Barney Frank makes it official…..

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

What is it with some of the left that at the mere mention of someone with opposing views, they immediately lose all focus and rant against conservatives and Republicans in general or John McCain and Sarah Palin in particular.  They have long since transferred their hatred of Bush to McCain and Palin.

All this just proves is that their animosity against Republicans is only partly based on ideology or dislike of a supposedly incompetent and unintelligent executive, but primarily in their own neuroses.  They have some “need” to express their hatred against conservatives, verbally on their blogs and in person as well as physically against signs and bumper stickers promoting Republicans.

In the past few days, I have been surprised at the number of McCain-Palin bumper stickers I have seen in the West Hollywood/Hollywood area, impressed that these motorists are willing to risk having their cars keyed or otherwise vandalized, given how frequently that has happened in years past.

Now, blogress Cassy Fiano reports from Albemarle County, Virginia (my old stomping grounds when I was in law school about how these unhappy leftists have vandalized or stolen McCain campaign signs.  Not just that:

Two couples that put up signs expressing support for GOP candidates have had their signs stolen and have been receiving hate mail. And while Chris [Albemarle County GOP chairman Chris Schoenewald] told me they’re used to seeing some level of this kind of activity, this is the worst. “Large billboard signs that people are putting onto their property are being vandalized or stolen,” Chris said. “In past years, we haven’t seen that happen. We’ve been putting them on private property where the owners have been asking us to put them there. We’ve never seen a situation where there’s been this level of vandalism and theft. This is the first time that we’ve really seen this scale of activity.”

And I thought Bush-hatred was bad in 2004. This year, the vandalism has increased to levels never previously seen, at least in Virginia.

Albemarle County surrounds the City of Charlottesville, site of the University of Virginia. Interesting that we find the greatest amount of anti-Republican hatred near university campuses.

What is it about intellectuals who supposedly pursue the truth dispassionattely that makes them so passioantely intolerant of opposing viewpoints. Check out Cassy’s post to see photographic evidence of their intolerance. And to wonder why these people find it necessary to express themselves profanely when confronting conservatives.

Spend just 10 minutes and learn a lot about why we are facing a $700 BILLION financial crisis.

Spend 10 minutes and learn how the same Democrats in Congress who caused this mess, also got massive campaign contributions from the greedy investment houses and lenders.

Spend 10 minutes and learn that these same Democrats are still kowtowing to their Wall Street donors and left-wing groups during this financial crisis.  We expect the people who caused this mess to FIX IT??

Ask yourselves why Chris Dodd & Barney Frank are SO EAGER to pass the Paulson package so we can “move on” to other subjects.   Don’t look behind the curtain, says Barney, just do what I say.

Ask yourselves which political party, over the past 10 days, has stood up for Main Street and which one has had to stand up for Wall Street due to the political support they rely on.

Spend 10 minutes watching this before you decide who to vote for this November. (h/t – Ace of Spades)

[RELATED STORY: Bailout Mess: And You Wonder Why I'm Not A Democrat? - Kevin at Citizen Crain]

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

UPDATE (from Dan);  As that video above no longer works, please check this one out:

“The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.” - Nancy Pelosi, 11/8/06

“The American people – many Republican and independent voters among them – entrusted Democrats with their hopes and aspirations for themselves, their families, and their future. We are prepared to lead and ready to govern. We will honor that trust, and we will not disappoint.” – Nancy Pelosi, 11/14/06

(Not My) Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) may wish to remind Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) about these empty promises.

Reid Keeps The Swamp Brimming – DC Examiner (h/t – Instapundit)

As the stock market plunged nearly 1,000 points in two days this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada was preoccupied with protecting billions of dollars worth of earmarks contained in a separate, unpublished committee report that got a one-sentence reference in a giant $612 billion defense bill. Reid engineered the 61-to-32 vote to limit debate on the bill, thus barring consideration of an amendment offered by Sen. Jim DeMint. The South Carolina Republican’s amendment would have deleted the reference to the committee report so that it would have to be considered separately. By leaving the language in the bill, the lawmakers were able to carry out one of their favorite maneuvers: Incorporating committee reports into omnibus bills so they can give billions of tax dollars to their cronies without recorded votes on specific spending measures. This is the same Harry Reid who with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised to “drain the swamp” of Republican corruption if voters would return the Democrats to the majority.

