John McCain, PageOneQ has learned.Bob Allen (R) was appointed Florida co-Chairman of the McCain campaign in March. At the time, McCain said he was proud of the support he received from Allen and that Allen and his three co-chairs were "respected leaders in their communities and have real experience wrestling with the important issues of our day." McCain pledged to "turn to these leaders. Their counsel will be very helpful and their support invaluable."
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
IRAN EXECUTING MORE GAYS
FROM THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE:
ACTIVIST MICHAEL PETRELIS IS KEEPING THE PRESSURE ON AND IS UPDATING WITH CONTINUING INFORMATION AT HIS SITE: THE PETRELIS FILES.TEHRAN: The Iranian government confirmed Tuesday that a man was executed by stoning last week for committing adultery, and said that 20 more men would be executed in the coming days on morality violations.
A judiciary spokesman, Alireza Jamshidi, told reporters on Tuesday that a death sentence by stoning had been carried out last week near the city of Takestan, west of Tehran, despite an order by the chief of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, not to permit such executions.
"The verdict was final, and so it was carried out for the man but not for the woman," the ISNA news agency quoted Jamshidi as saying.
He said the 20 additional executions were for such things as "rape, insulting religious sanctities and laws, and homosexuality." Most executions in Iran are hangings, often in public and at the scenes of the alleged crimes.
He has a motive for wanting to protect them...
From the Capitolist
Want to know what the staffers of Congress think? Check out The Capitolist. Anyone can read the posts, but only approved IP Capitol Hill addresses (read: Congressional offices) can post items. There have been, of course, a ton of comments today about Vitter and the DC Madam's list. I thought the second message here was fun:
Mandatory sentencing
There's an effort afoot to convince David Vitter's wife to change her mind. In response to the Clinton impeachment, Wendy Vitter said, "I'm a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary. If he does something like that, I'm walking away with one thing, and it's not alimony, trust me."
As readers know, I believe there should be a price to pay when a politician is a hypocrite and espouses ant-gay rhetoric. For example:
Now, David Vitter deserves something, too. But physical removal of body parts is over the line. Please join me and others in supporting David Vitter. His wife MUST be convinced to change her mind. Cutting of her husband's penis with a knife is way too harsh a punishment for his violation of the sanctity of holy matrimony.
See the commercial on YouTube:
Call Sen. Vitter's Office at 202-224-4623... Save the man's penis.
As readers know, I believe there should be a price to pay when a politician is a hypocrite and espouses ant-gay rhetoric. For example:David Dreier was humiliated by his party caucus as he tried to climb the leadership ladder and learned the Rules Committee has a pink ceiling above it.I think all of those are fair.
Larry Craig, is facing an insurgency from within his own party for reelection.
Ed Schrock bailed from his all but guaranteed reelection campaign and gave up his seat in Congress...
Now, David Vitter deserves something, too. But physical removal of body parts is over the line. Please join me and others in supporting David Vitter. His wife MUST be convinced to change her mind. Cutting of her husband's penis with a knife is way too harsh a punishment for his violation of the sanctity of holy matrimony.
See the commercial on YouTube:
Call Sen. Vitter's Office at 202-224-4623... Save the man's penis.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Vitter on Marriage...His wife on affairs...
Here's what US Senator David Vitter had to say on his official website in 2004:
“This is a real outrage. The Hollywood left is redefining the most basic institution in human history, and our two U.S. Senators won’t do anything about it.From Vitter's wife as posted on Tagen Goddard's Political Wire:We need a U.S. Senator who will stand up for Louisiana values, not Massachusetts’s values. I am the only Senate Candidate to coauthor the Federal Marriage Amendment; the only one fighting for its passage. I am the only candidate proposing changes to the senate rules to stop liberal obstructionists from preventing an up or down vote on issues like this, judges, energy, and on and on.” stated David Vitter.
Thanks to TJ for suggesting the quote.
New show tonight
If you like your cartoon shows to be politically correct, DO NOT WATCH this show!Tonight at 10pm LOGO is premiering Rick and Steve, The Happiest Gay Couple in the World. The show is the brainchild of Q. Alan Brocka, the filmmaker behind Boy Culture, and Eating Out. Some of the characters on the show are voiced by Alan Cumming, Wilson Cruz, and Peter Paige from Queer As Folk.
Warning: If jokes about gay men and quiche, lesbians and home repair or people with AIDS bother you, do not click here or on one of the images below for a five minute preview:
Friends I showed the first two episodes to thought ti was very funny. Most made comparisons to Avenue Q and South Park. I thought it was like Avenue Q, except that Rick and Steve is more visually interesting. I thought it was like South Park, except that Rick and Steve is much funnier.Here's the full schedule:
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Interesting evening talking with Jeane...
Interesting evening. First I chatted with a gay activist who was quite familiar with the site but was unfamiliar with PageOneQ.com, the gay news service I edit with Nick Langewis.
Thanks to a hot makeover at Bilerico, in addition to the normal RSS, now a PageOneQ newsfeed is available. Most stories link to one of the hundreds of sources we monitor to keep the site updated. It's a neat addition to any site:
Please visit the guys at Bilerico. I'll be cross posting there from time to time.
Second, I had a very nice forty minute chat tonight with Deborah Jeane Palfrey. It was quite interesting. More on that next week.
Mike
Thanks to a hot makeover at Bilerico, in addition to the normal RSS, now a PageOneQ newsfeed is available. Most stories link to one of the hundreds of sources we monitor to keep the site updated. It's a neat addition to any site:
Second, I had a very nice forty minute chat tonight with Deborah Jeane Palfrey. It was quite interesting. More on that next week.Mike
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Andrew Sullivan flip flops, outs Fred Thompson
The rumors that Andrew writes about have been flying around DC for quite sometime now. He must know something I don't...so it's a good thing that he has finally gotten his act together and come around to see the benefits of sites like BlogActive.
From Sully:
From Sully:
Outside the extremist, activist base, regular GOP voters turn out to be relatively tolerant when it comes to sexual minorities and private sex lives. They're not well represented by their party leaders, as far as policy