John McCain hates Barack Obama, but I still bet he hates Mitt Romney more deep down. Today, he had a chance to vent some of that. Just when the horrendous Mourdock scandal couldn't get any worse for Mitt—Mourdock said productive rape (my new phrase) was "God's intent," Romney chastised him but didn't pull an ad he'd cut for the U.S. Senate candidate from Indiana—McCain went on CNN and withdrew his own endorsement of the guy.
Now, McCain has created the impression that Mitt Romney is to the right of him on abortion.
Swing states are already swinging Obama's way...this kind of shit less than two weeks out won't help swing them back.
Turns out that since 1996, whichever candidate's face sold more Halloween masks has been an accurate reflection of which candidate has won the presidency. So far, President Obama is ahead of Mitt Romney with 64%, or 4% better than his ultimate lead over John McCain in this department. That's good news...for John McCain!
Here's Romney's toothsome mask, above. Or if you're trick-or-treating in Latino neighborhoods, try this version:
After Mitt Romney got booed at his NAACP talk (which will doubtless WIN him votes from his base), he claimed he has secret black supporters who are too scared to admit it. This reminds me of when John McCain, another loser, claimed to know how to fix the world's problems but wouldn't tell anyone.
P.S. For all the flak President Obama gets for reading from TelePrompTers (like everyone giving long speeches), what about Romney? At the NAACP, the dumbass read "end of quote" when a quote ended.
I thought Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson were good and great in Game Change, but I resented how the film portrayed Palin and McCain. Palin came off as manic-depressive but frighteningly motivated, yet the film still conveyed a sense that she just wanted to do right by her God, her country and John McCain when I think in reality she has been exposed to be thoroughly insincere and morbidly ambitious. Plenty of people in Alaska can testify that she and her husband ran their lives like mob figures, not like humble middle-classers thrust into the public arena. I'm not sure Moore, as good as she was in parts, ever really shed her innate intelligence and sensitivity, two traits Palin lacks.
As of midnight last night, it was exactly six years since my first post. It's been a tough thing to keep up with a dayjob and outside activities, and just when I think I might walk away, a valuable connection or interesting opportunity or a kind word comes my way. Thank you all for reading me.
RAPT PUPIL (2006): The final night of Outfest with Boy Culture; I was fat but on the other hand got to meet Bryan Singer.
MY ART
Construction worker (shot this week) vs. James Dean
GUYDAR (since at least January 17, 2008) & ENDS OF THE WORLD (since at least January 13, 2008): Attractive men of the world—I got your backs. Your fronts, too.
i-i-i (phone)
Not totally built
Unaltered iPhone image that still blows me away
"Your pictures suck" (2008): An art critic attacks me, but not without sustaining some hits in return.
Let's call it a draw
DRAWN TOGETHER (2008): How my desire to draw related to my secret desire. One of my absolute favorite posts.
The shirtless one
LOST ANGELES (2009): My favorite photographic travelogue of L.A.
Even then, New Yorkers feared 9/11 was the beginning of the end
ART IMITATES LIFE (2006): My 9/11 and my distaste for grief tourism.
ME
Death of the party—Jeff in high school, already halfway through his life
BURNING MAN (2007): Tribute to my late high school friend and first romance.
Signed, sealed (eventually) delivered
LOST BOY FOUND (2011): There is a book in here somewhere.
A gentle reminder from Daily Kos that polls are almost meaningless this early on. (This is a lesson Trump, Cain, Bachmann and Perry have already learned.)
I was invited to a special screening of The Strange History of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the new documentary by World of Wonder wizzes Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey that debuts at midnight tonight on HBO—DADT is history as of that time.
Just when I thought I knew everything there was to know, this pop documentary (it's got lots of visual candy to make all the complex policy talk idiot-proof) underscored a few things for me, such as the fact that DADT, considered a "step forward" back in Clinton's 1993, was actually the first time it became illegal to be gay in the military as opposed to being in violation of a policy. It was definitely a case of two steps back to get forward 20 years later.
Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Victor Fehrenback, Mike Almy & Aubrey Sarvis
Also interesting was the history of our country's policies on gays in the military (a quickie look at gays in the armed services over the past few thousand years was a bit cutesy for me)—I'd had no idea that WWII was the first time it became against policy, and loved the film's argument that the very notion of a gay community came from gay soldiers during WWII being discharged and dumped at ports...like Manhattan and San Francisco. Anchors aweigh we go, Mary!
The filmmakers have crafted an almost shockingly apolitical film Yes, John McCain is a delicious villain, but he's not manipulated nor is he a metaphor for all anti-gay people; he was there in '93 and there again in '10 for the birth and death of DADT. The film depicts Bill Clinton as an idealist who grossly underestimated the necessity of getting the military to buy into his plan to open its ranks to gays, and depicts Barack Obama as more of a pragmatist, who wanted the ban lifted and who set about doing it methodically. Neither man comes off poorly, and Republicans are not singled out by party; instead, we are able to see each individual man and woman who testified or worked for or against DADT in his or her own words. It's quite weird to see a film about something that just happened, yet to see so many of the players already relegated to the sidelines—Patrick Murphy in particular.
Choi & Fehrenbach
The film is greatly boosted by interviews with actual servicemen and servicewomen whose lives were heavily impacted by DADT, including the heroic Margarethe Cammermeyer, Victor Fehrenbach, Mike Almy (pictured, right) and Dan Choi. Their testimony about how DADT affected them stands in stark contrast to the sophomoric nonsense about shared showers and "unit cohesion" parroted by the powers-that-were, including Colin Powell.
Not exactly the best way to change the minds of gay-squeamish troops, but...wow!
I highly recommend the film. It's therapeutic to watch it and remember, "Whatever happened from Point A to Point Z, we won this sucker."
After, we were able to quiz the filmmakers, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's Aubrey Sarvis as well as Fehrenbach and Almy, who gave terrific answers:
My question was the one someone asked last, which is: If a Republican wins the presidency and decides to reinstate DADT, would that happen? The answer seems to be it totally could happen, but the military (ironically) would probably protest:
Clearly, more still needs to be done:
Afterward, I had a chance to meet all involved. I missed shaking the hand of Melvin Dwork, the 89-year-old man who just this week had his "undesirable" discharge from 70 years ago converted to an "honorable" discharge. (Now to take care of the 99,000 others!)
SLDN'S Aubrey Sarvis with the newly desirable Melvin Dwork
Mike Diamond, whose fisting parody of Katy Perry's "E.T." will have you (and your duodenum) in stitches, threw himself at the servicemen so shamelessly I had to borrow some Crisco from him to lube them up and pull him off. But it's okay—gay people have every right to become servicemembers in the military, and those of us not in the military have every right to attempt to service the members of anyone on or off active duty.
Now that the U.S.'s policy in Libya is vindicated inasmuch as its malevolent dictator appears to be out of power, of course the GOP is patting President Obama on the back for staying the course and helping to see this NATO-assisted (and Libyan-people-powered) victory to conclusion?