Maybe Sen. Reid could consult with Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) on ethics and good government?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Despite House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s best efforts, New York Democrat Charles Rangel is refusing to step down as House Ways & Means Committee chair. Although his committee oversees federal tax policy, “the Harlem congressman [has] admitted owing at least $10,000 in back taxes.”   Rangel “failed to disclose rental income from his Dominican Republic beach home.”

The longer Rangel maintains his committee chairmanship, the more people will see that while Democrats regained their congressional majority just two years ago, promising to clean up Congress, they have acted upon promise.  The situation has worsened since Nancy Pelosi took hold of the Speaker’s gavel.

As Congress fails to rein in excessive spending, its approval rating continues to plummet.

The publicity this scandal generates could remind voters how little the Pelosi Democrats have done to change the ways things are done in Washington. Two years ago, the Mark Foley scandal helped sink any chances Republicans had of retaining Congress. Will Rangel’s problems have a similar effect on the Democratic incumbents?

It’s too soon to tell, but before we Republicans break out the champagne, bear this in mind: the media seems far less interested in Democratic scandals than in Republican ones. And this one doesn’t involve sex.

While we have said little about Ted Stevens on this blog, with Bruce offering one mocking post, noting the number of projects named for Alaska’s senior senator he discovered when he visited Anchorage, we have not hesitated to criticize members of our party for continuing to push pork-barrel projects.  I took on then-Senator Trent Lett on his penchant for pork here and addressed the problem of Jerry Lewis, then-Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, in this post.

And Stevens, famous for seeking an earmark for the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” has long been the king of Pork.

The pork-barreling ways of such Republican leaders are one reason Lewis and many other House (& Senate) Republicans are now former committee chairmen.  Had Republicans stayed true to our party’s fiscal principles and not adopted the spendthrift ways of such legislators as Stevens, Lewis and Lott, the GOP might still have its congressional majorities.

Thus, I’m not shedding a tear for the Alaska Senator’s latest woes.  He seems to think his forty year-Senate exempts him from the normal Senate disclosure rules.  Maybe it’s that he’s never “had a close election race since being appointed to the Senate in 1968.”

If he were a decent man, he would say that, after his long career, he wants to leave politics with his good name intact.  Thus, he will withdraw from the current Senate campaign in order to focus all his efforts on defeating the charges against him.  

Personally, I think he should have retired long ago.  And Glenn Reynolds has been publicly calling for his retirement for at least a year.

Ted Stevens really represents one of the greatest problems of the GOP in recent years.  Many of our leading politicians subscribe only to the principles of power and pork and not the conservative ideas which have proven successful for Republican candidates in any number of elections over the years.  No wonder that while the Democrats currently enjoy an edge in party identification, more Americans identify as conservative than as liberal.

This “ideology gap” could help he GOP if our elected officials stayed true to their principles.  But, alas, all too often, we’re saddled with unprincipled politicians like Ted Stevens.

I just got this high-larious email from the Re-Elect Kucinich for Congress Committee.  (How the frick did I get on THAT list?)

Anyway, enjoy this laugh….

Impeachment on the House floor TODAY

Dear Friends,

Congressman Dennis Kucinich will present a single Article of Impeachment to the House of Representatives sometime between 3:30 pm and 4:00 pm (EDT) today, Thursday, July 10th.

A press conference will be held today at the Cannon HOB Terrace at 2pm (EDT)
 
Sessions of the House of Representatives are broadcast live on C-SPAN (check your local cable listings for channel) and streamed live via the Internet (www.cspan.org).
 
The article of Impeachment will deal directly with President Bush fraudulently obtaining support for an attack on Iraq by creating a false case for war. Full details of the Article of Impeachment will be available after they are read on the floor of the House by Congressman Kucinich.
 
Please spread the word and continue to circulate the online petition that Congressman Kucinich will personally present to members of Congress.

Now, despite what you might think I would say — I HEARTILY support Impeachment proceedings.   PLEASE, (not my) Speaker Pelosi… PLEASE listen to Dennis and begin hearings immediately!

Why, you may ask?  Well, I see only two possible outcomes:

1 – Dick Cheney becomes President

2 – Evidence will be presented on the record in hearings that the mainstream media can’t ignore.  The American public will finally hear the FACTS about the Bush Administration and the FACTS about the outstanding service of the US military that the MSM hasn’t reported since 2003.

Bring it on, baby.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Well, except maybe poor Jimmah.

Recently, I sent Limbaugh an e-mail message, his preferred means of long-distance communication, asking what his own presidential agenda would look like. His answer reflects his actual concerns. A Limbaugh administration would seek to:

1. Open the continental shelf to drilling. Ditto the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

2. Establish a 17 percent flat tax.

3. Privatize Social Security.

4. Give parents school vouchers to break the monopoly of public education.

5. Revoke Jimmy Carter’s passport while he is out of the country.

6. Abandon all government policies based on the hoax of man-made global warming.

Very interesting piece in the New York Times of all things about conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh. It’s surprisingly good and while the author Chafets may want to think that “No. 5 was a joke”, I have a sneaky suspicion that quite a number of Americans would agree with Rush on this. Frankly, I agree with the whole list here and the abandonment of most of these ideas is largely responsible for why the GOP finds itself in deep doo-doo this election cycle.

– John (Average Gay Joe)

Senator Reid may well be the most incompetent man ever to be in charge of the United States Senate.

Political Maneuvers Delay Bill-After-Bill In The Senate – Washington Post

The Senate went home yesterday for the Fourth of July holiday to face voters, having failed repeatedly to address critical economic issues from skyrocketing gas prices to climate change to the nation’s housing crisis.

Leaders in both parties have vowed to tackle those problems. Yet the Senate has been unable to move forward even when there is broad agreement about what to do.

<….>

Senators in both parties say the logjam is the worst they’ve seen, largely due to copious use of the filibuster. Since January 2007, motions to end debate — cloture motions — have been filed 119 times. The previous record for any two-year session was 82.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) has used a procedural tactic to prohibit GOP amendments 13 times since January 2007, more than any Senate leader since 1985.

Republicans point to those statistics and accuse Reid of using cloture to deny them the ability to amend legislation often chosen for its political message.

Gee, remind me which minority-status party at-the-time began the requirement of 60 votes for passage of ANY item in the Senate?   One guess only, please.

It is unbelieveable to comprehend that Reid make (Not-My) Speaker Pelosi look smart, witty, and intelligent.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Good heavens….

House Democrats responded to President’s Bush’s call for Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. This was at an on-camera press conference fed back live.

Among other things, the Democrats called for the government to own refineries so it could better control the flow of the oil supply.

Ah, socialism.   The Democrats are at least finally being honest with America.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I’ve just signed the petition. You should too.

Or you can allow the hypocritical Democrats who have been blocking domestic energy exploration for decades to continue to drive your destiny. They don’t want to create “energy independence”… they want more control over your lives.

If Senator Obama WERE a “different kind of politician,” he would also support immediate exploration of America’s bountiful resources for internal energy use and have a Sister Souljah moment with the radical environmental wackos that control US energy policy.

Otherwise Obama’s calls for “energy independence” are, like his other proclamations, just mere flowery words.

[RELATED STORY: Gas prices up 75 percent since Dems took over in 2006 - Infidels Are Cool]

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Folks, there ain’t nuthin I can argue about Sean Hannity’s “Top 10 Items for Victory”.   Well, except the title… (Items?)

Anyway, ask your candidate for Congress if they have signed onto this pledge for America’s future.

1) To be the Candidate of National security:
a) Victory in Iraq
b) Fully support NSA, Patriot act, tough interrogations, keeping Gitmo open
c) A Candidate that pledges to NOT demean our military while they are fighting for their Country. eg Harry Reid: “the surge has failed”, “the war is lost”
d) Candidate that promises to ensure that our veterans can live out their lives in dignity.

2) The Candidate who pledges to oppose Appeasement:
a) The Candidate will oppose any and all efforts to negotiate with dictators of the world in places like Iran, Syria, N.Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela without “pre-conditions”

3) The Candidate Pledges to support Tax CUTS, and fiscal responsibility:
a) The American people are NOT under taxed, Government Spends too much
b) The Candidate who Pledges to ELIMINATE and VOTE AGAINST ALL Earmarks
c) The Candidate pledges to BALANCE the budget

4) The Candidate Pledges to be a supporter of “Energy Independence”
a) supports Immediate drilling in ANWR and the 48 states
b) Building new refineries
c) Begin building and using Nuclear Facilities
d) expand coal mining
e) realistic steward of the environment
While simultaneously working with private industry to develop the new energy technologies for the future, with the goal being that America becomes completely energy independent within the next 15 years.

5) The Candidate pledges to secure our borders completely within 12 months:
a) build all necessary fences
b) use all available technology to help and support agents at the border
c) train and hire agents as needed

6) Healthcare:
The Candidate will look for Free-Market solutions to the problems facing the Healthcare industry, and will vigorously oppose any efforts to “nationalize healthcare”.
a) The Candidate will fight for Individual health savings accounts, that includes “catastrophic insurance” for every American, so people can control their own healthcare choices.

7) Education:
a) The Candidate pledges to “save” American children from the failing educational system
b) The Candidate will fight to break the unholy alliance of the Democratic party and teachers unions, which at best has institutionalized mediocrity, and has failed children across the country
c) fight for “CHOICE” in education and let parents decide
d) fight for vouchers for parents

8.) Social Security and Medicare:
a) The Candidate will “save” social security and medicare from bankruptcy.
b) Options will include “private retirement” funds so people can “control” their own destiny.

9) Judges
a) The Candidate vows to support ONLY judges who recognize that their job is to interpret the Constitution, and NOT legislate from the bench.

10) American Dream:
The Candidate accepts as their duty and responsibility to educate, inform, and remind people that with the blessings of Freedom comes a Great responsibility. That Government’s primary goal is to preserve, protect and defend our God given gift of freedom.

That Government’s do not have the ability to solve all of our problems, and to take away all of our fears and concerns. We need their pledge that we will be the candidate that promotes Individual liberty, Capitalism, a strong national defense and will support policies that encourage such…

It is our fundamental belief that limited Government, and Greater individual responsibility will insure the continued prosperity and success for future generations.

We the people who believe in the words of Ronald Reagan, that we are “the best last hope for man on this earth,” “a shining city on a hill,” and that our best days are before us if our Government will simply trust the American people.

What’s not to support here?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I am not delusional enough to think that this isn’t the proverbial “Democratic year.”  At one level, I can’t believe this nation would elect a President whose public statements suggest appeasing the enemy in a time of war declared upon this nation by a worldwide radical movement.

On another level, I could really care less anymore and find myself distancing from political engagement.    am tired of Red vs. Blue.  And anyone who thinks Obamessiah will change that is delusional.  And do I really give a royal patootie if the Dems win “this many” House seats or “that many” Senate seats.   Maybe the yoot of America needs to be reminded what it was like when liberals ruled the Federal Government for four decades. 

However, this Election Projection site update is quite telling.    (h/t – Hugh Hewitt)

Where’s the blowout?  Where’s the Democratic Tsunami?  Obama barely squeaking out an Electoral win… when his favorability/popularity will only decline from now to November?  Only 4 net gains for the Dems in the House and Senate?   “They” tell me that the GOP is supposed to lose 40 seats.   Perhaps… but not so fast.

Eh, who cares.  I’m going to go marry a goat.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Have you heard about US Congressman Charles Rangel’s wheels?  Did you know that YOU are paying the lease?

Congressman Charles Rangel was recently seen getting out of his Cadillac DeVille, which he leases for $774 per month.  Then there was Congressman Jose Serrano, getting out of his Buick LaCrosse, which he leases for $317 per month.  And how about this one: Congressman Gregory Meeks was recently seen waiting for Congressman John Conyers to step out of Meeks’ Lexus LS460, which Meeks leases for $998 per month.
All those leases are picked up by taxpayers through a little-known program available only to members of the House of Representatives.

Rangel: “I could probably find something for … one of those red cars and then I think my constituents would say, ‘With all the money that he gets, this is the respect he shows us?’”

“..this is the respect HE shows US?”   What a spit in the face of his consituents.

Hey, Congress…. don’t worry about it, really.   I mean it is only my money you are wasting.   We know you don’t care.

By sheer coincidence, all of the Members of Congress in the CBS News report seem to come from no particular political party at all.  You’d have to dig past the article itself to find out they are all from the House Majority Party — The Democrats.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

As I was having a late lunch today, I picked up my copy of the Weekly Standard and chance upon two excellent pieces on the fall of the House of Clinton. Tonight’s podcast guest Dean Barnett wrote on a thoughtful piece questioning The Qualifications of Hillary W. Clinton.

Dean gives Ms. Hillary the middle initial W because, like the incumbent she loves to revile, the only thing which distinguishes her from dozens of elected officals more qualified on paper for the presidency is her “surname.” Just as George W. Bush’s “surname made him the frontrunner,” so did hers. Well, in her case, the immediate past frontrunner.

While Dean has penned a thoughtful piece which I recommend highly, Noemie Emery, in her companion article, “The Natural and his Wife,” comes up with one of the best single lines on the Clinton presidency I have yet read:

How this [relationships between Clintons and Al Gore] played out is laid out in hair-raising detail in Sally Bedell Smith’s account of an administration and marriage like none other in history, and one that bred the highest level of dysfunctional angst ever seen in the White House–except for those moments when Richard Nixon dined alone.

I’ll leave it to others to track down John F. Kennedy’s reference to Thomas Jefferson.

As we prepare to watch Hillary suffer another defeat tonight, I highly recommend these two pieces on the Fall of the House of Clinton.

UPDATE: More evidence of the Clinton Meltdown:

Bill complains about the free pass Obama got from the press. Hmm. . . . what about all those free passes the MSM gave him time and time again. (Via Drudge.) (See, e.g., failure of talking heads to ask tough questions of Bill and MSM’s giving short shrift to Clinton campaign fundraising scandals.)

Like Bruce, I do find myself feeling sorry for Hillary, especially as she seems trapped into what appears to be a dysfunctional marriage. But, if it weren’t for the dysfunctional marriage, she would likely not have achieved the national prominence she has, received a 7-figure advance for her book, seen that book climb the bestseller charts and won a seat in the United States Senate from a state where she had never lived until after she had spent seven years in the White House.

Hillary Clinton wouldn’t be experiencing the fall she has experienced in the past few days had her marriage not helped her to rise as high as she had. Building on the point Dean made his piece, Hillary has no more qualifications to be president than such senators as Debbie Stabenow or Maria Cantwell, two women elected the same year as she who have hardly distinguished themselves since taking office. But for the surname which Bill gave to her (given the fact that she didn’t take it until after he lost his bid for reelection as Arkansas governor in 1980 and then only for political reasons, it might be more correct to say “which she took”), she might have spent her career as a law professor or advocate for left-wing causes.

I do feel for her having to suffer so in the public square. But, she did rise as high as she did in a profession where her personality seems more a detriment than an asset.

She chose her path, but had she not assumed she was entitled to the White House, she might not be experiencing the grief she faces today. But, then isn’t it only human to aspire for something we may not be able to achieve?

This doesn’t come as any surprise to me.

In a recent Associated Press-Pew Research Center poll, 17 percent of likely Republican voters in the New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary named illegal immigration as the one issue they want to hear candidates talk about, making it second only to Iraq. In Iowa, where caucuses kick of the presidential nominating season, immigration was the leading issue for 18 percent of Republicans, ahead of Iraq.

The figures are somewhat surprising in New Hampshire, a state of 1.3 million people with a small immigrant population and even smaller illegal one. There were 14,000 more foreign-born residents in the state last year than in 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A report last year by the Pew Hispanic Center estimated the state is home to somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 illegal immigrants.

Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, said he has believed for a year or so that illegal immigration would be important in the GOP primary because it strikes so many chords.  There’s the economic argument: Illegal immigrants are taking jobs from Americans.  There’s the legal one: They’re breaking the law.  There’s the cultural argument:  They’re not assimilating into American culture.”

The surprise is that most INDEPENDENT primary voters are also expressing support for a more security-conscious immigration policy… and opposition to blanket amnesty of law-breakers.

A sizable majority — an average of 65 percent of voters in those three states [Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania] — said that they would vote for the candidate they agreed with on other issues but not on immigration. But an average of 22 percent said that illegal immigration could be a deal-breaker for them when it comes to voting for a candidate.

That would be a significant number in a close election.  Most interesting is that 27 percent of independents — the key swing voters who decide elections — say immigration could turn them away from a candidate, more than either Democrats or Republicans.

Democrat voters, on the other hand, are content to live in their made-up land of Bush Derangement Syndromeville and cast their votes from that warped perspective.

-Bruce (GayPatriot) 

If you’re planning to vote in Virginia’s February Republican presidential primary, be prepared to sign an oath swearing your Republican loyalty.

The State Board of Elections on Monday approved a state Republican Party request to require all who apply for a GOP primary ballot first vow in writing that they’ll vote for the party’s presidential nominee next fall.

There’s no practical way to enforce the oath. (AP/WAVY-TV)

This is a good example of what I meant when I said the Virginia GOP has been taken over by extremists and is out of control. The national party can’t hold a candle to the boneheads in the Commonwealth. It becomes really difficult to make people aware of why Democrat ideology is flawed when Republican idiots are flapping their arms and making fools of themselves. Get ready for the open Senate seat from the Old Dominion to cross the aisle…

– John (Average Gay Joe)

RESPONSE (from Dan): I hope to have something to say about this at a later date, but got carried away with the blog news of the day and other obligations. Suffice it to say, this goes to some of the problems I have witnessed in the Virginia GOP, problems which plagued the party in the 1980s which were by and large corrected in the 1990s, but started returning sometime in this decade. When the party learns the lessons of the ’80s and focuses on unifying conservative ideas as it did in the 1990s, it wins. But, lately, we’ve seen the party fail to present an optimistic agenda. I even read that two of the leading Republicans in the state, the Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General went around the state in the most recent election, reminding Virginians what the party did in the 1990s when it dominated state politics instead of focusing on what it planned to do in the current decade. More on this anon (I hope).

UPDATE: Reaction to this news is coming in and it ain’t pretty. Democrats are obviously making sport of this, as I would in their place, but they aren’t alone.

NRO The Corner:

That’s amazing. Politicians make and break promises all the time—but apparently they want voters to make a promise and keep it. Hey Virginia GOP: Didn’t you pledge to phase out the car tax completely, oh, say, ten years ago?

Hot Air:

Stupid not only for its unenforceability but for the assumption that it will actually deter Democrats so driven by partisan fervor that they’d vote in the Republican primary to sabotage the strongest candidate…

Leslie Carbone:

There’s no way to enforce the oath, but that’s no comfort to people (like me) who keep our vows. If this ruling stands, I won’t be able to vote in the Virginia Republican primary. Read my lips: I don’t make vows I don’t keep.

UPDATE: It appears that the conservative publication The American Spectator isn’t please by this either.

What is pretty clear is that the SBE is going to lose the inevitable lawsuit on this matter, and it should. This oath is an unconstitutional infringement on any GOP voter’s right to vote given that it extracts a promise to vote in the general election for candidates unknown and unknowable as of the primary election day. Even if the oath is construed to require simply “loyalty,” rather than an actual vote, it is an affront to private thought and conscience…

This loyalty oath also contradicts Republican principles. It robs the political process of any incentive or competition to nominate the best available candidate acceptable to the widest of Reaganite coalitions. It stipulates an outcome rather than trusting to the wisdom or judgment of individual party members. It gives the party a free pass on producing quality candidates for the voters’ consideration.

Many thanks to Alex Nicholson and Jarrod Chlapowski for joining us tonight. Alex and Jarrod are Director and Deputy Director of “Servicemembers United” — an organization comprised of young Iraq and Afghanistan veterans opposed to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law signed by President Clinton.

Alex and Jarrod are true American heroes and great representatives of the American gay community. I personally applaud both their military service (cut short by DADT) and their current activism on behalf of their fellow gays and lesbians who want to serve our nation in uniform.

If you would like to know more about the “12,000 Flags for 12,000 Patriots” event this weekend, make sure to visit the Servicemembers United website.

One American flag will be placed on the Mall for each discharged service member. According to organizers, these flags will stand as a testament to the national security harm caused by this discriminatory law, and will serve as the backdrop for a series of events honoring LGBT service members, their sacrifice, and their fight to serve with dignity.

*****

NOTE: We will be having more podcasts as Election 2008 moves into high gear. More details later, but I am hoping to have LIVE GayPatriot Election Night broadcasts on BlogTalkRadio.com the evenings of the Iowa caucuses, New Hampshire primary, and the Feb. 5th MegaPrimary.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I doubt it…. but Democrat Jim Neal is giving it a shot.

Jim Neal, a Democrat challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008, says he is gay. As the only current candidate for his party’s nomination, Neal could make history while also complicating N.C. Democrats’ chances of breaking a streak of Senate losses.

“I am indeed,” Neal wrote Saturday on the liberal blog BlueNC, in response to a reader asking if he’s gay. “No secret and no big deal to me — I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t think otherwise.”

Neal, a 50-year-old investment banker from Chapel Hill, also indicated that he disagrees with laws that do not recognize same-sex marriage.

Such comments could have ended a campaign as recently as a decade ago — particularly in a socially conservative state — but political analysts and activists reacted Monday with less certainty.  Some said Dole’s many advantages mean the race won’t be competitive anyway.

“We might not get a real test of that in the race because Neal is not known very well at all,” said N.C. State University political scientist Andy Taylor.

This is Neal’s first run for office in North Carolina. He has spent much of his adult life outside the state, though he is a Greensboro native who went to UNC Chapel Hill.

Few openly gay candidates in North Carolina have run for so prominent an office. Former Mecklenburg judge Ray Warren ran for U.S. Senate in 2002 before pulling out and running unsuccessfully for U.S. House.

There could be at least one other openly gay candidate for statewide office in 2008: N.C. Court of Appeals Judge John Arrowood of Charlotte — recently appointed by Gov. Mike Easley — is expected to run for a full term.

Other Democratic candidates could still file for Senate until the February deadline, though the party has had trouble recruiting.

Neal wrote Saturday he doesn’t think sexual orientation will keep him from winning.

“When people meet me, they’ll see beyond the labels and into my character.”

That’s the strategy he should have, said Ian Palmquist, executive director of Equality North Carolina, which advocates for gays and lesbians.  “I believe that if a candidate has a strong message that is relevant to North Carolina voters, and the experience to show they’re qualified for the job, their sexual orientation is not going to matter much to most voters,” Palmquist said.

Hey, you gotta admit this Neal guy has a brass set.  Good for him — I hope he is the Democrat nominee.  I’d like to see what kind of campaign this would turn into.  I predict that from both NC political parties we would see peoples’ better angels and ugly devils.

I’m voting for Elizabeth Dole regardless.

[Related Story - Good Morning, Jim Neal - Blue NC]

-Bruce (GayPatriot)